St. Maximus the Confessor

Orthodox Saints · Various centuries

  1. “You must love every man with your whole soul, but put your hope in the one God, and serve Him alone. For as long as He is protecting us and our friends (the angels) are helping us, our enemies (the demons) cannot inflict evil upon us. But when He forsakes us, then also our friends turn away from us, and our enemies receive power over us.”

    — Chapters on Love, 4.95

  2. “The purpose of God's Providence is to unite, by means of right faith and spiritual love, people who have been separated by evil. To this end the Savior also suffered for us, "in order to gather together the children of God who were scattered." (John 11:52)”

    — Chapters of Love, 4.17

  3. “Cleanse your mind from anger, remembrance of evil and shameful thoughts, and then you will find out how Christ dwells in you.”

    — Chapters on Love, 4.76

  4. “Food is not evil, but gluttony is. Childbearing is not evil, but fornication is. Money is not evil, but avarice is. Glory is not evil, but vainglory is. Indeed, there is no evil in existing things, but only in their misuse.”

    — Chapters on Love, 3.4

  5. “Inasmuch as you pray with all your soul for the one who has slandered you, so much will God reveal the truth to them who have believed the slander.”

    — Chapters on Love, 4.89

  6. “If you are remembering evil against someone, then pray for him; and as you remove through prayer the pain of the remembrance of the evil he has done, you will stop the advance of the passion. And when you have attained brotherly love and love for mankind, you will completely cast this passion out of your soul. Then when someone else does evil to you, be affectionate and humble toward him, and treat him kindly, and you will deliver him from this passion.”

    — Chapters on Love, 3.90

  7. “A soul that is nurtured by hatred toward man cannot be at peace with God, Who has said: If you forgive not men their sins, neither shall your Father forgive your sins (Matt. 6:15). If a man does not want to be reconciled, you must at least guard yourself from hating, praying with a pure heart for him, and speaking no evil of him.”

    — Chapters on Love, 4.35

  8. “In all of our deeds God looks at the intention, whether we do it for His sake, or for the sake of some other intention.”

    — Chapters on Love, 2:36

  9. “Do not disdain the commandment to love, for through it you become a son of God, and when you break it, you become a son of Gehenna.”

    — Chapters on Love, 4:20

  10. “Do not say that faith in Christ alone can save you, for this is not possible if you do not attain love for Him, which is demonstrated by deeds. As for mere faith: "The demons also believe and tremble" (James, 2:19). The action of love consists in heartfelt good deeds toward one's neighbor, magnanimity, patience, and sober use of things.”

    — Chapters on Love, 1.39-40

  11. “Whoever sees in himself the traces of hatred toward any man on account of any kind of sin is completely foreign to the love of God. For love toward God does not at all tolerate hatred for man.”

    — Chapters on Love, 1.15

  12. “Love is manifested not only through the distribution of one's possessions, but even moreso through the spreading of the word of God and helpful deeds.”

    — Chapters on Love, 1.26

  13. “A passion is a contranatural movement of the soul or an irrational love, or a blindfold hatred toward any material thing, or because of it: for example, for food, or for women, or for riches, or for worldly glory, or any other sensible thing; or for the sake of such things, as in a senseless hatred for someone on account of the things mentioned above.”

    — Chapters on Love, 2.16

  14. “Some passions are bodily, other spiritual. Bodily passions have their sources in the body, while spiritual ones come from external things. But love and temperance cut out both the one and the other: Love cuts out spiritual passions, and temperance bodily ones.”

    — Chapters on Love, 1.64

  15. “At first a simple thought about evil makes it into the mind, and if it is kept in the mind, then a passionate motion arises from it, and if you do not extirpate the passion, then it inclines the mind to agreement, and when this happens, it leads the mind to the commission of a sinful deed. [Guard your thoughts], for if you do not sin in thought, you will never sin in deed.”

    — Chapters on Love, 1.84, 2.78

  16. “Unclean spirits increase the passions in us, making use of our negligence, and inciting them. But the angels decrease our passions, inciting us to the perfection of virtue.”

    — Chapters on Love, 2:69

  17. “It is one thing to be delivered from bad thoughts, and another to be freed from the passions. Often people are delivered from thoughts, when they do not have before their eyes those things which produce passion. But the passions for them remain hidden in the soul, and when the things appear again the passions are revealed. Therefore it is necessary to guard the mind when these things appear, and to know toward which things you have a passion.”

    — Chapters on Love, 3:78

  18. “The mind of a man that loves God does not fight against things or thoughts about them, but against the passions that are connected with these thoughts. That is, he does not struggle against a woman, or against one who has insulted him, and not against the images of them, but against the passions that are aroused by these images.”

    — Chapters on Love, 3:40

  19. “Flee from self-love, the mother of malice, which is an irrational love for the body. For from it are born the three chief sinful passions: gluttony, avarice, and vainglory, which take their causes from bodily needs, and from them all the tribe of the passions is born. This why we must always oppose self-love and fight against it. Whoever rejects self-love will easily conquer all the other passions with the help of God: anger, despondency, rancor, and the others. But whoever is retained by self-love will even unwillingly be conquered by the above- named passions.”

    — Chapters on Love, 2.59, 8

  20. “There are lots of those who speak but few who do. However, no one should distort the word of God by his own negligence, but it is better to confess your own weakness, not hiding the truth of God, so that together with the breaking of the commandments you do not also appear guilty of an untrustworthy explanation of the word of God.”

    — Chapters on Love, 4:85

  21. “If an unexpected temptation comes, don't blame the one through whom it came, but seek out the reason. Thus you will find correction for your soul.”

    — Chapters on Love, 2.42

  22. “Temptations come on some people for the cleansing of previous sins, on others for the beautification of their current perfection, and on yet others, as preparation for things to come, except temptations which are for the increase of a man's faith and virtue, as it was with Job.”

    — Chapters on Love, 2.45

  23. “A man of discernment, meditating on the healing Divine Providence, bears with thanksgiving the misfortunes that come to him. He sees their causes in his own sins, and not in anyone else. But a mindless man, when he sins and receives the punishment for it, considers the cause of his misfortune to be God, or people, not understanding God's care for him.”

    — Chapters on Love, 2.46

  24. “Humility and suffering free a man from all sin; for the first cuts out spiritual passions, and the latter bodily.”

    — Chapters on Love, 1.76

  25. “A Christian receives divine wisdom in three ways: by the commandments, teachings, and faith. The commandments free the mind from passions. Teachings lead it to true knowledge of nature. Faith leads to the contemplation of the Holy Trinity.”

    — Chapters on Love, 4.47

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