When we gaze in unbounded admiration on that ineffable mercy of His, which with unwearied patience endures countless sins which are every moment being committed under His very eyes, or the call with which from no antecedent merits of ours, but by the free grace of His pity He receives us;”
― Conferences of John Cassian
The thief who received the kingdom of heaven, though not as the reward of virtue, is a true witness to the fact that salvation is ours through the grace and mercy of God.
All of our holy fathers knew this and all with one accord teach that perfection in holiness can be achieved only through humility.
Humility, in its turn, can be achieved only through faith, fear of God, gentleness and the shedding of all possessions.
It is by means of these that we attain perfect love, through the grace and compassion of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory through all the ages. Amen.
+ St. John Cassian, The Philokalia: The Complete Text (Vol. 1), “On the Eight Vices: On Pride”
Do not disdain those who are deformed from birth, because all of us will go to the grave equally privileged.
+ St. Isaac of Nineveh, “Homily 5: On Keeping Oneself Remote From the World and From All Things That Disquiet the Intellect,” Ascetical Homilies of St Isaac the Syrian
God, who preferred the correction rather than the death of a sinner, did not desire that a homicide be punished by the exaction of another act of homicide. –
Saint Ambrose of Milan
“Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own sin and not to judge my brother, for You are blessed from all ages to all ages. Amen”
— Ephrem the Syrian
