St. Ignatius Brianchaninov: On Increasing the Grace of Baptism

 These are the means to increase the grace of baptism to boundless measure, inconceivable and implausible to the human mind in its fallen state:

1. Living by the commandments of the Gospel
2. Contemplating our own fallen nature
3. Contemplating the endless greatness and perfection of God
4. Comparing human nature - worthless in its limitations - with the limitless nature of God
5. Contemplating the consequences of Adam's sin and the consequences of our own sinfulness
6. Sorrowing over our calamitous spiritual state and that of all mankind
7. Enduring all personal troubles patiently.

The increase of the holy spiritual gift given by baptism is just as boundless as the gift given by God from His divine nature is boundless (see 2 Peter 1:4). This cultivation of the gift will overwhelm the entire being of a Christian. When we see this spiritual cultivation in the chosen vessels of God, then the effect of holy baptism on man, expressed by Christ in the parables of the Gospel, becomes completely obvious.

+St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, from The Refuge: Anchoring the Soul in God, Chapter 11, The Various States of Human Nature in Relation to Good and Evil.

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.

Father Arseny (Streltzof): The art of spiritual healing

 Father Seraphim never even mentioned the physical and spiritual help he was providing to other [Gulag] prisoners around him. He mostly talked about the importance of prayer for the soul of a man and for those around him. He spoke also about labor, but he never mentioned that he was helping others understand and make sense of their crooked ways. But I saw all this with my own eyes. I saw Father Seraphim - and perhaps you will think that I am overstating, but I think the image is right - as a restorer of souls who had been covered with dirt. Yes, he was a true restorer. Carefully, just like those who restore icons by removing layers of dried oil and dirt with a scalpel, taking care not to harm the original, Father Seraphim would carefully, gently approach a man and remove layers of sin from his soul, revealing first a small window of purity and then making this window bigger and bigger, and then finally clean up his whole soul. How careful you must be, how spiritually attentive to the injured soul not to harm it in trying to direct the man to the path of light. You must not hurt his pride, you must now show him how sinful he is - you could end up pushing him away so that he might think, "I am such a sinner that I cannot be saved!"

+Father Arseny (Streltzof), speaking of Hieromonk Seraphim, in Father Arseny A Cloud of Witnesses, chapter 12

St. Theophan the Recluse: On seeing all things spiritually

 A cause of our distracted state is constantly seeing and listening to things that prevent recollection. If this is checked, inner peace will be undisturbed. Obviously, the quickest way to achieve this would be to shut off all feeling, but not everyone can or ought to do this. So the holy Fathers devised a salutary remedy: It is to direct your sensitivity towards the things of the spirit. This fortifies it instead of letting it become distracted. This is accomplished by giving spiritual significance to everything - to the point at which a glance at an object will not bring an awareness of the object itself but of its spiritual interpretation. Whoever does this with everything he meets will grow in understanding. Light and darkness, man an beast, stones and plants, houses and fields, everything from great to small will be a lesson for him, and how salutary this can be.

His pupils once asked a staretz why he wept when he saw a beautiful but heavily made up woman. "I weep", he replied, "at the destruction of God's intelligent creation, but also I weep because I have not so much zeal for the salvation of my soul as she has for the spoiling of her body." And another elder who heard a woman; mourning at a graveside remarked: "That is the way in which Christians should mourn over their own sins.

+St. Theophan the Recluse, quoted in The Heart of Salvation, The Life and Teachings of St. Theophan the Recluse, Chapter 2, Spiritual Vision

St. Mark the Ascetic: On hearing Christ with gladness

 Every word of Christ shows us God's mercy, justice and wisdom, and, if we listen gladly, their power enters into us. That is why the unmerciful nd the unjust, listening to Christ with repugnance, were not able to understand the wisdom of God, but even crucified Him for teaching it. So we, too, should ask ourselves whether we listen to Him gladly. For He said: "He who loves Me will keep My commandments, and he will be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him" (cf. John 14:21). Do you see how He has hidden His manifestation in the commandments? Of all the commandments, therefore, the most comprehensive is to love God and our neighbor. This love is made firm through abstaining from material things, and through stillness of thoughts.

+St. Mark the Ascetic, from On Those who Think that They are Made Righteous by Works: 226 Texts, #223, in The Philokalia, volume 1.

Archimandrite Zacharias (Zacharou): Developing the hypostatic principle

 Every person has been created in a unique way and has his own unrepeatable path to salvation.... The hypostatic principle in man develops and becomes perfected in three main ways. Firstly, by invoking the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ; secondly, through the observance of His words and commandments; and thirdly, through participation in the mystery of the Divine Eucharist. All his life, the Elder [Sophrony] worked on this three-fold method of uniting man with God and would lead those who asked for his support onto this path.

+Archimandrite Zacharias (Zacharou), from Man, The Target of God, chapter 6, The Hypostatic Mode of Being.

St. Theophan the Recluse: Begin each day as if it were the first

 First of all, do not ever think that you have already succeeded in doing something. Our weakness is that when some tiny good shows itself inside of us, we immediately cry out, "There, I've done it!" Drive out such thoughts. For good never comes easily and all at once as the adversary suggests. If you yield to this suggestion, you energy will immediately weaken, and then discord will be close again. So that you do not fall under this evil thought, each day, when you get up, put yourself in such a frame of mind as if you were beginning to labor on this path for the first time.

+St. Theophan the Recluse, from The Spiritual Life and how to be Attuned to It, #44 Warnings to one on the True Path

St. Sophrony (Sakharov): Spiritual Strugge

 Sin begins with delectation and ends in tragic downfall. Deliverance from the power of sin over us starts with painful repentance but the end is - joyous victory. More than one have I heard people say, "I am ready to accept religion if it will bring me happiness". But they expect happiness from the very outset of their believing, which is not always possible. Yet the same people will put up with all sorts of difficulties to make a base for themselves for their striving after their daily bread, or for some advantage or other. Artists who would prefect themselves in their chosen field have to struggle even harder. Poets, painters, writers and musicians often willingly throughout their lives undergo every sort of deprivation for the wake of their art. So will the man who has been singled out for contact with the heavenly fire be even more prepared to endure all things.

+St. Sophrony (Sakharov), from We Shall See Him as He Is, The Bliss of Knowing the Way

St. Gregory of Nyssa: On Synergy in Christian spiritual growth

Enter the contests eagerly, since the gift of grace is measured by the labors of the receiver. For the grace of the Spirit gives eternal life and unspeakable joy in heaven, but it is the love of the toils because of the faith that makes the soul worthy of receiving the gifts and enjoying the grace. When a just act and grace of the Spirit coincide, they fill the soul into which they come with a blessed life;  but, separated from each other, they provide no gain for the soul. For the grace of God does not naturally frequent souls which are fleeing from salvation, and the power of human virtue is not sufficient in itself to cause the souls not sharing in grace to ascend to the beauty of life. For it says: "Unless the Lord build the house and keep the city, he labors in vain that builds it and watches in vain who keeps it" (cf Ps 126:1).
+St. Gregory of Nyssa, from On the Christian Mode of Life, in The Fathers of the Church Volume 58, St. Gregory, Ascetical Works.

St Maximos the Confessor: Stages of spiritual growth

Those who still fear the war against the passions and dread the assaults of invisible enemies must keep silent; in their struggle for virtue they must not enter into disputes with their enemies but through prayer must entrust all anxiety about themselves to God. To them apply the words of Exodus: "The Lord will fight for you, and you must be silent" (Ex 14:14). Those, secondly, who have been released from the enemy's attacks and who genuinely seek instruction in the ways of acquiring the virtues, need only to keep the ear of their mind open. To them Scripture says, "Hear O Israel" (Deut 6:4). Thirdly, those who as a result of their purification ardently long for divine knowledge may commune with God freely. To them it will be said, "What is it that you are calling to Me?" (Ex 14:15 LXX). Thus, he who is commanded to keep silent because of his fear should seek refuge in God; he who is commanded to listen should be ready to obey the commandments; and he who pursues spiritual knowledge should call ceaselessly to God, beseeching Him for deliverance from evil and thanking Him for communion in His blessings.
+St Maximos the Confessor, from First Century  on Theology, #30, in The Philokalia, Volume 2.