Saint Nikolai Velimirovich- On The Divine Marriage of the Souls of Men..

"Turn, O backsliding children says the Lord; for I am married to you"Jeremiah 3:14). 

 The soul of man is the bride and the Living and All-powerful God is the bridegroom of the soul of man. His bride, the soul, the Lord clothes in light and nourishes it with His Grace. And the soul, from God the groom, gives birth to good children and many children in the form of many and beautiful virtuous works. The soul, on its own, cannot give birth to one virtuous work. Only the soul made fertile by God, gives birth to virtuous works. However, the soul, made fertile by the world, either remains barren or produces sin and vice. That is why the Lord speaks to men: "I am married to you", so that the soul of man may know to whom it is betrothed and with whom it is wed in order that it would not stray and by adultery deaden itself and turn itself into ash.
God is a faithful groom of the human soul of men. He never betrays the bride, the soul. His love toward the soul never cools as long as the soul does not turn away from Him and does not commit adultery. But, even then, God does not abandon the soul immediately, but pursues it and returns it from the path of destruction. "Turn O backsliding children" the Lord then speaks to the souls of men. Repent and I will forgive you. Return and I will receive you. Penitents would know to say, how great is the mercy of God. They would be able to confirm how persistent the love of God is toward sinners, even to the last hour. God is faithful in His love and He is not swift to seek vengeance on the adulterous soul. He constantly tries to restore to the adulterous soul, the lost shame of sinning. Shame produces repentance and repentance leads to restoration and restoration leads to original love and fidelity.
O Lord, All-powerful, help us, that from your eternal love our souls may produce the good and abundant fruit.
To You be glory and thanks always. Amen.

Taken from Saint Nikolai Velimirovich's-"The Prologue of Ohrid"

Η Γερόντισσα Γαβριηλία μάς συμβουλεύει...

     Γερόντισσα Γαβριηλία

Χρειαζόμαστε υπομονή στα βέλη του πονηρού, επιμονή στο σπάσιμο του εγώ και υποταγή στο Άγιο θέλημα του Θεού. Μόνο μ'αυτά μπορούμε να προχωρήσουμε! Τα νεύρα είναι εγωισμός, γι'αυτό μόνο οι κομπλεξικοί θέλουν να επιβάλλονται... Όταν μιλάμε και μας διακόπτουνε να μην συνεχίζουμε. Θα πει ότι δεν έπρεπε να ακουστεί αυτό που θα λέγαμε. Το κάνουν οι Άγγελοι... Ένα πράγμα που δεν είναι ωραίο ούτε να το ξανασκεφτείς ούτε να το πεις σε κανένα... Να αγαπήσεις τον άλλον χωρίς να τον κρίνεις, όπως σου τον παρουσιάζει και όπως τον αγαπά Εκείνος. Τότε θα σε βοηθήσει ο Θεός και θα παραβλέψει τα δικά σου ελαττώματα...
  (Απόσπασμα από http://www.pentapostagma.gr/2011/01/blog-post_3761.html#ixzz1CR0UqlJU)

Γέροντας Εφραίμ Φιλοθεΐτης -Περί πόνων και θλίψεων

Saint Peter of Damaskos-On The Βenefit of Trials

SAINT PETER OF DAMASKOS

Just as sick people need surgery and cautery to recover the health they have lost, so we need trials, and toils of repentance, and fear of death and punishment, so that we may regain our former health of soul and shake off the sickness which our folly has induced. The more the Physician of our souls bestows upon us voluntary and involuntary suffering, the more we should thank Him for His compassion and accept the suffering joyfully.
For it is to help us that He increases our tribulation, both through the sufferings we willingly embrace in our repentance and through the trials and punishments not subject to our will. In this way, if we voluntarily accept affliction, we will be freed from our sickness and from the punishments to come, and perhaps even from present punishments as well.
Even if we are not grateful, our Physician in His grace will still heal us, although by means of chastisement and manifold trials. But if we cling to our disease and persist in it, we will deservedly bring upon ourselves age-long punishment. We will have made ourselves like the demons and so will justly share with them the age-long punishments prepared for them; for, like them, we will have scorned our Benefactor. 
 Taken from The Philokalia Vol3 ,Saint Peter of Damaskos Book 1 "A Treasury of Divine Knowledge"

Saint Peter of Damaskos-On Righteousness and Sin

 SAINT PETER OF DAMASKOS

Man stands at the crossroads between righteousness and sin, and chooses whichever path he wishes. But after that the path which he has chosen to follow, and the guides assigned to it, whether angels and saints or demons and sinners, will lead him to the end of it, even if he has no wish to go there. The good guides lead him toward God and the kingdom of heaven, the evil guides toward the devil and age-long punishment. But nothing and no one is to blame for his destruction except his own free will. For God is the God of salvation, bestowing on us, along with being and well-being, the knowledge and strength that we cannot have without the grace of God. Not even the devil can destroy a man, compelling him to choose wrongly, or reducing him to impotence or enforced ignorance, or anything else; he can only suggest evil to him.

Thus he who acts rightly should ascribe the grace of so doing to God, for along with our being He has given us everything else. But the person who has opted for the path of evil, and actually commits evil, should blame only himself, for no one can force him to commit it, since God created him with free will. Hence he will merit God's praise when he chooses the path of goodness; for he does so, not from any necessity of his nature, as is the case with animals and inanimate things that participate passively in goodness, but as befits a being that God has honoured with the gift of intelligence. We ourselves deliberately and wilfully choose to do evil, being coached in it by its discoverer. God, who is good beyond goodness, does not force us, lest being forced and still disobeying we should be even more culpable. Nor does He take from us the freedom that in His goodness He has bestowed upon us. 

Taken from The Philokalia Vol3 ,Saint Peter of Damaskos Book 1 "A Treasury of Divine Knowledge"