St. Paphnutius Kephalas: On God's will and His providence

 What happens to us occurs either by God's will or by His permission. Only acts and events which contribute to God's glory are willed by Him. Her permits accidents and tribulations in order to correct us and to lead us to repentance, above all when, in our self-love, we refer the motivation of our good actions to ourselves instead of to God. He added: "It is impossible for anyone to fall without the permission of God and the preceding retreat of his Guardian Angel".

+St. Paphnutius Kephalas, from his entry for Feb 25 in The Synaxarion, volume 3.

St. Nektarios of Aegina: The nature of true repentance

 

True repentance is a change of mind for one’s actions, an alteration of one’s ethical life, a change toward the better, complete rejection of one’s previous life and sin, steadfast willingness to exercise virtue, complete unification of one’s own will With the Divine Will (i.e. the Divine Law). Therefore, repentance is an ethical rebirth of man and the starting point of a new, virtuous life.

A model for true repentance is given to us by the Prophet Isaiah who incites the Jews to repent and return

to God. This is what he says: “Wash you, be clean; remove your iniquities from your souls before mine eyes; cease from your iniquities; learn to do well; diligently seek judgment, deliver him that is suffering Wrong, plead for the orphan, and obtain justice for the Widow. And come, let us reason together, saith the Lord: and though your sins be as purple, I will make them white as snow; and though they be as scarlet, I will make them white as wool” (Isa. 1:16-18).

+St. Nektarios of Aegina, from Repentance and Confession, chapter 1

St. Nikolai Velimirovich: Our true humanity is found in doing God's will

 No single man on earth has ever been able to live by his own will and remain a man. "Man" cannot be synonymous with "self-will"; a man, a true man, means total submission to a higher will, the discerning and infallible will of God.

+St. Nikolai Velimirovich, from Homilies volume 2, Homily for the 32nd Sunday after Pentecost.

St. Innocent of Alaska: Will you do what Christ orders you?

 But if you love Jesus Christ and consider yourself grateful to Him, will you do what He orders you? Because whoever loves anyone, and Whoever feels grateful, will do everything he can to please his benefactor. But Jesus Christ wants from you only one thing: namely, He wants you to follow Him into the kingdom of heaven.

+St. Innocent of Alaska, from Indication of the Way into the Kingdom of Heaven, Chapter 1

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