Paisios of Mount Athos quotes - page 2
If you manage to correct yourself, one small part of the Church is immediately corrected. Naturally, if everyone did the same, the body of the Church would be in good health. But, today, people concern themselves with anything but themselves. You see, judging others is easy, whereas working on yourself takes effort.
Paisios of Mount Athos
It is not possible to put the Gospel and secular logic together. In the Gospel there is love, while in secular logic there is self-interest. The Gospel says, And if any one forces you to go one mile, go with him two. (Mt. 5:41) What is logical about this saying? This is surely madness! This is why those who try to reconcile the Gospel with secular logic find themselves in utter confusion.
Paisios of Mount Athos
If you want to be free of your passions, your medicine is to be simple, humble; to take in, like the good earth, both the rain and the hail along with the rubbish and the spittle. When one accepts external humiliations, he's quickly freed from his old self... Blessed one, when you are given an opportunity for humility, accept it. This is how humility is acquired.
Paisios of Mount Athos
God has permitted and does permit us to be shaken by adversity. Difficult times lie ahead. We will be greatly tested. We have to take this warning seriously and live spiritually... Many saints would have loved to have lived in our times and have had our chance to struggle for Christ... Our struggle matters because it is not a struggle against an Ali Pasha, or a Hitler and a Mussolini, but a struggle against the devil himself. For this reason, our wages will be heavenly... The saints will become more holy and the vile will become more vile. Yet I feel great consolation inside. This is only a storm; like past storms, it will pass. May the Good God take evil and turn it into good. Amen.
Paisios of Mount Athos
The answer to our anxiety is not drugs, alcohol, tranquilizers or psychiatric treatment. It will not be cured by Yoga or some new age or eastern meditation practice. The problem is that we have lost God as the center of our lives. Once we make our love of God the primary focus of our lives and allow His grace to work though us, then no matter what circumstance we encounter in life we will be comforted and embraced in His love. All anxiety disappears. This is the aim of the Orthodox way of life––To put God first and seek the Holy Spirit. The anxieties of modern life are only symptoms of our separation from God.
Paisios of Mount Athos
The person that is struggling to the best of his abilities, who has no desire to live a disorderly life, but who-in the course of the struggle for faith and life-falls and rises again and again, God will never abandon. And if he has the slightest will not to grieve God, he will go to Paradise with his shoes on. The Benevolent God will, surprisingly, push him into Paradise. God will insure that he takes him at his best, in repentance. He may have to struggle all his life, but God will not abandon him; He will take him at the best possible time.
Paisios of Mount Athos
The world has now become fit only for those who live in sin. For this reason, people will separate themselves - the sheep will be separated from the goats. Those who want to live a spiritual life will eventually find that they are not able to do it in this world; they will be searching to find people like themselves, people of God.
Paisios of Mount Athos