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.

Abbot Tryphon (Parsons): Determining our priorities

 The way to determine whom or what you love the most is to see where your loyalties lie. When you face a choice between God and anything else, what is your choice? Do you choose to attend church on Sunday, or do you choose to sleep in? Do you prioritize you life around your relationship with God, or do sporting events, vacations, family outings, entertainment, or friends take center stage? Do prayer, reading the Bible, serving others, financially supporting the Church and its mission, and giving alms serve as your central theme, of do you choose personal gain and pleasure as central to your life?

+Abbot Tryphon (Parsons), from The Morning Offering, entry for January 4.

Tito Colliander: The Transfer of Love from Self to Christ

If we move out of our self, whom do we encounter? asks Bishop Theophan. He supplies the answer at once: We meet God and our neighbor. It is for this very reason that denying oneself is a stipulation, and the chief one, for the person who seeks salvation in Christ: only so can the center of our being be moved from self to Christ, who is both God and our neighbor.
This means that all the care, concern and love that we now lavish on ourselves is then quite naturally and without our noticing it transferred to God and thereby to our fellowmen.
+Tito Colliander, from Way of the Ascetics, Chapter 7 On the Transfer of Love from the Self to Christ.