November 27

In those in whom mercy and truth prevail, everything is godlike; for truth judges no one without mercy, while mercy never manifests compassion apart from truth.

Let prayer inhere in the intellect as a ray in the sun. If the intellect lacks prayer, then worldly cares, like ‘clouds driven about by the wind and bringing no rain’ (Jude verse 12), deprive it of its native luminosity.

Because of long absence from its true home, the intellect has forgotten the luminosity it enjoyed there; hence it must once more become oblivious to things in this world and hasten back to its true home through prayer.

~Ilias the Presbyter