"When temptations increase, the grace of God increases likewise. The Lord says, 'I will chasten whomever I love (Mat. 24:19).' The Lord gives no great gift without great trial. The Lord gives us temptations to the extent that we are able to bear them. And his grace is given to us accordingly."

- St Gabriel of Georgia

Please excuse my absence, my friends. I have been extremely busy with my university classes, I ask you please to forgive me. I pray that all of you have a blessed Lenten fast, and that the prayers of the saints aid you all in our journey to Pascha.

"Struggle, my children; the Angels are weaving crowns with flowers in paradise! Our Christ regards our struggle a martyrdom - what more is excellent to be a martyr for Christ!"

-Blessed Elder Ephraim of Philotheou and Arizona

"One must clean the royal house from every impurity and adorn it with every beauty, then the king may enter into it. In a similar way one must first cleanse the earth of the heart and uproot the weeds of sin and the passionate deeds and soften it with sorrows and the narrow way of life, sow in it the seed of virtue, water it with lamentation and tears, and only then does the fruit of dispassion and eternal life grow. For the Holy Spirit does not dwell in a man until he has been cleansed from passions of the soul and body.”

• St. Paisius Velichkovsky

"If I walk on the street after the holy liturgy, and I see a priest and an angel walking out of the church, I bow before the priest, not the angel, because the priest bears Christ in him!"

- Fr. Dumitru Staniloae, excerpt from 'Father George Calciu; Interviews, Homilies and Talks