Mystics

"Once an elder was asked, ‘What is repentance?’"

"When a sailor voyages in the midst of the sea, he watches the stars,"

"Thus you will discover that the mind’s wings sprout up in the womb of chastity,"

"Fire that has flared up in dry wood is difficult to put out,"

"As it is not possible to cross over the great ocean without a ship,"

"The non-intellectual light is the light that belongs to the elements."

"Again he was asked, ‘How can a man acquire humility?’"

"The whole length of the night is as the day to them,"

"Some rational beings are without any appellations, and some have many names;"

"The sweetness of prayer is one thing,"

"If you are truly merciful, do not grieve inwardly when you are unjustly deprived of something you possess,"

"On pure prayer:"

"The man whose tongue is inclined to silence will acquire a humble discipline in all his habits"

"At this time (when we make our petitions and our supplications to God, and we speak with Him)"

"But what need is there to speak of the ascetics,"

"O, how evil for hesychasts is the sight of men and intercourse with them!"

"Moreover, from time to time they [the angels] appeared to them to teach them how they ought to lead their lives."

"Let the following prayer not cease from your heart night or day:"

"There is nothing so capable of banishing the inveterate habits of licentiousness from our soul,"

"If the heart is not occupied with study,"

"What is a charitable heart? It is a heart which is burning with love for the whole creation, for men, for the birds, for the beasts … for all creatures. He who has such a heart cannot see or call to mind a creature without his eyes being filled with tears by reason of the immense compassion which seizes his heart; a heart which is softened and can no longer bear to see or learn from others of any suffering, even the smallest pain being inflicted upon a creature. That is why such a man never ceases to pray for the animals … [He is] … moved by the infinite pity which reigns in the hearts of those who are becoming united with God."

"In the measure that love for the flesh prevails in you,"

"Be peaceful within yourself,"

"Wonder of mind follows on from a solitary abode,"

"The soul that loves God finds rest only in God."

"Therefore, as I have said, one must not call this gift and grace spiritual prayer,"

"If you wish to hold fast to stillness,"

"Just as presumption dissipates the soul through imaginings that distract her,"

"Love is the offspring of knowledge of the truth which, as is commonly confessed, is given to all."

"Just as the non-rational light was entrusted for the distinction of bodies,"

"This is the consummation of the (ascetic) life in the body (that takes place) on the level of the soul,"

"The light of contemplation proceeds along"

"Abba Arsenius for God’s sake conversed with no one,"

"I am reading St Isaac the Syrian. I find something true, heroic, spiritual in him; something which transcends space and time. I feel that here, for the first time, is a voice which resonates in the deepest parts of my being, hitherto closed and unknown to me. Although he is so far removed from me in time and space, he has come right into the house of my soul. In a moment of quiet he has spoken to me, sat down beside me. Although I have read so many other things, although I have met so many other people, and though today there are others living around me, no one else has been so discerning. To no one else have I opened the door of my soul in this way. Or to put it better, no one else has shown me in such a brotherly, friendly way that, within myself, within human nature, there is such a door, a door which opens onto a space which is open and unlimited. And no one else has told me this unexpected and ineffable truth, that the whole of this inner world belongs to man."

"Forsake not Isaac."

"If all the writings of the desert fathers which teach us concerning watchfulness and prayer were lost and the writings of Abba Isaac the Syrian alone survived, they would suffice to teach one from beginning to end concerning the life of stillness and prayer. They are the Alpha and Omega of the life of watchfulness and interior prayer, and alone suffice to guide one from his first steps to perfection."

"Now when the intellect has been illumined, even just a little,"

"At the time of the sinking of the light and the atmosphere is suffocating,"

"All of these realities are within the light of the mind."

"For he says:"

"What watering is to plants, exactly the same is continual silence for the growth of knowledge."

"The aim of contemplation of the world to come is to be seen in the coming into being of the holy angels—"

"Many times a day,"

"How feeble is the power of ink and the traces of the letters to indicate in writing the precise nature of action,"

"Solitude lets us share in the divine Mind, and brings us close to limpidity of mind in a short time, without any hindrance."

"However the study of the constituent parts of man, his spirit, soul, and body, reveals man's innate capacity to overcome the disintegrating effects of error thinking and living, and his ability, by conforming to the standards laid down by Jesus, to destroy the seeds of death and implant health and eternal life in his body."

"To the oft-repeated question "If Jesus resurrected His physical body why is He not visible here among us?" we would say that Jesus overcame the sins that caused our original fall from the perfect body of the Adamic man to the diseased and dying body in which the race is now existing."

"When we have purified our mind and body and cast out every evil thought, our body will become transparent to human sight, as is Jesus' body. The idea that a transparent body is thin air, a ghost, is wholly wrong. Science says that the invisible electrical units composing the atom are millions of times more powerful than any visible thing. When the atomic energy in the atomic bomb was released great cities were destroyed."

"Jesus told His followers that when they were gathered in that upper room in Jerusalem the Holy Spirit would descend upon them with power; and they were transformed from ignorant men into linguists of unbelievable ability."

"Paul says, "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds". When we accomplish this transformation we shall see Jesus as He is and as we must all be in the resurrection from the dead and dying body in which we are now functioning. This is not to be accomplished by a great miracle at some appointed time in the future, but day by day we shall be resurrected out of the darkness of sense into the glorious light of Spirit."