He Loves Mankind ☦️

When God saw the world falling to ruin because of fear, He immediately acted to call it back to Himself with love. He invited it by His grace, preserved it by His love, and embraced it with compassion. When the earth had become hardened in evil, God sent the flood both to punish and to release it. He called Noah to be the father of a new era, and urged him with kind words, and showed that He trusted him; He gave him fatherly instruction about the present calamity, and through His grace consoled him with hope for the future. But God did not merely issue commands; rather with Noah sharing the work, He filled the ark with the future seed of the whole world. The sense of loving fellowship thus engendered removed servile fear, and a mutual love could continue to preserve what shared labor had effected. + St Peter Chrysologus

"I appeal to you by the mercy of God." Paul makes a request, or rather God makes it through Paul, because he wants to be loved rather than feared. God makes a request, because he does not want to be so much the Lord as a father. God makes a request in his mercy, rather than punish in his severity. Listen to what the Lord asks: "You see in me your body, your limbs, your organs, your bones, your blood." If you are afraid of what belongs to God, why do you not love what is your own? If you run away from your Lord, why do you not run back to your kinsman? Set up the altar of your. heart. And so without fear bring your body to God as his victim. God seeks your faith, not your death. He thirsts for your prayer, not your blood. He is appeased by your love, not your death. +St. Peter Chrysologus

It is “necessary for every Christian…to spend time in the Holy Church of God, and never to miss the sacred service there…for the sake of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which is always invisibly present, but in a distinctly special way during the hours of the Holy Liturgy. Each person who is found present there, grace transforms, remolds, and truly remodels into a more divine image, conformed to the Spirit Himself.” + St Maximos the Confessor

"Let the wisdom of John teach us how we live in Christ and Christ lives in us: The proof that we are living in Him and He is living in us is that He has given us a share in His Spirit. Just as the trunk of the vine gives its own natural properties to each of its branches, so, by bestowing on them the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, the only-begotten Son of the Father, gives Christians a certain kinship with Himself and with God the Father because they have been united to Him by faith and determination to do His will in all things. He helps them to grow in love and reverence for God, and teaches them to discern right from wrong and to act with integrity." + St Cyril of Alexandria

Its obvious that the zeal not according to knowledge is becoming a matter of some concern to [Metropolitan Philaret] and for many of our bishops, and Im afraid the solution to it, if any, wont be easy I think the quality needed is a certain deep humility of mind that enables one to accept other ways of looking at things, other emphases, as equally Orthodox with ones own. Try to remember that all real Christian work is local right here and now, between myself and God and my neighbor. + Fr Seraphim Rose

"Do not ruin salvific love for trifles; do not harbor suspicions against each other and create bad conditions within yourselves that corrupt your souls. Fear the judgement of God; woe to him from whom the offense comes. Do not justify yourselves; take the burden of any matter upon yourselves, and then you will experience much benefit in your soul. But if you justify your actions and judge your neighbor and your brother, you will always feel sorrow and distress as a punishment for your transgression." + Elder Ephraim of Arizona

"God created everything not only for our use, but also that we, seeing the great wealth of His creations, might be astonished at the might of the Creator and might understand that all this was created with wisdom and unutterable goodnness for the honor of man, who was to appear." + St John Chrysostom

"Everywhere, wherever you find yourself, you can set up an altar to God in your mind by means of prayer." + St John Chrysostom

"Let’s not mix things up. Did the Saints have the kind of joy we are seeking today? Did Panaghia have such joy? Did Jesus go around laughing? Which Saint has gone through this life without pain? Which Saint had the joy sought by many present-day Christians who do not want to hear anything unpleasant, who do not want to worry or lose their serenity?" + St Paisios of Mount Athos