Orthodox Christian Quotes

• Well, I affirm orthodox Christian faith. I affirm the Nicene Creed. I don't think I'm doing anything terribly new.

  Rob Bell

  Christian, Thinking, Creeds

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• Those who do not know must be taught, not punished. We do not hit the blind. We lead them by the hand.

  Pope Dionysius

  Christian, Hands, Taught

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• 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 one who gives and kindles joy in the heart of one who receives.

  Seraphim of Sarov

  Kindness, Heart, Giving

  "The Ladder of the Beatitudes". Book by Jim Forest, www.huffingtonpost.com. 1999.

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• God is a fire that warms and kindles the heart and inward parts. Hence, if we feel in our hearts the cold which comes from the devil - for the devil is cold - let us call on the Lord. He will come to warm our hearts with perfect love, not only for Him but also for our neighbor, and the cold of him who hates the good will flee before the heat of His countenance.

  Seraphim of Sarov

  Christian, Hate, Heart

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• One of the embarrassing problems for the early nineteenth-century champions of the Christian faith was that not one of the first six Presidents of the United States was an orthodox Christian.

  Mortimer Adler

  Christian, Champion, President

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• Even if we stand at the very summit of virtue, it is by mercy that we shall be saved.

  Saint John Chrysostom

  Christianity, Virtue, Mercy

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• All my theology is reduced to this narrow compass - "Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners."

  Archibald Alexander

  Jesus, Orthodox Church, World

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers". Book by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p. 580, 1895.

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• Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.

  John the Baptist

  Repentance And Forgiveness, Heaven, Jesus Christ

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• The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.

  Benjamin Rush

  Knowing Jesus, Going To Church, Truth Will Prevail

  Benjamin Rush (1951). “Letters of Benjamin Rush: 1793-1813”

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• 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 who loves all equally in imitation of God.

  Maximus the Confessor

  Christian, Hate, Love You

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• Those who have truly decided to serve the Lord God should practice the remembrance of God and uninterrupted prayer to Jesus Christ, mentally saying: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

  Seraphim of Sarov

  Jesus, Prayer, Son

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• The rule of life for a perfect person is to be in the image and likeness of God.

  Clement of Alexandria

  Christian, Perfect, Rules Of Life

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• Every evil screams only one message: 'I am good.'

  Alexander Schmemann

  Christian, Duplicity, Evil

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• Peace is truly the complete and undisturbed possession of what is desired.

  Maximus the Confessor

  Christian, Possession, Orthodox

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• If God suffers in the flesh when He is made man, should we not rejoice when we suffer, for we have God to share our sufferings? This shared suffering confers the kingdom on us. For he spoke truly who said, 'If we suffer with Him, then we shall also be glorified with Him' (Rom. 8:17).

  Maximus the Confessor

  Christian, Men, Suffering

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• Our wickedness shall not overpower the unspeakable goodness and mercy of God; our dullness shall not overpower God's wisdom, nor our infirmity God's omnipotence.

  John of Kronstadt

  Forgiveness, Christian, Mercy Of God

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• Actually, all gifts have been given for reasons of temporal use and need and they will surely pass away at the end of the present dispensation. Love, however, will never be cut off. It works in us and for us, and not simply in this life. For when the burden of physical need has been laid aside in the time to come it will endure, more effectively, more excellently, forever unfailing, clinging to God with more fire and zeal through all the length of incorruption.

  John Cassian

  Cutting, Fire, Forever

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• In spite of our sinfulness, in spite of the darkness surrounding our souls, the Grace of the Holy Spirit, conferred by baptism in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, still shines in our hearts with the inextinguishable light of Christ ... and when the sinner turns to the way of repentance the light smooths away every trace of the sins committed, clothing the former sinner in the garments of incorruption, spun of the Grace of the Holy Spirit. It is this acquisition of the Holy Spirit about which I have been speaking.

  Seraphim of Sarov

  Christian, Father, Heart

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• ...unless the grace of God comes to the help of our frailty, to protect and defend it, no man can withstand the insidious onslaughts of the enemy nor can he damp down or hold in check the fevers which burn in our flesh with nature's fire.

  John Cassian

  Christian, Men, Fire

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• It is written, 'Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves' (Mt. 10:16). Being like serpents means not ignoring the attacks and wiles of the devil. Like is quickly shown to like. The simplicity of the dove denotes purity of action.

  Syncletica of Alexandria

  Christian, Wise, Mean

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• It is not our free will but 'it is the Lord who sets the captive free' (Ps. 145:7). It is not our own virtue but 'it is the Lord who lifts up those who were laid low' (Ps. 145:8). It is not application to reading but 'it is the Lord who gives light to the blind' (Ps. 145:8). It is not our cautiousness but 'it is the Lord who protects the stranger' (Ps. 145:9). It is not our endurance but 'it is the Lord who raises or gives support to the fallen' (Ps. 144:14).

  John Cassian

  Christian, Reading, Light

  John Cassian, Colm Luibhéid (1985). “Conferences”, p.95, Paulist Press

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• The Logos came down out of love for us. Let us not keep Him down permanently, but let us go up with Him to the Father, leaving the earth and earthly things behind, lest He say to us what He said to the Jews because of their stubbornness: 'I go where you cannot come (Jn. 8:21).

  Maximus the Confessor

  Christian, Father, Leaving

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• If the kingdom of God is within us and that is a kingdom of justice, of peace, and of joy then whoever remains with these virtues is certainly in the kingdom of God. By contrast, all who deal in unrighteousness, in discord, and in death-bearing gloom have taken their stand in the kingdom of the devil, in hell and in lifelessness. It is by these tokens that the kingdom of God or of the devil is recognized.

  John Cassian

  Christian, Taken, Justice

  "Conferences".

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• ...night possessed us and the shadow of death encompassed us, for we had fallen into sin and lost the power of sight which was ours by God's grace and by which we were able to perceive the light that bestows true life. Night and death had been poured out on our human nature, not because of any change in the true light, but because we had turned aside and no longer had any inclination towards the life-bearing light. In the last times, however, the Giver of eternal light and Source of true life has had mercy upon us.

  Gregory Palamas

  Christian, Night, Shadow Of Death

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• It is like employing a small tool on big constructions, if we use human wisdom in the hunt for knowledge of reality.

  Gregory of Nazianzus

  Christian, Reality, Tools

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