Seek nothing other than to fear Him, to love Him, and to walk in all His ways.  This is your boast, and this is your God.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God have mercy on me the sinner

"It is not the self -critical who reveals his humility ( for does not everyone have some how to put up with himself? ).  Rather, it is the man who continues to love the person who has criticized him."

Saint John Climacus

Only if you see yourself as zero and being full of passions can you see God.  If you can not see that you are nothing, then you cannot see God.  God lives only in the humble person.

Do not fear, neither let your heart lose courage; our Christ invisibly helps you with a hidden hand; He tests you in order to give you His grace.  As much as the earth of the heart is cultivated, and as deep as the farmer pushes the plow, so much more will the field give fruit in its time.  Even so does the great Farmer, God, do with our souls.  He allows trials, afflictions, suffering and distress to come to us and enter deeply into the heart, and many times we find ourselves at an impass, not knowing how to manage this or that trial, and we suffer and feel great pain.  But for those who love God, He works together with them that these things turn out for the good.

When a man begins to perceive the love of God in all its richness, he begins also to love his neighbor with spiritual perception.  This is the love of which all the scriptures speak.  Friendship after the flesh is very easily destroyed on some slight pretext, since it is not held firm by spiritual perception.  But when a person is spiritually awakened, even if something irritates him, the bond of love is not dissolved; rekindling himself with warmth of the love of God, he quickly recovers himself and with great joy seeks his neighbor's love, even though he has been gravely wronged or insulted by him.  For sweetness of God completely consumes the bitterness of the quarrel.

Beware of despair.  You do not serve a tyrant, but your service is to a kind Lord, Who, taking nothing from you, He has given you all.  And when you did not exist at all, He fashioned you so that you would be in that [ state ] in which you now are.  Who is sufficient to render Him thanks for the fact that He has brought us into existence?  O the immeasurable grace!  Who can sufficiently honor Him with hymns?  For He has given us knowledge of all things.  And not only those which are manifest, but also of the hidden things.  For we know that if there is anything we do not know, it is necessary for us only to ask this [ knowledge ] from Him.

"Boast not of tomorrow, for you know not what any day may bring forth" (Proverbs 27:1).

Brethren, let us not boast of that which is not in our power. The Lord has placed the times and the years under His power and He disposes of them. Only God Himself alone knows whether tomorrow's day will number us among the living or the dead. Some have died on the eve of their marriage; again, others have descended into the grave on the eve of their coronation with a royal diadem. Therefore, let no one say that tomorrow will be for me the happiest day of my life; tomorrow, I enter into marriage! Or, tomorrow I will be crowned with a royal diadem! Or, tomorrow I am going to a great feast! Or, tomorrow a great gain is coming to me! O, let no one speak of the happiness of tomorrow's day. Behold, yet this night your soul may depart your body and tomorrow you will find yourself surrounded by black demons in the tollhouses [Mitarstvo]! And yet, even this night, a man can be separated from his relatives and friends, from wealth and honor, from the sun and the stars and find himself in a totally unknown company, in an unseen place and at an unexpected judgment.

Instead of boasting of tomorrow's day, it would be better to pray to God to "Give us this day our daily bread." Perhaps today's day may be our last day on earth. That is why it is better to spend this day in repentance for all our past days on earth rather than vainly fantasizing about tomorrow's day, about the day which perhaps will not dawn for us. Vain fantasizing about tomorrow's day cannot bring us any good, but repentance for one day with tears can save us from eternal fire.

O righteous Lord, burn up the insane vanity that is in us.

+To You be glory and thanks always. Amen.+

From Prologue of Ohrid by St. Nicolai Vilimirovich

Where people stop believing the truth, they do not start to believe in nothing, they start to believe in anything.

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.
by Saint Philo of Alexandria