Gleanings from Orthodox Christian Authors and the Holy Fathers
zeal
7 Entries
Prayer is grace. God gives it when there exists zeal and humility… Let Christ not be missing from your heart.REF:Elder Amphilochios of Patmos +1970
Christanity is similar to tasting deeply of truth, eating and drinking of truth - to eat and drink on and on unto power and energy. It is like a certain spring when someone very thirsty begins to drink from it. But then, while he is drinking, someone rushes him off before he has drunk his fill. Afterward, he burns more ardently, because he has tasted the water and eagerly seeks it. So also in the spiritual life, a person tastes and partakes of the heavenly food, but while he is eating it is taken away and no one given him to eat his fill. St. Macarius the Great, Fifty Spiritual Homilies
Have you realized that the world and worldly cares do not hinder in fulfilling God's commandments, when there is zeal and attention? That silence and retirement from the world are useless, if laziness and negligence prevail?" St. Simeon the New Theologian (On Faith, Writings from the Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart ; Faber and Faber pg. 147):
He is a foolish traveler who sees pleasant meadows on his journey and forgets where he is going. Therefore let our hearts yearn with all our desire for our heavenly home, let them desire nothing in this world which they must leave quickly. If we are truly sheep of the heavenly Shepherd, and are not arrested by any delight alone the way, we shall be satisfied with eternal pastures on our arrival there. St. Gregory the Great.
Only the "zealot according to knowledge is a model for the true Christian." St Nectarios of Aegina
The "principal characteristics" of the zealot according to knowledge are the following: "fervent love for God and neighbor, gentleness, religious tolerance, forbearance, graciousness of manner." St Nectarios of Aegina
Christian life is zeal and the strength to remain in communion with God by means of an active fulfillment of His holy will, according to our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the help of the grace of God, to the glory of His most holy name. - p 27
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