Tag: Desert Fathers

My soul, seek the Only One . . .

My soul, you have no part with the earth; for you are from heaven.

You are the image of God: seek your First Image.

For like strives after like.

Each object finds its rest in its center and element — fish in water, fire in its
upward movement everything strives to its center.

My soul, you are an immaterial spirit, immortal. . .

In Him alone you will find your rest.

We were created for eternal life by our Creator, we are called to it by the word of God, and we are renewed by holy Baptism.

And Christ the Son of God came into the world for this, that He should call us and take us there, and He is the one thing needful.

For this reason your very first endeavor and care should be to receive it.

Without it everything is as nothing, though you have the whole world under you.

O monk,

take thou the greatest possible care that thou sin not,

lest thou disgrace God Who dwelleth in thee,

and thou drive Him out of thy soul.

One of the old men said,

“It is written concerning Solomon that he loved women, but every male loveth the females, and we must restrain and draw onwards our nature by main force to purity.”

I shall tell you something strange, but do not be surprised by it.

Should you fail to attain dispassion because of the predispositions dominating you, but at the time of your death be in the depths of humility, you will be exalted above the clouds no less than the man who is dispassionate.

I consider those fallen mourners more blessed than those who have not fallen and are not mourning over themselves;

because as a result of their fall,

they have risen by a sure resurrection.

Death’s awful mystery comes upon us suddenly,

and soul and body are violently severed,

divorced from their natural union by the will of God.

What shall we do at that hour if we have not thought of it beforehand,

if we have not been instructed concerning this eventuality and find ourselves unprepared?

At the Last Judgment the righteous will be recognized only by their humility and their considering themselves worthless,

and not by good deeds,

even if they have done them.

This is the true attitude.

I pray Thee, compassionate Lord, do not allow me to be condemned because of the unworthy and ungrateful manner in which I contemplate the great mysteries that Thou hast revealed to Thy saints and through them to me, a sinner and Thy unworthy servant.

For see, Lord, Thy servant stands before Thee, idle in everything, speechless, as one who is dead; and I do not dare to say anything more or to presumptuously contemplate further.

But as always I fall down before Thee, crying from the depths of my soul. . .