Month: February 2018

We ought to learn the virtues through practicing them, not merely through talking about them, so that by acquiring the habit of them we do no forget what is of benefit to us. ‘The kingdom of God’, as St Paul says, ‘resides not in words but in power’ (1 Corinthians 4:20).

For he who tries to discover things through actual practice will come to understand what gain or loss lies in any activity that he pursues, as St Isaac says; and he can also give advice to others, for he has often suffered and has thereby gained experience.

For some things, St Isaac tells us, appear good, but conceal no small harm; while others appear bad, but contain within themselves the greatest profit.

~St Peter of Damaskos

For these good things we ought all of us always to give thanks to Him, especially those who have received from Him the power to renew their holy baptism through repentance, because without repentance no one can be saved. For the Lord has said, ‘Why do you call me, Lord, Lord, yet fail to do the things I tell you?’ (Luke 6:46)

~St Peter of Damaskos

For the intellect of man is drawn by longing towards those things with which it habitually occupies itself, whether these be earthly things, or the passions, or heavenly and eternal blessings. As St Basil the Great says, ‘a persistent habit acquires all the strength of nature.’

~St Peter of Damaskos

I marvel at God’s wisdom, at how the most indispensable things–air, fire, water, earth–are readily available to all. And not simply this, but things conducive to the soul’s salvation are more accessible than other things, while soul-destroying things are harder to come by.  For example, poverty, which anyone can experience, is conducive to the soul’s salvation; while riches, which are not simply at our command, are generally a hindrance.

It is the same with dishonor, humiliation, patience, obedience, submission, self-control, fasting, vigils, the cutting off of one’s will, bodily enfeeblement, thankfulness for all things, trials, injuries, the lack of life’s necessities, abstinence from sensual pleasure, destitution, forbearance–in short, all the things conducive to the spiritual life are freely available. No one fights over them.

On the contrary, everyone leaves them to those who choose to accept them, whether they have been sought for or have come against our will. Soul-destroying things, on the other hand, are not so readily within our grasp–things like wealth, glory, pride, intolerance, power, authority, dissipation, gluttony….people struggle greatly for these things, but only a few attain them, and in any case the benefit they confer is fleeting….they bring….all manner of distress.

None the less, it is not the thing itself, but its misuse, that is evil.

~St Peter of Damaskos

For it is not food, but gluttony, that is bad; not money, but attachment to it; not speech, but idle talk; not the world’s delights, but dissipation; not love of one’s family, but the neglect of God that such love may produce; not the clothes worn only for covering and protection from cold and heat, but those that are excessive and costly; not the houses that also protect us from heat and cold, as well as from anything human or animal that might harm us, but houses with two or three floors, large and expensive; not owning something, but owning it when it has no vital use for us; not the possession of books on the part of those who have embraced total poverty, but the possession of books for some purpose other than spiritual reading; not friendship, but the having of friends who are of no benefit to one’s soul; not women, but unchastity; not wealth, but avarice; not wine, but drunkenness; not anger used in accordance with nature for the chastisement of sin, but its use against one’s fellow men.

~St Peter of Damaskos