There are moments in life when you are not able to make a wish, because speech ceases and then you feel the need to express yourself only through prayers and blessings.
Metropolitan Nafpaktos Hierotheos
A Night in the Desert of the Holy Mountain
the altar of the heart {anaphora}
The heart is the tabernacle where the soul encounters the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” The greatest potential of every human being is to fulfill our calling to be the royal priesthood, who become the meeting place of the created and uncreated worlds, lifting up the gifts of creation each moment from the later of the heart as the priest does in the anaphora of the Divine Liturgy.
Stephen Muse : Treasure in Earthen Vessels
“Thine own of Thine own, we offer unto Thee, on behalf of all and for all.”
a faith that satisfies
An experience of God is, first of all, an inner assurance that through faith in God, the Christian finds the true meaning of his life. He feels that his faith in Christ is a faith that satisfies him internally, that give meaning to his live and guides him – that is a strong light which is enlightens him. When he thus feels the Christian faith inside him, he has started to live the Grace of God, God is not something external for him.
Archimandrite George
Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Saint Gregorios of Mount Athos
Experiences of the Grace of God
water the flowers
God has placed a power in man’s soul. But it is up to him how he channels it —- for good or for evil. If we imagine the good as a garden full of flowers, trees and plants and the evil as weeds and thorns and the power as water, then what can happen is as follows. When the water is directed towards the flower garden, then all the plants grow, blossom and bear fruit and at the same time the weeds and thorns, because they are not being watered, wither and die. And the opposite, of course, can also happen….
It is not necessary therefore to concern yourselves with the weeds. Don’t occupy yourself with rooting out evil. Christ does not wish us to occupy ourselves with he passions, but with the opposite. Channel the water, that isu, all the strength of your soul to the flowers, and you will enjoy their beauty, their fragrance and their freshness.
Saint Porphyrios
leave things to the will of God
We shouldn’t blackmail God with our prayers. We shouldn’t ask God to release us from something, from an illness, for example, or to solve our problems, but we should ask for strength and support from Him to bear what we have to bear. Just as He knocks discretely at the door of our soul, so we should ask discretely for what we desire and if the Lord does not respond, we should cease to ask. When God does not give us something that we ask for insistently, then He has His reasons. God too, has His ‘secrets’. Since we believe in his good providence since we believe that He knows everything about our lives and that He always desires what is good, why should we not trust Him? Let us pray naturally and gently, without forcing ourself and without passion. We know that past, present and future are all known, “open and laid bare” before God. As Saint Paul says, “before Him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to His eyes.” We should not insist, such persistence does harm instead of good. We shouldn’t continue relentlessly in order to acquire what we want. Rather we should leave things to the will of God.
Because the more we pursue something, the more it runs away from us. So what is required is patience, faith and composure. And if we forget it, the Lord never forgets, and if it is for our good, He will give us what we require, when we require it.
Saint Porphyrios
Wounded by Love : The Life and Wisdom of Saint Porphyrios
one signifies the other
Prayer is the transcendence of time and thus an enty into the timelessness, eternity, perfection and splendor of God. Prayer is our inclusion in the life of God, our perichoresis in God, and – if I may put it this way, our obliteration in God, so that we might become one with Him. This is what happens in prayer; this is what prayer is. And this is why love and prayer are so closely aligned that each can signify the other.
Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra
of blessed memory
The Mystical Marriage : The Spiritual Life According to Saint Maximos the Confessor
He will give us all His love
When we have patience and persistence in ” the prayer” we will take delight in it. When we give our love to Christ, He will give us all His love.
the blessed Gerontissa Makrina
it contains with it the eternal life {the jesus prayer}
I pray that the All-good God will send down upon you the All Holy Spirit, as He did to His divinely sent holy Apostles so that you may be enlightened to walk the arduous path of salvation. “Behold now, what is so good or joyous, as for brethren to dwell together in unity with love” There is nothing more beautiful than for a synodia to be replete with godly love. Then everything is radiant, everything is full of beauty, while God above delights, and the holy angelic spirits rejoice above where love is boundless.
Love one another as I have loved you. By this all will know that you are My disciples if you have love for one another.
John 13:35
O, Love, whoever possesses you has a truly blessed heart, for within love what could one possibly want and not find. Humility, joy, patience, goodness, compassion, forbearance, enlightenment, and so on are all there. But in order to obtain this supremely woundrous love, we must constantly call upon the God of love to give it to us. When the name of God is remembered through the prayer:
Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me
Κύριε Ἰησοῦ Χριστέ ἐλέησόν με
It contains within it eternal life and eternal life is the God of Love. Therefore, he who prays this prayer obtains true godly love.
Elder Eprhaim: Counsels from the Holy Mountain
Κύριε Ἰησοῦ Χριστέ ἐλέησόν με
the saints have much grace
May the Grace of Christ be with you, within your soul, my child… to enlighten you and increase your love for Him, so that you may be kept near Him and not be swept away by the current of worldliness and fall away from God and lose your immortal soul which is worth more than the entire world.
The amount of Grace that came to you is small, the saints through had much Grace.
Elder Ephraim, Counsels from the Holy Mountain
inhale jesus :: exhale jesus
Yes, my child, love humility above all and then you will obtain Jesus, who is lowly in heart, as an everlasting possession of your soul.
Inhale Jesus. Exhale Jesus
And then you will know what Jesus is. Where is earthly love then! Is it possible for a firebrand to fall upon a parched forest and fore anything to survive? The same thing happens with the twigs of human thoughts when the love of Jesus falls upon them.
gladsomelife.com 