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Quotes: The Fathers of The Faith

James the Persian

Dreptcredincios Crestin
No*s said:
Sadly, I often catch myself doing exactly that sort of thing. It's so easy to become cold and calculating :(
I agree. It is easy, and we all fail from time to time, but there are degrees to it. I've caught myself being unpardonably nasty sometimes with others who don't share my beliefs (I hope I've always apologised, though) but there is a difference between that and the sort of legalistic, we must follow every canon exactly, anyone on the New Calendar is a heretic types that I was really thinking of in my last post. It's an unfortunate phenomenon of some western conversions that I find to be very sad as it misses the whole point of our faith.

James
 

No*s

Captain Obvious
JamesThePersian said:
I agree. It is easy, and we all fail from time to time, but there are degrees to it. I've caught myself being unpardonably nasty sometimes with others who don't share my beliefs (I hope I've always apologised, though) but there is a difference between that and the sort of legalistic, we must follow every canon exactly, anyone on the New Calendar is a heretic types that I was really thinking of in my last post. It's an unfortunate phenomenon of some western conversions that I find to be very sad as it misses the whole point of our faith.

James

Indeed. I often find myself wondering sometimes whether the primary motivator of some converts is a sort of knee-jerk anti-westernism or anti-modernism. If that is the case, then it is sad. We in the West are western, and we need not forsake our culture or heritage.
 

No*s

Captain Obvious
I just heard this one on Ancient Faith radio, and thus, I must recount it from memory (albeit recent), so the words are not exact:


Once there was a Greek, Maxim, who was so struck by the words of the Apostle Paul that we should pray unceasingly, that he retreated to the wilderness and sought to pray all day long. He prayed the Lord's Prayer and recited the Creed the whole day, and when night came, he felt good. He had been praying all day.

Then, the wild animals of the night came out, and he became afraid. He was alone and unarmed with the wild animals, among whom were bears, wolves, and the like. He immediately began praying "Lord have mercy on me," and he did this all night, because he couldn't sleep for fear of the animals. When day came, he could not sleep yet because of his hunger, but still there were animals that scared him, so he prayed "Lord Jesus, have mercy on me" as he picked berries.

After several years of this, he met an ascetic, and the old man ask him how he learned to pray, and he responded, "I believe that the Devil unwittingly taught me to pray."

"I think I know what you mean, and I agree," said the old man, "but I'd like to hear more to see if I understand it right."

St. Maxim explained how the fear the Devil gave him caused him to depend wholly upon Christ, and thus, trust Him more, and how this undid the Enemy's works. So now, the works of the Enemy are used even to glorify the Lord.
 

No*s

Captain Obvious
Now the Spirit is not brought into intimate associating with the soul by local approximation. How indeed could there be a corporeal approach to the incorporeal? This association results from the withdrawal of the passions which, coming afterwards gradually on the soul from its friendship to the flesh, have alienated it from the close relationship with God. Only then after a man is purified from the shame whose strain he took through his wickedness, and has come back again to his natural beauty, and as it were cleaning the Royal Image and restoring its ancient form, only thus is it possible for him to draw near to the Paraclete. And He, like the sun, will by then aid of thy purified eye show thee in Himself the image of the invisible, and in the blessed spectacle of the image thou shalt behold the unspeakable beauty of the archetype. -- St. Basil the Great
 

No*s

Captain Obvious
The enemy likes to hide the truth and to mix good with evil. But how can one find out the truth? God's goodwill and all our intentions are meek, full of good hope, and undoubting. Not only in our good deeds, but also in our lawlessness, God endures long with meekness and awaits our repentance. And how can one distinguish the impulse of the enemy? The enemy usually hinders us and turns us away from good. However, if in anything which apparently is good, the mind is disturbed and causes us disturbance, banishes the fear of God, deprives us of calmness, so that without any reason the heart aches and the mind wavers, then know that this is an impulse from the enemy and cut it off. -- St. Paisius Velichkovsky.

Also, I'm very thankful for folks who mail good quotes (several of which I pull for here). It's always nice to get them in the mail.
 
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