sarkakaiaima

  “Through all those centuries of clashing and changing frontiers, Christendom in terms of time and space extended itself. Its missionaries succeeded among the barbaric as they had among the cultured, and such gatherings as the Synod of Whitby, far by the North Sea and almost on the edge of the ancient Empire, repeated, to their degree, the Council of Nicaea. Both the Gospel and the Creed mastered the new world. But the method of conversion had perhaps changed somewhat. In the old days it had been individuals who had been converted, either by intellectual persuasion or spiritual violence, by grace, by intellect, or (at lowest) by fashion. But now it was whole communities which were abruptly annexed. The prestige, the power, and no doubt sometimes the piety of Christendom subdued one dynasty after another; a sudden rain of culture and Christianity descended over their territories, and the Christianity was often no more than the chief interference of the culture. The mass of the converts

  “The things that have come into being have received from the Creator their proper place, their beginning and, in some cases, their end. But there is no boundary to virtue. The psalmist says, ‘I have seen the end of all perfection, but Your commandment is very broad and is without limit’ (Ps. 118[119]:96). Now if it is true that some good ascetics pass from the strength of action to the strength of contemplation (cf. Ps. 83[84]:7), and if it is true that love never fails (1 Cor. 13:8), and the Lord will guard the coming in of your fear and the going out of your love (cf. Ps. 120[121]:8), then love has no boundary, and both in the present and in the future age we will never cease to progress in it, as we add light to light. Perhaps this may seem strange to many. Nevertheless it has to be said, and the evidence we have, blessed Father, would lead me to say that even the angels make progress and indeed that they add glory to glory and knowledge to knowledge.”   *John Climacus, The La

  “A meek soul is a throne of simplicity, but a wrathful mind is creator of evil.   A gentle soul will make a place for wise words, since the ‘Lord will guide the meek in judgment’ (Ps.24:9), or rather, in discretion.   An upright soul is the companion of humility, but an evil one is the daughter of pride.   The souls of the meek shall be filled with wisdom, but the angry mind will cohabit with darkness and ignorance.   A bad-tempered man met a dissembler, and not an honest word passed between them, for if you open the heart of the one you will find frenzy, and if you examine the soul of the other you will see malice.   Simplicity is an enduring habit within a soul that has grown impervious to evil thoughts.   Evil is a deliberate kind of knowledge. Or, rather, is a deformity of the devil. There is no truth in it. And it imagines it can avoid being detected by many.   Hypocrisy is soul and body in a state of opposition to each other, intertwined with every kind of inventi

  “Keep to one thing: When the passionate is detected, immediately arm yourself against it with wrath and hostile anger. This anger in spiritual warfare has the very same significance as when an evil person is assaulting you; you have to strike back at him hard. . . . What does the victim of an assault by an evil person do? After striking the person, he calls for help. The watchmen answer his call and save him from trouble. This is also what must be done in spiritual warfare with the passions. Once you have become angry at the passion, you have to call out for help: Be attentive to my help, O Lord of my salvation! O Lord, be attentive unto my help, make haste to help me! When appealing to the Lord in this manner, do not fall away from Him through attention toward what is going on inside of you, but keep standing before the Lord, imploring Him for help. Run at once from this enemy as from a blazing fire.  There is something others have done, and perhaps do even now. That is, once they

Amma Syncletica:  “It is dangerous for anyone to teach who has not first been trained in the ‘practical’ life. For if someone who owns a ruined house receives guests there, harm is done because of the dilapidation of the dwelling. It is the same in the case of someone who has not first built an interior dwelling; loss is caused to those who come. By words one may convert them to salvation, but by evil behavior, one injures them.” *The Forgotten Desert Mothers , Laura Swan (Paulist Press:2001), p.52.

“Make no mistake! God is a fire, and has come as fire, and has cast fire on the earth. The same Fire goes about looking for kindling to seize upon, for a ready disposition and will, in order to fall upon it and ignite it. And in those in whom it is kindled, it rises up into a great flame and reaches to the heavens, and it allows the one so enflamed neither delay nor rest. Neither, as some people imagine about the dead, does it consume the burning soul unawares—for the soul is not lifeless matter—but with perception and knowledge and, in the beginning, with unbearable pain, since the soul is both feeling and rational. Afterwards, when it has completely cleansed us of the filth of the passions, it becomes food and drink, light and joy without ceasing within us, and, by participation, it makes us light ourselves. It is like a clay pot that has been set on the fire. At first it is somewhat blackened by the smoke of the burning fuel, but after the fuel has begun to burn fiercely, then it be