Patristic Quote of the Day

[Justin Kissel]

Sure, go ahead

Do not imagine this a victory, holy Sopatros, to have denounced a devotion, or an opinion, which apparently is not good. For neither -- even if you should have convicted it accurately -- are the (teachings) of Sopatros consequently good. For it is possible, both that you and others, whilst occupied in many things that are false and apparent, should overlook the true, which is One and hidden. For neither, if anything is not red, is it therefore white, nor if something is not a horse, is it necessarily a man. But thus will you do, if you follow my advice, you will cease indeed to speak against others, but will so speak on behalf of truth, that every thing said is altogether unquestionable. - (Pseudo-)Dionysius the Areopagite, Letter 6: To Sopatros the Priest

[Justin Kissel]

For we ought to think of God even more often than we draw our breath; and if the expression is permissible, we ought to do nothing else. Yea, I am one of those who entirely approve that Word which bids us meditate day and night, and tell at eventide and morning and noon day,3 and praise the Lord at every time; or, to use Moses' words, whether a man lie down, or rise up, or walk by the way, or whatever else he be doing--and by this recollection we are to be moulded to purity. - Gregory the Theologian, Oration 27, 5

[Justin Kissel]

If thou art able to bear the whole yoke of the Lord, thou wilt be perfect; but if thou art not able, what thou art able, that do. But concerning meat, bear that which thou art able to do. But keep with care from things sacrificed to idols, for it is the worship of the infernal deities. - Didache, 6, 2-3

[尼古拉前执事]

Well, if we can all play ...

"Another thing the blessed man taught and insisted upon with all was never on any occasion whatsoever to associate with heretics and, above all, never to take the Holy Communion with them, 'even if', the blessed man said, 'you remain without communicating all your life, if through stress of circumstances you cannot find a community of the catholic Church. For if, having legally married a wife in this world of the flesh, we are forbidden by God and by the laws to desert her and be united to another woman, even though we have to spend a long time separated from her in a distant country, and shall incur punishment if we violate our vows, how then shall we, who have been joined to God through the Orthodox faith and the catholic Church -- as the apostle says: "I espoused you to one husband that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ" (2 Cor. 11:2) -- how shall we escape from sharing in that punishment which in the world to come awaits heretics, if we defile the orthodox and holy faith by adulterous communion with heretics?'

For 'communion', he said, 'has been so called because he who has "communion" has things in common and agrees with those with whom he has "communion". Therefore I implore you earnestly, children, never to go near the oratories of the heretics in order to communicate there.'"
-St. John the Almsgiver, Patriarch of Alexandria (7th Century AD)
[Three Byzantine Saints, "The Life of Saint John the Almsgiver",
Translators: Elizabeth Dawes & Norman H. Baynes, 
St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, Crestwood: 1977; p. 251]

"With all our strength let us beware lest we receive Communion from or give it to heretics. 'Give not what is holy to the dogs,' says the Lord. 'Neither cast ye your pearls before swine', lest we become partakers in their dishonour and condemnation."

• St. John of Damascus [An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, IV, 13]

“Even if one should give away all his possessions in the world, and yet be in communion with heresy, he cannot be a friend of God, but is rather an enemy.”

• St. Theodore the Studite
  (PG 99, 1205)

“Chrysostomos loudly declares not only heretics, but also those who have communion with them, to be enemies of God.”

• St. Theodore the Studite
  [Epistle to Abbot Theophilus]

“Guard yourselves from soul-destroying heresy, communion with which is alienation from Christ.”
-St. Theodore the Studite
[P.G. 99.1216.]  

“The heretics were totally shipwrecked with regard to the Faith; but as for the others, even if in their thinking they did not founder, nevertheless, because of their communion with heresy they are perishing.” 

• St. Theodore the Studite
  [Patrologia Graeca 99, 1164]

[Justin Kissel]

An old man said, 'The prophets wrote books, then came our Fathers who put them into practice. Those who came after them learnt them by heart. Then came the present generation, who have written them out and put them into their window seats without using them' - Anonymous (The World of the Desert Fathers)

[Justin Kissel]

An old man said, 'Do not seek to be undespised.' - Anonymous Saying from The World of the Desert Fathers

[尼古拉前执事]

'If we do not despise little sins and think they are of no consequence to us, we shall not fall into great and grievous sins. Bad habits are formed in the soul by very small things -- when we say, "What does this or that matter," -- and it is the first step to despising great things.'

-Saint Dorotheos of Gaza, JUDGING ONE'S NEIGHBOR