Sayings of the Holy St. Theophan the Recluse

Sayings of the Holy St. Theophan the Recluse To pray is to descend with the mind into the heart, and there to stand before the face of the Lord, everpresent, all seeing, within you. Examine yourself to see whether you have within you a strong sense of your own selfimportance, or negatively, whether you have failed to realize that you are nothing. This feeling of selfimportance is deeply hidden, but it controls the whole of our life. Its first demand is that everything should be as we wish it, and as soon as this is not so we complain to God and are annoyed with people. If you examine your life well, you will find many instances when God showed His unmistakable mercy to you. Trouble was brewing, but it passed you by for some reason. God delivered you. Acknowledge these and thank God, Who loves you. The invincible weapon against all our enemies is humility. A soul untried by sorrows is good for nothing. The goal of human freedom is not in free