List of the most popular hashtags for theme #CHURCHFATHERS

'Hail, you who are highly favored, the Lord is with you' (Lk. 1:28)! Thus does the holy Church invoke the most holy Virgin, the Mother of God. But the Lord is also with every pious soul that believes in Him. The Lord's abiding with the Virgin Mary before she conceived the Savior is not a particularity proper to the most pure Virgin alone. The Lord is with every believing soul: 'The Lord is with you.' These words may be said to everyone who keeps the Lord's commandments. - St. John of Kronstadt

A man went into the forest to choose a tree from which to make roof-beams. And he saw two trees, one beside the other. One was smooth and tall, but had rotted away inside, and the other was rough on the outside and ugly, but its core was healthy. The man sighed, and said to himself: “What use is this tree to me if it is rotten inside and useless for beams? The other it is rough and ugly, is at least healthy on the inside and so, if I put a bit more effort into it, I can use it for roof-beams for my house.” And, without thinking any more about it, he chose that tree. So will God choose between two men for His house, and will choose not the one who appears outwardly righteous, but the one whose heart is filled with God’s healthy righteousness. - St. Nikolai Velimirovich

I long to give thanks, to give thanks every minute for everything that the Lord has given me. I long to bring Him my insignificant gratitude, serving Him and His suffering children. - St. Elizabeth the New Martyr

Let us see how the saints reached the Kingdom of Heaven. They did not have an easy life, but had to struggle in patience and great long sufferings. The Scriptures gave us the Commandments, and the saints left us their experience regarding the path leading to the Kingdom. Let us see how much they loved God. Let us contemplate their lives. We will realize that they lived in humility and meekness, in hard work, in struggle, in love for God and others, in vigilance and prayer, in addition to their manual labor. - Mother Irini, of blessed memory

Brethren, if we want to escape God’s punishment and find mercy in His eyes, let us sit every evening alone by ourselves and search our souls for what we presented to our guardian angel to offer before the Lord...Let it be beyond doubt that everyone of us – male or female- young or old, who was baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit has been assigned to a designated angel until the day of his death to report to Him everyday what his assigned individual has done by day or by night. - St. Shenouda the Archimandrite

When we start to wonder why God has failed to give us what we've prayed for, we can find ourselves falling into despondency. Caught up in trying to reach a goal, and failing, we can forget that it may not have been God's will for us from the very beginning. Relying on our own notion of what we need, we end up disappointed, disillusioned, and tend to blame God for not answering our prayers. Much of what we think we need is born from our own immaturity, for as we've focused on what we think we need, we fail to quietly surrender to the will of God, and fail to trust in the knowledge that God knows what we really need. We fail during such times to trust God, and surrender to His will for us. We forget that God knows what we really need, and fail to consider the long term good. When we quit struggling against the will of God we find the grace sufficient to prayerfully endure our trials, knowing that God allows that which is salvific for our souls. Like a loving earthly father, our God allows us to endure that which will make us strong, for we know God will lead us to victory over our fallen nature, and usher us into His Kingdom. We know that prayerfully enduring our trials we will become strong, and we will become more faithful children of the Most High. This kind of faithful living will lead us to know the truth of the words, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).” When we trust God, those moments of disappointment make sense, and the bigger picture is clearly set before us, and all despondency is dispelled. - Abbot Tryphon of All Merciful Savior Monastery

Give something, however small, to the one in need. For it is not small to one who has nothing. Neither is it small to God, if we have given what we could. - St Gregory of Nazianzus

In all that you require, supplicate the Lord with unceasing prayers during the Divine liturgy, for this is an opportune time. It is during the Divine liturgy that the doors of heaven are open. It is during this time that Christ is present in our midst, offering His Body and Blood in Holy Communion so that we may live and be granted the forgiveness of our sins. - St. Pope Kyrillos VI

The perfect humility of the saints is generated naturally in the soul by the performance of the commandments. [It is] just like a tree bearing much fruit: it is the fruit that bends the branches and lowers them down, but when there is no fruit, the branches point upwards and grow straight. There are certain kinds of trees which never bear any fruit as long as their branches stay up straight, but if stones are hung on the branches to bend them down they begin to bear fruit. So it is with the soul. When it is humbled it begins to bear fruit, and the more fruit it bears the lowlier it becomes. So also the saints; the nearer they get to God, the more they see themselves as sinners. - St. Dorotheos of Gaza