Friday, May 28, 2010

Sayings of the Fathers


In Christianity truth is not a philosophical concept nor is it a theory, a teaching, or a system, but rather, it is the living theanthropic hypostasis - the historical Jesus Christ (John 14:6). Before Christ men could only conjecture about the Truth since they did not possess it. With Christ as the incarnate divine Logos the eternally complete divine Truth enters into the world. For this reason the Gospel says: "Truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1:17).

~St. Justin Popovich


God is a fire that warms and kindles the heart and inward parts. Hence, if we feel in our hearts the cold which comes from the devil - for the devil is cold - let us call on the Lord. He will come to warm our hearts with perfect love, not only for Him but for our neighbor, and the cold of him who hates the good will flee before the heat of His countenance.

~St. Seraphim of Sarov


Do not be surprised that you fall every day; do not give up, but stand your ground courageously. And assuredly, the angel who guards you will honour your patience.

~St. John of the Ladder


Do not give to your heart to that which does not satisfy your heart.

~Abba Poimen

6 comments:

Ρωμανός ~ Romanós said...

So nice! What else can I say? These are the best...

Orthodox Christian Resources said...

They are my personal favourites:)

Jim Swindle said...

It looks like Anders Branderud thinks the apostles were willing to die for a lie that they would have known was a lie. That doesn't make sense. For a defense of the reliability of the New Testament documents, see The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? by F.F. Bruce. See also such books as The New Evidence That Demands A Verdict by Josh McDowell. The authors are not Orthodox (nor am I; I'm orthodox), but the most important thing is whether we are disciples of the historic Jesus Christ.

Ρωμανός ~ Romanós said...

I keep coming back to this post, because the fathers you chose and their words you selected are so important to me. This is the message that I bring to others when the door opens, and it's good to "remember who your teachers were" (2 Timothy 3:14), and to acknowledge them. If it weren't for reading the Word of God daily, and conversing with the Church fathers through their writings, my Christianity would be just a religious observance, and my hope would be based on the false assumption that church attendance were all that was necessary to win salvation.

But salvation is not won by us through our religious participation. Salvation was won by Jesus Christ. He alone is the winner, as my Greek yiayia Aretí Vlahákis used to say. It is by observing Jesus in the scriptures and in the lives of the saints, and following Him in everything we do, that we are serving Jesus, and walking in His winning, which is the salvation of all our lives in the here and now, as well as in the world to come.

Δόξα τω Χριστώ Ιησού εις τους αιώνας των αιώνων.

Word verification: tasperit

Orthodox Christian Resources said...

Thank you Romanos.

Δόξα τω Χριστώ Ιησού εις τους αιώνας των αιώνων.

Neil Dan said...

Thank you Pandelis...These are most Excellent!

Neil