Quotes about Freedom

"Keep from prying into other people's affairs, for such prying gives occasion for slander, judgment, and other grievous sins. Why do you need to be concerned about others? Know and examine your own self." -- St. Tikhon
of Zadonsk

Arise my soul, and review your deeds which have preceeded from you.  Scrutinize them closely, and shed the rain of your tears, declaring openly to Christ your thoughts and deeds, so that you may be justified.

Saint Andrew of Crete

Our Father awaits us with great zeal and desire, and with love He will see us returning from afar, and He will look upon us with compassionate eyes, and we shall be dear to Him, and He will fall on our neck running and embrace us and kiss us with His Holy Love.  He will not reproach us, and He will no longer remember our sins and iniquities, and all the holy angles and all His elect will begin to rejoice over us.

"What joy is ours that the Lord not only forgives our sins ,but allows the soul to know Him, so soon as she humbles herself.  The poorest wretch can humble himself and know God in the Holy Spirit.  There is no need of money or posessions in order to know God, only humility.  The Lord gives Himself freely, for His mercy's sake alone.  I did not know this before but now every day and every hour every minute, I see clearly the mercy of God.  The Lord gives peace even in sleep, but without God there is no peace in the soul."

There are very many unpleasant states that occur within each person; without knowledge one can never be free of them.

Sin, first and foremost, is the cause of every damage in this world. The evil one is the master of this sin, the master of this damage, but we have the Lord Jesus Christ, the Master of the Kingdom of God to defeat any kind of sin.

Your Father in Christ,
Bishop JOSEPH
http://www.antiochianladiocese.org/

Freedom is not the absence of commitments, but the ability to choose--and commit myself to--what is best for me.

Freedom is not the absence of commitments, but the ability to choose--and commit myself to--what is best for me.

Gary Snyder points out, "The world is our consciousness, and it surrounds us.  There are more things in mind, in the imagination, than 'you' can keep track of -- thoughts, memories, images, angers, delights, rise unbidden.  The depths of mind, the unconscious, are our inner wilderness areas."  When we turn to a spiritual teacher we look for a guide, not one who is familiar with well-worn paths, but one who knows, as Snyder puts it, the "ettiquette of freedom."

Despots can hide behind the word democracy, they can hide behind rigged elections, but they can't hide behind the actions they take that limit liberty. It's all about the liberty thing...not the democracy thing. If liberty is being devalued, limited, decreased or otherwise compromised then we have to scrutinize the leadership for what they are doing. Bottom line, those who limit liberty are no friends to freedom.

'We were created for eternal life by our Creator, we are called to it by the word of God, and we are renewed by holy Baptism. And Christ the Son of God came into the world for this, that He should call us and take us there, and He is the one thing needful. For this reason your very first endeavor and care should be to receive it. Without it everything is as nothing, though you have the whole world under you.'
-- St. Tikhon of Zadonsk

Without temptation it is impossible to aquire a strong constitution of the soul.  But again, to withstand them is not in our power.  How could perishable clay withstand the action of water unless Divine fire makes it strong?  If we submit to the yoke of God's will and pray with constant desire and humility, then, through patience, we also shall recieve everything form our Lord Jesus Christ.

Monks Callistus and Ignatius, from the Philokalia

There will be calmness, tranquility, when one is free from external objects and is not perturbed.

Think about any attachments that are depleting your emotional reserves. Consider letting them go.

Does the mirror change and bend when the scoffer stands before it laughing and scoffing at it? No, the mirror does not change and bend but remains the same as it was. Brethren, neither does God change or bend when scoffers laugh and scoff at Him. The unchanging and All-pure God knows that the scoffer scoffs at himself. By his scoffing at the holy things of God, the scoffer bends himself and makes himself hideous and the holy things of God remain intact.

O, how already in our times, in our days, many scoffers are already here! Many, too many but their multitudes are weaker than the One and Only One. What is a lot of dust before a strong wind? You have only to wait, to wait armed with patience until a strong wind blows.

Many and too many scoffers are already here, who scoff at God's word. They offer their own words in place of God's word; they offer the unholy in place of the holy, the putrid in place of the healthy, death dealing in place of life creating. The word of God is like a strong wind and their words are as dust.

The scoffers are already here, many and too many that scoff at God's works and still many more will arrive. They praise their works above God's works and say that the works of their hands are better and more comprehensible that the works of God. Their works are thievery; for all the good that they built, they built from God's materials and according to the likeness of God's buildings; and all the evil that they have built, they built from the devil's materials, and according to the likeness of the devil's buildings. Therefore, of what will the dust boast? With what will the scoffers praise today or tomorrow, when wild asses trample over their graves with their hooves?

All-pure Lord, Holy and Powerful are Your words, as a strong wind and holy are Your works, and there is no number or measure of them. All-pure Lord, save our tongues from scoffing and save our lives from the scoffers.

To You be glory and thanks always. Amen.

God's boundless wisdom has given each person a cross according to his/her character and strength.  If we carry our cross without grumbling, repent of our sins, and do not justify ourselves, then like the good thief we shall enter God's Kingdom.  But if we grumble, if we blaspheme God or our neighbor, we shall perish like the wicked thief---in great torment, with out hope of salvation to lessen our grief.  The choice lies in our own hands.  We must be wise like the repentant thief.  None of us will escape the cross.  Let us ease its weight through faith in God, resistance to sin, repentance, forgiveness of all our close ones, endurance of sorrows without murmuring, and prayer to the Lord.

We do not suffer because there is too much godliness in the world, but because there is too much evil. We must overcome the evil around us with godliness, speaking the truth in love.

Your Father in Christ,
Bishop JOSEPHhttp://www.antiochianladiocese.org/

"If you want to go straight before God, you need two walls.  Not of brick or stone or earth, but two spiritual walls.  Have fear of God on the right, because the Prophet Daniel says, 'With fear of God, man is diverted from all evil.'  On the left have fear of death because the Son of Sirach says, 'Son, remember your end and you will not sin.'  These two good deeds --- fear of God and remembrance of death --- deliver a man from all sin."

Elder Cleopa Ilie (+1998)

Examine yourself to see whether you have within you a strong sense of your own self importance, or negatively, whether you have failed to realize that you are nothing.  This feeling of self-importance is deeply hidden, but it controls the whole of our life.  Its first demand is that everything should be as we wish it, and as soon as this is not so we complain to God and are annoyed with people.

Saint Theophan the Recluse

"People were not created merely to live here on earth like animals that disappear after their death, but to live with God and in God, and to live not for a hundred or a thousand years, but to live eternally." 
-- Bishop INNOCENT, Bishop of Kamchatka, the Kurilian and Aleutian Islands

The love of God is not taught.  No one has taught us to enjoy the light or to be attached to life more than anything else.  And no one has taught us to love the two people who brought us into the world and educated us.  Which is all the more reason to believe that we did not learn to love God as a result of outside instruction.  In the very nature of every human being has been sown the seed of the ability to love.  You and I ought to welcome this seed, cultivate it carefully, nourish it attentively and foster its growth by going to the school of God's commandments with help of His grace.

"The prince of this world blinds people who then walk like blind men, feeling their way and because of this they are constantly falling into one bog after another.  Science is fraud when its facts are taken as something absolute, for tomorrow's scientific knowledge will contradict today's; most art is a deliberate distortion; politics has always been full of deceit, lies, crimes.  Here everything must be understood in reverse---what they call life is but superficial, horrible pettiness, emptiness, lies with out end; in a word, it is the 'age of falsehood,' the kingdom of the prince of this world."

from Abbot Nikon: Letters to Spiritual Children

If you know the music the moment the violin string begins to vibrate, then you know how to navigate through the forest of brambles and entanglements with freedom and ease. If, on the other hand, you think that with practice the forest of brambles and entanglements will altogether disappear, then right from the beginning you are hopelessly entangled and won't find your way.

Listen!  God, Himself says, 'Call upon Me in the time of trouble so that I will hear thee and thou will praise Me'.  Afflictions confirm us in our faith, and teach us to set worldly glory at naught.  Believe firmly that no suffering or sorrow can visit us --- not a hair of our heads can fall --- with out God intending it.  Although we are always inclined to put down our misfortunes to the ill will or stupidity of other men, these are in reality, only tools in the hand of God; tools used to fashion our salvation.  Therefore take heart and pray to our Lord Who is always at work for our salvation, using to this end both what we call happiness and what we call sorrow.

"To yield and give way to our passions is the lowest slavery, even as to rule over them is the only liberty." 
-- St. Justin the Philosopher

"For if you change from inhumanity to alms giving, you have stretched fourth the hand that was withered.  If you withdraw from theaters and go to church, you have cured the lame foot.  If you draw back your eyes from a harlot ... you have opened them when they were blind ... These are the greatest miracles."

Saint John Chrysostom

Do not do anything without signing yourself with the sign of the Cross!  When you depart on a journey, when you begin your work, when you go to study, when you are alone, and when you are with other people, seal yourself with the Holy Cross on your forehead, your body, your chest, your heart, your lips, your eyes, your ears.  All of you should be sealed with the sign of Christ's victory over hell.  Then you will no longer be afraid of charms, evil spirits, or sorcery, because these are dissolved by the power of the Cross like wax before fire and like dust before the wind"
Elder Cleopa (+1998)
http://www.orthodox.net/articles/about-crossing-oneself.html

I need someone to protect me from all the measures they take in order to protect me.

You owe the companies nothing. You especially don't owe them any courtesy. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission; don't even start asking for theirs.

"Don't worry too much about how spiritually poor you are_God sees that,but for you it is expected to trust in God and pray to Him as best you can,never to fall into despair and to struggle according to your strength.If you ever begin to think you are spiritually_"well off"_then you can know for sure that you aren't!True spiritual life,even on the most elementary level,is always accompanied by suffering and difficulties.Therefore you should rejoice in all your difficulties and sorrows."

Father Seraphim Rose