St. Moses the Black - on Silence

+ A certain brother went to Abba Moses in Scete and asked him to speak a word. The elder said to him, "Go and sit ‎in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything."


St. Moses the Black

St. Moses the Black - Martyrdom

His Martyrdom ‎
‎+ On one occasion when the brethren were sitting with Abba Moses, he said to them, "Behold, this day has the ‎barbarians come to Scete; rise up and flee." And they said to him, "Will you not flee, father? He said to them, "I ‎have been expecting this day to come for many years past, so that might be fulfilled the command of our Redeemer, ‎‎"Those who take by the sword shall perish by the sword’" (St. Matthew xxvi, 52). And they said to him, "We then ‎will not flee, but will die with you." He said to them, "This is not my affair, but your own desire; let every man look ‎after himself in the place where he dwells." Now the brethren were seven in number. And after a little he said to ‎them, "Behold, the barbarians have drawn near the door"; and the barbarians entered and slew them. Now one of ‎them had been afraid, and he fled behind the palm leaves, and he saw seven crowns come down and place ‎themselves on the heads of those who had been slain.


St. Moses the Black

St. John of Damaskos - good is good when rightly done

For the good is not good if it is not rightly done. It is really good only if it is not done with the purpose of receiving some reward....

St. John of Damaskos
Philokalia volume II

St. Thalassios on pain, patience and purification

Patiently endure the distressing and painful things that befall you, for through them God in His providence if purifying you.

St. Thalassios

Philokalia volume II

St. Maximos The Confessor ~ Philokalia II (Pleasure & Pain)

The Lord revealed His wisdom by the way in which He healed man, becoming man without the slightest change or mutation. He demonstrated the equity of justice when in His self-abasement He submitted deliberately to the sentence to which what is passible in human nature is subject, and made that sentence a weapon for the destruction of sin and of the death which comes through sin -- that is, for the destruction of pleasure and of the pain which pleasure engenders. It was in this pleasure-pain syndrome that the dominion of sin and death lay: the tyranny of sin committed in pursuit of pleasure, and the lordship of the painful death consequent upon sin. For the dominion of pleasure and pain clearly applies to what is passible in human nature. And we seek how to alleviate through pleasure the penalty of pain, thus in the nature of things increasing the penalty. For in our desire to escape pain we seek refuge in pleasure, and so try to bring relief to our nature, hard pressed as it is by the torment of pain. But through trying in this way to blunt pain with pleasure, we but increase our sum of debts, for we cannot enjoy pleasure that does not lead to pain and suffering.


St. Maximos The Confessor
Philokalia II

St. Maximos The Confessor - Philokalia II (Perfect Love)

If you are not indifferent to both fame and dishonour, riches and poverty, pleasure and distress, you have not yet acquired perfect love. For perfect love is indifferent not only to these but even to this fleeting life and to death.


St. Maximos The Confessor
Philokalia II

Quote by St. Mark The Ascetic on correcting others

If someone does not obey you when you have told him once, do not argue and try to compel him; but take for yourself the profit which he has thrown away. For forbearance will benefit you more than correcting him.

St. Mark The Ascetic
Philokalia