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The people answer: O Lord, pardon the sins of your servants, and. . .

The people answer: O Lord, pardon the sins of your servants, and purify our conscience from doubts and from Strifes. O Lord, pardon the offences of them that are praising You, and make clear our soul from hatred and slander. O Lord, pardon the sins of Your servants who have confessed Your name, and make us worthy to receive this Sacrament with faith. O Lord, pardon Your servants who call upon Your name daily; and grant us, Lord, to be Yours, even as You desire; and may these divine Mysteries, Lord, be to us for the confidence and courage before Your Majesty.

-St. Narsai Harp of the Spirit

Unless the grace of God comes to. . .

Unless the grace of God comes to the help of our frailty, to protect and defend it, no man can withstand the insidious onslaughts of the enemy nor can he damp down or hold in check the fevers which burn in our flesh with nature’s fire.

— 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.

— John Cassian

when we gaze in. . .

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;”

John Cassian, Conferences of John Cassian

 

It should be known, however, that the unclean. . .

“It should be known, however, that the unclean spirits obey human beings in two ways. Either they are rendered submissive to the holiness of the faithful through divine grace and power or, having been soothed by sacrifices and by certain songs of the impious, they fawn over them as over friends.”

— St. John Cassian

The thief who received the kingdom of heaven. . .

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”

 

Be a herald of God’s goodness, for God rules over. . .

“Be a herald of God’s goodness, for God rules over you, unworthy though you are; for although your debt to Him is so great, yet He is not seen exacting payment from you, and from the small works you do, He bestows great rewards upon you.”

— St. Isaac of Nineveh, Homily 60

All of us who desire the. . .

All of us who desire the kingdom of God are, by the Lord’s decree, under an equal and rigorous necessity of seeking after the grace of Baptism.”

 

St.Basil The Great

Through the Holy Spirit comes our. . .

Through the Holy Spirit comes our restoration to paradise, our ascension into the kingdom of heaven, our return to the adoption of sons, our liberty to call God our Father, our being made partakers of the grace of Christ, our being called children of light, our sharing in eternal glory, and, in a word, our being brought into a state of all “fulness of blessing,” both in this world and in the world to come, of all the good gifts that are in store for us, by promise hereof, through faith, beholding the reflection of their grace as though they were already present, we await the full enjoyment.”

+ St. Basil the Great, “On the Holy Spirit”

God, who preferred the. . .

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