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  • Category: Orthodox
  • Founded: Nov 15, 2000
  • Language: English
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#15111 From: Mark Sadek
Date: Mon Apr 27, 2009 3:57 am
Subject: Spiritual Words.
marksadek
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CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

"Rise from love of the world and love of pleasure. Put care aside, strip your
mind, refuse your body. Prayer, after all, is a turning away from the world,
visible and invisible. What have I in heaven? Nothing except simply to cling
always to You in undistracted prayer. Wealth pleases some, glory others,
possessions others, but what I want is to cling to God and to put the hopes of
my dispassion in Him (cf. Ps. 72:25, 28)."

St. John Climacus.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"But I am poor and needy; Make haste to me, O God! You are my help and my
deliverer; O Lord, do not delay." Psalms 70:5



#15123 From: Mark Sadek
Date: Tue Apr 28, 2009 4:03 am
Subject: Spiritual Words.
marksadek
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CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

"When you find someone arguing, and contesting what is true and self-evident,
break off the dispute and give way to such a man, since his intellect has been
petrified. For just as bad water ruins good wines, so harmful talk corrupts
those who are virtuous in life and character."

St. Antony the Great.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good
conscience, and from sincere faith," 1 Timothy 1:5



#15134 From: Mark Sadek
Date: Thu Apr 30, 2009 2:50 am
Subject: Spiritual Words.
marksadek
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CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

"What tongue can describe the heart of the divine mercy? What mind is not amazed
by the riches of such great love? The psalmist was thinking of these riches of
divine love when he said: 'My helper, I will sing a psalm to You. It is You, O
God, Who are my protector, my God, my mercy.' Carefully weighing the labors
surrounding our humanity, he called God his helper. He calls his 'protector' the
One Who protects us in the midst of our present distress until we come to
eternal rest. But bearing mind that God sees our evil deeds and bears with them,
that He puts up with our sins and still preserves us for His rewards because of
repentance, he could not just speak of God as being merciful but called Him
mercy itself, saying 'My God, my Mercy.'. "

St. Gregory the Great.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives
in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of
God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20



#15142 From: Mark Sadek
Date: Fri May 1, 2009 4:13 am
Subject: Spiritual Words.
marksadek
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CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

"Faith, therefore, takes the place of that which escapes our knowledge, being by
its own security a guarantee for what is invisible. So the Apostle says of the
faithful soul: 'he endured as seeing Him that is invisible' (Heb. 11:27). Hence
foolish is the man who claims that it is possible to know the divine nature by a
knowledge that is vain and futile. Nor is any man so great as to be able to
equate his reason with the Lord. 'For who is in the clouds,' says David (Ps.
88:7), 'can be compared to the Lord?' What we seek is hardly so small that it
can be grasped by the reasoning of insignificant human nature."

St. Gregory of Nyssa.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; For You, Lord, have
not forsaken those who seek You. Sing praises to the Lord, who dwells in Zion!
Declare His deeds among the people." Psalms 9:10-11



#15149 From: Mark Sadek
Date: Mon May 4, 2009 8:22 am
Subject: Spiritual Words.
marksadek
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CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

"How can they [Christians] cleanse their mind, brighten their intellect, and
beautify all the powers of the soul, if they do not partake of the Body and
Blood of our Lord, which is the true purification, the true beauty, the true
illumination, and the true nobility of the soul, as the divine Chrysostom says?

St. Macarius of Corinth.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"Be a father to orphans, and be like a husband to their mother; you will then be
like a son of the Most High, and he will love you more than does your mother."
Sirach 4:10



#15171 From: Mark Sadek
Date: Tue May 5, 2009 4:05 am
Subject: Spiritual Words.
marksadek
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CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

"We confess, then, that He [Christ] assumed all the natural and innocent
passions of man. For He assumed the whole man and all man's attributes save sin.
For that is not natural, nor is it implanted in us by the Creator, but arises
voluntarily in our mode of life as the result of a further implantation by the
devil, though it cannot prevail over us by force. For the natural and innocent
passions are those which are not in our power, but which have entered into the
life of man owing to the condemnation by reason of the transgression; such as
hunger, thirst, weariness, labour, the tears, the corruption, the shrinking from
death, the fear, the agony with the bloody sweat, the succour at the hands of
angels because of the weakness of the nature, and other such like passions which
belong by nature to every man."

St. John of Damascus.



#15178 From: Mark Sadek
Date: Wed May 6, 2009 3:37 am
Subject: Spiritual Words.
marksadek
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CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

"All. then, He [Christ] assumed that He might sanctify all. He was tried and
overcame in order that He might prepare victory for us and give to nature power
to overcome its antagonist, in order that nature which was overcome of old might
overcome its former conqueror by the very weapons wherewith it had itself been
overcome."

St. John of Damascus.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives
in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of
God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20



#15186 From: Mark Sadek
Date: Thu May 7, 2009 4:08 am
Subject: Spiritual Words.
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CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

"The third [stage of contemplation] is knowledge of the terrible things that
await us before and after death, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures...If in my
uncertainty I lose heart for a while because I have completely failed to do what
I should to the limits of my power, I shall fall lower than Hades...How wretched
I am! What have I brought upon myself, not only through my sins, but rather
through my refusal to repent!...Because of this, I fear that I shall dwell in
Hades with the demons, and I live in dread of the coming judgment, with the
river of fire, the thrones and the open books (cf. Dan. 7:9-12), angels running
ahead, all humankind standing by, everything naked and exposed (cf. Heb. 4:13)
before the fearsome and righteous Judge...Yet finding courage in Thy
inexpressible compassion, In Thy goodness and tender mercy that excel our
understanding, I fall before Thee and entreat Thee, Lord: 'Have mercy upon me, O
Lord, for I am weak' (Ps. 6:2), and forgive me my many crimes...When

...God's grace kindles a sense of deep penitence in the heart, you should allow
your intellect to be bathed in tears of compunction..."

St. Peter of Damaskos.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. For our heart shall
rejoice in Him, Because we have trusted in His holy name." Psalms 33:20-21



#15194 From: Mark Sadek
Date: Fri May 8, 2009 3:08 am
Subject: Spiritual Words.
marksadek
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CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

"When men are not satisfied with what they need so as to remain alive but desire
more, they enslave themselves to passions that disturb the soul, inflicting upon
it thoughts and fantasies that what they have is inadequate."

From the Desert Fathers.

--------------------------------------------------------------
"He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully
will also reap bountifully." 2 Corinthians 9:6



#15198 From: Mark Sadek
Date: Mon May 11, 2009 3:30 am
Subject: Spiritual Words.
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CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

"It is in the renewing of the mind, and the peace of the thoughts, and the love
and heavenly attachment for the Lord, that the new creation - the Christian - is
distinguished from all the men of the world. This was the purpose of the Lord's
coming to vouchsafe these spiritual blessings to those who truly believe in Him.
Christians have a glory and a beauty and a heavenly wealth which is beyond
words, and it is won with pains, and sweat, and trials, and many conflicts, and
all by the grace of God."

Sts. Barsanuphius & John.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"Whoever has no rule over his own spirit Is like a city broken down, without
walls." Proverbs 25:28



#15203 From: Mark Sadek
Date: Tue May 12, 2009 2:52 am
Subject: Spiritual Words.
marksadek
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CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

"After a long spell of prayer, do not say that nothing has been gained, for you
have already achieved something. For, after all, what higher good is there than
to cling to the Lord and to persevere in unceasing union with Him?"

St. John Climacus.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"Save me, O God, by Your name, And vindicate me by Your strength. Hear my
prayer, O God; Give ear to the words of my mouth." Psalms 54:1-2



#15206 From: Mark Sadek
Date: Wed May 13, 2009 4:04 am
Subject: Spiritual Words.
marksadek
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CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

"God knew the limitation of mankind, you see; and though the grace of being made
in His Image was sufficient to give them knowledge of the Word and through Him
of the Father, as a safeguard against their neglect of this grace, He provided
the works of creation also as means by which the Maker might be known. Nor was
this all. Man's neglect of the indwellilng grace tends ever to increase; and
against this further frailty also God made provision by giving them a law, and
by sending prophets, men whom they knew. Thus, if they were tardy in looking up
to heaven, they might still gain knowledge of their Maker from those close at
hand; for men can learn directly about higher things from other men."

St. Athanasius of Alexandria.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"Let all that you do be done with love." 1 Corinthians 16:14



#15215 From: Mark Sadek
Date: Thu May 14, 2009 2:27 am
Subject: Spiritual Words.
marksadek
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CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

"However, of this much we must be sure. Never by our sole diligence or zeal nor
by our most tireless efforts can we reach perfection. Human zeal is not enough
to win the sublime rewards of blessedness. The Lord must be there to help us and
to guide our hearts toward what is good. Every moment we must join in the prayer
of David: 'Direct my footsteps along Thy paths so that my feet do not move
astray' (Ps. 16:5) and 'He has settled my feet on a rock and guided my
footsteps' (Ps. 39:3) - all this so that the invisible guide of the human spirit
may direct back towards love of virtue our free will, which in its ignorance of
the good and its obsession with passion is carried headlong into sin."

St. John Cassian.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a
sound mind." 2 Timothy 1:7



#15220 From: Mark Sadek
Date: Fri May 15, 2009 2:51 am
Subject: Spiritual Words.
marksadek
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CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

"When it happens that men who are advancing towards spiritual perfection are
partly illuminated (that is, only their mind is enlightened), then they see the
glory of the Lord intelligibly as if in a mirror. This grace from above teaches
them knowledge in a mystical way and confers a revelation of mysteries which
lead them from the contemplation of beings to the knowledge of Him Who is beyond
all beings."

St. Symeon the New Theologian.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not
receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not
received it?" 1 Corinthians 4:7



#15223 From: Mark Sadek
Date: Mon May 18, 2009 3:32 am
Subject: Spiritual Words.
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CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

"Whatever is obtained as a result of long and persistent prayer will remain."

St. John Climacus.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"But I am poor and needy; Make haste to me, O God! You are my help and my
deliverer; O Lord, do not delay." Psalms 70:5



#15228 From: Mark Sadek
Date: Tue May 19, 2009 3:33 am
Subject: Spiritual Words.
marksadek
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CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

"Any circumstance in which a man finds himself unwillingly is a prison for him.
So be content with whatever circumstances you may now be in, lest by being
ungrateful you punish yourself unwittingly."

St. Anthony the Great.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives
the increase." 1 Corinthians 3:7



#15232 From: Mark Sadek
Date: Wed May 20, 2009 2:41 am
Subject: Spiritual Words.
marksadek
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CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

"The highest virtue is to avoid sins: that they should never be done, and the
second to that, at least to amend them when they have been committed. But for
the most part we not only never avoid sins that threaten, but we do not even
open our eyes to them when committed. And the mind of sinners is enveloped in
the deeper darkness, in proportion as it fails to set the deficiency of its own
blindness.. So it is very often brought to pass, by the bounty of God's gift,
that punishment follows on transgression, and stripes open the eyes of the
transgressor after self-security had blinded him in the midst of evil ways."

St. Gregory the Great.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"It is better to trust in the Lord Than to put confidence in man. It is better
to trust in the Lord Than to put confidence in princes." Psalms 118:8-9



#15240 From: Mark Sadek
Date: Thu May 21, 2009 3:18 am
Subject: Spiritual Words.
marksadek
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CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

"There is a way of fortifying ourselves in our struggle described in all
writings, and that is to keep up our courage when we are most fiercely assailed
by evil thoughts, not to yield in the midst of our conflict. For it is one of
the malicious devices of the devil to fill us with shame at the prospect of
being defeated by evil preoccupations, so that we shall be hindered from lifting
our eyes to God in contrition and praying to be freed of them. But let us, by
our continual repentance and interrupted prayer, conquer these delusions; let us
never turn our back to the enemy, even if he deals us a thousand wounds each
day. And let us firmly resolve never to give up this life-giving exercise, even
to our death."

St. Nilus of Sora.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"Hear my prayer, O Lord, And give ear to my cry; Do not be silent at my tears;
For I am a stranger with You, A sojourner, as all my fathers were." Psalms
39:12



#15249 From: Mark Sadek
Date: Fri May 22, 2009 3:33 am
Subject: Spiritual Words.
marksadek
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CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

"The wicked one..made his assault [against Christ] from without, not by thoughts
prompted inwardly, just as it was with Adam. For it was not by inward thoughts,
but by the serpent that Adam was assailed. But the Lord repulsed the assault and
dispelled it like a vapour, in order that the passions which assailed Him and
were overcome might be easily subdued by us, and that the new Adam should save
the old."

St. John of Damascus.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"HPraise the Lord, for the Lord is good; Sing praises to His name, for it is
pleasant. For I know that the Lord is great, And our Lord is above all gods."
Psalms 135:3, 5



#15255 From: Mark Sadek
Date: Mon May 25, 2009 4:12 am
Subject: Spiritual Words.
marksadek
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CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

"...we...who do no more than listen to the Scriptures, should devote ourselves
to them and meditate on them so constantly that through our persistence a
longing for God is impressed upon our hearts...For this is what the holy fathers
did before they acquired direct spiritual knowledge."

St. Peter of Damaskos.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"Jesus Christ was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because
of our justification." Romans 4:25



#15262 From: Mark Sadek
Date: Tue May 26, 2009 2:50 am
Subject: Spiritual Words.
marksadek
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CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!

"Ask with tears, seek with obedience, knock with patience. For so it goes that
he 'who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be
opened' (Matt. 7:8)."

St. John Climacus.

--------------------------------------------------------------

And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made
perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my
infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9



#15276 From: Mark Sadek
Date: Wed May 27, 2009 2:57 am
Subject: Spiritual Words.
marksadek
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"When you close the doors to your dwelling and are alone you should know that
there is present with you the angel whom God has appointed for each man...This
angel, who is sleepless and cannot be deceived, is always present with you; he
sees all things and is not hindered by darkness. You should know, too, that with
him is God, who is in every place; for there is no place and nothing material in
which God is not, since He is greater than all things and holds all men in His
hand."

St. Antony the Great.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord,
are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the
Spirit of the Lord." 2 Corinthians 3:18



#15281 From: Mark Sadek
Date: Thu May 28, 2009 4:45 am
Subject: Spiritual Words.
marksadek
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"All the material world is as nothing before God, only spiritual beings - that
is, angels and men - are something. Only those creatures have a lasting
existence who are near to God, and have His image and likeness; the remainder
pass away like shadows - 'Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall
not pass away.' "

St. John of Kronstadt.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"Lift up your heads, O you gates! Lift up, you everlasting doors! And the King
of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the
King of glory" Psalms 24:9-10



#15291 From: Mark Sadek
Date: Fri May 29, 2009 2:29 am
Subject: Spiritual Words.
marksadek
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"You also cannot as yet refute thoughts - it is enough for you if you endure
patiently and call upon Jesus. But if you do not see any sins in yourself, you
are found in line with the Devil: he does not see his sins either, and since he
never repents or blames himself, he thinks that God shows favoritism towards man
because He loves them - but it is for this reason that God loves man, because he
repents and humbles himself. So repent of everything and humble yourself, and
God will save you!"

St. Anatoly of Optina.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who
loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to
him." John 14:21



#15298 From: Mark Sadek
Date: Mon Jun 1, 2009 3:15 am
Subject: Spiritual Words.
marksadek
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"Of a truth our natural passions were in harmony with nature and above nature in
Christ. For they were stirred in Him after a natural manner when He permitted
the flesh to suffer what was proper to it: but they were above nature because
that which was natural did not in the Lord assume command over the will. For no
compulsion is contemplated in Him but all is voluntary. For it was with His will
that He hungered and thirsted and feared and died."

St. John of Damascus.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"Behold, the Lord rides on a swift cloud, And will come into Egypt" Isaiah 19:1



#15302 From: Mark Sadek
Date: Tue Jun 2, 2009 3:55 am
Subject: Spiritual Words.
marksadek
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"All the faithful are truly anointed priests and kings in the spiritual renewal
brought about through baptism, just as priests and kings were anointed
figuratively in former times. For these anointings were prefigurations of the
truth of our anointing: prefigurations in relation not merely to some of us but
to all of us. For our kingship and priesthood is not of the same form or
character as theirs, even though the symbolic actions are the same. Nor does our
anointing recognize any distinction in nature, grace or calling, in such a way
that those anointed essentially differ one from the other: we have but one and
the same calling, faith and ritual. The true significance of this is that he who
is anointed is pure, dispassionate and wholly consecrated to God now and for
ever."

St. Gregory Palamas.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who
loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to
him." John 14:21



#15307 From: Mark Sadek
Date: Wed Jun 3, 2009 4:20 am
Subject: Spiritual Words.
marksadek
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"...he who has been purified of the passions through inward grief perceives the
hidden mysteries in all the Scriptures and is astonished by them all, especially
by the words and actions recorded in the Holy Gospels. He is amazed to see how
the wisdom of God renders what is difficult easy, so that gradually it deifies
man. He is filled with goodness, so that he loves his enemies; he is merciful,
as his Father is merciful (cf. Luke 6:36); he is dispassionate, as God is
dispassionate; he is endowed with every virtue and is perfect, as the Father is
perfect (cf. Matt. 5:48). In short, the Holy Bible teaches us that what befits
God befits man as well, so that he becomes god by divine adoption."

St. Peter of Damascus.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another."
Galatians 5:26



#15311 From: Mark Sadek
Date: Thu Jun 4, 2009 3:37 am
Subject: Spiritual Words.
marksadek
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"Let us consider, beloved, how the Master continually calls our attention to the
future resurrection, the first fruits of which He has made the Lord Jesus Christ
by raising Him from the dead. Let us consider, beloved, the kind of resurrection
that occurs at regular intervals. Day and night give us examples of
resurrection. The night sleeps, the day rises; the day departs, the night comes
on. Let us take the crops. The sowing - how and in what manner does it take
place? The sower goes out and puts each of the seeds into the soil: when they
fall on the soil, they are dry and bare, and decay. But once they have decayed,
the Master's wondrous Providence makes them rise, and each one increases and
brings forth multiple fruit."

St. Clement of Rome.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"Make Your face shine upon Your servant; Save me for Your mercies' sake. 17 Do
not let me be ashamed, O Lord, for I have called upon You." Psalms 31:16-17



#15317 From: Mark Sadek
Date: Fri Jun 5, 2009 3:44 am
Subject: Spiritual Words.
marksadek
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"Man, as far as his body is concerned, is like a lighted candle. A candle must
be consumed; thus also the body must die. But the soul is immortal, and so our
care also must be more for the soul than for the body. 'For what shall it profit
a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul' (Mk. 8:36) "

St. Seraphim of Sarov.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in You; Let me not be
ashamed; Let not my enemies triumph over me. Indeed, let no one who waits on You
be ashamed." Psalms 25:1-3



#15326 From: Mark Sadek
Date: Mon Jun 8, 2009 4:24 am
Subject: Spiritual Words.
marksadek
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"Reading the Holy Scriptures is like a treasure. With a treasure, you see,
anyone able to find a tiny nugget gains for himself great wealth; likewise in
the case of Sacred Scripture, you can get from a small phrase a great wealth of
thought and immense riches. The Word of God is not only like a treasure, but is
also like a spring gushing with ever flowing waters in a mighty flood."

St. John Chrysostom.

--------------------------------------------------------------

"But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then
they will fast in those days." Luke 5:35



 
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