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The Fast

Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. . . .”Why have we fasted,” they say, “and Thou dost not see? Why have we afflicted our soul, and Thou does not take notice?” Behold, on the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exact (from others) all your labor. Behold, you fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: you shall not fast as you do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. …

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Quotations

Fasting

In the final analysis he who does not fast does not believe in God. – A Monk of the Orthodox Church

Philosophy

…philosophy is a state of moral integrity combined with a doctrine of true knowledge concerning reality. Both Jews and Greeks fell short of this, for they rejected the Wisdom that is from heaven and tried to philosophize without Christ, who alone has revealed the true philosophy in both His life and His teaching. For by the purity of His life He was the first to establish the way of true philosophy. He always held His soul above the passions of the body, and in the end, when His death was required by His design for man’s salvation, He laid down even His soul. In this He taught us that the true philosopher must renounce all life’s pleasures, mastering pains and passions, and paying scant attention to the body: he must not overvalue even his soul, but must readily lay it down when holiness demands. — St. Neilos the Ascetic

Unworthy

All shall be saved and yet I alone shall be condemned. (Monastic saying.)

I am one of the goats, but as for the sheep, God alone knows who they are. — Sayings of Desert Fathers

Who crucified Christ? I did. — a catechism

When you have done all that is commanded you, say: “We are useless servants: we have only done what was our duty” — Our Lord

For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. — St. James the Apostle

I am guilty of all of which I may be accused, except one thing alone. I have not ceased to say that Holy Orthodoxy is the one Faith. (An Orthodox father.)

Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldst come into my roof, but speak the word only, and my soul shall be healed. – the Gregorian Rite

Keep your mind in Hell and despair not. — Fr. Silouan of Mount Athos

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Why We Pray – Fr. Alexander Turner, SSB

The Christian use of prayer seems inconsistent to the non-Christian. He may understand such a practice by primitive peoples, bedeviled by fears and superstitions, living under the shadow of name-forces. Entreaty would be needed to cope with a deity both amoral and capricious and appropriately susceptible to persuasion. But the Christian God is supposed to be different both in personality and morals. First of all, he knows everything so it is unnecessary to tell him of human need. And of course he knows how good he is, so flattery would be superfluous. Secondly, if he is good, as Christians claim, we should get everything from him without begging. The logic is convincing and many have followed it to various conclusions which agree only in condemning as untenable the Christian combination of an all-wise, all-loving God with a primitive concept of man’s relation to him. …

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On Being Misunderstood

In spite of all [Tsarina Alexandra’s] efforts, she never succeeded in being merely amiable and acquiring the art which consists of flitting gracefully but superficially over all manner of subjects. The fact is that the Tsarina was nothing if not sincere. Every word from her lips was the true expression of her real feelings, Finding herself misunderstood, she quickly drew back into her shell. Her natural pride was wounded. She appeared less and less at the ceremonies and receptions she regarded as an intolerable nuisance. She adopted a habit of distant reserve which was taken for haughtiness and contempt. But those who came in contact with her in moments of distress knew what a sensitive spirit, what a longing for affection, was concealed behind that apparent coldness. She had accepted her new religion with entire sincerity, and found it a great source of comfort in hours of trouble and anguish; but above all, it was the affection of her family which nourished her love, and she was never really happy except when she was with them. 

– Pierre Gilliard Thirteen Years at the Russian Court

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