Quote by St. Nilus of Sinai,St. Ephraim the Syrian,St. Philaret of Moscow & from the Ancient Patericon ~ Defiled Lust

   Gluttony and satiety in food produce defiled lust, while free association with women enflames the fire of lusts ... At the time of struggle with defilement, punish your thoughts with lack of nourishment, so that you will think not of defilements, but of hunger, and reject the invitation to go visiting.

(St. Nilus of Sinai)


   Don't let your eyes look here and there, and don't look on someone elses' beauty, so that the devil will not conquer you with the help of your eyes.

(St. Ephraim the Syrian)


   A certain monk had a struggle against defiled lusts. He got up and night and went to the elder and confessed to him the thoughts that were drawing him to defilement. The elder calmed him and the brother, have benefited, returned to his cell. But the struggle rose up against him again, and again he went to the elder. He did this a few times. The elder did not grieve him, but said, "Don't give up, but it is better that you come to me whenever the demon disturbs you, and repel him by exposing your thoughts. By such a repulsion he will pass you by. For nothing so burns the demon of defilement as the revelation of his deeds [in confession before a spiritual father]. And nothing makes him so happy as the hiding of thoughts." Thus the brother came to the elder eleven times, repelling his thoughts, and the brother's temptation ceased.

(Ancient Patericon, 5.16)    


   Lust is as it were desire and desire, will which extends beyond the natural will, passionate, not governed by the law and moderation. There are thus many forms of lust, like the many forms of sin ... Lust does not approach the soul in the form of a warlike enemy, but in the form of a friend or a pleasant servant. It suggests some sort of pleasure or illusory good. But this is only a trick by which the malicious angler strives to lead astray and catch the poor soul. Remember this when you are tempted by lust.

(St. Philaret of Moscow, Sermon on the 5th of July, 1845)



Source of quote:

http://orthodox.cn/patristics/300sayings_en.htm
   

The Elder at the Kitayev Hermitage ~ Wisdom on what a Confession should be

The Elder at the Kitayev Hermitage give solemn advice on what a confession should NOT be:

 

1. One should not confess against sins that have previously been confessed and absolved by a priest, or it should imply a lack of faith on the mystery of reconciliation.

 2. One should only confess sins relating to oneself, and never accuse others in one's confession.

 3. One should not detail sins too much, but only in very general terms, as forbidden by the Holy Fathers, because too much details may lead one and his confessor into temptation, since many sins are carnal and lustful in nature.

4. One should not repent with detachment, as if one is merely an observer to the sins,
but must repent as one means it.

 5. One should always remember the most important sins, that of not loving God, not loving our neighbors, not believe the Holy Scripture, and that one is filled with pride and greed. These are the fundamental sins that drive all other manners of sins and woes.

 

 

 

 

After that, the elder explained what true confession should be…

 

A. I do not love God. Because If I truly love God, I would think of God the whole day and not get
tired, and would pray, obey and glorify Him the whole day with joy (St. John 14:23).

 B. I do not love my neighbors as myself. Because if I did, I would carry the burden of other's worries,and take care of them as I would for my own burdens, and I would share in the joy of others as much as I rejoice in my own.

C. I have no faith in Holy Scripture. Because if I did, I would believe in the salvation Christ pointed us to through His Word, and in the caring for this life to prepare for our afterlife.

 D. I am full of pride and greed. That is why I would boast of needless things to others, display however little I have to snub others, to defend my sins with excuses, and even do charity for the sake of praise or social standing. I am worshipping myself rather than God.

 

 

Source:

The way of the Pilgrim

 

Quote by Soren Kierkegaard ~ Our own torment!

“The more consciousness there is in such a sufferer who in despair wills to be himself, the more his despair intensifies and becomes demonic. It usually originates as follows. A self that in despair wills to be itself is pained in some distress or other that does not allow itself to be taken away from or separated from his concrete self. So now he makes precisely this torment the object of all his passion, and finally it becomes a demonic rage. By now, even if God in heaven and all the angels offered to help him out of it- no, he does not want that, now it is too late. Once he would gladly have given everything to be rid of this agony, but he was kept waiting; now it is too late, now he would rather rage against everything and be the wronged victim of the whole world and of all life, and it is of particular significance to him to make sure that he has his torment on hand and that no one takes it away from him- for then he would not be able to demonstrate and prove to himself that he is right. This eventually becomes such a fixation that for an extremely strange reason he is afraid of eternity, afraid that it will separate him from his, demonically understood, infinite superiority over other men, his justification, demonically understood, for being what he is.”

― Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death: A Christian Psychological Exposition for Upbuilding and Awakening    

“Just as the weak, despairing person is unwilling to hear anything about any consolation eternity has for him, so a person in such despair does not want to hear anything about it, either, but for a different reason: this very consolation would be his undoing; as a denunciation of all existence. Figuratively speaking, it is as if an error slipped into an author's writing and the error became conscious of itself as an error; perhaps it actually was not a mistake but in a much higher sense an essential part of the whole production, and now this error wants to mutiny against the author, out of hatred toward him, forbidding him to correct it and in maniacal defiance saying to him: No! I refuse to be erased! I will stand as a witness against you; a witness that you are a second-rate author.”
― Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death: A Christian Psychological Exposition for Upbuilding and Awakening    


Source:

http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/50772-sygdommen-til-d-den

some thoughts:

Thinking about this, it appears, to me, that this is something we do rather easily. We are made good by God, this is not a doubt; however, we enter into error or sin or missing of the mark by our thoughts and actions. When we live in error, we are no longer what we were made to be. So then we rebel again the Great Author. We see our darkness as light. Our ego maintains this darkness as our own and reveals it as light and this is how we see ourselves. When the Great Author comes to us to reveal our works, we can't stand the fact that our light is darkness before the Uncreated Light and thus exposed for what it is. We are pained at this revelation, because light dispels darkness. This is the last great deception we will face. We in fact must hate this Uncreated Light of God because it exposes us as shadows and therefore nothing substantive, of which, we lived life in thinking we were substantive, that we were real substance. The fact is that light is substance and darkness is not. Darkness is modified by light and not the other way around. When light comes darkness flees and reveals itself as nothing. Now we imagine an ego that has built its own darkness as a castle and lives there, maintains this darkness, defends it and calls it its own. Once accepted, this darkness, as light, who can convince us that it is nothing... for we have sweated and strained to keep it and bring it into the world as adored like as a woman with child. Who can separate it from us?

Quote by Soren Kierkegaard ~ defending Christianity?

“He who first invented the notion of defending Christianity is de facto Judas No. 2; he also betrays with a kiss, only his treachery is that of stupidity.”

― Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death: A Christian Psychological Exposition For Upbuilding And Awakening (Kierkegaard's Writings, Vol 19)    

Source:

http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/50772-sygdommen-til-d-den

Quote from Ancient Patericon & St. John Chrysostom ~ Anger

   A certain monk lived in a monastery, and he was always angry. He decided, "I will leave this place and dwell by myself as a hermit, and then I will no relations with anyone, and the passion of anger will leave me." Leaving the monastery, he settled in a cave. One day, having taken up a pitcher of water, the monk set it one the ground, and it tipped over. Again he drew the water, and the pitcher tipped a second time. The he drew it again, and it fell a third time. The brother got angry, picked it up and broke it. When he had come to himself, he understood that the devil had triumphed over him and said, "Behold, I have gone away into seclusion, and I am conquered! I will go back to the monastery, for patience and the help of God are necessary everywhere!" And he returned to his previous place.

(Ancient Patericon, 7.38)

  

    Abba Agathon said: An angry man, even if he raises the dead, is not pleasing to God."

(Ancient Patericon, 10.15)

  

   Are you angry? Be angry at your sins, beat your soul, afflict your conscience, but strict in judgement and a terrible punisher of your own sins. This is the benefit of anger, wherefore God placed it in us.

(St. John Chrysostom, Conversation of Ephesians, 2)


Source:

http://orthodox.cn/patristics/300sayings_en.htm

Quote by St. Isaac the Syrian & St. Silouan ~ Murmuring

The Lord bears all the weaknesses of men, but He does not bear a man who is always murmuring, and does not leave Him without chastisement.

(St. Isaac the Syrian, Homilies, 85)


If suffer some misfortune, then think: "The Lord sees my heart, and if it pleases Him, it will be well both for me and and others." And thus your soul will always be at peace. But is someone murmurs, "This is bad, and that is bad," then he will never have peace in his soul, even though he fasts and prays a lot.

(St. Silouan the Athonite, Writings, IV.1)


Source:

http://orthodox.cn/patristics/300sayings_en.htm

Quote by St. Mark the Ascetic ~ Pride

Guard your mind from self-praise and flee a high opinion of yourself, so that God does not allow you to fall into the opposite [passion to the virtue for which you boast], for man does not accomplish virtue alone, but with the help of God who sees all.


(St. Mark the Ascetic, Homilies, 85)



Source:

http://orthodox.cn/patristics/300sayings_en.htm