41 Quotes, phrases and teachings of St.Basil the Great
41 Quotes, phrases and teachings of St.Basil the Great
For the upcoming, feast of St.
Basil the Great(January 1st). Some of his quotes, phrases and
teachings:
On giving thanks to the Creator
1) “As thou takest thy seat at
table, pray. As thou liftest the loaf, offer thanks to the Giver. When thou
sustainest thy bodily weakness with wine, remember Him Who supplies thee with
this gift, to make thy heart glad and to comfort thy infirmity. Has thy need
for taking food passed away? Let not the thought of thy Benefactor pass away
too. As thou art putting on thy tunic, thank the Giver of it. As thou wrappest
thy cloak about thee, feel yet greater love to God, Who alike in summer and in
winter has given us coverings convenient for us, at once to preserve our life,
and to cover what is unseemly. Is the day done? Give thanks to Him Who has
given us the sun for our daily work, and has provided for us a fire to light up
the night and to serve the rest of the needs of life…”
On prayer
2) “Thus wilt thought pray without ceasing; if thought prayest not
only in words, but unitest thyself to God through all the course of life and so
thy life be made one ceaseless and uninterrupted prayer.”
3) “Prayer is a
request for what is good, offered by the devout of God. But we do not
restrict this request simply to what is stated in words… We should not
express our prayer merely in syllables, but the power of prayer should be
expressed in the moral attitude of our soul and in the virtuous actions that
extend throughout our life… This is how you pray continually — not by offering
prayer in words, but by joining yourself to God through your whole way of life,
so that your life becomes one continuous and uninterrupted prayer.”
On heresy
4) “It
is not only one Church which is in peril, nor yet two or three which have
fallen under this terrible storm. The mischief of this heresy spreads almost
from the borders of Illyricum to the Thebaid. Its bad seeds were first sown by the
infamous Arius; they then took deep root through the labours of many who
vigorously cultivated the impiety between his time and ours. Now they have
produced their deadly fruit. The doctrines of true religion are overthrown. The
laws of the Church are in confusion. The ambition of men, who have no fear of
God, rushes into high posts, and exalted office is now publicly known as the
prize of impiety. The result is, that the worse a man blasphemes, the fitter
the people think him to be a bishop. Clerical dignity is a thing of the past.
There is a complete lack of men shepherding the Lord’s flock with knowledge.
5) “Keep striving until the fire of
heresy is put out, before it consumes the Church.”
On eating
6) “When you sit down to eat, pray. When you eat
bread, do so thanking Him for being so generous to you. If you drink wine, be
mindful of Him who has given it to you for your pleasure and as a relief in
sickness. When you dress, thank Him for His kindness in providing you with
clothes. When you look at the sky and the beauty of the stars, throw yourself
at God’s feet and adore Him who in His wisdom has arranged things in this way.
Similarly, when the sun goes down and when it rises, when you are asleep or
awake, give thanks to God, who created and arranged all things for your
benefit, to have you know, love and praise their Creator.”
On The Holy
Spirit
7) “Through the
Holy Spirit comes our restoration to paradise, our ascension into the kingdom
of heaven, our return to the adoption of sons, our liberty to call God our
Father, our being made partakers of the grace of Christ, our being called
children of light, our sharing in eternal glory, and, in a word, our being
brought into a state of all “fullness of blessing,” both in this world and in
the world to come, of all the good gifts that are in store for us, by promise
hereof, through faith, beholding the reflection of their grace as though they
were already present, we await the full enjoyment.”
On worldly
troubles
8) “Troubles are usually the brooms and shovels
that smooth the road to a good man’s fortune; and many a man curses the rain
that falls upon his head, and knows not that it brings abundance to drive away
hunger.”
On the Holy
Tradition and Holy Mysteries
9) “For
instance, to take the first and most general example, who is thence who has
taught us in writing to sign with the sign of the cross those who have trusted
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ? What writing has taught us to turn
to the East at the prayer? Which of the saints has left us in writing the
words of the invocation at the displaying of the bread of the Eucharist and the
cup of blessing? For we are not, as is well known, content with what the
apostle or the Gospel has recorded, but both in preface and conclusion we add
other words as being of great importance to the validity of the ministry, and
these we derive from unwritten teaching.
Moreover we bless the water of baptism and the oil of
the chrism, and besides this the catechumen who is being baptized. On
what written authority do we do this? Is not our authority silent and
mystical tradition? Nay, by what written word is the anointing of oil
itself taught? And whence comes the custom of baptizing thrice? And as to
the other customs of baptism from what Scripture do we derive the renunciation
of Satan and his angels? Does not this come from that unpublished and
secret teaching which our fathers guarded in a silence out of the reach of
curious meddling and inquisitive investigation?
Well had they learnt the lesson that the awful dignity
of the mysteries is best preserved by silence. What the uninitiated are
not even allowed to look at was hardly likely to be publicly paraded about in
written documents.”
10) “As we were baptized, so we profess our belief. As we profess our
belief, so also we offer praise. As then baptism has been given us by the
Savior, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, so, in
accordance with our baptism, we make the confession of the creed, and our
doxology in accordance with our creed.”
11) “All of us who desire the kingdom of God are, by the Lord's decree,
under an equal and rigorous necessity of seeking after the grace of Baptism.”
On The Psalms
12) “The dying
person, knowing only that there is only one Savior and Liberator cries out: ‘In
Thee have I put my hope, save me from my weakness’ and ‘rescue me from
captivity’. For I think that the valiant athletes of God, after having kept up
the good fight the whole course of their existence against the invisible
enemies and escaping every trap, when they arrive at life’s end, are examined
by the Prince of this world. If they are found, following the battle, to still
have some wounds, stains or remnants of sin, are detained by him. However, if
they are to the contrary whole and untainted, these invincible heroes remain
free and are admitted by Christ to the place of rest.”
13)
“So that psalmody, bringing about choral singing, a bond, as it were, toward
unity, and joining the people into a harmonious union of one choir, produces
also the greatest of blessings, charity. A psalm is a city of refuge from the
demons, a means of inducing help from the angels, a weapon in fears by night, a
rest from toils by day, a safeguard for infants, an adornment for those at the
height of their vigor, a consolation for the elders, a most fitting ornament
for women.”
14)
“A psalm implies serenity of soul; it is the author
of peace, which calms bewildering and seething thoughts. For, it softens the
wrath of the soul, and what is unbridled it chastens. A psalm forms
friendships, unites those separated, conciliates those at enmity. Who, indeed,
can still consider as an enemy him with whom he has uttered the same prayer to
God?”
15) “It peoples the solitudes; it rids
the market place of excesses; it is the elementary exposition of beginners, the
improvement of those advancing, the solid support of the perfect, the voice of
the Church. It brightens the feast days; it creates a sorrow which is in accordance
with God. For, a psalm is the work of angels, a heavenly institution, the
spiritual incense.”
On the human
life
16) “Human life is
but of brief duration. ‘All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is
as the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word
of our God shall stand forever’ (Isa. 40:6). Let us hold fast to the
commandment that abides, and despise the unreality that passes away.”
17) “By nature, men desire the beautiful.”
On understanding the Holy Scripture
18) “I know the laws of allegory,
though less by myself than from the works of others. There are those truly, who
do not admit the common sense of the Scriptures, for whom water is not water,
but some other nature, who see in a plant, in a fish, what their fancy wishes, who
change the nature of reptiles and of wild beasts to suit their allegories, like
the interpreters of dreams who explain visions in sleep to make them serve
their own ends. For me grass is grass; plant, fish, wild beast, domestic
animal, I take all in the literal sense. ‘For I am not ashamed of the Gospel’
[Romans 1:16]”
19) “And there
was evening and there was morning: one day.’ And the evening and the morning
were one day. Why does Scripture say ‘one day the first day’? Before speaking
to us of the second, the third, and the fourth days, would it not have been
more natural to call that one the first which began the series? If it therefore
says ‘one day,’ it is from a wish to determine the measure of day and night,
and to combine the time that they contain. Now twenty-four hours fill up the
space of one day — we mean of a day and of a night; and if, at the time of the
solstices, they have not both an equal length, the time marked by Scripture
does not the less circumscribe their duration. It is as though it said:
twenty-four hours measure the space of a day, or that, in reality a day is the
time that the heavens starting from one point take to return there. Thus, every
time that, in the revolution of the sun, evening and morning occupy the world,
their periodical succession never exceeds the space of one day.”
On judging
others
20) “If you see your neighbor in sin, don’t look only at this, but also
think about what he has done or does that is good, and infrequently trying this
in general, while not partially judging, you will find that he is better than
you.”
On glorifying God
21)
22) “There is nothing unpremeditated, nothing neglected by God. His
unsleeping eye beholds all things.”
23) “To lovers of the truth, nothing can be put before God and hope in Him.”
24) “We glorify the Holy Ghost together with the Father and the Son, from
the conviction that He is not separated from the Divine Nature; for that which
is foreign by nature does not share in the same honors.”
25) “God who created us has granted us the faculty of speech that we might
disclose the counsels of our hearts to one another and that, since we possess
our human nature in common, each of us might share his thoughts with his
neighbor, bringing them forth from the secret recesses of the heart as from a
treasury.
On abortion
26) “The woman who purposely destroys her unborn child is guilty of
murder. With us there is no nice inquiry as to its being formed or unformed. In
this case it is not only the being about to be born who is vindicated, but the
woman in her attack upon herself; because in most cases women who make such
attempts die. The destruction of the embryo is an additional crime, a second
murder, at all events if we regard it as done with intent. The punishment,
however, of these women should not be for life, but for the term of ten years.
And let their treatment depend not on mere lapse of time, but on the character
of their repentance.”
On good deeds
27) “A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never
lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers
love.”
On fasting
28) “What is the benefit of fasting in our body while filling our souls
with innumerable evils? He who does not play at dice, but spends his leisure
otherwise, what nonsense does he not utter? What absurdities does he not listen
to? Leisure without the fear of God is, for those who do not know how to use
time, the teacher of wickedness.”
29) “Indulging in unrestrained and immoderate laughter is a sign of intemperance,
of a want of control over one's emotions, and of failure to repress the soul's
frivolity by a stern use of reason.”
On faith
30) “Liberated from the error of pagan tradition through the benevolence
and loving kindness of the good God with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and by the operation of the Holy Spirit, I was reared from the very beginning
by Christian parents. From them I learned even in babyhood the Holy Scriptures
which led me to a knowledge of the truth.”
On monasticism
31) “First and foremost, the monk should own nothing in this world, but he
should have as his possessions solitude of the body, modesty of bearing, a
modulated tone of voice, and a well-ordered manner of speech. He should be
without anxiety as to his food and drink, and should eat in silence.”
On evil
32) “No one who is in this world will deny that evils exist. What, then, do
we say? That evil is not a living and animated substance, but a condition of
the soul which is opposed to virtue and which springs up In the slothful
because of their falling away from good.”
On animals
33) “Do
not despise the fish because they are absolutely unable to speak or to reason,
but fear lest you may be even more unreasonable than they by resisting the
command of the Creator. Listen to the fish, who through their actions all but
utter this word: 'We set out on this long journey for the perpetuation of our
species.”
34) “Among irrational animals the love of the offspring and of the parents
for each other is extraordinary because God, who created them, compensated for
the deficiency of reason by the superiority of their senses.”
On magicians
35) “He who confesses magic or sorcery
shall do penance for the time of murder, and shall be treated in the same
manner as he who convicts himself of this sin.”
On sin
36) “We men are easily prone to sins of thought. Therefore, He who has
formed each heart individually, knowing that the impulse received from the
intention constitutes the major element in sin, has ordained that purity in the
ruling part of our soul be our primary concern.”
37) “In truth, to know oneself seems to be the hardest of all things. Not
only our eye, which observes external objects, does not use the sense of sight
upon itself, but even our mind, which contemplates intently another's sin, is
slow in the recognition of its own defects.”
38) “If men are in a state in which they find it hard to be weaned from
their own ways and choose rather to serve the pleasures of the flesh than to
serve the Lord, and refuse to accept the Gospel life, there is no common ground
between me and them.”
On the
soul
39) “Words are truly the image of the soul.”
On charity
40) “The bread which you do not use is the bread of the
hungry; the garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of him who is
naked; the shoes that you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot;
the money that you keep locked away is the money of the poor; the acts of
charity that you do not perform are so many injustices that you commit.”
41) “When someone steals another's clothes, we call them
a thief. Should we not give the same name to one who could clothe the naked and
does not? The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry; the coat unused in
your closet belongs to the one who needs it; the shoes rotting in your closet
belong to the one who has no shoes; the money which you hoard up belongs to th poor.”
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