saints

"This same norm of Apostolic doctrine is firmly maintained by his (Peter's) successors, of him to whom the Lord entrusted the care of the entire flock of sheep, to whom He promised not to leave him until the end of time."

"Do not be afraid. Peace be with you. Praise God forevermore. As for me, when I came to you, the decision was not in accord with my will but in accord with the will of God. Therefore, continue to bless him every day of your life and sing hymns of praise to him. When you thought that you saw me eating, that was only a vision—I did not eat anything. Now raise yourselves from the ground and give thanks to God. I am about to ascend to him who sent me. Make a written record of all these things that have happened to you."

"Raphael called both men aside privately and said to them, “Bless God, and in the presence of all the living praise him and acknowledge all the good things he has done for you. Bless and extol his name with hymns of praise. Proclaim to all people the deeds of God, and never cease to offer thanksgiving to him. The secret of a king should be concealed, but the works of God should be publicly proclaimed as they deserve. Do what is good, and no evil will befall you."

"Then Tobiah recalled Raphael’s instructions. He removed the liver and heart of the fish from the bag where he had stored them, and he placed them on the embers of the incense. 3 The odor of the fish so repelled the demon that he fled to Upper Egypt. However, Raphael followed him there and bound him hand and foot. Then he returned at once."

"So Tobiah went out to look for someone who knew the way to Media and would be willing to accompany him. Outside, he encountered the angel Raphael standing in front of him. Unaware that he was an angel of God..."

"...and Raphael was sent to heal them both. He was to remove the white patches from Tobit’s eyes so that he might once again behold God’s light with his own eyes, and he was to give Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, in marriage to Tobiah, son of Tobit, and then free her from the wicked demon Asmodeus. For Tobiah had the right to claim her in marriage before any other suitor."

"I am Raphael, one of the seven angels who stand ready to enter before the Glory of the Lord."

"For the clergy he was a severe disciplinarian, but was himself foremost with the example of a holy life."

"It is indeed a blessing that the future is veiled to us: had it been revealed to me, there would have been no merit in my perseverance. But the Lord kept me in suspense and gave me only enough strength to keep me from abandoning the idea and to complete the work once it was started."

"So it was, that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him."

"There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years."

"You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High; / for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, / to give his people knowledge of salvation / by the forgiveness of their sins."

"Now Elizabeth’s full time came for her to be delivered, and she brought forth a son. 58 When her neighbors and relatives heard how the Lord had shown great mercy to her, they rejoiced with her."

"Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; / he has come to his people and set them free. / He has raised up for us a mighty savior, / born of the house of his servant David. / Through his holy prophets he promised of old / that he would save us from our enemies, / from the hands of all who hate us. / He promised to show mercy to our fathers / and to remember his holy covenant."

"But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. [...] And Zacharias said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.”"

"And the angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings. But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own time.”"

"The Lutherans say: “Why should we ask for the prayers of the saints for ourselves? We ask God Himself”—and they contradict themselves: for why do they ask the pastor to pray for them? They would pray without a pastor if everyone had the same access to God and there was no need for sanctified intercessors for us. — What blindness! — They say: by praying to the saints, we are idolaters. That is not true. We do not honor a single saint as God, we do not pray to a single saint as God, but only ask for his prayers for us; is there even a shadow of idolatry here? — Just as we ask living ministers and intercessors for us before God to pray for us, so we also ask the heavenly intercessors, who have great boldness before Him due to their love for God; moreover, many of them were intercessors and advocates for the world before God even here on Earth; there, in heaven, their activity only continues, has larger dimensions, and is especially strong, because it is not hindered by heavy and sluggish flesh. — All the saints, although they have finished their earthly course, are alive: “For He is not a God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to Him” (Luke 20:38)."

"Leo Tolstoy and writers like him, whose number is countless, have appeared and live on Earth to cloud and corrupt with their godlessness, faithlessness, and anarchy the multitude of people who follow them and read their blasphemous writings. Lord, destroy them from the Earth or turn them to faith, humble their demonic pride!"

"Our life is a child's game, but not an innocent one, but a sinful one, because with a strong mind and knowledge of the purpose of our life, we neglect this purpose and engage in empty, aimless affairs."

"Icons are the Church's response to the crying need of our nature."

"Gluttony is the seed of decay and destruction of the soul."

"Humility is a great virtue, the mother of all virtues, the mother of all blessings."

"Intellectuals have abandoned heavenly wisdom and grasped at earthly vanity, falsehood, mirage, and impenetrable darkness."

"A human who is embittered against us is a sick person."

"Humility is the foundation of all virtues."

"It has been calculated astronomically that the distance from the Earth to the Sun is one hundred and fifty million versts (approximately 160 million km)."

"The Lord is the perfect Possessor and Master of all creation."

"The Jesuits, to please the Pope and their selfish base views and goals, distorted the law of conscience and the law of the Gospel, asserting that to achieve selfish or religious goals, Catholics can use any illegal means."

"The Liturgy is a supper, a meal of God's love for the human race."

"Love without thinking: love is simple. Love will never make a mistake."

"The lusts and desires of the flesh, or the old man, are countless, but they are a dream, a vanity, a phantom, nothing."

"The fiery catastrophe of the Earth expected at the end of the world could occur from the collision of the Earth with one of the wandering fragments or comets."

"The flesh flourishes, but the soul withers."

"Forced prayer develops sanctimony."

"Doubt and scorn for the word, like the poison of the spirit of falsehood, must be cut off."

"Democracy is in hell, and in heaven, it is the Kingdom."

"The devil is such an evil needle that at all times and everywhere it climbs into your heart's eyes, clouding and suppressing them; it is such a poisonous dust that constantly floats in our mental atmosphere and settles caustically on the heart, eating away at it and drilling it."

"The enemy sometimes acts through evil people."

"God is good and all-good, and you, His image, should be good."

"The day is a symbol of the transience of earthly life."

"Demon-possessed individuals are peaceful until they are brought close to a sacred object. When they are, an extraordinary force, a repulsion from the sacred, blasphemy, spitting on the sacred, and a piercing scream emerge from them."

"The death of a true Christian is no more than a sleep until the day of resurrection."

"Envy in a Christian is madness."

"Every person on Earth is sick with the fever of sin, with the blindness of sin, possessed by the rage of sin; and since sin consists primarily of malice and pride, every person, as one suffering from the illness of sin, must be treated with gentle love—an important truth that we often forget; we often, very often, act contrary to it: to malice, we add malice with our own bitterness; to pride, we oppose with pride. This is how evil grows, rather than diminishes; it is not cured, but becomes more infected. Lord, have mercy on us, have mercy on humanity!"

"Faith is the key to God's treasury."

"Food and drink should be used only to strengthen one's forces, and not for gluttony."

"Adam and Eve ruined themselves through gluttony."

"God is Spirit, a simple Being."

"Heed: for the purification of your heart from sins, you will receive an infinite reward—you will see God, your all-good Creator, your Provider. The struggle to cleanse the heart is difficult because it is accompanied by great deprivations and sorrows, but the reward is great."

"The Church is truly an earthly paradise."