St. Ignatius Brianchaninov: Spiritual life and guidance in these last days

 The divine word and the words of the Holy Fathers are limitless, like sand in the ocean. By studying them without laziness, we can give instruction to those who come to us. Or it would be more proper to say that it is not we who give the advice (we are not worthy) but the Holy Fathers themselves inspired by the Holy Scriptures. All the holy ascetic writers of the last few centuries maintain that because of the general diminution of Spirit-inspired guides, the study of the Holy Scriptures (especially the New Testament) and the Fathers - as well as the assiduous and constant following of their advice in one’s life and in the guiding of others - is the only path to spiritual progress, given by God to the monastics of the last days. St Nilus announced that he would reject any monk who did not want to live according to this rule.¹ It is that important; it is that essential!

+St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, from The Field: Cultivating Salvation, chapter 34.
¹The Rule of St. Nilus of Sora

St. Ignatius Brianchaninov: On the Beginning of the Spiritual Life

 Brother! If you have not yet sensed the union of mind, soul, and body, then practice attentive prayer, uniting the prayer of the lips - sometimes spoken, sometimes whispered - with the mind. Act according to the commandments of the Gospel, battling the passions with endurance and long-suffering, never slipping into despair or hopelessness when you are defeated by sinful thoughts or emotions. At the same time, do not allow yourself to be defeated easily. Having fallen down, stand up. If you fall again, stand up again, until you learn how to walk without tripping. The cup of infirmity has its uses; until a proper time, the providence of God allows it, so that the ascetic can be purified of pride, anger, remembrance of evil, condemnation of others, arrogance, and vanity. It is especially important to recognize the action of vanity within yourself and to rein it in. While it acts in you, you will not be able to enter the domain of the spiritual life, for [the] price of entrance is a lack of passionate attachments, which is a gift received after the coming of the peace of Christ.

+St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, from The Refuge: Anchoring the Soul in God, Chapter 16 The Prayer of the Mind, the Heart, and the Soul.

St. Ignatius Brianchaninov: The fear of God is a gift of God

 The fear of God is a gift of God. As a gift, it is given after being asked for in prayer. The holy prophet David desired to be found worthy of such a gift, and so he begged God, "O stablish Thy word in Thy servant unto fear of Thee... Nail my flesh [that is, my carnal desires] to the fear of Thee" (Ps 118:38, 120). The fear of God is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit that Prophet Isaiah listed so" "The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and godliness. The Spirit of the fear of God shall fill him" (Isa 11:2-3).

+St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, from The Refuge: Anchoring the Soul in God, Chapter 4, The Fear of God and the Love of God.

St. Ignatius Brianchaninov: On love of the will of God

 Blessed is the man whose entire will is in the keeping of God's law (cf Ps 1:2). Blessed is the heart that has ripened in the knowledge of God's will, that has seen that "that the Lord is good" (Ps 33:9), that has acquired this vision by tasting of the commandments of the Lord, and that has united its will with the will of the Lord. Such a heart is the blessed man. Blessed is the heart that is afire with divine zeal! Blessed is the heart that burns with the insatiable desire to do the will of God! Blessed is the heart that sweetly suffers beyond all endurance with the love of God! Such a heart is the place, home, bridal chamber, and throne of blessedness!

From the early morning, the eagle sits on the tip of a high crag. Its sparking eyes hungrily seek out prey. It rises into the blue sky, swims in the wide expanse on extended wings, and seeks its prey. And when it finds its prey, it becomes an arrow, a lightning bolt as it attacks; then it rises like an arrow again with its prey and disappears. Once the chicks are fed, the eagle again is on watch, either on the cliff or in the sky. Similar to this is the heart that is infected with the wound of incurable love of the commandments of God! In this love of blessedness. The commandments are not merely found in the doing. Within them is hidden, and through them is revealed, spiritual wisdom.

+St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, from The Refuge, Anchoring the Soul in God, Chapter 1

St. Ignatius Brianchaninov: The gift of prayer

The gift [of prayer] is given to those who humble and abase themselves before the greatness of the gift. The gift is given to those who renounce their own will and surrender themselves to the will of God. The gift is given to those who subdue and mortify their flesh and blood, who subdue and mortify the mind of the flesh by the commandments of the Gospel. Life dawns and rises according to the degree of our mortification. It comes unexpectedly, entirely at its own good pleasure, and then it completes and perfects the mortification begun voluntarily. Careless, especially self-willed proud and self-directed seekers of a high state of prayer are always sealed with the seal of rejection with the precision of spiritual law (Matt 22:12-14). The removal of that seal is very difficult, mostly impossible. Why? Because pride and self-confidence which leads to self-deception, to fellowship with demons and enslavement of them, do not allow us to see the wrongness and peril of our positions, do not allow us to see our woeful fellowship with the demons, nor our disastrous, fatal enslavement to them. "Clothe yourself first with leaves, and then when God commands bring the fruits."¹ said the fathers. First acquire attentive prayer. To one purified and prepared by attentive prayer, trained and qualified by the commandments of the Gospel and grounded on them, God - the all-merciful God - will give in His time the prayer of Grace.
+St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, from On the Prayer of Jesus, The Method of St. John of the Ladder

¹ St. Barsanuphius the Great and John the Prophet, Letters, Volume 1, Answer 325.