You cannot experience pleasure without experiencing pain first. You cannot enjoy food until you are hungry. You cannot enjoy water without thirst. You cannot experience joy without first going through suffering…
“And that is the meaning of the cross,” Fr. Maximos added. “It prepares the way for the Resurrection, for true joy. It means that I go through life carrying my cross with joy.”
Kyriacos C. Markides,
If people kept Christ’s commandment, there would be paradise on earth, and with little labour man would suffice his needs, and the Divine Spirit would live in the souls of man, for He Himself seeks us and would dwell in us…
Saint Silouan the Athonite
This is the paradise of the Lord: All will live in love, and their Christ like humility will make every man happy to see others in greater glory. The humility of Christ lives in the lowly ones – they are glad to be the least of men.
When we love someone, we like to think about that person, talk about him, be with him. Now the soul loves the Lord as her Father, and Creator and stands before Him in awe and in love. In awe because He is the Lord, in love because the soul knows Him for her Father.
The things of this earth we may learn with our minds, but knowledge of God and of all heavenly matters comes only through the Holy Spirit, and can not be learned merely with the mind.
…being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ
The tree of life in the heart of paradise is Christ.
All men may know and approach this tree and find nourishment and feed on the Holy Spirit.
Saint Silouan the Athonite
What air is to the body, the spirit of God is to the soul.
As you breathe from the air the elements required to nourish your body, so likewise you breathe into yourself from the Spirit of God good inclinations and thoughts…
O Holy Trinity, our Nourisher and Hope!
St John of Kronstadt
My Life in Christ
Nothing is nearer to us than God. He is the God of hearts, of the very hearts, and the heart, in its turn, is nearer than anything to us. It is the whole man, ” the hidden man of the heart,” as the Apostle says.
My Life in Christ
God hides the mysteries He offers to us, so that He might teach us to search for them in love.
love is the only thing that can bind together
God and His creation and bring about social harmony
gladsomelife.com 