Trust and obedience…
Complete trust in God – that’s what holy humility is. Complete obedience to God, without protest, without reaction, even when some things seem difficult and unreasonable.
–Saint Porphyrios (1906-1991)
Will of God be fulfilled in us…
In our struggle for prayer the emotions are almost irrelevant; what we must bring to God is a complete, firm determination to be faithful to him and strive that God should live in us…That the will of God should be fulfilled in us is the only aim of prayer, and it is also the criterion of right prayer. It is not the mystical feeling we may have, or our emotions that make good praying.
–Anthony Bloom (1914-2003)
Justify with excuses…
One who justifies himself with excuses makes no progress in the spiritual life, nor can he find any inner peace.
–Saint Paisos the Athonite (1924-1994)
We should not despair…
We should not despair when we struggle but see no progress, remaining continuously at zero. All people earn zeros with their human strength, some more and some less. Christ, seeing our small human effort, places the number one before our zeros, and thus they acquire value and we can detect some improvement. Thus, we must not despair, but hope in God.
–Saint Paisos the Athonite (1924-1994)
Acknowledge God’s presence…
The first step then, is to acknowledge God’s presence; the second is to thank Him. The third step is a loving response. A person responds to love freely given by saying, “I love you, too.”
–Armand M. Nigro (1928-
Presence of God…
It is important that we take time peacefully and quietly (even if we have only a few minutes to pray) first to make ourselves aware of the loving, creative, sustaining, divinizing presence of God, because prayer is a personal response to God’s presence.
–Armand M. Nigro (1928-
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