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15 Quotes of Guidance from St. Theophan the Recluse


1. If we compare our nature to copper, then copper in conjunction with silver is still the same nature but one that is now embellished in the Holy Baptism.

2. The Lord is on the Cross. Stand in front of Him in your thoughts and ponder, how would the Lord meet you once He comes down from the Cross? Keep thinking about this for some time, and your conscience will clearly tell you the truth.

3. The heart is like a sponge that has absorbed various liquids. Squeeze it and the liquid will come out. The pressures upon the heart are the life experiences and circumstances of this world, which can produce either good or evil depending on which part of the heart pressure is placed upon. Pay attention. Such thoughts can lead to a good level of self realization.

4. Learn about the teachings of the Orthodox Christian Church and hold onto them in your heart - and you will see the way to the Kingdom of Heaven.

5. Knowing what is contained in the Holy Mysteries of the church, be a communicant of the mysteries as often as possible, with faith and with the Holy Tradition of the church. Then the Divine power of God, will not weaken and direct to the the Kingdom of Heaven.

6. Make sure you live within the framework of the church because then you will live in a spiritual atmosphere and you will be fenced off from temptation, and your strength will never weaken in your path to salvation, and no temptation will be able to leave you at difficult crossroads.

7. Be obedient to the leadership of the spiritual fathers - and you will avoid the temptations and mistakes on the way to the Kingdom of Heaven, but instead you will quickly and without troubles come to the gates of Paradise

8. Nothing good is acquired for free. Instead it is acquired later through tears and toil.

9. During the prayer, the enemy always will try to bring into your mind things that may seem extremely important, and then removes these thoughts and leads you further astray. It is vital to instill in your hearts a strong conviction and decisiveness in order to be able to choose God as opposed to anything else, at least during prayer.

10. Comprehension or the ability to see certain spiritual things can happen during prayer. But the prayer that is simply read will not give you this. You can only get this from a brief, personal prayer, where you continuously keep God within yourself.

11. When you finished your prayer, don't not think that it is all over. Act as if you are attending the liturgy. Always have a sober mind and keep your thoughts chaste.

12. Pleasure is evidence of the wrong path, while sorrow is evidence of the right path. Whenever you think about this, rejoice, as crusaders of truth!

13. A person who has repented will first only see his sins, but once the inner self begins to settle, a person can start seeing passions that surround the soul. Someone who has said before: O Lord have mercy on me a sinner, will now add the following: God, cleanse me a sinner or heal my soul.

14. God arranges for us to meet certain people so that we could pass on the good given to us by God and enriched each other souls. The devil will try to do everything to make sure these meeting become useless and even harmful. Keep this in mind!

15. It also happens that even though a person does not do bad things, but the state of the heart is in bad shape. God rejects such people because of their poor inner self. Check with yourself. Are you one of those?

Prepared by The Catalog of Good Deeds

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