Spiritual life. Sayings of Saint Paisios of Mount Athos

[Mary Naeem]

Spiritual life. Sayings of Saint Paisios of Mount Athos

“What gas is to a machine, so is the heart to the spiritual life. Whenever man does something from the heart, he’s not exhausted by it. For this reason, whenever people ask me what they should study, I tell them instead what they should love. In particular certain professions, like ‘doctor’, and ‘teacher’, require that those doing them love the work a lot. This is the same in the spiritual life. The heart must participate in prayer”.

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“The spiritual life requires a great deal of self denial, and of love of virtue for virtue’s sake”.

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“When someone has low morale, we should give him courage and raise him up. However, when someone’s morale is high and he has egotism, we ought to humble him.”