The pains of Love…Saint Isaac the Syrian

Be at peace with your own soul then heaven and earth will be at peace with you.The ladder that leads to the Kingdom is hidden within your soul… Dive into yourself and in your soul and you will discover the stairs by which to ascend.

St. Isaac the Syrian the Hesychast,Bishop of Nineveh

Commemorated on January 28

Paradise is the love of God…

Faith is the door to mysteries.

The knowledge of the Cross is concealed in the sufferings of the Cross. 

“Spread your cloak over the man who is falling and cover him. And if you cannot take upon yourself his sins and receive his  chastisement in his stead, then at least patiently suffer his shame and do not disgrace him“. Homily 51, Ibid ,no.165 in p.143 

A compassionate heart is one on fire for the whole of creation: for humanity, for birds, animals, demons, and all that exists … even our enemies, even the reptiles…

Those who are tormented in hell are tormented by the invasion of love. What is there more bitter and violent than the pains of love? Those who feel they have sinned against love bear in themselves a damnation much heavier than the most dreaded punishments. The suffering with which sinning against love afflicts the heart is more keenly felt than any other torment. It is absurd to assume that the sinners in hell are deprived of God’s love.Love is the offspring of knowledge of the truth which, as is commonly confessed, is given to all.The power of love works in two ways: It torments sinners, as happens here on earth when we are tormented by the presence of a friend to whom we have been unfaithful. And it becomes a source of joy to those who have been faithful. That is what the torment of hell is in my opinion: remorse (bitter regret ). But love inebriates the souls of the sons and daughters of heaven by its charm..

 The man who endures accusations against himself with humility has arrived at perfection. He is marveled at by the holy angels, for there is no other virtue so great and so hard to achieve.

Who does not love a humble and meek man? Only proud men and slanderers, who are foreign to his work.

Mysteries are revealed to the humble.

The cell of a solitary is the cleft in the rock where God spoke with Moses, as the Fathers say.

Paradise is the love of God, wherein is the enjoyment of all beatitude, and there the blessed Paul partook of supernatural nourishment.Until we find love, our labor is in the land of tares, and in the midst of tares we both sow and reap, even if our seed is the seed of righteousness.

The man who has found love eats and drinks Christ every day and hour and so is made immortal.Blessed is he who consumes the bread of love, which is Jesus!

Love is sufficient to nourish a man instead of food and drink. This is the wine ‘which makes glad the heart of man.’ Blessed is he who partakes of this wine!Licentious men have drunk this wine and felt shame; sinners have drunk it and have forgotten the pathways of stumbling; drunkards have drunk this wine and became firm in virtue; the rich have drunk it and desired poverty; the poor have drunk it and been enriched with hope; the sick have drunk it and become strong; the unlearned have taken it and been made wise.

Do not approach the words of the mysteries contained in the divine Scriptures without prayer and beseeching God for help, but say: Lord, grant me to perceive the power in them! Reckon prayer to be the key to the true understanding of the divine Scriptures.

Worldly glory is a reef in the sea covered by water;

These short quotes have been taken,

 https://blakemb.wordpress.com/pearls-of-saint-isaac-the-syrian/

Apolytikion of Isaac the Syrian. Plagal of the First Tone

He that thundered on Sinai with saving laws for man hath also given thy writings as guides in prayer unto monks, O revealer of unfathomable mysteries; for having gone up in the mount of the vision of the Lord, thou wast shown the many mansions. Wherefore, O God-bearing Isaac, entreat the Saviour for all praising thee.

Apolytikion of Isaac the Syrian © Holy Transfiguration Monastery – Brookline, MA

 https://iconandlight.wordpress.com/2015/01/27/5686/