What is the aim of the incarnate dispensation of God’s Word, preached in all the Holy Scriptures but which we, who read them, do not know? The only aim is that, having entered into what is our own, we should participate in what is His. The Son of God has become Son of Man in order to make us, men, sons of God, raising our race by grace to what He is Himself by nature, granting us birth from above through the grace of the Holy Spirit and leading us straightway to the kingdom of heaven, or rather, granting us this kingdom of heaven within us (Luke 17:21), in order that we should not merely be fed by the hope of entering it, but entering into full possession thereof should cry: our ‘life is hid with Christ in God’ (Col. 3:3).

St. Symeon the New Theologian

The aim of all those who live in God is to please our Lord Jesus Christ and become reconciled with God the Father through receiving the Holy Spirit, thus securing their salvation, for in this consists the salvation of every soul. If this aim and this activity is lacking, all other labour is useless and all other striving is in vain. Every path of life which does not lead to this is without profit.

St. Symeon the New Theologian

All who have lived according to God still live unto God, though they have departed this life. For this reason, God is called the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, since He is the God, not of the dead, but of the living (cf. Mt. 22:32).

St. Gregory the Theologian

O Lord and Creator of all, and especially of Your creature, man: You are the God and Father and ruler of Your children; You are the Lord of life and death; You are the guardian and benefactor of our souls.  You fashion and transform all things in their due season through Your creating Word, as You know to be best in Your deep wisdom and providence.  Receive now those who have gone ahead of us in our journey from this life.  Receive us too at the proper time, when You have guided us in our bodily life as long as may be for our profit.  Receive us prepared indeed by fear of You, but not troubled, not shrinking back on that day of death or uprooted by force like those who are lovers of the world and the flesh.  Instead, may we set out eagerly for that everlasting and blessed life which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory forever and ever.  Amen.

St. Gregory the Theologian

Where are You pasturing Your flock, O Good Shepherd, who carry the whole flock on Your shoulders? For the whole of human nature is one sheep, and You have lifted it upon Your shoulders. 

Show me the place of peace, lead me to the good pasture that will nourish me, call me by name so that I, Your sheep, may hear Your voice, and by Your speech give me eternal life. Answer me, You whom my soul loves. 

I give You the name “You whom my soul loves” because Your name is above every name and above all understanding, and there is no rational nature that can utter it or comprehend it. Therefore Your name, by which Your goodness is known, is simply the love my soul has for You. How could I not love You, when You loved me so much, even though my heart was black, that You laid down Your life for the sheep of Your flock? A greater love cannot be imagined than exchanging Your life for my salvation. 

Show me then (says my soul) where You pasture Your flock, so that I can find that saving pasture too, and fill myself with the food of heaven without which no one can come to eternal life, and run to the spring and fill myself with the drink of God. You give it, as from a spring, to those who thirst—water pouring from Your side cut open by the lance, water that, to whoever drinks it, is a fountain of water springing up to eternal life. 

If You lead me to pasture here, You will make me lie down at noon, sleeping at peace and taking my rest in light unstained by any shade. For the noon has no shade and the sun stands far above the mountain peaks. You bring Your flock to lie in this light when You bring Your children to rest with You in Your bed. But no one can be judged worthy of this noonday rest who is not a child of light and a child of the day. Whoever has separated himself equally from the shadows of evening and morning, from where evil begins and evil ends, at noon he will lie down and the sun of righteousness will shine on him. 

Show me, then (says my soul), how I should sleep and how I should graze, and where the path is to my noonday rest. Do not let me fall away from Your flock because of ignorance and find myself one of a flock of sheep that are not Yours. 

Thus spoke my soul, when she was anxious about the beauty that God’s care had given her and wanted to know how she could keep this good fortune forever.

St. Gregory of Nyssa

Can you place your hope in the world? Whom has it not deceived? To whom has it not lied? It promises much, but gives very little. Only those who hope in the Lord, according to the words of the Prophet David, do not sin, i.e., they are not deceived in their hope!

St. Ambrose of Optina

Thou, O Christ, art the Kingdom of Heaven; 

Thou, the land promised to the meet; 

Thou, the meadowland of Paradise; 

Thou, the hall of the celestial banquet; 

Thou, the ineffable bridal chamber; 

Thou, the table set for all; 

Thou, the bread of life; 

Thou, the unheard-of drink; 

Thou, both the urn for the water and the life giving water; 

Thou, moreover, the inextinguishable lamp for each one of the saints; 

Thou, the garment and the crown and the One Who bestoweth the crowns; 

Thou, the joy and rest; 

Thou, the delight and glory; 

Thou, the gladness and mirth; 

And Thy grace, the grace of the Spirit of all sanctity, will shine like the sun in all the saints; 

And Thou, the unapproachable Sun, wilt shine in their midst, and all will shine brightly, according to the measure of their faith, their asceticism, their hope and their love, their purification, and their illumination by Thy Spirit.

St. Symeon the New Theologian

The man who really loves the Lord, who has made a real effort to find the future Kingdom, who is really pained by his sins, who is really mindful of eternal torment and judgment, who really lives in fear of his own departure, will not love, care, or worry about money, or possessions, or parents, or worldly glory, or friends, or brothers, or anything at all on earth.

St. John Climacus

The Lord said: Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me (Matthew 25:40). 

Similar things happen in almsgiving and in Holy Communion. In Holy Communion we receive the Living Lord Christ Himself, in the form of bread and wine; in almsgiving we give to the Living Lord Christ Himself, in the form of the poor and needy. A certain man in Constantinople was unusually merciful. Walking along the streets of the city, he would press his gift into the hands of the poor and hurry onward, so he would not hear their gratitude or be recognized. When a friend of his asked how he had become so merciful, he replied: “Once in church I heard a priest say that whoever gives to the poor, gives into the hands of Christ Himself. I didn’t believe it, for I thought, ‘How can this be, when Christ is in heaven?’ However, I was on my way home one day and I saw a poor man begging, and the face of Christ shone above his head! Just then a passerby gave the beggar a piece of bread, and I saw the Lord extend His hand, take the bread, and bless the donor. From then on, I have always seen Christ’s face shining above the beggars. Therefore, with great fear I perform as much charity as I can."

St. Nikolai Velimirovich

Prayer frees the mind of all thought of the sensory and raises it to God Himself, Who is above all, to converse with Him and daringly ask Him for anything. Thus a man spends his life in purity, as one who, having already experienced communion with God, is thereupon again preparing for this communion.

St. Nilus of Sinai

He who shall preserve the life bestowed upon him, and give thanks to Him Who imparted it, shall receive also length of days forever and ever. But he who shall reject it, and prove himself ungrateful to his Maker, inasmuch as he has been created, and has not recognized Him Who bestowed the gift upon him, deprives himself of the privilege of continuance forever and ever. And, for this reason, the Lord declared to those who showed themselves ungrateful towards Him: ‘If you have not been faithful in that which is little, who will give you that which is great?’ (cf. Lk. 16:11) indicating that those who, in this brief temporal life, have shown themselves ungrateful to Him Who bestowed it, shall justly not receive from Him length of days forever and ever.

St Irenaeus of Lyon

By the death of martyrs religion has been defended, faith increased, the Church strengthened; the dead have conquered, the persecutors have been overcome.... So, too, David rejoiced in prophecy at the departure of his own soul, saying: ‘Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.’ He esteemed death better than life. The death itself of the martyrs is the prize of their life. And again, by the death of those at variance hatred is put an end to.

St. Ambrose of Milan

The man who has once chosen pleasure in this life, and has not cured his inconsiderateness by repentance, places the land of the good beyond his own reach; for he has dug against himself the yawning impassable abyss of a necessity that nothing can break through.

St. Gregory of Nyssa

The soul is greater than the body: the body becomes sick, and with that it is finished. But a spiritual sickness extends into eternity. Deliver us, O Lord, from such illness, and grant us healing.

St Macarius of Optina

When harmed, insulted or persecuted by someone, do not think of the present but wait for the future, and you will find he has brought you much good, not only in this life but also in the life to come.

St Mark the Ascetic