"Love should never be sacrificed for the sake of some dogmatic
difference."
St Nectarios of Aegina
"There is no opposition between dogma and love."
St Nectarios of Aegina
'But I say to you,' the Lord says, 'love your enemies, do good to those who
hate you, pray for those who persecute you.' Why did he command these things? So
that he might free you from hatred, sadness, anger and grudges, and might grant
you the greatest possession of all, perfect love, which is impossible to possess
except by the one you loves all equally in imitation of God.
Maximus Confessor
...in this world truth exists in shadows and conjectures. That is why there
is need for the blessed passion of holy love, which binds the intellect to
spiritual contemplation...
St. Maximos the Confessor (Third Century on Love no. 67)
...the soul copies the life that is above, and is conformed to the peculiar
features of the Divine nature; none of its habits are lift to it except that of
love, which clings by natural affinity to the Beautiful. For this is what love
is; the inherent affection towards a chosen object. When, then , the soul,
having become simple and single in form and so perfectly godlike, find that
perfectly simple and immaterial good which is really worth enthusiasm and love,
it attaches itself to it and blends with it by means of the movement and
activity love, fashioning itself according to that which it is continually
finding and grasping.
St. Gregory of Nyssa, On the Soul and Resurrection.
A pure soul is one freed from passions and constantly delighted by divine
love.
St. Maximos the Confessor (First Century on Love no. 34)
All that exists can divide itself into uncreated and created. God is
uncreated; everything else is created. And love is uncreate: uncreated and
eternal. For love is not just an attribute of God but the name of God - one of
the names of God - and the plenitude of divine being. This is also how it has
been said "God is love"(1Jn. 4:8).
Kassiana, Chap. VI: Lessons in Divine and Christian Love
An old man was asked, 'How can I find God?' He said, 'In fasting, in
watching, in labors, in devotion, and, above all, in discernment. I tell you,
many have injured their bodies without discernment and have gone away from us
having achieved nothing. Our mouths smell bad through fasting, we know the
Scriptures by heart, we recite all the Psalms of David, but we have not that
which God seeks: charity and humility.'
From the Desert Fathers
And now, finally, after all that we have said, there remain these three that
bind and secure the union of all: faith, hope, love; and the greatest of these
is love, for God Himself is so called. (I Corinthians 13:13 and I John 4: 8 and
16)
The first can make and create all things; the Divine mercy surrounds the
second and makes it immune to disappointment; the third does not fall, does not
stop in its course and allows no respite to him who is wounded by its blessed
madness.
As it is not possible to cross over the great ocean without a ship, so no one
can attain to love without fear. The fetid sea, which lies between us and the
noetic paradise, we may cross by the boat of repentance, whose oarsmen are those
of fear. But if fear's oarsmen do not pilot the barque of repentance whereby we
cross over the sea of this world to God, we shall be drowned in the fetid abyss.
Repentance is the ship and fear is the pilot; love is the divine haven.
The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian.
As the memory of fire does not warm the body, so faith without love does not
bring about the illumination of knowledge in the soul.
Maximus Confessor
BROTHER: How is love (or charity) acquired by men of understanding?
Old Man: True and pure love is the way of life, and the haven of promises,
and the treasure of faith, and the interpreter of the kingdom, and the herald of
that which is hidden.
E. A. Wallis Budge, "The Paradise of the Holy Fathers,"
(Seattle, St. Nectarios Press, 1984), pp. 262-263
BROTHER: How is love made known?
Old Man: By the fulfillment of works, and by spiritual care, and by the
knowledge of faith.
E. A. Wallis Budge, "The Paradise of the Holy Fathers,"
(Seattle, St. Nectarios Press, 1984), pp. 262-263
BROTHER: I do not know the power of the word.
Old Man: If a man loveth not God, he cannot believe in Him, and His promises
are not true to him, and he feareth not His judgment, and he followeth Him not.
Now because love is not in him, he cannot be free from iniquity, and await the
life which is promised, but he performeth at all times the plans of sin; and
this happeneth because the judgment of God is too exalted in his sight.
Therefore, let us run after love, wherewith the holy fathers have enriched
themselves, for it is able to pay back what is due to its nature and its God.
This then is praise.
E. A. Wallis Budge, "The Paradise of the Holy Fathers,"
(Seattle, St. Nectarios Press, 1984), pp. 262-263
BROTHER: Is he who is destitute of work also destitute of love?
Old Man: It is impossible that he who is of God should not love, and it is
impossible for him that loveth not to work, and it is impossible to believe that
he who teacheth but worketh not is a true believer, for his tongue is the enemy
of his action, and though he speaketh life he is in subjection unto death.
BROTHER: And is he who is in this state free from retribution?
Old Man: Such a man who speaks the things of the spirit, and performs the
things of the body, and supplies his own wants, is not deprived of reward, but
he is deprived of the crown of light, because the guidance of the spirit refuses
to rule him.
E. A. Wallis Budge, "The Paradise of the Holy Fathers,"
(Seattle, St. Nectarios Press, 1984), pp. 262-263
Christ gave us the commandment to love others but did not make it a condition
of salvation that they should love us. Indeed, we may positively be disliked for
independence of spirit. It is essential in these days to be able to protect
ourselves from the influence of those with whom we come in contact. Otherwise we
risk losing both faith and prayer. Let the whole world dismiss us as unworthy of
attention, trust or respect - it will not matter provided that the Lord accepts
us.
From Archimandrite Sophrony (His Life is Mine, Chapter 6;
SVS Press pg. 55)
Christ said, 'I came not to send peace, but a sword' and 'division'. Christ
summoned us to war on the plane of the spirit, and our weapon is 'the sword of
the Spirit, which is the word of God.' Our battle is waged in extraordinarily
unequal conditions. We are tied hand and foot. We dare not strike with fire or
sword: our sole armament is love, even for enemies. This unique war in which we
are engaged is indeed a holy war. We wrestle with the last and only enemy of
mankind death. Our fight is the fight for universal resurrection.
Archimandrite Sophrony, "His Life is Mine
Christ's words that the 'first will be last, and the last will be first'
(Mt.19:30) refer to those who participate in the virtues and those who
participate in love. For love is the last of the virtues to be born in the
heart, but it is the first in value, so that those born before it turn out to be
'the last.'
St. Mark the Ascetic, Philokalia, Vol. I.
Do not condemn today as base and wicked the man whom yesterday you praised as
good and virtuous, changing love to hatred, because he has criticized you, but
even though you are still full of resentment, commend him as before, and you
will soon recover your same saving love
St.Maximos, Text 27
Even a mother does not so cling to the babe at her breast as a son of love
clings to the Lord at all times.
St. John Climacus, "The Ladder of Divine Ascent," (Boston:
Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1978), Step30: Concerning the Linking Together
of the Supreme Trinity Among the Virtues
Faith and love which are gifts of the Holy Spirit are such great and powerful
means that a person who has them can easily, and with joy and consolation, go
the way Jesus Christ went. Besides this, the Holy Spirit gives man the power to
resist the delusions of the world so that although he makes use of earthly good,
yet he uses them as a temporary visitor, without attaching his heart to them.
But a man who has not got the Holy Spirit, despite all his learning and
prudence, is always more or less a slave and worshipper of the world.
St. Innocent of Irkutsk, Indication of the Way into the
Kingdom of Heaven.
Faith is the beginning of love; the end of love is knowledge of God.
"Instructions to Cenobites and Others", Abba Evagrius, "Early Fathers From
the Philokalia," translated from the Russian text, "Dobrotolubiye," by E.
Kadloubovsky and G.E.H. Palmer, eighth edition, (London: Faber
and Faber, Ltd., 1981), pp. 115 - 116.
Fear of God is of two kinds. The first is generated in us by the threat of
punishment. It is through such fear that we develop in due order self-control,
patience, hope in God and dispassion; and it is from dispassion that love comes.
The second kind of fear is linked with love and constantly produces reverence in
the soul, so that it does not grow indifferent to God because of the intimate
communion of its love. "The first kind of fear is expelled by perfect love when
the soul has acquired this and is no longer afraid of punishment (cf. I John
4:18). The second kind, as we have already said, is always found united with
perfect love. The first kind of fear is referred to in the following two verse:
'Out of fear of the Lord men shun evil' (Prov. 16:6), and 'Fear of the Lord is
the beginning of wisdom' (Ps. 111:10). The second kind is mentioned in the
following verses: 'Fear of the Lord is pure, and endures forever' (Ps. 19:9.
LXX), and 'Those who fear the Lord will not want for anything' (Ps. 34:10. LXX).
St. Maximos the Confessor (First Century on Love nos.
81-82)
For him who is perfect in love and has reached the summit of dispassion there
is no difference between his own and another's, or between Christians and
unbelievers, or between slave and free, or even between male and female. But
because he has risen above the tyranny of the passions and has fixed his
attention on the single nature of man, he looks on all in the same way and show
the same disposition to all.
St. Maximos the Confessor (Second Century on Love no. 30)
Give no ear to the slanderer's talk nor let your talk run on in the
fault-finder's hearing, by readily speaking and listening to things against your
neighbor; otherwise you will fall from divine charity [love] and be found a
foreigner to eternal life.
St. Maximus the Confessor, Four Centuries on Charity.
Go and have pity on all, for through pity, one finds freedom of speech before
God.
Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky
God is long-suffering and merciful to you: this you experience many times
every day. Be long-suffering and merciful to your brethren, also fulfilling the
words of the Apostle, who thus speaks of love before everything: "Love suffereth
long, and is kind." You desire that the Lord should rejoice you by His love,
rejoice on your part the hearts of others by your tender love and kindness.
St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ.
God is love. So he who wishes to define this tries with bleary eyes to
measure the sand in the ocean.
St. John Climacus, "The Ladder of Divine Ascent," (Boston:
Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1978), Step30: Concerning the Linking Together
of the Supreme Trinity Among the Virtues
Good deeds and love for one's neighbor will result in a holy end for everyone
who inwardly supplicates: "Save me, my Christ." Through love and prayer he will
be saved.
Modern Orthodox Saints Saints Raphael, Nicholas and Irene
of Lesvos., by Constantine Cavarnos., INSTITUTE FOR BYZANTINE AND MODERN
STUDIES., Belmont, Massachusetts., 1990., pp. 145-155.
Have unfeigned love among yourselves, keep the tradition, and may the God of
peace be with you and confirm you in love.
Abba Elias
He that loves Me, saith the Lord, will keep My commandments; and 'this is My
commandment, that you love one another.' He therefore who does not love his
neighbor does not keep the commandment. Nor is he that does not keep the
commandment able to love the Lord.
St. Maximus the Confessor, Century 1.
He who has love in Christ must observe the commandments of Christ. The
binding power of the love of God - who is able to set it forth? The radiance of
His beauty - who can voice it to satisfaction? The sublimity to which love leads
up is unutterable. Love unites us with God, love covers a multitude of sins;
love endures everything, is long-suffering to the last; there is nothing vulgar,
nothing conceited, in love; love creates no schism; love does not quarrel; love
preserves perfect harmony. In love all the elect of God reached perfection,
apart from love nothing is pleasing to God. In love the Master took us to
Himself. Because of the love which He felt for us, Jesus Christ Our Lord gave
His Blood for us by the will of God, His Body for our bodies, and His soul for
our souls.
St. Clement of Rome, Epistle to the Corinthians.
He who is not indifferent to fame and pleasure, as well as to love of riches
that exists because of them and increases them, cannot cut off occasions for
anger. And he who does not cut these off cannot attain perfect love.
St. Maximos the Confessor (First Century on Love no. 75)
He who loves God cannot but love every man as himself, although the passions
of those who are not yet purified find no favor with him. Therefore, when he
sees them converted and reformed, he rejoices with great and ineffable joy.
St Maximos the Confessor
He who loves God consciously in his heart is known by God (cf. I Cor. 8:3),
for to the degree that he receives the love of God consciously in his soul, he
truly enters into God's love. From that time on, such a man never loses an
intense longing for the illumination of spiritual knowledge...
St. Diadochos of Photiki (On Spiritual Knowledge no. 14)
He who loves God neither distresses nor is distressed with anyone on account
of transitory things." Quote for 12-9-99
St. Maximos the Confessor (First Century on Love no. 41)
He who loves the Lord has first loved his brother, because the second is a
proof of the first.
St. John Climacus, "The Ladder of Divine Ascent," (Boston:
Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1978), Step 30: Concerning the Linking Together
of the Supreme Trinity Among the Virtues
He who reveres the Lord does what is commanded, and if he commits some sin or
disobeys Him, endures whatever he has to suffer for this as being his desert.
St. Mark the Ascetic, "Early Fathers From the Philokalia,"
trans. by E. Kadloubovsky and G.E.H. Palmer, (London: Faber and Faber, Ltd.,
1981), pp. 86 - 90.
He who says that he loves the Lord but is angry with his brother is like a
man who dreams that he is running.
St. John Climacus, "The Ladder of Divine Ascent," (Boston:
Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1978), Step 30: Concerning the Linking Together
of the Supreme Trinity Among the Virtues
He who truly loves God, is devoted to His holy will; and no matter what might
befall him, he accepts everything, as from the hand of God, with the firm faith
that all this serves to his spiritual benefit. For the soul that is devoted to
God, the misfortunes that befall it in this life serve as steps leading it up to
perfection.
St. John Climacus
He in whom there is love, does not consider anyone alien to himself, but all
are to him his own people; he in whom there is love, does not become irritated,
is not proud, does not become inflamed with anger, does not rejoice over
injustice, is not mired in falsehood, does not consider anyone as his enemy; he
in whom there is love, endures everything, is compassionate, is long-suffering.
Therefore, he who has acquired love is blessed. God is love; and he that
dwelleth in love dwelleth in God (I John 4:16).
St. Ephraim the Syrian
Hence, in whatever state a person is, he sometimes finds himself making pure
and intense prayers. For even from that first and lowest sort, which has to do
with recalling the future judgment, the one who is still subject to the
punishment of terror and the fear of judgment is occasionally so struck with
compunction that he is filled with no less joy of spirit from the richness of
his supplication than the one who, examining the kindnesses of God and going
over them in the purity of his heart, dissolves into unspeakable gladness and
delight. For, according to the words of the Lord, the one who realizes that more
has been forgiven him begins to love more.
St. John Cassian, The Conferences.
Holy man of God, I love God and my brothers.
Good, my child. You have got my blessing. What is your name?
Costas.
What do you do for a living?
I am a shepherd.
Do you weigh the cheese which you sell?
I do.
You, my child, have learnt to weigh cheese and I have learnt to weigh love.
Is the scales ashamed of its master?
No.
Let me then weigh your love now and, if it is right and not false, then I
shall wish you well and I shall make all Christians forgive you. How can I know,
my child, that you love your brothers? Now that I am here and walk and teach the
people, I say that I love Mr Costas like my eyes, but you do not believe me. You
want to try me first and then believe me. I have bread to eat, you have not. If
I give a piece of it to you, who have not, I show that I love you. But if I eat
the whole loaf and you are hungry, then what do I show? I show that the love
that I feel for you is false. I have got two cups of wine to drink, you have
not. If I give you some of it to drink, then I show that I love you. But if I do
not give you, my love is false. You are sad. Your mother or father has died. If
I come to console you then my love is true. But if you are crying and weeping
and I am eating, drinking and dancing, my love is false. Do you love that poor
child?
I do.
If you loved him, you would buy him a shirt because he is naked so that he
would also pray for your soul. Then your love would be true. But now it is
false. Is not it so, my Christians? We cannot go to paradise with false love.
Now, since you want to make your love gold, take and dress the poor children and
then I shall make them forgive you. Will you do this?
I will.
My Christians, Costas understood that the love which he had till now was
false and wants to make it gold, to dress the poor children. Because we have
edified him I beg you to tell three times for Mr Costas, may God forgive and
have mercy on him.
From the teachings of St. Cosmas of Aetolia
If for the sake of marriage we leave father and mother, how much more so for
the love of God; by this we can verify in ourselves the ardor of our love for
God.
St. Tikhon of Voronezh.
If the face of a loved one clearly and completely changes us, and makes us
cheerful, gay and carefree, what will the Face of the Lord do when He makes His
Presence felt invisibly in a pure soul?
St. John Climacus, "The Ladder of Divine Ascent," (Boston:
Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1978), Step30: Concerning the Linking Together
of the Supreme Trinity Among the Virtues
If we are not willing to sacrifice this temporal life, or perhaps, even the
life to come, for the sake of our neighbor, as were Moses and St. Paul, how can
we say that we love him? For Moses said to God concerning his people, 'If Thou
wilt forgive their sins, forgive; but if not, blot me as well out of the book of
life which Thou hast written' (Ex. 32:32. LXX); while St. Paul said, 'For I
could wish that I myself were severed from Christ for the sake of my brethren'
(Rom. 9:3). He prayed, that is to say, that he should perish in order that
others might be saved - and these others were the Israelites who were seeking to
kill him.
St. Peter of Damascus (Book 1: A Treasury of Divine
Knowledge, The Philokalia Vol. 3 edited by Palmer, Sherrard and Ware; Faber and
Faber pgs. 175-176)
If we want to fare well in this life and to go to Paradise, and to call our
God love and father, we must have two loves: the love for God and the love for
our neighbor. It is natural for us to have these two loves, and contrary to
nature not have them. Just as a swallow needs two wings in order to fly in the
air, so we need these two loves, because without them we cannot be saved.
Let us have love for God and for our fellow men. Then God comes and brings us
joy and implants the eternal life in our hearts, and we fare well in this life
and also go to Paradise, there to rejoice forever.
Fortunate is the man who has these two loves in his heart, that for God and
that for his brethren. He surely has God; and whoever has God has every blessing
and does not bear to commit sin. Again, wretched is the man who does not have
these two loves. Surely he has the devil and evil, and always sins. God, my
brethren, asks us to have these two loves. As He Himself says in His Holy
Gospel: "On these two commandments hang all the law and the Prophets." Through
these two loves all the Saints of our Church, men and women, attained sainthood
and won Paradise. Whoever has blessed love, firstly for God and secondly for his
fellow Christian, becomes worthy of receiving the Holy Trinity in his heart.
If you wish to be saved, seek no other thing here in this world as much as
love.
Modern Orthodox Saints I, St. Cosmas Aitolos).Dr. Constantine Cavarnos.,
INSTITUTE FOR BYZANTINE AND MODERN GREEK STUDIES., Belmont, Massachusetts.,
pp.81-94.
If you love Christ God, then endure as He endured, and do all that is
pleasing to Him. He taught and did. Unfailingly your love also should be such as
does good, endures, is disturbed by nothing present, and in everything ever
thanks Him not with words and tongue, but with very deeds. You must love Him
with heart, with mind, with your whole soul, strength, and mind.
Abbot Nazarius of Valaam, Little Russian Philokalia, Vol.
II
If your heart has been softened either by repentance before God or by
learning the boundless love of God towards you, do not be proud with those whose
hearts are still hard. Remember how long your heart was hard and incorrigible.
Seven brothers were ill in one hospital. One recovered from his illness and
got up and rushed to serve his other brothers with brotherly love, to speed
their recovery. Be like this brother. Consider all men to be your brothers, and
sick brothers at that. And if you come to feel that God has given you better
health than others, know that it is given through mercy, so in health you may
serve your frailer brothers.
Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic. Prolog, 31.march
In 1944, the Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko's mother took him from Siberia
to Moscow. They were among those who witnessed a procession of twenty-thousand
German war prisoners marching through the streets of Moscow:
The pavements swarmed with onlookers, cordoned off by soldiers and police.
The crowd was mostly women -- Russian women with hands roughened by hard work,
lips untouched by lipstick, and with thin hunched shoulders which had borne half
of the burden of the war. Every one of them must have had a father or a husband,
a brother or a son killed by the Germans. They gazed with hatred in the
direction from which the column was to appear.
At last we saw it. The generals marched at the head, massive chins stuck out,
lips folded disdainfully, their whole demeanor meant to show superiority over
their plebian victors.
"'They smell of perfume, the bastards," someone in the crowd said with
hatred. The women were clenching their fists. The soldiers and policemen had all
they could do to hold them back.
All at once something happened to them. They saw German soldiers, thin,
unshaven, wearing dirty blood-stained bandages, hobbling on crutches or leaning
on the shoulders of their comrades; the soldiers walked with their heads down.
The street became dead silent -- the only sound was the shuffling of boots and
the thumping of crutches.
Then I saw an elderly women in broken-down boots push herself forward and
touch a policeman's shoulder, saying, "Let me through." There must have been
something about her that made him step aside. She went up to the column, took
from inside her coat something wrapped in a colored handkerchief and unfolded
it. It was a crust of black bread. She pushed it awkwardly into the pocket of a
soldier, so exhausted that he was tottering on his feet. And now from every side
women were running toward the soldiers, pushing into their hands bread,
cigarettes, whatever they had. The soldiers were no longer enemies. They were
people.
A Precocious Autobiography, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Collins,
London
In order not to be in daily bondage to the passions and the devil, you must
set yourself an object to aim at, have this object constantly in view, and
endeavor to attain it, conquering all obstacles by the name of the Lord. What is
this object? The Kingdom of God, the Divine palace of glory, prepared for
believers from the creation of the world. But as this object can only be
attained by certain means, it also is necessary to have such means at one's
disposal. And what are these means? Faith, hope, and love, especially the last.
Believe, hope, and love, especially love, disregarding all obstacles; love God
above everything and your neighbor as yourself. If you have not sufficient
strength to preserve in your heart these inestimable treasures, fall down more
often at the feet of the God of Love. Ask, and it shall be given you; seek and
ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you," for He Who has promised
is true. Walking, sitting, lying down, conversing, or working, at every time,
pray with your whole heart that faith and love may be given to you. You have not
yet asked for them as you should ask - fervently and instantly - with the firm
purpose of obtaining them. Say now, "I will begin to do so henceforth.
Saint John of Kronstadt - My Life in Christ
In the life of the holy Apostle John the Theologian it was said, among other
things, that when he had grown so old that he couldn't come e to a meeting of
the faithful, his disciples carried him there in their arms. And he, not being
in a condition to preach an extensive sermon, repeated only his favorite words,
which contain the essential foundation of Christianity: "My children, love one
another!" I also repeat to you, I repeat even a hundred times: love, love all
without exception, both those who love you and those who do not.
Abbess Thaisia, Letters to a Beginner.
In the life of the holy Apostle John the Theologian it was said, among other
things, that when he had grown so old that he couldn't come to a meeting of the
faithful, his disciples carried him there in their arms. And he, not being in a
condition to preach an extensive sermon, repeated only his favorite words, which
contain the essential foundation of Christianity: "My children, love one
another!" I also repeat to you, I repeat even a hundred times: love, love all
without exception, both those who love you and those who do not.
Abbess Thaisia, Letters to a Beginner.
It is better to be among thousands with love, than to hide alone in caves
with hatred.
"Instructions to Cenobites and Others", Abba Evagrius,
"Early Fathers From the Philokalia," translated from the Russian text,
"Dobrotolubiye," by E. Kadloubovsky and G.E.H. Palmer, eighth edition, (London:
Faber and Faber, Ltd., 1981), pp. 115 - 116.
Know my brethren that love has two characteristics, two gifts. One of them is
to strengthen man in what is good and the other is to weaken him in what is
evil. I have a loaf of bread to eat; you do not have. Love tells me: Do not eat
it alone, give some to your brethren and you eat the rest. I have clothes; love
tells me: Give one garment to your brother and you wear the other one. I open my
mouth to accuse you, to tell you lies, to deceive you; but at once I remember
love and it deadens my mouth, and does not allow me to tell you lies. I stretch
out my hands to take what belongs to you, your money, all your possessions. Love
does not allow me to take them. Do you see, my brethren, what gifts love has?
Modern Orthodox Saints I, St. Cosmas Aitolos).Dr.
Constantine Cavarnos., INSTITUTE FOR BYZANTINE AND MODERN GREEK STUDIES.,
Belmont, Massachusetts., pp.81-94.
Let him who has love in Christ keep the commandments of Christ. Who can
describe the [blessed] bond of the love of God?
First Epistle Of Clement To The Corinthians, Chap. XLIX
Let us, then, speak here about Christian love which enfolds within its
embrace and holds not only our own relatives, brothers, friends, and
acquaintances, but all men, and most of all those that are of the household of
faith and brethren according to the Christian spirit. Two fruits of this love
are explained here; first, to do evil to no one; and second, to show mercy and
compassion to a neighbor in need.
St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, Journey to Heaven
Love bestows prophecy; love yields miracles; love is an abyss of
illumination; love is a fountain of fire, in the measure that it wells up, it
inflames the thirsty soul. Love is the state of angels. Love is the progress of
eternity.
St. John Climacus, "The Ladder of Divine Ascent," (Boston:
Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1978), Step 30: Concerning the Linking Together
of the Supreme Trinity Among the Virtues
Love does not need the law. Love is above above laws. It is the New Law, or
the New Testament of Christ. 'We know that all things work together for good for
them that love God' (Rom. 8:28). The road of love can be full of obstacles and
difficulties, but according to the word of God and the experience of men, that
road leads unerringly in the direction of the greatest good.
Kassiana: Lessons in Divine and Christian Love
Love edifies because it does not envy, or feel any bitterness towards those
who are envious, or ostentatiously display what provokes envy; it does not
reckon that its purpose has yet been attained (cf. Phil. 3:13), and it
unhesitatingly confesses its ignorance of what it does not know. Hence it frees
the intellect from arrogance and always equips it to advance in knowledge.
St. Maximos the Confessor (Fourth Century on Love no. 60)
Love for God always aspires to give wings to the intellect in its communion
with God; love for one's neighbor makes one always think good thoughts about
him.
St. Maximos the Confessor (Fourth Century on Love no. 40)
Love has not arisen from the earth, but is granted from heaven. St [John]
Cassian said "Love belongs exclusively to God, and those men who have renewed in
themselves the image and the likeness of god." Conscious love refers to the
conscious person and not to a principle or an idea nor to an impersonal
creation, but to personhood. Where there is no reciprocity in love, there is no
love. But a principle or an idea or a creation, be it of God or of man, cannot
love us, though we may love it. Of that love we are not speaking, but of the
love that is from person to person and which is "indivisible and without
confusion."
Kassiana: Lessons in Divine and Christian Love.
Love is a holy state of soul, disposing it to value knowledge of God above
all created things.
St. Maximos the Confessor(First Century on Love no. 1)
Love is essentially the banishment of every kind of contrary thought, for
love thinketh no evil.
St. John Climacus, "The Ladder of Divine Ascent," (Boston:
Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1978), Step30: Concerning the Linking Together
of the Supreme Trinity Among the Virtues
Love is preceded by passionlessness; knowledge is preceded by love.
"Instructions to Cenobites and Others", Abba Evagrius,
"Early Fathers From the Philokalia," translated from the Russian text,
"Dobrotolubiye," by E. Kadloubovsky and G.E.H. Palmer, eighth edition, (London:
Faber and Faber, Ltd., 1981), pp. 115 - 116.
Love of God loves always to give wings to the mind to speak of God and Divine
things; and love of neighbor disposes it always to think well of him.
St. Maximus the Confessor, 7th century
Just as the fishermen hide the hook with bait and covertly hook the fish,
similarly, the crafty allies of the heresies cover their evil teachings and
corrupt understanding with pietism and hook the more simple, bringing them to
spiritual death.
Saint Isidore of Pelusium (Letter to Timothy the Reader,
PG, 78:252)
Love your fellow men and forgive them Among your religious duties is that of
loving your fellow men and always forgiving them. If you do this, you will be
filled with joy, and with health both of the soul and of the body.
Modern Orthodox Saints Saints Raphael, Nicholas and Irene
of Lesvos., by Constantine Cavarnos., INSTITUTE FOR BYZANTINE AND MODERN
STUDIES., Belmont, Massachusetts., 1990., pp. 145-155.
Men love one another, commendably or reprehensibly, for the following five
reasons: either for the sake of God, as the virtuous man loves everyone and as
the man not yet virtuous loves the virtuous; or by nature, as parents love their
children and children their parents; or because of self-esteem, as he who is
praised loves the man who praises him; or because of avarice, as with one who
loves a rich man for what he can get out of him; or because of self-indulgence,
as with the man who serves his belly and his genitals. The first is commendable,
the second is of an intermediate kind, the rest are dominated by passion.
From St. Maximos the Confessor (Second Century on Love no.
9 Lecture 10 no. 2)
My Christians, how are you doing here? Have you got love for each other? If
you want to be saved, do not ask for anything else here, in the world, but love.
Is there any of you who has got this kind of love towards his brothers? Let him
rise and tell me so that I may wish him well and make all Christians forgive
him. He will receive such forgiveness which he would have been unable to find
had he given thousands of pounds of gold.
St. Basil the Great First Epistle to the Amphilochios (ca
AD 375)
No one can love God consciously in his heart unless he has first feared Him
with all his heart. Through the action of fear the soul is purified and, as it
were, made malleable and so it becomes awakened to the action of love.
St. Diadochos of Photiki (On Spiritual Knowledge no. 16)
Norhing else extinguishes passions so much as compassion. On the other hand,
if someone struggles as a result of vainglory or with the idea that he is
applying himself to virtue, he is not struggling with knowledge. He, though, who
abstains with knowledge does not think he is exercising virtue, neither does he
want to be commended as an ascetic, but believes that by way of abstinence
prudence is obtained and that through this, comes humility.
Abba Dorotheos
On one occasion, a certain excellent man, who feared God in his life and
works, and who was living in the world, went to Abba Poemen. Some of the
brethren, who were also with the old man, were asking him questions, wishing to
hear a word from him.
Then Abba Poemen said to the man who was in the world, "Speak a word to the
brethren," but he begged him saying, "Forgive me, father, but I came to learn."
And the old man pressed him to speak and, as the force of his urging increased,
he said, "I am a man living in the world, and I sell vegetables, and because I
do not know how to speak from a book, listen ye to a parable.
"There was a certain man who had three friends, and he said to the first,
'Since I desire to see the Emperor come with me,' and the friend said unto him,
'I will come with thee half the way.' And the man said to the second friend,
'Come, go with me to the Emperor's presence,' and the friend said to him, 'I
will come with thee as far as his palace, but I cannot go with thee inside.'
"And the man said the same unto his third friend, who answered and said, 'I
will come with thee, and I will go inside the palace with thee, and I will even
stand up before the Emperor and speak on thy behalf.'"
Then the brethren questioned him, wishing to learn from him the meaning of
the riddle, and he answered and said unto them, "The first friend is abstinence,
which leadeth as far as one half of the way. The second friend is purity and
holiness, which lead to heaven. And the third friend is loving-kindness, which
establishes a man before God and speaketh on his behalf with great boldness."
E. A. Wallis Budge, "The Paradise of the Holy Fathers, vol.
II," (Seattle, St. Nectarios Press, 1984), p. 102
One who loves his neighbor can never tolerate slanderers, but rather runs
from them as from fire.
St. John Climacus, "The Ladder of Divine Ascent," (Boston:
Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1978), Step 30: Concerning the Linking Together
of the Supreme Trinity Among the Virtues
Only the perfect person, with a perfect conscience, a perfect mind, and
perfect power, can have perfect love. Such a person is our God. What every man
eagerly desires for his person is therefore that which exists in the person of
his Creator. What all people value - love above all - that is therefore what the
Creator is - Love. And so it has been from time immemorial to today and unto
ages of ages.
Kassiana: Lessons in Divine Love. From the collected
writings of (St.) Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic
Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, dearly beloved, sometimes connects us by
His words and sometimes by His actions. His very deeds are commands, because
when He does something silently, He is making known to us what we ought to do.
He sent His disciples to preach two by two because there are two commandments of
love, of God and neighbor, and there can be no love between fewer than two.
Strictly speaking no one is said to have love for himself; love becomes possible
when one reaches out toward someone else. The Lord sent His disciples to preach
two by two, to inform us silently that no one who has no love for another person
should undertake the duty of preaching.
St. Gregory the Great, Forty Gospel Homilies.
Patience, forgiveness and joy are the three greatest characteristics of
divine love. They are characteristics of all real love - if there is such a
thing as real love outside divine love. Without these three characteristics,
love is not love. If you give the name 'love' to anything else, it is as though
you were giving the name 'sheep' to a goat or a pig.
Bp. (St.) Nikolai Velimirovic, Homilies, Vol. I (On the
Prodigal Son)
Patient endurance is the fruit of love, for 'love patiently endures all
things' (I Cor. 13:7), and teaches us to achieve such endurance by forcing
ourselves so that through patience we may attain love...
St. Gregory Palamas (Those Who Practice a Life of Stillness
no. 8, The Philokalia Vol. 4 edited by Palmer, Sherrard and Ware; Faber and
Faber pg. 338)
Prove your love and zeal for wisdom in actual deeds.
St. Clement of Rome
Rejoice at every opportunity of showing kindness to your neighbor as a true
Christian who strives to store up as many good works as possible, especially the
treasures of love. Do not rejoice when others show you kindness and love -
consider yourself unworthy of it; but rejoice when an occasion presents itself
for you to show love. Show love simply, without any deviation into cunning
thoughts, without any trivial, worldly, covetous calculations, remembering that
love is God Himself. Remember that He sees all your ways, sees all the thoughts
and movements of your heart. Saint John of Kronstadt, My Life
in Christ
Repentance and humility establish the soul. Charity and meekness strengthen
it.
Monk Evagrius
Since 'knowledge puffs up, but love edifies' (I Cor. 8:1), unite love with
knowledge and you will free yourself from arrogance and be a spiritual builder,
edifying both yourself and all who draw near you.
St. Maximos the Confessor (Fourth Century on Love no. 59)
Studying the holy and sacred Gospel, I found in it many and different
teachings which are all pearls, diamonds, treasures, riches, joy,
gladness-eternal life. Among the other things I also found this teaching in
which Christ says to us: no Christian, man or woman, should be concerned only
with himself, how he can be saved, but must be concerned also with his brethren
so that they may not fall into sin.
St. Cosmas Aitolos in Missionaries, Monks and Martyrs by
Veronis
The Holy Spirit gave the Apostles and Saints the strength to love mankind. As
for us, if we love not our brother we cannot have peace. Let every man think on
this.
Wisdom from Mount Athos, The writings of Staretz Silouan 1866-1938, by
Archimandrite Sophrony
The angels know how to speak about love, and even they can only do this
according to the degree of their enlightenment.
St. John Climacus, "The Ladder of Divine Ascent," (Boston:
Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1978), Step30: Concerning the Linking Together
of the Supreme Trinity Among the Virtues
The compassionate soul loves, helps, consoles, shares the suffering of an
afflicted fellow human being. It works for the spreading of the Gospel,
motivated by love for the sinner. We ought to feel sorrow within our souls for
persons who live far from God.
The stand of the Lord towards Zacchaeus should serve as a lesson for
Christians. Through His stand the Lord showed that we ought to embrace sinners
with our love and not to avoid them. It shows us that we ought to seek the power
of God to bring them to the regeneration which is effected by our Savior Jesus
Christ.
So let us approach sinners with love. And if in the end we do no succeed in
bringing them close and fully to the path of God, let us even then not cease
praying for them. Perhaps our fervent prayer will be listened to by our
compassionate God and He will grant to them the regeneration of their soul.
Modern Orthodox Saints Saints Raphael, Nicholas and Irene
of Lesvos., by Constantine Cavarnos., INSTITUTE FOR BYZANTINE AND MODERN
STUDIES., Belmont, Massachusetts., 1990., pp. 145-155.
The fragrance of love! When we burn incense, we think of the fragrant
heavenly aroma of love. The Holy Spirit, like a heavenly fire, brings the warmth
of love into the human heart, and like a fresh wind, chases away the stench of
sin and spreads the aroma of Christ to the world. That savor all the saints have
borne within themselves. People have sensed it in living saints and in their
relics. The Apostle speaks of this: "We are unto God a sweet savour of Christ,"
the sweet perfume of recognition of the truth and the sweetness of love (Cf. 2
Cor. 2:14-16)."
From "The Lament of Eve" by Johanna Manley
The fragrance of love! When we burn incense, we think of the fragrant
heavenly aroma of love. The Holy Spirit, like a heavenly fire, brings the warmth
of love into the human heart, and like a fresh wind, chases away the stench of
sin and spreads the aroma of Christ to the world. That savor all the saints have
borne within themselves. People have sensed it in living saints and in their
relics. The Apostle speaks of this: "We are unto God a sweet savour of Christ,"
the sweet perfume of recognition of the truth and the sweetness of love (cf. 2
Cor. 2:14-16).
Lessons in Divine and Christian Love from The Lament of Eve
by Johanna
Manley.
The growth of fear is the beginning of love, but a complete state of purity
is the foundation of theology.
St. John Climacus, "The Ladder of Divine Ascent," (Boston:
Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1978), Step30: Concerning the Linking Together
of the Supreme Trinity Among the Virtues
The key to Divine gifts is given to the heart by love of neighbor, and, in
proportion to the heart's freedom from the bonds of the flesh, the door of
knowledge begins to open before it.
Saint Isaac of Syria
The natural love of the soul is one thing, and the love which comes to it
from the Holy Spirit is another. The activity of the first depends on the assent
of our will to our desire. For this reason it is easily taken over and perverted
by evil spirits when we do not keep firmly to our chosen course. But the love
which comes from the Holy Spirit so inflames the soul that all its parts cleave
ineffably and with utter simplicity to the delight of its love and longing for
the divine. The intellect then becomes pregnant through the energy of the Holy
Spirit and overflows with a spring of love and joy.
St. Diadochos of Photiki (On Spiritual Knowledge no. 34)
The passions of the soul's incensive power are more difficult to combat than
those of its desiring aspect. Consequently our Lord has given a stronger remedy
against them: the commandment of love.
St. Maximos the Confessor (First Century on Love no. 66)
The perfection of love is contained in union with God; improvement in love
offers inexplicable spiritual consolation, enjoyment, and enlightenment. But at
the beginning of the labor the disciple of love must endure the brutal struggle
with his own self, with his own deeply damaged nature; evil, inborn to the
nature by the fall into sin, became for it a law belligerent and rebelling
against the Law of God, against the law of holy love.
Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, Essays (from Orthodox Life,
1968 No. 1.
The person who loves God cannot help loving every man as himself, even though
he is grieved by the passions of those who are not yet purified.
St. Maximos the Confessor(First Century on Love no. 13)
The person who loves God values knowledge of God more than anything created
by God, and pursues such knowledge ardently and ceaselessly.
St. Maximos the Confessor(First Century on Love no. 4)
They alone know how to believe in God who love God, who are Christians not
only in name but also in action and [way of] life, because without love faith is
empty. With love, it is the faith of a Christian -- without love, the faith of a
demon.
The Venerable Bede, "Commentary on James"
They were the same three principal lusts which provoked the heart of Eve, so
that her heart being emptied of love, it tasted the same evil spirits as Christ
the Savior encountered in the wilderness near Jericho. These are: desire for
earthly satisfaction, desire for worldly possessions that the eye sees, and
desire for recognition - all outside and contrary to God and the love of God.
But Jesus imperiously drives them away from Himself - and like Eve - with the
words: `Get thee hence, Satan' (Mt. 4:10).
Kassiana: Lessons in Divine and Christian Love.
Through genuine love for God we can drive out the passions. Love for God is
this: to choose Him rather than the world ...
St. Maximos the Confessor (Third Century on Love no. 50)
Through genuine love for God we can drive out the passions. Love for God is
this: to choose Him rather than the world.
Saint Maximos the Confessor, on Love
To the aspect of the soul that is accessible to passion we impart the best of
all dispositions, that of love; and we also raise the level of the intelligence
by repelling whatever impedes the mind in its ascent towards God: this aspect of
the law we call watchfulness.
St. Gregory Palamas (Those Who Practice a Life of Stillness
no. 2, The Philokalia Vol. 4 edited by Palmer, Sherrard and Ware; Faber and
Faber pg. 333)
Virtue in the sight of others is to bear with those who oppose us, but virtue
in God's sight is to love them. This is the only sacrifice acceptable to God.
Saint Gregory the Great
We actively manifest love in forbearance and patience towards our neighbor,
in genuinely desiring his good, and in the right use of material things.
St. Maximos the Confessor (First Century on Love no. 40)
We truly love God and keep His commandments if we restrain ourselves from our
pleasures. For he who still abandons himself to unlawful desires certainly does
not love God, since he contradicts Him in his own intentions. . . Therefore, he
loves God truly, whose mind is not conquered by consent to evil delight. For the
more one takes pleasure in lower things, the more he is separated from heavenly
love.
St. John of the Ladder
What separates us from the love of friends is envying or being envied,
causing or receiving harm, insulting or being insulted, and suspicious thoughts.
Would that you had never done or experienced anything of this sort and in this
way separated yourself from the love of a friend.
St. Maximos the Confessor (Fourth Century on Love no. 21)
What should one do so that the mind might be constantly occupied with God? If
we do not acquire the three following virtues: love for God and men, continence,
and the Prayer of Jesus, then our mind cannot be completely occupied with God.
For love makes anger meek, continence weakens fleshly desire, and prayer draws
the mind away from thoughts and banishes every hatred and high-mindedness.
St. Paisius Velichkovsky, Little Russian Philokalia, Vol.
IV.
When a man begins to perceive the love of God in all its richness, he begins
also to love his neighbor with spiritual perception. This is the love of which
all the scriptures speak. Friendship after the flesh is very easily destroyed on
some slight pretext, since it is not held firm by spiritual perception. But when
a person is spiritually awakened, even if something irritates him, the bond of
love is not dissolved; rekindling himself with the warmth of the love of God, he
quickly recovers himself and with great joy seeks his neighbors's love, even
though he has been gravely wronged or insulted by him. For the sweetness of God
completely consumes the bitterness of the quarrel.
St. Diadochos of Photiki, The Philokalia, Vol. 1
You cannot be too gentle, too kind. Shun even to appear harsh in your
treatment of each other. Joy, radiant joy, streams from the face of him who
gives and kindles joy in the heart of him who receives. All condemnation is from
the devil. Never condemn each other. We condemn others only because we shun
knowing ourselves. When we gaze at our own failings, we see such a swamp that
nothing in another can equal it. That is why we turn away, and make much of the
faults of others. Instead of condemning others, strive to reach inner peace.
Keep silent, refrain from judgement. This will raise you above the deadly arrows
of slander, insult and outrage and will shield your glowing hearts against all
evil.
St Seraphim of Sarov
You have not yet acquired perfect love if your regard for people is still
swayed by their characters - for example, if, for some particular reason, you
love one person and hate another, or if for the same reason you sometimes love
and sometimes hate the same person.
St. Maximos the Confessor (First Century on Love no. 70)
You see, to love of God is joined also love of neighbor: the person who loves
God doesn't neglect his brother; nor esteem money ahead of a limb of his own but
shows him great generosity, mindful of Him Who has said, 'Whoever did it to the
least of My brothers did it to Me.' He is aware that the Lord of all considers
as done to Himself the service given to his fellow servant, and so he will
perform every service with great enthusiasm and give evidence of great
generosity in almsgiving, considering not the lowliness of appearance but the
greatness of the One Who has promised to accept as done to Himself what is given
to the poor.
St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis, Vol. 3.
Your see, beloved, how great and wonderful love is, and there is no setting
forth its perfection. Who is able to possess it, except those to whom God grants
this privilege? Let us, therefore, earnestly beg of His mercy, that we may be
found to possess a love unmixed with human partiality and above reproach. All
the generations from Adam down to this day have passed away; but those who are
perfected in love in the measure of God's grace, have a place among the saints,
and they will be made manifest when the Kingdom of Christ comes to visit us.
St. Clement of Rome, Epistle to the Corinthians.
`But the king came in to look at the guests, and saw there a person not
clothed in a wedding garment.' What do we think is meant by a the wedding
garment, dearly beloved? For is we say it is baptism or faith, is there anyone
who has entered this marriage feast without them? A person is outside because he
has not yet come to believe. What then must we understand by the wedding garment
but love? That person enters the marriage feast, but without wearing a wedding
garment, who is present in the holy Church, and has faith, but does not have
love. We are correct when we say that love is the wedding garment because this
is what our Creator Himself possessed when He came to the marriage feast to join
the Church to Himself.
St. Gregory the Great, Forty Gospel Homilies
Used with the permission of Fr Seraphim Holland from his
website.
