Orthodox Quote Digest
Quote for 11-23-00:
From St. Maximos the Confessor (Second Century on Theology no. 82):
"A pure heart is one which offers the mind to God free of all image and form, and ready to be imprinted only with His own arche types, by which God Himself is made manifest."
Quote for 11-21-00:
From Bishop Kallistos Ware (How Are WE Saved? pgs. 46-47):
"We are saved by faith, and faith is not a hypothesis but a personal relationship; it signifies, not adherence to certain propositions about Christ, but direct trust in Christ Himself. That is to say, salvation is Christ the Savior...Holding Christ in his arms, Symeon the Elder says, 'My eyes have seen your salvation' (Luke 2:30). Salvation is not a theory, not an ideology, but this young child whom Symeon sees immediately before him."
Quote for 11-20-00:
From Lorenzo Scupoli (Unseen Warfare: Chapter 35):
"...do not allot any definite time for the acquisition of virtues, neither days, nor weeks, months nor years, saying to yourself: 'I shall work, and then rest, and then, having rested, I will start the same work again.' No, no rest is allowed here. Prepare yourself for continual labour, struggle and effort, allowing no thought of alleviation, in imitation of St. Paul, who says of himself: 'I therefore so run, - I follow after, if that I might apprehend, - I press toward the mark' (I Cor. 9:26; Phil 3:12,14)."
Quote for 11-19-00:
From St. Maximus the Confessor (Second Century on Theology no. 47):
"The Logos came down out of love for us. Let us not keep Him down permanently, but let us go up with Him to the Father, leaving the earth and earthly things behind, lest He say to us what He said to the Jews because of their stubbornness: 'I go where you cannot come' (John 8:21)."
Quote for 11-18-00:
From St. Gregory Nazianzen (Fifth Theological Oration no. 26):
"The Old Testament proclaimed the Father openly and the Son more obscurely. The New manifested the Son, and suggested the Deity of the Spirit. Now the Spirit Himself dwells among us, and supplies us with a clearer demonstration of Himself. For it was not safe, when the Godhead of the Father was not yet acknowledged, plainly to proclaim the Son; nor when that of the Son was not yet received to burden us further (if I may use so bold an expression) with the Holy Ghost; lest perhaps people might, like men loaded with food beyond their strength, and presenting eyes as yet too weak to bear it to the sun's light, risk the loss even of that which was within the reach of their powers; but that by gradual additions, and, as David says, Goings up, and advances and progress from glory to glory (Ps. 84:7, II Cor. 3:28), the Light of the Trinity might shine upon the more illuminated."
Quote for 11-17-00:
From Bishop Kallistos Ware (How Are We Saved? pgs. 44-45):
"God wishes all to be saved (I Tim 2:4): but he knocks at the door but does not break it down by force - he waits for us to open (cf. Rev. 3:20)...and so our salvation comes to pass only with our voluntary consent...And because grace is never irresistible; it is also never indefectible...to the end of our earthly life there remains always the possibility that we may fall away."
Quote for 11-16-00:
From Lorenzo Scupoli (Unseen Warfare: Chapter 34):
"It happens with some people, that as soon as their outer conditions change and they can live more freely, all that was previously concealed, for fear of being seen by others, bursts out and a formerly well-behaved man becomes a drunkard, a debauchee, or even a robber. All these bad impulses were not born at this moment, they existed before, but were denied expression, whereas now they are given free rein and so become manifest. But even if all this was merely inside, then the whole man was such - a drunkard, a debauchee, a robber - although outwardly he seemed different. Look carefully, maybe you too belong to this category. If it is so, to however small a degree, you have no right to boast or to accept praise."
Quote for 11-15-00:
From St. Maximos the Confessor (Second Century on Theology no. 36):
"When we think of the height of God's infinity we should not despair of His compassion reaching us from such a height; and when we recall the infinite depth of our fall through sin we should not refuse to believe that the virtue which has been killed in us will rise again. For God can accomplish both these things: He can come down and illumine our intellect with spiritual knowledge, and He can raise up the virtue within us and exalt it with Himself through works of righteousness."
Quote for 11-14-00:
From St. Gregory Nazianzen (Fifth Theological Oration no. 25):
"...nothing that is involuntary is durable; like streams or trees which are kept back by force. But that which is voluntary is more durable and sure. The former is due to one who uses force, the latter is ours; the one is due to the gentleness of God, the other to a tyrannical authority. Wherefore God did not think it behoved Him to benefit the unwilling, but to do good to the willing.
Quote for 11-13-00:
From Bishop Kallistos Ware (How are We Saved? pg.42):
"In every good desire and action on our part, God's grace is present from the outset. Our cooperation with God is genuinely free, but there is nothing in our good actions that is exclusively our own. At every point our human cooperation is itself the work of the Holy Spirit."
Quote for 11-12-00:
From Lorenzo Scupoli (Unseen Warfare: Chapter 33):
"...if you should find yourself in a position, which seems to restrict the scope of good deeds possible for you, and this position is the result of your own will, then, since you have probably chosen it for some purpose, keep to this purpose, do not let your thoughts wander off to various other possibilities, but direct your whole attention to what you have to do in your position and keep it held there, thus calmly performing the actions connected with it, fully convinced that if you dedicate them all to God instead of to self-indulgence, the time spent on them will not be wasted and they will be accepted by God as the fullest offering. And remain at peace."
Quote for 11-11-00:
From St. Maximos the Confessor (Second Century on Theology no. 35):
"Those who seek the Lord should not look for Him outside themselves; on the contrary, they must seek Him within themselves through faith made manifest in action."
Quote for 11-10-00:
From St. Gregory Nazianzen (Fifth Theological Oration no. 14):
"To us there is One God, for the Godhead is One, and all that proceedeth from Him is referred to One, though we believe in Three Persons. For one is not more and another less God; nor is One before and another after; nor are They divided in will or parted in power; nor can you find here any of the qualities of divisible things; but the Godhead is, to speak concisely, undivided in separate Persons...When we look at the Godhead, or the First Cause, or the Monarchia, that which we conceive is One; but when we look at the Persons in Whom the Godhead dwells, and at Those Who timelessly and with equal glory have their Being from the First Cause - there are Three Whom we worship."
Quote for 11-9-00:
From Bishop Kallistos Ware (How are We Saved? pgs. 36-37):
"Salvation is indeed the work of God: as Christ says, 'Without me you can do nothing' (John 15:5)...But if without Christ the Savior we can do nothing, it is also true that apart from us God will do nothing...The inter-relationship between divine grace and human freedom remains always a mystery beyond our comprehension...Let us not try to explain too much."
Quote for 11-8-00:
From Lorenzo Scupoli (Unseen Warfare: Chapter 33):
"If circumstances, which seem to us to impede our freedom in doing good, are not the result of our will, but are sent by God, accept them submissively and listen to no suggestions, which make you depart from this submissiveness. When God sends such circumstances, He expects nothing more from you than that you should conduct yourself and act as the occasion demands, within the possibilities it offers. Whether you are sick or poor, endure it. God demands of you nothing but to endure. Enduring with a good heart, you will constantly be occupied in good. If you endure with a good heart, then, whenever God may look at you, He will find you either acting or existing rightly."
Quote for 11-7-00:
From St. Maximos the Confessor (Second Century on Theology no. 33):
"He who devoutly strives to attain wisdom and is on his guard against the invisible powers, should pray that both natural discrimination - whose light is but limited - and the illuminating grace of the Spirit abide with him. The first by means of practice trains the flesh in virtue, the second illuminates the intellect so that it chooses above all else companionship with wisdom; and through wisdom it destroys the strongholds of evil and pulls down 'all the self-esteem that exalts itself against the knowledge of God' (2 Cor. 10:5)."
Quote for 11-5-00:
From Bishop Kallistos Ware (How are We Saved? pg34):
"Believing as it does that even in their sinful and fallen state human beings still possess the power of free choice, the Orthodox Church sees salvation in terms of 'synergeia' or 'cooperation' between divine grace and human freedom. In St. Paul's words, 'We are fellow-workers (synergoi) with God' (I Cor. 3:9). The Holy Virgin exemplifies this 'synergeia' precisely at the moment of her response to the angel at the annunciation: in the words of St. Irenaeus of Lyons, 'Mary cooperates with the economy'. Developing this notion of 'cooperation', St. Gregory of Nazianzus states that our incorporation into Christ depends both on God and on ourselves: 'There is need both of that which lies in our own power and of the salvation granted by God'. What God does is incomparably more important than what we humans do; yet our voluntary participation in God's saving action is altogether indispensable."
Quote for 11-4-00:
From Lorenzo Scupoli (Unseen Warfare: Chapter 33):
"Keep attention in yourself and keep only one standard in your mind - to please God in everything, both great and small. Then life itself will teach you to discern clearly and see through the wiles of the enemy."
Quote for 11-3-00:
From St. Maximos the Confessor (Second Century on Theology no. 30):
"As long as I remain imperfect and refractory, neither obeying God by practising the commandments nor becoming perfect in spiritual knowledge, Christ from my point of view also appears imperfect and refractory because of me. For I diminish and cripple Him by not growing in spirit with Him, since I am 'the body of Christ and one of its members' (I Cor. 12:27)."
Quote for 11-2-00:
From St. Gregory Nazianzen (Fifth Theological Oration no. 8):
"The Holy Ghost, which proceedeth from the Father (John 15:26); Who, inasmuch as He proceedeth from That Source, is no Creature; and inasmuch as He is not Begotten is no Son; and inasmuch as He is between the Unbegotten and the Begotten is God...What then is Procession? Do you tell me what is the Unbegottenness of the Father, and I will explain to you the physiology of the Generation of the Son and the Procession of the Spirit, and we shall both of us be frenzy-stricken for prying into the mystery of God."
Quote for 11-1-00:
From Bishop Kallistos Ware (How Are We Saved? pg. 32):
"The exercise of our free choice, while restricted and undermined by the fall, has not been abolished. In our fallen state the human will is sick but it is not dead; and, although more difficult, it is still possible for humans to choose the good...each human being has the power to do what it wishes. For you do not sin by virtue of your birth. Fallen humanity has always the possibility to resist temptation. The devil can make suggestions, but does not have the power to compel you against your will."
Quote for 10-31-00:
From Lorenzo Scupoli (Unseen Warfare: Chapter 32):
"...if a man turns away from his teachers, the enemy will at once confuse him and lead him astray. There are many possibilities, which do not look evil; and those he suggests. The inexperienced novice follows them and falls into an ambush, where he is exposed to great dangers or is destroyed altogether."
Quote for 10-30-00:
From St. Maximos the Confessor (Second Century on Theology no. 28):
"Before His visible advent in the flesh the Logos of God dwelt among the patriarchs and prophets in a spiritual manner, prefiguring the mysteries of His advent. After His incarnation He is present in a similar way not only to those who are still beginners, nourishing them spiritually and leading them towards the maturity of divine perfection, but also to the perfect, secretly pre-delineating in them the features of His future advent as if in an ikon."
Quote for 10-29-00:
From St. Gregory Nazianzen (Fifth Theological Oration no. 3):
"...now we have both seen and proclaim concisely and simply the doctrine of God the Trinity, comprehending out of Light (the Father), Light (the Son), in Light (the Holy Ghost). He that rejects it, let him reject it (Is. 21:2); and he that doeth iniquity, let him do iniquity; we proclaim that which we have understood."
Quote for 10-28-00:
From Bishop Kallistos Ware (How Are We Saved? pgs. 30-31):
"Pre-eminent among the holy ones of the Old Covenant are St. John 'the Forerunner and Baptist', and also Mary the Mother of God. In a unique manner she forms a link between the Old Covenant and the New. In her is summed up all the sanctity of those who came before Christ, and she speaks in their name as well as her own when she gives her free consent to the incarnation of our Lord, replying to the angel, 'Let it be as you have said' (Luke 1:38)."
Quote for 10-27-00:
From Lorenzo Scupoli (Unseen Warfare: Chapter 32):
"After a man has decided to abandon his wrong ways and actually does abandon them, the first task of the enemy is to clear a space for an unhampered field of action against him. He succeeds in this by suggesting to a man, who has entered the right path, that he should act on his own, and not go for advice and guidance to the teachers of righteous life, who are always attached to the Church. A man who follows their guidance and verifies all his actions, both inner and outer, by the good judgment of his teachers - priests in their parishes in the case of laymen, experienced startzi in monasteries - cannot be approached by the enemy."
Quote for 10-26-00:
From St. Maximos the Confessor (Second Century on Theology no. 25):
"If the divine Logos of God the Father became son of man and man so that He might make men gods and sons of God, let us believe that we shall reach the realm where Christ Himself now is; for He is the head of the whole body (cf. Col. 1:18), and endued with our humanity has gone to the Father as forerunner on our behalf. God will stand 'in the midst of the congregation of gods' (Ps. 82:1 LXX) - that is, of those who are saved - distributing the rewards of that realm's blessedness to those found worthy to receive them, not separated from them by any space."
Quote for 10-25-00:
From St. Gregory Nazianzen (Fourth Theological Oration no. 18):
"As far then as we can reach, 'He Who Is', and 'God', are the special names of His Essence; and of these especially 'He Who Is', not only because when He spoke to Moses in the mount, and Moses asked what His Name was, this was what He called Himself, bidding him to say to the people 'I Am hath sent me,' (Exod. 3:14) but also because we find that this Name is the more strictly appropriate...we are enquiring into a Nature Whose Being is absolute and not into Being bound up with something else...Being is in its proper sense peculiar to God, and belongs to Him entirely, and is not limited or cut short by any Before or After, for indeed in Him there is no past or future."
Quote for 10-24-00:
From Bishop Kallistos Ware (How Are We Saved? pg. 26):
"...we are not saved in isolation but in union with our fellow humans from every generation. 'We are members of one another' (Eph. 4:25): salvation is not solitary but social."
Quote for 10-23-00:
From Lorenzo Scupoli (Unseen Warfare: Chapter 31):
"...the more often obedience to good impulses is put off, the weaker their effect. After a time they lose their effect altogether, come and go without leaving a trace, and finally cease to come at all."
Quote for 10-22-00:
From St. Maximos the Confessor (Second Century on Theology no. 18):
"He who prays must never stand still on the steep ascent that leads to God...For He [the Son of God] has passed through all things for us by the dispensation of His incarnation, so that we, by following Him, may pass through all that is sequent to Him and so come to be with Him..."
Quote for 10-21-00:
From St. Gregory Nazianzen (Fourth Theological Oration no. 17):
"...neither has any one yet breathed the whole air, nor has any mind entirely comprehended, or speech exhaustively contained the Being of God. But we sketch Him by His Attributes, and so obtain a certain faint and feeble and partial idea concerning Him, and our best Theologian is he who has, not indeed discovered the whole, for our present chain does not allow of our seeing the whole, but conceived of Him to a greater extent than another, and gathered in himself more of the Likeness or adumbration of the Truth..."
Quote for 10-20-00:
From Bishop Kallistos Ware (How Are We Saved? pg. 26):
"Without being personally guilty of Adam's sinful act, we are involved in it and even in some measure responsible for it, by virtue of the fact that we all belong to a single human family. As St. Gregory of Nyssa puts it, we 'share in Adam's nature and therefore share also in his fall', and so when we say 'Forgive us', we are speaking with him and for him."
Quote for 10-19-00:
From Lorenzo Scupoli (Unseen Warfare: Chapter 31):
"Those, who have realised how dangerous and evil is the life they lead, the devil succeeds in keeping in his power, mainly by the following simple but all-powerful suggestion: 'Later, later; tomorrow, tomorrow.' And the poor sinner, deluded by the appearance of good intention accompanying this suggestion, decides: 'Indeed, tomorrow; today I shall finish what I have to do, and then, free of all care, will put myself in the hands of Divine grace and will follow unswervingly the path of spiritual life. Today I shall do this and that; tomorrow I shall repent.' "
Quote for 10-18-00:
From St. Maximos the Confessor (First Century on Theology no. 78):
"Whoever possesses spiritual knowledge must also possess as well a rich store of virtue gained through his conduct."
Quote for 10-17-00:
From St. Gregory Nazianzen (Fourth Theological Oration no. 11):
"...as we assert that it is impossible for God to be evil, or not to exist - for this would be indicative of weakness in God rather than of strength - or for the non-existent to exist, or for two and two to make both four and ten, so it is impossible and inconceivable that the Son should do anything that the Father doeth not (John 5:19). For all things the Father hath are the Son's (John 16:15); and on the other hand, all that belongs to the Son is the Father's. Nothing then is peculiar, because all things are in common. For Their Being itself is common and equal, even though the Son receive it from the Father. It is in respect of this that it is said I live by the Father (John 6:57); not as though His Life and Being were kept together by the Father, but because He has His Being from Him beyond all time, and beyond all cause."
Quote for 10-16-00:
From St. Mark the Ascetic (as quoted in HOW ARE WE SAVED? by Bishop Kallistos Ware, pg. 23):
"The saints are required to offer repentance not only on their own behalf but also on behalf of their neighbor, for without active love they cannot be made perfect...In this way the whole universe is held together in unity, and through God's providence we are each of us assisted by one another."
Quote for 10-15-00:
From Lorenzo Scupoli (Unseen Warfare: Chapter 28):
"The deeper the contrition, the better. But however deep the contrition, never admit a shadow of doubt about forgiveness. Forgiveness is already fully prepared and the record of all sins has been torn up on the Cross. Repentance and contrition alone are expected of every man, before he too can participate in the power of the redemption of the sins of the world through the Crucifixion."
Quote for 10-14-00:
From St. Maximos the Confessor (First Century on Theology no. 70):
"The whole world, limited as it is by its own inner principles, is called both the place and age of those dwelling in it. There are modes of contemplation natural to it which are able to engender in created beings a partial understanding of the wisdom of God that governs all things."
Quote for 10-13-00:
From St. Gregory Nazianzen (Fourth Theological Oration no. 6):
"...in the character of the Form of a Servant, He [the Son] condescends to His fellow servants, nay, to His servants, and takes upon Him a strange form, bearing all me and mine in Himself, that in Himself He may exhaust the bad, as fire does wax, or as the sun does the mists of the earth; and that I may partake of His nature by the blending. Thus He honours obedience by His action, and proves it experimentally by His Passion. For to possess the disposition is not enough, just as it would not be enough for us, unless we also proved it by our acts; for action is the proof of disposition."
Quote for 10-12-00:
From Bishop Kallistos Ware (How are We Saved? pg. 18):
"We are each born into a world in which it is easy for us to do evil and hard for us to do good."
Quote for 10-11-00:
From Lorenzo Scupoli (Unseen Warfare:Chapter 28):
"...in spite of the fact that you are weak and faulty, you are accounted guilty for all the wrong things you do. For since you possess a will, all that comes forth from you is subject to it, and so everything good is counted in your favour and everything bad - to your detriment. Therefore, conscious of your general wickedness, admit yourself guilty also in the particular wickedness into which you have fallen at the present moment. Judge and condemn yourself, and only yourself; do not look around, seeking on whom you could put the blame. Neither the people around you nor the circumstances are guilty of your sin. Your bad will alone is to blame. So blame yourself."
Quote for 10-10-00:
From St. Maximos the Confessor (First Century on Theology no. 68):
"Ages, times and places belong to the category of relationship, and consequently no object necessarily associated with these things can be other than relative. But God transcends the category of relationship; for nothing else whatsoever is necessarily associated with Him. Therefore if the inheritance of the saints is God Himself, he who is found worthy of this grace will be beyond all ages, times and places: he will have God Himself as his place, in accordance with the text, 'Be to me a God who is a defender and a fortified place of my salvation' (Ps. 71:3. LXX)."
Quote for 10-9-00:
From St. Gregory Nazianzen (Third theological Oration no. 21):
"...faith is that which completes our argument."
Quote for 10-8-00:
From Bishop Kallistos Ware (How are We Saved? pg. 4):
