From long suffering in prayer, the fruit of life arises, and expectation is a firm helper during prayer to those who posses it. When you pray, bring to mind the ploughman who sows in hope. He Who causes to return twofold the seed that the plougjman sows with hope.
“Three things that are necessary and soul saving I want to tell you my beloved children that you should watch and guard always. They are great patience, True Orthodox faith and above all love for God and your neighbors, even for your enemies.
Do these things and keep the commandments of the Lord and as many times as you sin, repent and confess. Thus in this way you will be saved and inherit the kingdom. Without the sacrament of confession, very few will be saved.
Our whole life is a time of preparation, a time for repentance and salvation.
Blessed and joyful is he who dies in repentance.
I pray that the Lord will save us all. Amen.”
“Spiritual Advice of the Elder Philotheos Zervakos” Translated by Archimandrite Polycarpos Rameras
And just as the soul goes beyond its proper limits in order to encounter God, so too does God bend down toward the soul, abandoning its proper limits in order to give Himself to me, to surrender Himself to me.
Elder Aemilianos of Simonopetra
the way of the spirit (p. 35)
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