1. God is the perfect good that we must
love; sin is the utter evil that we must abhor and disdain. God is the
immeasurable ocean of perfection, while sin is the abyss of evil. God is the
goodness infinitely higher than all goodness; sin is the evil infinitely worse
than all evil.
2. Wake up, O brother, be vigilant and
seek to abstain from every kind of sin that defiles you. Upon partaking of the
most pure Sacraments, say to yourself, “Now I am the house of God. How can I
let myself to convert into the den of sin?”
3. Beloved brother, think about the love
that God shows to you in the gift of the Holy Communion. It is in this
Sacrament that his love reaches the apex of its perfection. Saint John the
Evangelist states that Jesus having loved his own which were in the world, he
loved them unto the end. (John 13: 1). A furnace is known by its heat;
similarly, the Lord’s love is known by the Sacrament of the Divine Eucharist.
4. We must love God more than anyone else
because it is in him that the plenitude of all virtues—beauty, wisdom, might,
holiness, majesty, goodness, infiniteness, life, peace, liberty, glory,
justice, and salvation—abounds. All these are not God but they are God’s
qualities.
5. The true sacrifice is almsgiving, doing
all kinds of good, and cutting off passions.
6. When a pious and virtuous soul does not
purify itself from minor sins, they do a lot of damage because if they remain
in the soul for too long, it starts to pay attention to them; hence, chastity
of virtue and the fragrance of the Divine grace withdraw from it, and it
becomes extremely difficult for such a soul to achieve perfection.
7. The vocation of a Christian is that of
a warrior. Regardless of how tempting worldly pleasures might appear, they
can’t overcome a Christian warrior.
8. Faith is the power that dwells in the
mind and the will of a human being. One’s mind is kindled by the heavenly light
and stores the truths revealed to it by the Lord. Likewise, one’s will is moved
by God to do everything that is true and is guided by the mind. When one’s
faith is powerless, one’s mind can’t grasp God’s mysteries, while the will
doesn’t want to love them even before the mind comprehends them.
9. You might ask: is it a sin to sleep
peacefully, eat and drink well, and have fun? This is a question that you
justify yourself with because, although it isn’t a sin, it encourages you to
sin. It prevents you from tasting spiritual gifts from God.
10. It is hard to describe how pride
devastates one’s soul. Consider this: the worst evil in this world is sin; the
greatest good is Divine grace. Pride is the root of all evil. It opposes God’s
grace and does us immense harm. It is the worst of mortal sins because it leads
one to commit all other sins.
11. Christ and pride cannot coexist in
one’s heart: where there is pride, there is no Christ, and vice versa.
12. O wretched man, do you want to know
what you really are like? Consider this: Prophet Isaiah says that the nations
are as a drop of a bucket before God (Is. 40: 15). Now divide that drop into
the number of all people, dead and living and those who will live after we die,
and see how tiny each of us is. You are that tiny particle of a drop of a
bucket. Your powers are as negligible as you are. You are nothing, and your
power is zero. You’ve solved this problem, now be proud of yourself, if you
can. If you continue to think high of yourself even after that, behold: you’re
very close to failure…
13. Persevere in this life so as not to
hear the dreadful words of Christ, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime
receivedst thy good things (Luke 16:25). Understand at last that the Heavenly
Kingdom is achieved by those who exert themselves, as the Lord said, The
kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force (Matthew
11:12), and not by those who sit idle and comfortable.
14. While we are alive, we can turn our
lives into the time of repentance and cling to the merciful Lord who is always
ready to forgive us and grant us everlasting bliss in his paradise, even though
we often forget about our sins.
15. Do not praise yourself and do not seek
to be the first. Do not attempt to look better than others because that which
is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God (Luke 16:15).
Remember that the Lord can tolerate any of your sins except pride. Bring to
mind the mockery, the insults, and the disgrace that Jesus Christ endured on
the Cross. It will help you to humble yourself down.
From Homilies by St. Nicodemus the
Hagiorite
Translated by The Catalog of Good Deeds
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