St. Simeon the New Theologian on Faith

"It is good to preach God’s mercy before all men and to reveal to one’s brethren His great compassion and ineffable grace shed on us. I know a man who kept no long strict fasts, no vigils, did not sleep on bare earth, imposed on himself no other specially arduous tasks; but, recollecting in memory his sins, understood his worthlessness and, having judged himself, became humble—and for this alone the most compassionate Lord saved him; as the divine David says: ‘The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit’ (Ps. xxxiv. 18). In short, he trusted the words of the Lord and for his faith the Lord received him. There are many obstacles obstructing the way to humility; but no obstacles bar the way to belief in the words of God. As soon, as we wish with all our heart, straightway we believe. For faith is a gift of the all-merciful God, which He gave us to possess by nature (infused in our nature), subjecting its use to the authority of our own will. Consequently, even the Scythians and barbarians have natural faith and believe one another’s words. But to show you an actual example of whole-hearted faith, listen to a tale, which will confirm this.

There lived in Constantinople a young man by the name of George, about twenty years old. All this happened in our lifetime, in our own memory. He had a handsome face and in his walk, his bearing and his manner there was something ostentatious. Owing to this, people, who see only what is on the surface and, ignorant of what is hidden inside each man, come to mistaken conclusions about others, made various evil suppositions about the youth. He made the acquaintance of a certain monk, who lived in one of the monasteries in Constantinople, a man of holy life."

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The God-Man

"All the truths of Orthodoxy emerge from one truth and converge on one truth, infinite and eternal. That truth is the God-man Christ. If you experience any truth of Orthodoxy to its limit, you will inevitably discover that its kernel is the God-man Christ. In fact, all the truths of Orthodoxy are nothing other than different aspects of the one Truth--the God-man Christ.

Orthodoxy is Orthodoxy by reason of the God-man, and not by reason of anything else or anyone else. Hence another name for Orthodoxy is God-manhood. In it nothing exists through man or by man, but everything comes from the God-man and exists through the God-man. This means that man experiences and finds out about the fundamental eternal truth of life and the world only with the help of the God-man, in the God-man. And it means something else: man learns the complete truth about man, about the purpose and meaning of his existence only through the God-man. Outside of Him a man turns into an apparition, into a scarecrow, into nonsense. Instead of a man you find the dregs of a man, the fragments of a man, the scraps of a man. Therefore, true manhood lies only in God-manhood; and no other manhood exists under heaven.

St. Silouan of Mt. Athos on Humility

"The first year after I had received the Holy Spirit I thought to myself: ' The Lord has forgiven me my sins: grace is witness thereof. What more do I need?' But that is not the way to think. Though our sins be forgiven we must remember them and grieve for them all our lives, so as to preserve a contrite heart. I did not do this and ceased to be contrite, and suffered greatly from evil spirits. And I was perplexed at what was happening to me, and said: 'My soul knows the Lord and His love. How is it that evil thoughts come to me?' But the Lord had pity on me, and taught me the way to humble myself: 'Keep thy mind in hell, and despair not.' Thus is the enemy vanquished; but when my mind emerges from the fire the suggestions of passion gather strength again.

Fight the enemy with the weapon of humility.

Whoever like me has lost grace, let him wrestle manfully with evil spirits. Know that you yourself are to blame: you fell into pride and vanity, and the Lord in His mercy shows you what it means to be in the Holy Spirit and what it means to be at war with evil spirits. Thus the soul learns by experience the harm that comes of pride, and shuns vainglory and the praises of men, and evil thoughts. Then will the soul begin to recover her health and learn to retain grace. How can we tell if the soul is well or ailing? The ailing soul is full of pride, while the soul that is well loves the humility taught her by the Holy Spirit." - Wisdom from Mount Athos, Chapter 9

The Way of the Ascetics

"Chapter One: ON A RESOLUTE AND SUSTAINED PURPOSE

IF you wish to save your soul and win eternal life, arise from your lethargy, make the sign of the Cross and say:

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Faith comes not through pondering but through action. Not words and speculation but experience teaches us what God is. To let in fresh air we have to open a window; to get tanned we must go out into the sunshine. Achieving faith is no different; we never reach a goal by just sitting in comfort and waiting, say the holy Fathers. Let the Prodigal Son be our example. He arose and came (Luke 15:20).

However weighed down and entangled in earthly fetters you may be, it can never be too late. Not without reason is it written that Abraham was seventy-five when he set forth, and the labourer who comes in the eleventh hour gets the same wages as the one who comes in the first.

The Spiritual Struggle

"I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish." - Galatians 5:16-17

Constant spiritual struggle is what is promised to all Christians who seek perfection in Christ.  As St. Anthony the Great said to Abba Poemen, "This is the great work of man: to take the blame for his own sins before God and to expect temptation to his last breath."  We are to earnestly contend for the Faith by engaging in constant, interior warfare.  In this fourth conference Abba Daniel, who was made a priest by Abba Paphnutius, elaborates on this struggle between the flesh and the spirit by explaining (1) the struggle's environment, (2) the definitions of "the flesh" and "the spirit", (3) the will's role in spiritual warfare, and (4) the states of the soul.