"Imitate the saints in the way of life — some in reverence and fear of God, some in humility, some in self-abasement and self-condemnation, some in silence, some in meekness... who needs the pleasantness of treatment, friendliness and condescension..."

- St. Ephraim the Syrian

Asterisk. (Gr. "little star"; Sl. Zvezditsa). A sacred vessel having two arched metal bands held together in such a fashion as to form the shape of a cross. It is placed on the paten and serves to prevent the veil from touching the particles of the Eucharist.

WHAT IS THE CONSCIENCE?

...At least once, or twice, or thrice, or a thousand times you have not listened to her voice, she will speak again and will not leave you until your last breath; and in the house, and at the crossroads, at the meal, and at the feast, and on the way, and often in your dreams she presents us with images and types of sins committed.
..God has not made the reproof of conscience either continuous (for we, having been continually reproved, would not have borne this burden), nor so weak that, after the first or second admonition, she stopped it. If she began to reproach us every day and hour, we would be depressed by despondency; and if, after reminding us once or twice, she stopped reproving us, we would not get much benefit. Therefore, He made this reproof, although always, but not continuous; always, so that we would not fall into carelessness, but, always hearing her reminders, we would remain vigilant until our death; not continuous and not incessant, so that we do not lose heart, but we are encouraged, receiving some relief and joy.

- St. John Chrysostom

The elder was asked: how can a zealous brother not be tempted when he sees some monks returning to the world again? The elder said: let him imagine dogs chasing hares. When one of them sees a hare, she rushes after him, and the others only see a dog chasing, and first they will also run after her, and then they come back; the first one who sees a hare chases alone until she catches him: she is not distracted from the goal of striving by any dogs who have returned back, she does not look at rapids, thickets in the forest, or thorny bushes, and running through thorns is often wounded, but does not stop running. In the same way, he who seeks the Lord of Christ, steadily strives for the cross, overcoming all the temptations he encounters, until he reaches the Crucified One.

(Ancient Patericon)

SIGNS OF TRUE HUMILITY

Humility is the product of knowledge, and knowledge is the product of temptations. The self-knower is given the guidance of everything. And he who obeys God subdues to himself all the wisdom of the flesh; and after that everything obeys him, when humility reigns in his members.

The humble-wise, when offended, blames and blames himself, and not someone else, and therefore endures, seeking liberation from God, and, having received it, rejoices and endures with thanksgiving, and, having gained experience in this, receives knowledge.

The signs of humility are these: when one who has every virtue, bodily and spiritual, considers himself all the more indebted to God, as he has received much by grace, being unworthy of it. And if any temptation happens to him, from demons or from people, he considers himself worthy of such and other great ones, in order to be at least a little freed from debt and get relief from the torments awaiting him at the trial. If he does not tolerate temptations, he grieves a lot and struggles, looking for something to force himself into, and when he finds it, he accepts it again as a gift from God, and humbles himself; not finding what he could repay the Benefactor, he always works and increasingly considers himself a debtor.

He who is humble-minded must have every virtue and, more as a debtor (in all this), truly believe that he is inferior to the whole creature. If he is not like that, then this very thing certifies that he is worse than the whole creature, even if he thought that he leads an equally angelic life, for even a real angel, with so many virtues and wisdom, could not please the Creator without humility. What can I say after that to the one who thinks of himself that he is an angel, without humility, the cause of all the good things that exist and have to be, from which reasoning is born, enlightening the ends, and without it everything is gloomy. It is light and is called light, and therefore we, before any word and undertaking, need this light so that we can see and so on and be surprised. We are also surprised at God, how on the first and lordly day He first created light, so that the subsequent creatures would not remain invisible, as if they did not exist...

- Holy Martyr Peter of Damascus

"As a blacksmith, working with a hammer, overcomes whatever he wants, so the righteous word, inculcated daily, will overcome all evil"

- Holy Apostle Erm from seventy

ABOUT COWARDICE

...Those souls who succumb to timidity and fear, unable to endure sorrows, even reach the point of negligence, impatience and despair, are seduced from the righteous path, and do not wait until the end of the Lord's mercy; those who turned out to be unrighteous, how will they be able to seize eternal life? For every soul, for the sake of the Lord who died for us, is obliged to be magnanimous until death, to endure to the end and to keep trust in Him, so as to be worthy of eternal salvation in this way.

- St. Ephraim the Syrian

ABOUT THEFT

Once the robbers sailed in canoes to the Red Island on the New Lake. "Sons of iniquity," the hermit, the Monk Cyril of Novoezersky, said menacingly, when you met them, you forgot that there is a terrible judgment of God's righteousness and you came to an empty island to plunder, and you think you will find greed in a hermit? What are you doing? All my silver is in my cell..."
One of the robbers hurried to the monk's cell, and the others were suddenly attacked by darkness; soon the plaintive cries of their comrade were heard from the cell: he asked to be rid of two young men who mercilessly beat him... The blinded robbers began to ask the monk to let them go in peace. The elder dismissed them with the words: "Go ahead, do not commit evil, so as not to be in hell."
Another time, thieves removed the bells from the poor temple of the monastery and hurried to cross to the other side, but got lost and had to return to the monastery. "Why did you come here?" St. Cyril asked them. They fell at his feet and asked for forgiveness. "It has never happened yet," said the Saint of God, "that someone was happy with someone else's good. If you are hungry for someone else's, you will lose your own. A thief is not rich, but he is hunchbacked. And to steal wisely — there will be troubles... An earned slice is better than a stolen loaf. Remember this folk wisdom." Then he ordered them to be fed and let them go in peace.

ON THE MIND

"A God—loving and changeless mind is a guide and a path to God"
"... A God-loving mind is a light that illuminates the soul, as the sun is the body"
"The mind is not the soul, but the gift of God that saves the soul. The God-pleasing mind flows ahead of the soul and advises it to despise the temporal, material and perishable, and to love the eternal, imperishable and immaterial goods, so that a person living in the body can imagine and contemplate the heavenly and Divine with his mind. Thus, the God-loving mind is the benefactor and savior of the human soul."
"The word is the servant of the mind. What the mind wants, the word expresses. The mind sees everything, even what is in heaven, and nothing darkens it except one sin. For the pure, there is nothing incomprehensible, as for his word, the unspeakable"
"The organ of bodily vision is the eyes, and the organ of mental vision is the mind. Just as a body that has no eyes is blind: it does not see the sun that illuminates the whole earth and the sea, cannot enjoy its light, so a soul that does not have a good mind and a good life is blind: it does not know and does not glorify God, the Creator and Benefactor of all (creatures), and enter into the enjoyment of His incorruption and eternal benefits can not"
"As a body without a soul is dead, so a soul without a mind is inactive (barren) and cannot have God as its property"
"The mind acts in the soul, but nature acts in the body. The mind adores the soul, and nature decomposes the body. Nature works in every body, but not every soul has a mind; therefore not every soul is saved."

- St. Anthony the Great