Orthodox Christian Life: Selected Sayings of Mother Gabriel

"Never expect anybody to understand you. Only God."
Selected sayings of Mother Gabriel from the book: "Mother Gabriel, The Ascetic of Love"

Mother Gabriel

Any place may become a place of Resurrection, if the Humility of Christ becomes the way of our life.
You may sleep, as long as you are in a state of watchfulness.
There are some who stay awake for a few, and some who stay awake for all.
Orthodox spirituality is knowledge acquired through suffering rather than through learning.
Do not wish for many things, whether they are within or out of reach. Instead, take care to sanctify the little you have.
To learn how to love God: this is the one and only Education.
There is nothing cheaper than money.
Better Hell in this world than in the other.
It is not what we say, but what we live. It is not what we do, but what we are.
I put on the Rasson (Monastic habit) and I do not speak unless I am asked. The Rasson speaks.
If you have love for all the world, the whole world is beautiful.
Someone said that a Christian is he who purifies love and sanctifies work.
Our purpose should be to have the Paraclete in our heart, even when we have the... Parasite in our head.
We become a reflection of Heaven by saying: 'Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven'.
He who loves is not aware of it, as he is not aware of his own breathing.
When doors are open in Heaven, they are also open on Earth.
When the mind is not distracted by worldly matters and remains united to God, then even the 'Good day' that we say becomes a blessing.
By saying 'no' and by refusing, we forfeit our purpose.
We must not 'exist' in the presence of the other person, who is God's 'image and likeness'.
In the early steps of our life we need the presence of someone we love. As we advance, the One, God, fills us with His Love and Joy so much that we no longer need anyone. The soul does this at the beginning because she does not know yet Whom she loves, and thinks it is this or that person.
Many times what God expects from us is the intention rather than the act itself. Our readiness to follow His Commandment is enough for Him.
Jesus Christ gave us the golden mean: both alone and with others.
When God created us, He gave us Life and breathed His Spirit into us. This Spirit is Love. When love deserts us, we become as dead as corpses. We are not alive any more.
A Christian must have reverence for the Mystery of Existence in everyone and everything.
To reach the state of non-existence, love and love and love until you identify yourself completely with the Other One, whoever this may be at the time. Then, at the end of the day you may ask yourself: Is there anything I want? No. Is there anything I wish 'No. Is there anything I lack' No... So, that's it!
The spiritually advanced person is the one who has reached a state of "non-existence" and has deeply understood that whatever happens to him is either because God Wills it or because God Permits it.
True inner progress begins only when a person stops reading anything but the Gospel. It is only then that, united with God through the Jesus Prayer, he can hear God's Will.
Never wish for anything but the Will of God and accept with love any trials that may come your way.
Never identify a person with the wrong way in which he is treating you, but see Christ in his heart.
Never ask: "Why has this happened to me" 'When you see somebody suffering from gangrene or cancer or blindness, never say: "Why has this happened to him"' Instead, pray God to grant you the vision of the other shore... Then, like the Angels, you will be able to see things as they really are: Everything in God's plan. EVERYTHING.
A wise man said: If you are to live only for yourself, it would have been better if you had not been born.
A person's most vulnerable spot is found in much talking and discussing.
To be meek is to wish never to have a guilty conscience.
When thoughts of passing judgment on another person cross your mind, pray God to take them away at once, so that you may love this person as He does. Then God will help you see your own faults. If Christ were visible, could you have such thoughts?
If you do not like somebody, think that you see Christ in that person. Then, you would not even dare utter a word of criticism.
We must love people and accept them in our hearts as God presents them to us. It has been thus ordained by the Lord Himself and by the Orthodox Tradition.
No one should become the servant of another man. We are only servants of God. 'For ye are bought with a price', says the Apostle (1Cor.6:20). Therefore, there should be no servility in human relations.
What we say remains in Eternity.
Only when you are perfected in Love can you reach the state of Dispassion (Apatheia).
Only those who act without true love face adversities.
The faculty of judgment (Krisis) comes naturally to man. Criticism (Katakrisis) and reproval spring from malice. Discernment (Diakrisis) is a gift from God and we should pray for it. It is essential to our protection and progress.
The life of the Church extends beyond moral discipline and religious duty. It is the transcendence of Morality to Spirituality.
An irresolute person does not participate in life.
When we must be helped, God will send someone to us. We are all fellow-travellers.
The voice of God is silence.
Whoever lives in the Past is like a dead man. Whoever lives in the Future in his imagination is naive, because the Future belongs to God. The Joy of Christ is found only in the Present, in the Eternal Present of God.
Our destination is to worship God and love our fellow-men.
We find happiness and peace only by living according to God's Commandments.
The most essential act of Philanthropy is to speak well of our fellow-men.
I could not get worried, even if I tried. When we worry it is as if we say to God: "I do not agree. You don't do things right". Besides, this is sheer ingratitude.
To speak in the presence of Beauty is superfluous. It disturbs its harmony.
Through the invocation of the name of Christ, we batter our Ego.
It is the oil-lamp of our soul that must be always lighted, burning forever.
We are the first to feel the joy we give to others.
Better a prayer of the lips than no prayer at all.
Let God intervene between you and your purpose, instead of letting your purpose intervene between you and God.
The agony of dying is the effort made by the soul to free herself and run towards the Lord.
Correspondence is the only way that combines solitude and company.
Miracle is the normal course of events according to God's Will. What we call a Miracle is only what is natural to God.
If we meet with an adversity, let us not ask who is to blame. Because the blame is only ours. We shall find the reason if we ask for it in our Prayer: perhaps we have not loved enough, or we have disobeyed another Commandment, or we have mishandled the situation, or we have moved faster than we should, or we have relied on the wrong person.
When we lose something, let us say: 'In this manner, Lord, deliver me also from any evil thought I may have for my neighbour'.
Anxiety is for those who have no Faith.
Love is only on the Cross.
Human relationships become difficult when the "I" stands above the "You".
God loves your enemies as much as He loves you.
Do you want to Pray? Prepare yourself to meet the Lord in secret.
By God's Permission some people become instruments of the Power of Darkness for our own testing and progress.
You must not get upset, because a restless heart drives away all Help.
If one can live in the world and yet not mix with it - just as the oil and water do not mix in the oil-lamp - then he can live in God. He is in this world but not of this world.
We are all vessels, sometimes of Light and sometimes of Darkness.
Keep your mouth shut in the hour of crisis, when a problem is acute. Do not say anything, because you may regret it a thousand times. Instead, tell it to the Angels so that they may place it at the Lord's Feet, and pray the Lord for an Angel of Peace to calm your soul.
Sometimes people ask for your advice or instruction, so that they may put the "blame" on you afterwards if things go wrong. Quite probably though, whatever you say will be ignored, in which case it will all be a waste of trouble.
When the 'I' breaks and becomes 'You' and the 'You' also breaks so that they may both become 'He', then we all become 'His'.
If you ever feel fear in your heart, close your eyes and say the Jesus Prayer: 'Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon me'...
Only when we are still, do we give the Angels an opportunity to do something.
Do what you must do, and God will do what He must do.
When you feel a fluttering in your heart, a deep yearning for something, this will come true after a lapse of time determined by God.
We ourselves cannot get rid of any of our faults. He takes them away from us, one by one.
We should ask God everyday to break our will and make it His, so that we may become as He wants us to be.
We must not 'surrender' to His Will. This is what soldiers do. We, who are His Children, must offer Him our own will along with all our being - in whatever pitiful state we may be - and tell him: "Lord, take all my faults and imperfections and set them right."
The Grace of God comes when we raise our hand. It is Faith that draws God's Grace to us. God is 'pouring down' His Grace, but where is the hand reaching out to receive it? Instead, we are wearing hats or carrying umbrellas...
If a foreigner speaks evil of Greece and the Orthodox Faith, do not identify the man with his words. Still, never speak to him about such significant events like the discovery of Holy Relics and other miraculous things that happen here.
You must not talk about persons who are absent.
We live in Vanity, and believe that this is life. How pitiable we are!
O Lord! Forgive us if we sometimes walk in pride, like little cockerels that think they are great.
Poor human beings! We consider the perishable as Immortal and the Immortal as non-existant.
Poor onion! It also offers what it can.
How beautiful is the 'Mystery', the 'Sacrament' of Tomorrow!
A person takes his lesson only once. If he does not learn the first time, it means that there is something wrong in his subconscious which prevents him from doing so.
The Lord said: Whoever wants something, believing, he will receive - As long as the request is in accordance with God's Commandments, that is to say, with Love.
Do not deny others the crumbs falling off your table from the Bread of Life which is given to you whole by the Lord. So many hunger and thirst for Love, like Lazarus who fed on the crumbs falling off the table of the rich man.
We have no right not to reflect the Light of the Lord. Nothing should be left in the shade, 'under the meal-tub'.
Everything has two sides, like a two-edged knife. What creates today, destroys tomorrow. 'Let him understand, he who may understand'.
Some of the sailors on a ship may quarrel and fight each other, but the ship sails on and reaches its destination. The same is true of the Church, because Christ Himself is at the helm.
If you knew that you are not Here, you would be There.
Love alone is enough to make a miracle happen. Neither Prayer nor the Komboskini (Prayer rope) have such power.
Experience has taught me that no one can help anyone, no matter how strong his wish and love may be. Help comes only in the Hour of God, from the One.
We are useful only when we do not exist for ourselves. And vice versa.
We must not take decisions on behalf of others. We should leave this to the Angels for they always find the best solution.
Like Simon of Cyrene, we must be always ready to rush to the help of our fellow-man.
If you seek assistance from someone who is busy, he will do it for you, not the indolent and the lazy.
Woe to me if I do not love.
Three things are needful. First Love, Second Love, Third Love.
The fasting of a diet is so easy when one wants to slim. And so difficult is the Wednesday and Friday fast when the Church wants it.
In the Church we should always sit in the same place, for the Angels.
After the Liturgy, we should sit in the Church so long as we can, for the Angels
When we are talking and someone interrupts us, we should not continue. It means that he should not hear that which we would have said. The Angels do thus.
He who does not want to see anybody is not human.
Nowhere are we ‘forever'. (We are never anyplace "forever".)
Whatever happens to us is only our own fault.
Every morning, on the new page we open, we sign the blank. Whatever God wills, let Him write. (Every morning open a new page and put your signature on the blank. Whatever God wants, let Him write.)
When we pray we should lock our door.
If you do not reach the point of despair, you will never see the Light.
Be still and know...There is no greater school than this kind of stillness of the mind.
The only true joy is freedom from worry.
Just as you cannot get very close to the sources of great rivers because of the noise of the waters, and you cannot talk or hear, so you cannot get close to the source of life and love, which is God. And only from a distance can you receive the warmth, the energy, the power and the "water" which He gives you, to conduct it in your turn.
Like a little bird who, when the branch he is standing on breaks, doesn't worry but opens his wings and flies, so our faith and hope in God give us the strength and joy to fly when the twig breaks beneath our feet.
The more closed is the door of our cell, the more open the gate of heaven.
When somebody sets out to spoil our joy, we should remember within ourselves that God loves us.
You should be with people as you are with Christ; just as if He were present, and then you will not get upset about anything or with anybody.
The more we take things and problems to heart, the more we show our pride and lack of faith.
Someone truly humble does not get upset, because whoever gets upset starts off with judgement, with condemnation and rebellion.
The libraries and lecture halls are always full; but what saint has ever come from them?
Our intellectual cultivation is done in the heart. That is an intellectual person. Not somebody educated, as many think.
There is something called Christian self-respect. Because the Christian knows that he is a brother of the Prince of Glory and a son of the Father. Because of this it is not allowed in his presence for others to talk in an unseemly way or to condemn people present or absent.
God our Father Himself takes us by the hand and takes us to testing. For our purification and perfection. That is why God the Son has taught us to pray to Him, "and lead us not into temptation".
Christ said to us: Go and make disciples of all nations. And we - hushing up - what do we do?
If you love the Lord, then you have patience towards His will. If however you have patience without love, then you are like a soldier of Hitler's. Nothing more.
Condemnation, mockery, contempt, hypocrisy, saying "Yes, but..." - these are the weapons of the weak man who has failed in what he wanted to do in his life and his destination before God.
Our Lord gave as an example of freedom from care, not people but the birds of heaven.
When you don't seek anything, and when whatever God gives you, you give it all away... that is love.
When we ask somebody to pray for us to obtain such and such a virtue, we should also pray the same, for in this case, our prayer is the best.
We need patience under the darts of the evil one, persistence in the breaking of our ego, and submission to the holy will of God. Only with these can we progress.
Never take part in a discussion where someone is being condemned or even simply gossiped about.
Often His will does not seem to us either just, or convenient or pleasant. But when we see that behind this is a mountain, the mountain of His love, then we see that things could only have been thus; harmonized in God.
The greater your faith in the heavenly, the less you get upset about the earthly.
What makes us upset is the sense of wrong that we have when we think we have been wronged. But what we see as wrong, God regards as the greatest school for the progress of our souls.
Never rely on something somebody tells you. Find out for yourself.
We must know when to be quiet, and when to leave where we are.
The more we discuss something that happens, the more it stays in our lives, whereas in the normal course of events it would leave at the right time.
When I have Christ as my head, how can I put my head under a human head?
In the Bible you will not find the word "duty".
Do not discuss with anyone anything not related to God, and you will always be quiet.
Better to be dumb than stupid.
When we say that somebody is "sensitive", this means he suffers because his ego is hurt and because he is proud. The same happens with children, who as soon as somebody scolds them or opposes them, immediately start crying. This is not permissible for a person of God. The saints didn't have pride, and whatever people did to them they accepted it because they had humility and meekness. In this case the soul is not "sensitive", is not offended; it has love, dispassion...
When I am united with Christ, who will separate me? Is there another person? Only somebody outside of here... in which case let him stay where he is!
Illness always comes along with spiritual experiences to a person who is in a position to grasp them.
We all think that we are right. That is why we think that all our deeds are rightly done. But unfortunately, just as the Truth is One, so also the Right is One... but we are not in a position to discern.
If we don't stumble, we don't progress. We should thank God that we don't break an arm or a leg into the bargain.
If you want to do something, don't advertise it. It will "materialize" in words and will no longer need to materialize in reality too. Keep it secret until the last moment - from everybody!
We should every day be spectators of the miracles of God.
When you spontaneously say something about God, this is from God. On the other hand when it becomes "preaching", then it is the ego leading the way. In the first case the seed catches, in the second it does not.
Where there is no respect for the person, there is none for God either. And the other way round.
If people had two things, readiness for change and "yes" to that spiritual person who loves them and who they trust, then the blessing of God would come upon them. This is why wherever there is obedience, God's blessing comes and the miracle happens.
After obedience there comes, at the time appointed by God, direction from above.
The most powerful prayer is the Epiclesis (Invocation) of the Holy Liturgy.
We cannot have one foot here and the other there. God wants us whole. So when we say that we belong to God and that we love Him, how can we and how dare we not be a hundred per cent His?
Only on His own does the Lord bring blows. So that they wake up and become conscious and repent.
He who does not lose, does not find.
Love is a bomb that destroys all evil.
Never say that it is too late, even if you have fallen very low...
We should always say "Thank God for our existence." Thank God for the existence of the other. This is the true thanksgiving God wants.
We must guard against the feeling of ownership.
Never let the other understand that he has hurt you.
When we have doubt about some stance that we ought to take, we should ask our conscience, not only ourselves. And always take the position of the other.
We must never betray the truth which we feel in ourselves. Not for anybody. Not for any situation. Perhaps that is why you see me here today and there tomorrow. But rather than betray the voice of God within me, I prefer to be homeless and a beggar.
Never leave anywhere of your own accord. No, no, no! If the other does not drive you away, don't leave.
If I had the possibility I would do special "caprices" to whoever doesn't have means... Not charity.
The other day a lady asked me what would happen with the 'toll booths' after death. I said to her, " I will tell them the Light of Christ shines to All! You however are in darkness and I don't see you!"
The over-aged and the under age have the same problem in this world... As soon as you pass a certain age, they tell you: "Ah, now he will fall ill and what are we going to do - shall we treat him? Don't move, don't do this, don't do that." Just for their own sake, so that they don't have to treat you. Not for yours!
The greatest part of my prayer here and for years now is Thankgiving. What else should I ask, when I have everything?
It is not the Abbot's fault when he is strict. It is the fault of our own conscience. Because whatever fearful sin we may have committed, we have to tell it. On the other hand when the Ego in capital letters holds us back, the other gets strict.
He who honours somebody else, is essentially honouring Christ who is in him. That is how it works. And when we ourselves give others an honour or a position, we are really honouring the Lord who we have within us and who every person has.
Whatever you eat and whatever you drink after the Table, make the sign of the cross over it and say to yourself, "For healing of soul and body".
Even if personally we have no sorrow of our own, we see the sorrow in the world and sorrow over it. But if people do not have faith we cannot do anything.
God put the senses in the head. Why? Do you know? So that we can not see ourselves. Yes! So that we see only the other and love only the other. And so that we see ourselves only in the eyes of the Other.
You should have continual conversation with your guardian angel. About everything. Especially in difficulties and when you cannot get across to someone. He always helps.
Two things are very important... "Love one another," and "Fear not, only believe."
Saint Paul himself says, "After one or two admonitions, give up." Finish! You have said what you ought, you have helped the person as much as you have been able. From that point on, you pray for him and sit quietly and look at your own wretchedness.
In the end we have been teaching the universe, while leaving ourselves as they are, to have fun!
If coal is not "beaten", can it become diamond?
Don't forget at the "Dynamis" in the Divine Liturgy to cross your head and your whole body... whatever you ask at that moment is heard. It is a very powerful moment.
In our lives, if we look carefully, we will see that we learn lessons both from positive things and negative. Whoever we find ourselves with, even within just a few moments.
"Bad temper" is egoism.
Looking after is one thing and love another.
Instead of asking "Does this person love me", it is better to say "I love this person". Then everything changes. The Apostle Paul put it so beautifully.
Hour after hour I think my heart is going to break from love.
Only people with an inferiority complex want to always be bossed around.
Love is always on the cross. Because Christ is on the cross.
When I want to feel sorry for somebody, do you know what cheers me up? I say, "I love him that much; God loves him ten thousand times more. He will be fine!"
True fasting is to cease from all badmouthing, self-interest, seeing the mote in the eye of our brother, judging another's servant...
When one is alone with God, the time passes unimaginably quickly. More quickly than when you have companionship... And yet even within the world one can remain united with God. How? When whatever he is doing he directs his thoughts to Him... when whatever good comes his way he gives Him glory... and whatever testing he meets, he gives Him thanks.
I find the faith of the centurion very moving.
This is our purpose on earth. To try and live in the Kingdom of God, here. For how can we come and leave without sensing paradise here? We have fallen from paradise, but if we do not return to it here, how will we win it there?
If someone really believes, he can never take part in the vices or illegal things that we see every day. For anybody who does them, has not believed in God, has not lived Him in their souls. But as soon as they believe in Him, they will watch his miracles every day.
Be careful of people who want to upset you and then to ask forgiveness. They take double satisfaction. They have upset you, and you have forgiven them.
That which the world calls co-incidences, I call meetings.
The world is even "smaller" for those who God intends to meet.
Here you have an earthly father and mother and you feel so beautiful. How much more when you know that the Omnipotent is protecting you!
All those who research and "see" the future, see everything badly, coldly and upside down. That is to say, can't they see anything good? Nothing? Well, then of course they suffer evil, They attract evil by their thought.
In the evenings, in my prayer I say to my angel, "Take my soul even tonight and put it at the feet of Christ to be perfected throughout the night, and in the morning may I find it better!"
Never accept anything from a rich person. From someone who struggles to make a living or a poor person yes, with much gratitude.
The truth is One and that is Christ.
Many troparia describe the Nativity of Christ in such a way that we could forget that the Virgin conceived supernaturally. How I like the Nativity in the Perivleptos monastery in Mystras and the painting of Gyzis...
You should think about and see only the light. Everything else is just parentheses, which should not leave so much as a trace on you.
We often hear, "I met this man, or this woman, and my life changed"... and we see that in the end nothing has changed. No life. Why?
We come to monasticism like those sharp rocks from a quarry which are all corners and protrusions. Gradually by the grace of God we become like the pebbles in a river or on the shore which are round and smooth.
To equalize our freedom and our autonomy and so that we may always have a sure conscience, the holy Apostles and the Fathers of our Church gave us a guide. And thank God for that... Because the moment you ask, whether in the middle of rocky ground, up on a mountain, in a street which you don't know, suddenly there you are... with two words he comes and gives you your answer and then you know that you are all right now.
I have simply been something for your preparatory steps. If you do not stick fast to Christ and the Church, then you will be lost, even if in your minds you think of a person. Woe betide him who instead of going to Christ goes to a person.
The hour when you make the step, either you do it alone or you are lost for the rest of your life.
Nobody can live in both this world and the next. Either he will fall ill periodically or he will die prematurely. You cannot live in two worlds. It is not possible.
I like it when we say "Bless the Lord my soul" and then afterwards the Beatitudes, instead of "Through the intercessions" and "Save us". That is how it used to be in Constantinople.
Those who see people in the world do not cease to be human. They keep their humanity...
You can not avoid pointless "chats" unless your thought is elsewhere. But this takes a lot of practice. Especially when the surroundings are friendly and dear to you.
Christ said, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do". But, who is it that does not know what he is doing? A madman. You understand?
When it is in God's programme for you to go somewhere, you will go. That is why I am generally quiet in life. I have observed that even if a person does not want to, God moves him.
A woman who had been widowed said to me, "Why would God take away from me my family?" And I said to her, "Why don't you ask why He left him to you for so long?" "Well OK, but there are so many who live." "But also, how many who die as soon as they get married. Have you ever asked that question? You should give yourself to some kind of work now, to forget."
When God wants to help someone, He can create "children of Abraham" from these stones. If it wasn't you, it would be somebody else. You were the impersonal delegate of God. Woe betide you if you think one day that this someone should owe gratitude to you! If he comes and thanks you, say that you ought to thank God, because He would undoubtedly have sent somebody anyway to help them. He sent you, consequently you ought to thank him, and be grateful to God for sending you.
Nobody "exists" unless he wants to exist.
Some people want to go to the Resurrection without passing by way of Gologatha.
Because the Christians could not put in practice the Gospel while living in the world, they fled. That's how they became the first monastics.
Only people of God, who don't make compromises, recognize each other.
My wishes: may the grace of our Christ, the love of the omnipotent Father and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit be with you! May your example be the life of the Mother of God, who will lead you at every step with her archangels and angels as your heavenly mother; that you love your mother who brought you into life and brought you up, and may you give love and joy first to her, and then to all who come near you.
True prayer always reaches heaven. The angels carry it to the right place and the answer comes. Its basis is Truth, and "Not My will, but that of the Father Who sent me."
Egoism is self-protection. A Christian's security should be divine protection.
We all help ourselves in helping others. Some indirectly, some directly.
The Lord said, "Forgive your enemies." It is incomprehensible for us not to forgive our brothers, so He didn't mention it. What right has a person not to forgive a person? If he doesn't, he is inhuman.
Love is not taught. It is given from above when we ask with recocognition of our egoism, which we want to shatter.
Do you want everything to happen as you want it? Accept everything and everybody either as His will, or as His concession.
To remember the other is an expression of love.
And so the passer-by and traveller that the love of God has granted me to be, continues on the way towards what is unknown to people but known to the Lord...
To a novice: Be simple. Talk to everybody. Let your spirituality be seen in your simplicity.
No saint ever knew that he was a saint.
If you do not get rid of "No" and "Tomorrow" from your life, you will never get to where the Lord wants you, Who grants you everything. He will give you the bodily strength when you answer "Yes" and "Now". The prophets, the angels and the saints all said, "Behold here I am... Let it be according to Your word."
Not as you knew, but as you found.
Every person is 'sent'.
Our influence, whether for good or for ill, takes the other person away from the destination that God has for him. He has to realize it by himself. This is why we have to be very careful.
The gifts of the Spirit are not of course individual achievements...
What we don't see, doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. And what we don't hear, doesn't mean that it does not speak.
As one of the ancients said, "don’t be deaf to your personal “demon” "
Truth and light are synonymous.
The sermon on the mount and the epistle of Saint James. Every day! What a pity that we do not hear them more often...
When you follow the truth you are in the light, you are with Christ. He himself said, "The truth will make you free". But from who? From your own self! From passion. And then, no power will be able to enslave you because God Himself will help with His power.
Our souls are Divine Breath. Our body is His Creation. In the whole of us we are the icon of God.
I am under obedience to HIM. I live and exist for Him.
Before the Lord prayed... "Lifting up His eyes to heaven..."
Do not darken your mind with the various heresies and para-religions and masonries. All these are in the "Basket of Vanity".
The Lord allows those who love Him to be tested, first, so that their faith in Him may grow stronger, and second, to set an example for those around.
Don't forget in Church to always light a candle "for the sick and for travellers".
Say prayer-ropes also just with "Thank you".
Have a Cross in the door and window of your cell. It should be wooden like the one we wear.
We can recognize a person who has spiritual experiences only by the way he lives and behaves. For these experiences direct his life.
No fear any person.
It is easier to sacrifice youself for those you love than to live with them.
Love means to respect the freedom of the other.
You only feel free when you are locked up.
Two things: care, and prayer.
Mildness and meekness are the weapons and the marks of a spiritually strong person. He "understands" everything and forgives everything.
We should not become Judases, nor give the Holy Things to the dogs... I mean the supernatural mysteries that happen within the sanctuary. It says in the hymn, "Not to your enemies..."
The angels always come.
We can all give joy. One by coming, and another by leaving.
When we are passing through a dark tunnel, we never imagine that the other end will take us to the light. We fall into despair, and see everything black and dark. The same in life. The light of Christ is waiting for us at the other end. And saying to us, as He said to Saint Peter, "You of little faith, why are you fainthearted?"
Whenever we are in great pain, we should not forget the great honour that the Lord is doing us in letting us share in His crown of thorns.
All idiocy begins with "i(f)".
The fridge of the faithful should be almost empty.
However much one works in a spiritual way, one's body cannot get tired. Tiredness only comes when the spirit gets involved. When the spirit is continually at its "Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on us", no amount of work can easily make us tired.
Day and night let us bless God for the gifts He gives us.
Few words, much love. To all. No matter who they are.
Joy, calm, love, the wish we give to everybody, if they are not accepted come back to us and to the Lord. In other words, just as we breathe, as our heart beats, without any act of will on our part and without us being able to stop it; in the same way rivers of love, of which He is the source, should flow out of us day and night and always... regardless of where they go. That is His concern.
So many years now the Lord has granted me to keep the first three days of Lent without opening my mouth for food or water. I have been able to do this because at the same time I also keep silence.
Just as I cannot stand praying out loud, so I cannot stand monologue, only dialogue.
At "Christ is risen" we leave futility behind with Him and pass, thanks to His love, into eternity.
There is something which is often called "spiritual pride". But where there is pride, there is no Spirit, in which case all that is left is a nothing - pride.
To a novice: Be careful about two things. Love, without discrimination, without condemnation... and humility, as if you are the slave of everybody.
Never expect anybody to understand you. Only God.
Forgive everybody and see only the light of Christ, which one day, by the prayer of the Mother of God and all the saints, we will encounter ourselves.
People tell us that which we inspire.
The ministry of service should be constant. We should continually be "forgetting" ourselves. It is not a momentary action, it is life. It is the sign of the presence of Christ.
A person lives only when he loves. Otherwise he is a lifeless creature, with only organic powers.
The love which binds people together, is the greatest Divine Gift.
The life in God consists in "You, follow Me." Together, you continually feel a joy, a joy, with certainty of love and an equally continual "Thank you" for EVERYTHING, day and night.
Jerusalem, as it says in the hymn "Shine, shine [new Jerusalem]", enlightens us all. Whoever goes there at the right time, will get direction for his path.
He who is occupied with himself, whether bodily or emotionally, does not have time to occupy himself with anyone else and is not interested. He becomes egocentric.
Peace to all - in this way the spirit is at rest, the heart loves, the soul becomes calm, the world of the Earth becomes a paradise. The Kingdom of God inside us, and we inside His Kingdom.
Blessed are those who begin to feel that they have become a "shadow". This is the beginning of "non-existence".
Changes, great changes, inner journeys must continue. Woe betide him who stays still like stagnant water.
Heaven is the monastery of the angels and earth their priory (outpost).
We should live permanently in the joy of the resurrection.
What a beautiful song life is! And what blessing when after a journey of many years, I can say from 1937 to today, the invisible face of God has never departed from beside me and inside me.
Few words, much love... The powers of darkness are waiting for an opportunity. Let us not talk, so that we do not regret it.
Even in this life, Christ raised us too from the dead.
What a gift God gave to the world, in sending His Son Jesus Christ.
The resurrection of Lazarus is the symbol of the resurrection of our soul in the world.
Read one Father of the Church and only him.
He who does to another what he hates, is "sent". Watch him.
There are people who persist, of their own will, in destroying the bodily power that God gave them, creating a perpetual state of hyperactivity and overwork.
Evening readings do not go into the soul.
If we do not have boldness when the Lord calls us, we are lost.
I wish that God grant you His grace, His power and His love, so that you may be near to those who are in need and who seek Him.
Where there is attunement to the will of God, there there is prayer.
Don't let anything upset you; neither people, nor reverses, nor obstacles. Christ says to us once in a while, "I received this command from My Father," and proceeds with the certainty that He is fulfilling the will of His Father, however difficult and tough, and however much hatred He encounters.
Children are not black or white or red or yellow in the eyes of God. They are souls which God produced through His heart like drops of blood. Who can say which drop is worth the most?
When we want to help someone, half of ourself must be assimilated to them. The other half, even in the face of objections, will be able to find the right solution.
God works in eternity. Not in the hurry of our temporary life. Everything will happen as and when He wants.
I hope you are always in a position for God to use you in His work.
Love of neighbour according to God, joy, and calm, are acquired by continuous prayer.
What these days we call "down", does not happen to a person who is called faithful. Because he is united with the love of God.
Don't listen to what they say. Look at what they do.
At the end of the day, ask your guardian angel to take from your thought everybody you have seen, but also you from everybody's thoughts. Otherwise you cannot pray correctly. Say to him, "My guardian angel, bless them all and remove their thoughts from mine.
When we are conversing with a person, we are conversing with our guardian angel at the same time, and the silent and invisible listener is Christ. Never forget it.
I always remember what one of my Abbots once said to me: Your mind to God, your hand to the plough.
If we are asked, you or I or anybody, where we come from, we will say in reply, not Athenians, Constantinopolitans, whatever... but citizens of heaven! Even if we have't yet ever been up there. [They are auspicious words.]
Only when an Abbot or Abbess is at rest in their souls, can those under obedience find rest.
The greatest Christmas present we can give to Christ is ourselves.
How valuable are little and simple things.
The birds make a chain round the whole Earth. Wherever you go, they remind you of the same things. The cuckoo shouts to you, "Get up, get up!" The peacock reminds us, "Pilgrims, pilgrims", so that we don't forget that we are just passing pilgrims on His Earth. And the rook cries, "Pray, pray!".
The God-sent Mother of the Apostles, true Mother of God we magnify You.
Somebody said, "When you are conformed to the world, you are deformed. Only when you meet God are you transformed."
Just imagine if "volunteer" angels are hidden within incurable psychopathic patients... just to test our love...
You cannot be a Christian without loving everybody the same. Both those of your own and other faiths. Both of your own and other religions, and nationalities. We are not responsible for where we are born...
Thank God that I know the whole Gospel and can now carry it around in my mind and recite it all day... (two months before her death)
All this "mine" is for this world. In the other one there is only "Yours". "You, Lord", "You, All-good one", "You, Compassionate one", "You, Miracle-worker", "You, the Guide of our lives".
Christ is the Original.
The Apostles were all together. But when the Beloved left, they separated. The same with you; that is how it ought to be. To enlighten the world with the bits of light you get from Christ. And like them, to spread it that Christ is the resurrection of the living and the departed. (a few days before she departed)
The years go by, we too go by, and only a pure soul can remain in the hands of the angels who He will send to receive it.
Read Isaac the Syrian.
Don't be concerned what people will say to you or do to you.
Marriage is love, affection, friendship. It is not "sex". "Sex" is something anti-divine because it is "of this world". It has no relation to the soul.
Couples should not try to "attract" each other through jealousy. Jealousy is from Satan.
The sacrament of marriage is a sacrament like baptism. If you are not "born again" within the other's heart, and the other in your heart, it is as if God is absent. Of course He is present, but he sees you and sorrows. He cannot help you, because you have shut Him out, without knowing it.
But above all I thank Him that He directs everything, guides everything, loves everybody and everything and has sent into my life only angels...
Always obey your conscience. Your conscience is from God.
Forget everything. Be united with Him in prayer. And then, you will be get messages and will know the way...
Together with Him we conquer all.
We should not be proud because we supposedly help people. We don't help anybody. He is the Helper, He is the Guide, if we adhere to Him and He guides us.
God does not want us split. Either we love Him, or the "world". We cannot have one foot in the "world" and the other in the Church.
At the "sound" of Him we should, like the Samaritan woman, leave the "pitcher". That is the only way God can help.
When our health gives us a knock, it is a message that we should stop something.
Beware of fame. It is not what God wants.
When it comes to health, a saying goes, "One doctor is advice, two doctors are confusion. Three doctors are... a graveyard." The same holds for spiritual matters. One spiritual father is from God. A second is confusion. A third, the loss of your soul!
Our purpose is to begin eternity here and now... for the Lady of All to receive us there above with the ranks of angels... and for us to live eternally in the light of Christ.
Just as the law of nature cannot endure a vacuum, so when we empty ourselves completely, the Holy Spirit rushes inside us, like a hurricane.
Don't associate with company among which you would not like God to see you.
There are some people who deprive us of solitude without offering us companionship.
There are some people who deprive us of solitude without offering us companionship.
Love the other without judging him, just as He presents him and as He loves him. Then God will help you and will overlook your own transgressions.
To a woman in mourning: Above all, give up all "material" recollections and expectations.
For somebody to love really and deeply, he must not allow his body to interfere. Love is never forgotten when it is elevated to that level.
Follow your path and don't let anything bother you. Keep your ears open and don't be impatient. Many years must pass and we must be tested before we can acquire patience.
Lord, I beg you, do not allow me ever to have my own will. Do Your own will in me. However difficult it may seem to me, it will be easy because it will be Yours!
God is free, and love dwells within freedom.
Love of money leads to hell, because the man who loves money steals.
He who loves can only do beautiful things.
I do not have to know you. I have to love you.
I am not "intellectual". I am simply happy to be alive and to love Him and everybody.
Photographs and graves are such sad and pitiable things when the generation that loved them has gone...
How do we dare to ignore and disobey the will of God and do what we consider human duty? Can't we see that our health is impaired? The words duty and obligation do not exist in the Gospel. We owe them only to God. Otherwise we become like the millions of dead in this world.
Do not ever get tied to anybody anywhere except Christ alone, and go wherever the Holy Spirit leads you, bringing His love to ALL, beyond frontiers and discrimination. Your destination is to love! That is what I was once told by my Abbot Fr Lev, and that is what I say to you.
Indulgence during Lent causes illness, and illness brings sluggishness.
Always forwards. Even at a tortoise space.
You feel freedom when the behaviour of others does not bother you and you forgive them.
Love does acrobatics in people's hearts.
The person has not yet been born who will make me upset...
We should not be interested in other people's response or what results we have. Our “job” is simply to try - the rest God will do.
It is pain that allows freedom.
Come - be silent.

Everywhere are people of God. You never know if the one you see today might tomorrow be a saint.

And the Mother said . . .

Only one thing do I know that I have always, and it is not pride, nor fantasy, but that which I have day and night, wherever I find myself--three things: first, Faith; second, Faith; third, Faith. That’s all! Nothing else can I say to you. It has directed all my life.

When we believe and someone says, “Do you want to come to Lebanon with me?” I say, “Yes.”

“How do you say Yes to everything?”

I say yes because I believe that if it is not for my good God will make it so that the "No" will come from the very one who invited me. Some paper will not be ready, or something will happen.

Today I am ninety years old--may you live so long! I read again and again and again in the Gospels, and I see something strange. Jesus Christ comes and says to the Apostles, “Leave now what you have and follow Me.”

Now, if they said, “And who are you? Why should we lose what we have? Why should we lose our profit? Where will you take us? What will you do with us?”--if they had said that, what would have happened? They would have remained in darkness.

They said Yes to some Unknown who came and said, “Throw all that away!” Why? Because they believed in God, and they waited for the One who would say to them, “Come!” And that was the beginning.

Because if we say No, what will happen? . . . One or the other: If you believe, you will walk on the water like St. Peter. If you are scared--Bloop! Nothing else.

Through all my life it has been like that. They called me to the strangest and most distant place in India. One night they sent me a message: “Come and see someone who is sick.” We started out in an ox cart driven by some shepherd boy. And as we were going up the mountain in the forest, what do I see above us? Two eyes shining, a tiger. What do you say then? “Lord have mercy on me, and may Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

So I closed my eyes and saw that written within me. Because He said to us, “Why do you worry? Why do you worry? Even the hairs of your head are numbered!” Why worry? Faith is lacking. May we have faith.

Again, Mother said . . .

Once when I was there where I was, some foreign missionary came and said to me, “You may be a good woman, but you’re not a good Christian.”

I said, “Why?”

“Because you have been here so long and you only go about speaking English. What local languages have you learned?”

I said to him, “I haven’t managed to learn any of the local languages, because I travel a great deal from place to place. As soon as I learn one dialect, they start speaking another. I’ve only learned ‘Good morning’ and ‘Good evening.’ Nothing else.”

“Bah, you’re no Christian. How can you evangelize? All the Catholics and Protestants learn all the local dialects in order to . . .”

Then I said, “Lord, give me an answer for him.” I asked it with all my heart, and then I said, “Ah. I forgot to tell you. I know five languages.”

“Really? What are these five?”

“The first is the smile; the second is tears. The third is to touch. The fourth is prayer, and the fifth is love. With these five languages I go all around the world.”

Then he stopped and said, “Just a minute. Say that again so I can write it down.”

With these five languages you can travel the whole earth, and all the world is yours. Love everyone as your own--without concern for religion or race, without concern for anything.

Mother Gabriel - The Sayings From the book: "Mother Gabriel, The Ascetic of Love", by Sister Gabriel.

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Selected Sayings of Mother Gabriel

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