Narrow

“We ought to do everything we can for the acquisition of virtue and moral wisdom (phronesis), for the prize is beautiful and the hope great.
The path of virtue is a path of effort and toil: “Straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it;” whereas the gate of vice is wide and the way spacious, but lead to perdition.” – St. Nektarios of Aegina

St. Nektarios of Aegina

“We have within us deeply rooted weaknesses, passions, and defects. This cannot all be cut out with one sharp motion, but patience, persistence, care and attention. The path leading to perfection is long. Pray to God so that he will strengthen you. Patiently accept your falls and, having stood up, immediately run to God, not remaining in that place where you have fallen. Do not despair if you keep falling into your old sins. Many of them are strong because they have received the force of habit. Only with the passage of time and with fervor will they be conquered. Don’t let anything deprive you of hope.”

St. Nectarios of Aegina -“Path to Happiness”

Salvation

Two factors are involved in man’s salvation: the grace of God and the will of man. Both must work together, if salvation is to be attained.
St. Nektarios of Aegina

Prayer

Prayer is truly a heavenly armor, and is alone can keep safe those who have dedicated themselves to God. Prayer is the common medicine for purifying ourselves from the passions, for hindering sin and curing our faults. Prayer is an inexhaustible treasure, an unruffled harbor, the foundation of serenity, the root and mother of myriad’s of blessings.
St. Nektarios the Wonderworker of Aegina

If I may add to the Saint’s words with poor ones of my own, it is said by many that the closer one comes to the sun, the more like it one becomes. The same could be said to be true about many powerful and consuming things, fire being another. This absolutely applies to God. The closer one comes to Him, the more one becomes like Him. And so it only makes sense that if we struggle from illnesses and addictions that keep us far away from Him and His transfiguring proximity, then prayer -continual, heartfelt prayer-  will draw us closer to Him and heal us of our spiritual maladies. Will it take away all the problems we face in life? Maybe not. But when we have the Lord dwelling in our heart at all times, no suffering is truly painful and death has no sting. -Fr. P

A Christian must be courteous​…

“A Christian must be courteous to all. His words and deeds should breathe with the grace of the Holy Spirit, which abides in his soul, so that in this way he might glorify the name of God. He who regulates all of his speech also regulates all of his actions. He who keeps watch over the words he is about say also keeps watch over the deeds he intends to do, and he never goes out of the bounds good and benevolent conduct. The graceful speech of a Christian is characterized by delicateness and politeness. This fact, born of love, produces peace and joy. On the other hand, boorishness gives birth to hatred, enmity, affliction, competitiveness, disorder and wars.”
(St. Nektarios of Aegina, The Path to Happiness, 7)

Intent; Never give up!

“In the spiritual life we can do nothing worthy without repentance, but the Lord has much mercy on us because of our intentions. He who compels himself and holds on to repentance until the end, even if he sins is saved because he compelled himself, for the Lord promised this in the Gospel.” St. Mark the Ascetic

“Christians, have we understood the great responsibility that we have taken on before God through baptism? Have we come to know that we must conduct ourselves as children of God, that we must align our will with the will of God, that we must remain free from sin, that we must love God with all our hearts and always patiently await union with Him? Have we thought about the fact that our heart should be so filled with love that it should overflow to our neighbor? Do we have the feeling that we must become holy and perfect, children of God and heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven? We must struggle for this, so that we may not be shown unworthy and rejected. Let none of us lose our boldness, nor neglect our duties, nor be afraid of the difficulties of spiritual struggle. For we have God as a helper, who strengthens us in the difficult path of virtue.” St. Nektarios of Aegina

“…but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.” Mt. 10:22

My friends, God knows our hearts. He knows when we truly, deep down mean to do well but cannot. I tell people all the time: ” If you can, then you are commanded to do so. If you cannot then God -who is no ‘black and white’ genie- knows your heart, your intent, and is merciful. But if you certainly can, but will not, then the judgement is on you.

Addicts struggle with addiction their whole lives, and most of us who are addicted to sin struggle with the same sins forever. We cannot let the tenacity of the sin get us down. The fact that we are struglling is a good thing. We learn greatly by failure, the ups and downs, and it makes us stronger if we let it. God is there in those times, giving us the grace to become stronger through our weaknesses. And so we should never look at our failures as the end, as though we were completely doomed because of them. They are our cross, and they are what make us Christians.