Our Guardian Angel rejoices over our good deeds and grieves when we do evil. We should try to live in such a way that the Angels may rejoice at our lives.
To avoid sin, one must know what the will of God is. This is what we learn from our conscience, and this is what we learn from the Holy Scriptures.
The person who always has a prayer on his lips and in his heart, coupled with repentance, is a difficult target for the evil powers because prayer protects him.
These are challenging times, but these are also times when you need to be attentive to yourself, so that political passions and human wisdom would not lead us astray from the path of the right faith. If we keep our faith pure, if we try to live by faith, God will send us peace and tranquility. However if we sink into the abyss of human passions, enmity, and confrontation, then, of course, we will stray from the Lord’s way, and it will not do any good.
The ability to tolerate one’s neighbor is the wisdom of life. One should perceive one’s neighbor as he is. Do you want him to be better? Pray for him. God can make him better. This is how Christian patience manifests itself.
Just as a person suffocates without air, so the soul without prayer becomes dead and insensitive.
Prayer is necessary not for God but for us; it is like spiritual oxygen without which a person dies. This conversation with God provides a source of life for a person.
It is one thing when people shed blood for Christ, and the other when they tolerate abuse, insults, and resentment for the sake of their faith. Such people receive the crown of bloodless martyrdom.
Thoughts filled with love, mercy, patience, and respect attract God’s grace, and those that harbor anger, hatred, and pride drive it away. If we are overcome by anger, hatred, and pride, it indicates that God’s image within us is damaged.
Nowadays, we need to live according to Christian laws and not according to the laws of this world. There is no need to watch how the world lives; it is governed by somewhat different rules.
If God’s grace is lacking, a man can be placed in the most beautiful place, surrounded by all the benefits of the world, and he will still be unhappy.
The more one collects earthly goods, the more desperate one becomes, because they do not bring spiritual joy. You can collect all the treasures of the earth and put them in front of you, and still be the most miserable person.
Sorrows are a spiritual lesson by which a man learns his weakness and the power of God. The harder the sorrow, the deeper the lesson is. All we have to do is to endure these tribulations with patience and gratitude to God.
You do not have to wait. Great things are made by great people, and we are small people. Hence, we have to do small things.
Love for our enemies is not easy, but we must pray, read the Holy Scriptures, coerce ourselves, and be patient in dealing with those who hurt us.
During our earthly lives, we need to make sure we have a decent garment for our souls. Our soul garments are soiled by sin. You must repent immediately after you have committed a sin.
Courage means going against the current. As you know, only dead fish flow freely wherever the river flows, while living fish flow upstream to the pure spring and the pristine environment. Only those who have been able to summon up some measure of humility are capable of true courage.
They say there are a lot of restrictions in Christianity, but that’s not true. Anything is okay but in good measure and with reason. The saints show us how little we really need for survival.
If a person pays attention to himself and lives a decent life according to God’s commandments, then he feels the presence of God inside him, beside him and in the whole Universe.
Every man is a vessel of God’s grace. By touching a person, you touch the grace of God.
Translated by The Catalogue of Good Deeds
