About Prayer
Pray and do as you wish. Love and do as you wish! Prayer is given to us as the only all-encompassing means to the salvation and perfection of the soul.
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St Mark the Ascetic wrote that the very act of prayer is a sign of our strength, while praying with a pure heart is a gift of God’s grace. So, let us sacrifice to God what we can, and His power will be added to our infirmity, helping our dry and scattered (although frequent and regular) prayer acquire the skill, turn into a part of our nature and become pure, bright, fiery and worthy.
About God’s Love for Us
The Lord is so close to all of us and loves us so much that he is always ready to help us. Therefore, when bad thoughts attack you; or if you feel anger or hatred, turn to the Lord and call out to the Mother of God, “Help me, o Sovereign Lady, for I am weak. I want to be kind, but I cannot. Help me!” Pray heartily and with tears. Just as a mother who runs as fast as she can when her child cries, the Lord loves us and will always help.
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The Lord has so much love and goodness; He cares about us so much that we should give our whole life to Him.
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How can we become closer to the Lord? Think more often about what He has done and is doing for you and then think of what you have done for Him. This will make you feel unworthy, and you will be ashamed to look at the cross and the image of the Lord Who shed His blood for us.
About a Mission from God
The Lord gives everyone a task; and we can fulfill it only when we have communion with Christ and become like Him. This will happen only if we show the love of Christ to others.
About Fear and Sorrow
A firm believer who lives his life by God has nothing to be afraid of.
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We refuse to bear various hardships and sorrows hurting our pride; we forget to thank the Lord Who sends them to help our spirit grow.
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Every Christian must be saving himself and lead others to salvation through faith, suffering, patience and obedience to the will of God. This calm endurance of suffering inspires others and leads them to Christ. We are always at enmity with others – this is not what true Christians are like.
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A true Christian and a firm believer is not afraid to cross himself when passing by a church, or to be noticed entering a church by his acquaintances.
About Christ
It is unthinkable what the Lord must have felt and what torments he endured when he was parting with His disciples, knowing how our flesh would rebel against us, and how we would neglect His Love; He departed from the earth and prayed to His Father for them. All His love was shown here, for He became our brother by taking our flesh upon Himself.
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The Lord is not angry even on the Cross; he stretches out his hands to us and calls us. Although we all crucify Him, He is love and is ready to forgive us everything. We often consider it normal to become irritated when we get tired and make all sorts of allowances for ourselves, forgetting that under any circumstances and no matter how tired or sick we are, we should always do as Christ commanded.
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Only the Lord can embrace everyone with love, and therefore we can love everyone only through Christ. The Lord loved man so much. Not only did he create him, he wanted to give him happiness, joy and bliss, He Himself has been his nanny and a loving mother … People have forgotten Him and departed from Him; He gave us His Son and He gave us heaven … “You have forgotten what heaven is; you have forgotten what kind of life is lived there. So, look and see that heaven is love.” The Lord has shown this to us, and in Him we saw it.
Translated by The Catalogue of Good Deeds
Source: https://pravlife.org/ru/content/pravednyy-aleksiy-mechyov-citaty-o-lyubvi-boga-k-nam-i-vzaimopomoshchi
