Humility quotes in honor of the Publican

Here are some quotes from our holy Saints in regards to humility, which is the essence of Christianity, and the meaning of the Publican and Pharisee.

“Dispassion and humility lead to spiritual knowledge.  Without them, no one can see God.”  Evagrios Ponticus

“…He gathered both things into one, mingling humanity with divinity, and by so doing He taught everyone that humility is the road which leads upwards, setting forth today Himself as an example before men and holy angels alike.” St. Gregory Palamas

“Watchfulness is a graceful and radiant virtue when guided by Thee, Christ our God, and accompanied by the alertness and deep humility of the human intellect.”  St. Hesychios the Priest

“On the other hand, one who practices the commandments of the Gospel is always immersed in humility.”  St. Ignaty Brianchaninov

“…humility is a property of spiritual understanding.”  St. Ignaty Brianchaninov

“Truth without humility is blind.  That is why it becomes contentious: it tries to support itself on something, and finds nothing except rancor.”  St. Ilias the Presbyter

“Those who are trying to lead a spiritual life have to carry on a most skillful and difficult warfare, through their thoughts, every moment of their life – that is, a spiritual warfare…the hearts of such men should be always burning with faith, humility, and love…”  St. John of Kronstradt

“…know who you really are in truth, and not what you imagine you are.  With this knowledge you become the wisest man.  With this kind of awareness, you reach humility and receive grace from the Lord.”  Elder Joseph the Hesychast

“Humility is the truth.  To learn that you are nothing.  Nothing is what existed before God created everything: nothing.”  Elder Joseph the Hesychast

“For instance, prayer is linked to love, love to joy, joy to gentleness, gentleness to humility, humility to service, service to hope, hope to faith, faith to obedience, and obedience to simplicity.”  St. Makarios of Egypt

“You do not just suddenly leap into Heaven, but you enter it with humility.  The worst of all sins is when we are overwhelmed by our pride and our own opinion about everything.”  St. Marcarius of Optina

“Each person’s knowledge is genuine to the extent what it is grounded in gentleness, humility, and love.”  St. Mark the Ascetic

“Humility is not the condemnation of one’s conscience, but the recognition of God’s grace and sympathy.” St. Mark the Ascetic

“Dispassion and humility lead to spiritual knowledge.  Without them no one will see the Lord.”  St. Maximos the Confessor

“God Who is great and exalted looks on nothing so lovely as on a humble and compunctionate heart.” St. Tikhon of Zadonsk

The Gospel and Holy Fathers on ecumenism

This is a good compilation of quotes concerning "communion" with other christian entities:



“And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron: This is the law of the Passover: no stranger shall eat of it. And every slave or servant bought with money - him thou shalt circumcise, and then shall he eat of it. A sojourner or hireling shall not eat of it. In one house shall it be eaten.” [Exodus 12:43-46.]


St. Apraphat of Syria writes that the “one house” in which the Passover is to be eaten is “the Church of Christ”, and that just as the slave could not eat the Passover unless he was circumcised, so the sinner “comes to Baptism, the true Circumcision, and is joined to the People of God, and communicates in the Body and Blood of Christ”. [Demonstrations 12, 525.8, 525.12.]


St. John Chrysostom writes: “Let no-one communicate who is not of the disciples. Let no Judas receive, lest he suffer the fate of Judas... I would give up my life rather than impart of the Lord’s Blood to the unworthy; and I will shed my own blood rather than give such awful Blood contrary to what is right.” [Homilies on Matthew, 83.6.]


St. John the Almsgiver said: “We shall not escape sharing in that punishment which, in the world to come, awaits heretics, if we defile Orthodoxy and the holy Faith by adulterous communion with heretics.” [The Life of St. John the Almsgiver.]


St. John of Damascus writes: “With all our strength let us beware lest we receive Communion from or give it to heretics. ‘Give not what is holy to the dogs,’ says the Lord. ‘Neither cast ye your pearls before swine’, lest we become partakers in their dishonour and condemnation.” [Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, IV, 13.]


“Holy things are for the holy!” [The Divine Liturgy.]


“And the Lord said to Joshua, Rise up: why hast thou fallen upon thy face? The people has sinned, and transgressed the covenant which I made with them; they have stolen from the accursed things (Greek: anathema), and put it into their store. And the children of Israel will not be able to stand before their enemies, for they have become an accursed thing (anathema); I will no longer be with you, unless ye remove the accursed thing (anathema) from yourselves.” [Joshua 7:10-11.]


“Let any Bishop, or Presbyter, or Deacon that merely joins in prayer with heretics be suspended, but if he has permitted them to perform any service as clergymen, let him be deposed.” [Apostolic Canon 45.]


“Let any clergyman or layman who enters a synagogue of Jews, or of heretics, to pray be both deposed and excommunicated.” [Apostolic Canon 65.]


“Concerning the necessity of not permitting heretics to come into the house of God, so long as they persist in their heresy.” [Canon 6 of the Council of Laodicea.]


“That one must not accept the blessings of heretics, which are rather misfortunes than blessings.” [Canon 32 of the Council of Laodicea.]


“That one must not join in prayer with heretics or schismatics.” [Canon 33 of the Council of Laodicea.]
Saint Cyril of Jerusalem says, “There is one Lord, one Faith, one baptism [Eph 4:5], and this is what we believe with all our soul, with all our heart, and with all our mind, that there is salvation in none other, except in Jesus Christ the Nazarene [Acts 4: 10-12]. And this is what we piously believe and what we follow. And we also recognize that works without true doctrine are not accepted by God, neither is true doctrine without works accepted by God” [St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Illumination of the Catechumens, Section 4, #2].


St. Basil the Great teaches us: “As for all those who pretend to confess the sound Orthodox Faith, but are in communion with people who hold a different opinion, if they are forewarned and still remain stubborn, you must not only not be in communion with them, but you must not even call them brothers.” (*Patr, Orientalis*, Vol 17, p. 303)


...But as for those who...sever themselves from communion with their president, that is, because he publicly preaches heresy and with bared head teaches it in the Church, such persons are not only not subject to canonical penalty..., but are worthy of due honour among the Orthodox.  For not bishops, but false bishops and false teachers have they condemned, and they have not fragmented the Church’s unity with schism, but from schisms and divisions have they earnestly sought to deliver the Church. (Canon XV of the First-Second Council of Constantinople)


All the teachers of the Church, all the Councils, and all the Divine Scriptures, exhort us to flee those who uphold other doctrines and to separate from communion with them.(Confession of Faith, XII, 304, Saint Mark of Ephesus)


St. Maximus the Confessor said: “Even if the whole universe holds communion with the [heretical] patriarch, I will not communicate with him. For I know from the writings of the holy Apostle Paul: the Holy Spirit declares that even the angels would be anathema if they should begin to preach another Gospel, introducing some new teaching.” [The Life of St. Maximus the Confessor.]


With a great voice, Saint John Chrysostom declared that not only heretics, but also they who hold communion with them are enemies of God. (Saint Theodore the Studite , Letter to the Abbot Theophilus)


Concerning the Faith, the heretics were totally shipwrecked; but as for the others, even if in their thinking they did not founder, nonetheless, because of their communion with heresy, they too were destroyed with the others. (Saint Theodore the Studite, Letter to the Patriarch of Jerusalem [PG 99, 1164])


You told me that you feared to tell your presbyter not to commemorate the heresiarch; even though I will not presume to say anything about this to you for the present, except that the communion is defiled simply by commemorating him, even if he who is commemorating is Orthodox. (Ibid.)
“Guard yourselves from soul-destroying heresy, communion with which is alienation from Christ.” [St. Theodore the Studite, P.G. 99.1216.]


“The divine and sacred canons say: ‘He who has communion with an excommunicate, let him be excommunicated, as overthrowing the rule of the Church.’ And again: ‘He who receives a heretic is subject to the same indictment...’ The great apostle and evangelist John says: ‘If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching with him, do not greet him and do not receive him into your house; for he who greets him communicates with his evil deeds’ (II John 10-11). If we are forbidden merely to greet him on the way, and if inviting him into our house is prohibited, how can it be otherwise not in a house, but in the temple of God, in the sanctuary at the mystical and terrible Supper of the Son of God... Whoever belches out the commemoration of him who has been worthily cut off by the Holy Spirit for his arrogance towards God and the Divine things, becomes for that reason an enemy of God and the Divine things.” [From an Epistle of the Martyred Fathers of the Holy Mountain to Emperor Michael Palaeologus against the heretical Patriarch John Beccus of Constantinople.]


“Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God.” [II Corinthians 6:14-16.]


“Come out of her, My people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues.” [Revelation 18:4.]


From the Life of St. John the Almsgiver -
Admonition against taking communion from heretics.
    Another thing the blessed man taught and insisted upon with all was never on any occasion whatsoever to associate with heretics and, above all, never to take the Holy Communion with them, ‘even if’, the blessed man said, ‘you remain without communicating all your life, if through stress of circumstances you cannot find a community of the Catholic [Orthodox]Church. For if, having legally married a wife in this world of the flesh, we are forbidden by God and by the laws to desert her and be united to another woman, even though we have to spend a long time separated from her in a distant country, and shall incur punishment if we violate our vows, how then shall we, who have been joined to God through the orthodox faith and the Catholic Church–as the apostle says: “I espoused you to one husband that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ” (2 Cor. 11:2) -- how shall we escape from sharing in that punishment which in the world to come awaits heretics, if we defile the orthodox and holy faith by adulterous communion with heretics?’
    For ‘communion’, he said, ‘has been so called because he who has “communion” has things in common and agrees with those with whom he has “communion”. Therefore I implore you earnestly, children, never to go near the oratories of the heretics in order to communicate there.’

Feast of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk!

I'm happy that I get to post about one of my favorite Saints, Tikhon of Zadonsk.  He lived in 18th century Russia.  He was a monk and also a Bishop.  There is a book published that contain some of his writings, Journey to Heaven; Counsels on the Particular Duties of every Christian 

Here are some quotes from the book:


"For where there is peace, harmony, and oneness of soul, there is the God of peace."


"To God the just Judge, both the noble man and the lowly are equal"


"No one spits on you, no one even strikes at you, no one crowns you with thorns, and the rest.  Christ the Lord endured all these things with great meekness and long-suffering.  For whom? For me and you."


"A righteous man has no need to judge and condemn another, how much less should a sinner judge a sinner?"


"The beauty of the soul is the image of God in which we were created.  Seek this beauty and it shall suffice you."


"[The Saints] are glorified, and before you lies the same glory, only imitate their lives and you shall be saved."


"Believe in all things as the Holy Scriptures teach, and as the Holy Church believes and establishes in accordance with it."

"Then love, humility, compassion, prayer and the rest, must reside in the heart."

Quote of the day

“Sufferings in Christ are Christ’s greatest gift, given to those who have wholeheartedly surrendered themselves to Christ’s service.” St. Ignaty Brianchinanov

Reflections on God by St. Ephraim the Syrian

Enlighten and Strenghten me for the sake of Redemption

Grant us Thy help, O All-good One, and never abandon our race!  Vouchsafe us thine all-searching wisdom, that we may know the transience of all things.  Heal our sores with repentance.
Visit us, that we might not persist in our sins.  Thou Who art most merciful to our souls, instill in us remembrance of good, for much have we loved evil.  Dispel all harm from us, O Good One.
Accept whatever good will is in us, and send us a corresponding measure of strength.  Our soul is not capable of offering Thee a gift which is as great as Thou art.  May Thy mervelous death move Thee to compassion, O Lord.
Our error is much mightier than our prayer.  Our prayer is insignificant, but our guilt is great.  What sacrifice could we bring to reconcile ourselves with Thee?  We have nothing to give up to Thee.  Thus we ask Thee to reconcile us by Thy blood, O All-merciful One.
Thanks be to the Father Who sent Thee, O our Savior!  For by Thee we who are guilty are vindicated.  Though hast taken away our sins by Thy Cross; take away our guilt also in Thy coming.
--St. Ephraim the Syrian, A Spiritual Psalter

Some quotes from the Desert Fathers

Abba Anthony said to Abba Poemen, "This is the great work of man: always to take the blame for his own sins before God and to expect temptation to his last breath."


Abba Anthony said, "Our life and our death is with our neighbor.  If we gain our brother, we have gained God, but if we scandalize our brother, we have sinned against Christ."


Abba Anthony said, Always have the fear of God before your eyes.  Remember him who gives life and death.  Hate the world and all that is in it.  Hate all peace that comes from the flesh.  Renounce this life, so that you may be alive to God."


Abba Arsenius said, "Strive with all your might to bring your interior activity into accordance with God, and you will overcome exterior passions."


Abba Alonius said, "If a man does not say in his heart, in the world there only myself and God, he will not gain peace."


Abba Theodore of Pherme said, "The man who remains standing when he repents, has not kept the commandments."


Abba Theodore of Pherma also said, "If you are temperate, do not judge the fornicator, for you would then transgress the law just as much.  And he who said, 'Do not fornicate' also said 'Do not judge.'"


Abba Matoes said, "The nearer a man draws to God, the more he sees himself a sinner."


Abba Nilus said, "Prayer is the seed of gentleness and the absence of anger."


Abba Nilus said, "Happy is the monk who thinks he is the outcast of all."


Poemen said, "Men speak to perfection but they do precious little about it."


Poemen said, "Teach your mouth to say that which you have in your heart."


Poemen said, "In all our afflictions let us weep in the presence of the goodness of God, until he shows us mercy."


Poemen said, "These three things are the most helpful of all: fear of the Lord; prayer; and doing good to one's neighbor."


Poemen said, "Not understanding what has happened prevents us from going on to something better."


Poemen said, "Do not lay open your conscience to anyone whom you do not trust in your heart."


Abba Pambo said, "If you have a heart, you can be saved."


Abba Sarmatas said, "I prefer a sinful man who knows he has sinned and repents, to a man who has not sinned and considers himself to righteous."


Upsilon said, "He who does not control his tongue when he is angry, will not control his passions either."


All quotes were borrowed from the book: The Sayings of the Desert Fathers by Benedicta Ward