“There is a voice which cries to a man until his last breath, and it says: Be converted today.” -

The Sayings of the Desert Fathers

Like the deer that yearns
for running streams,
so my soul is yearning
for you, my God.

My soul is thirsting for God,
the God of my life;
when can I enter and see
the face of God?

My tears have become my bread,
by night, by day,
as I hear it said all the day long:
‘Where…

Have mercy on me, O Lord,
for I am in distress.
Tears have wasted my eyes,
my throat and my heart.

For my life is spent with sorrow
and my years with sighs.
Affliction has broken down my strength
and my bones waste away.

In the face of all my foes
I am a reproach,
an…

MAY 6 THE HOLY AND JUST JOB THE LONG-SUFFERING

The righteous Job (whose name means “persecuted”), God’s faithful servant, was the perfect image of every virtue. The son of Zarah and Bossorha (Job 42), Job was a fifth-generation descendant of Abraham. He was a truthful,…

As I rise from sleep, I thank you, Holy Trinity, for because of your great goodness and patience, you were not angry with me, an idler and sinner, nor have you destroyed me in my sins, but have shown your usual love for me. And when I was prostrate in despair, you raised me to…

Brother, be sure to walk willfully on the way that is narrow and full of afflictions [cf. St. Matthew 7:14], before walking unwillingly on one that is narrower. Do not cherish bodily rest, lest you find spiritual harm therein.

The Evergetinos
from St. Ephraim the Syrian

Despondency is for souls a grievous torture chamber, unspeakably painful, more fierce and bitter than every ferocity and torment. It imitates the poisonous worm that attacks not only the body but also the soul, and not only the bones but also the mind. It is a continual…

That the souls of the righteous become heavenly light, the Lord Himself told the apostles, when He said, Ye are the light of the world. He first wrought them into light, and ordained that through them the world should be enlightened. Neither do men light a lamp, He says, and put…

Examine carefully those who from the beginning of time have passed on from this life and you will discover that none of them was justified, unless he gave heed to repentance, and that none of them was condemned, unless he was indifferent to it. Since the Devil does not cease to…

“Repentance until he dies”

Who, now, will be able to assert that he knows nothing of falsehood, that he has never been assaulted by the lust of the eyes (1 St. John 2:16), that he has never been angry with his neighbor without good reason, and that he has never been found guilty…

'In the Psalter you learn about yourself. You find depicted in it all the movements of your soul, all its changes, its ups and downs, its failures and recoveries. . . . The marvel with the Psalter is that .... the reader takes all its words upon his lips as though they were his…

When the passions control a human being and that person likes them, they become so intimately linked with human nature that when the person acts in accordance with them, it seems he is acting in accordance with this nature. It seems that way, because the person, once he has…

When a thought oppresses you, do not be downhearted, but put up with it in courage, saying, 'They swarmed around me closer and closer, but I drove them back in the name of the Lord' (Ps. 118:11). Divine help will arrive at your side immediately, and you will drive them away from…

We must be content with everything – even with being discontented! We must get right out of ourselves, forget ourselves, so renounce ourselves that whether we are contented or discontented no longer matters, but only the good pleasure of “Him Who is”. God is not pleased by our…

“He remains among us until the end of the world. He dwells on so many altars, though so often offended and profaned.”
St. Maximilian Kolbe

“It is shameful to be proud of the adornments that are not your own, but utter madness to fancy one deserves God’s gifts. Be exalted only by such achievements as you had before your birth. But what you received after your birth, as also birth itself, God gave you. Only those…