Mother Gabriel
The Sayings
From: Mother Gabriel, The Ascetic of Love, by Sister Gabriel, publisher www.toperivoli.gr
201. Two things are very important... "Love one another," and "Fear not, only believe."
202. 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.
203. In the end we have been teaching the universe, while leaving ourselves as they are, to have fun!
204. If coal is not "beaten", can it become diamond?
205. 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.
206. 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.
207. "Bad temper" is egoism.
208. Looking after is one thing and love another.
209. 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.
210. Hour after hour I think my heart is going to break from love.
211. Only people with an inferiority complex want to always be bossed around.
212. Love is always on the cross. Because Christ is on the cross.
213. 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!"
214. True fasting is to cease from all badmouthing, self-interest, seeing the mote in the eye of our brother, judging another's servant...
215. 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.
216. I find the faith of the centurion very moving.
217. 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?
218. 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.
219. 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.
220. That which the world calls co-incidences, I call meetings.
221. The world is even "smaller" for those who God intends to meet.
222. 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!
223. 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.
224. 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!"
225. Never accept anything from a rich person. From someone who struggles to make a living or a poor person yes, with much gratitude.
226. The truth is One and that is Christ.
227. 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...
228. 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.
229. 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?
230. 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.
231. 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.
232. 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.
233. The hour when you make the step, either you do it alone or you are lost for the rest of your life.
234. 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.
235. 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.
236. Those who see people in the world do not cease to be human. They keep their humanity...
237. 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.
238. 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?
239. 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.
240. 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."
241. 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.
242. Nobody "exists" unless he wants to exist.
243. Some people want to go to the Resurrection without passing by way of Gologatha.
244. 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.
245. Only people of God, who don't make compromises, recognize each other.
246. 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.
247. 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."
248. Egoism is self-protection. A Christian's security should be divine protection.
249. We all help ourselves in helping others. Some indirectly, some directly.
250. 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.
251. Love is not taught. It is given from above when we ask with recocognition of our egoism, which we want to shatter.
252. Do you want everything to happen as you want it? Accept everything and everybody either as His will, or as His concession.
253. To remember the other is an expression of love.
254. 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...
255. To a novice: Be simple. Talk to everybody. Let your spirituality be seen in your simplicity.
256. No saint ever knew that he was a saint.
257. 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."
258. Not as you knew, but as you found.
259. Every person is 'sent'.
260. 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.
261. The gifts of the Spirit are not of course individual achievements...
262. 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.
263. As one of the ancients said, "don’t be deaf to your personal “demon” "
264. Truth and light are synonymous.
265. The sermon on the mount and the epistle of Saint James. Every day! What a pity that we do not hear them more often...
266. 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.
267. Our souls are Divine Breath. Our body is His Creation. In the whole of us we are the icon of God.
268. I am under obedience to HIM. I live and exist for Him.
269. Before the Lord prayed... "Lifting up His eyes to heaven..."
270. Do not darken your mind with the various heresies and para-religions and masonries. All these are in the "Basket of Vanity".
271. 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.
272. Don't forget in Church to always light a candle "for the sick and for travellers".
273. Say prayer-ropes also just with "Thank you".
274. Have a Cross in the door and window of your cell. It should be wooden like the one we wear.
275. We can recognize a person who has spiritual experiences only by the way he lives and behaves. For these experiences direct his life.
276. No fear any person.
277. It is easier to sacrifice youself for those you love than to live with them.
278. Love means to respect the freedom of the other.
279. You only feel free when you are locked up.
280. Two things: care, and prayer.
281. Mildness and meekness are the weapons and the marks of a spiritually strong person. He "understands" everything and forgives everything.
282. 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..."
283. The angels always come.
284. We can all give joy. One by coming, and another by leaving.
285. 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?"
286. 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.
287. All idiocy begins with "i(f)".
288. The fridge of the faithful should be almost empty.
289. 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.
290. Day and night let us bless God for the gifts He gives us.
291. Few words, much love. To all. No matter who they are.
292. 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.
293. 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.
294. Just as I cannot stand praying out loud, so I cannot stand monologue, only dialogue.
295. At "Christ is risen" we leave futility behind with Him and pass, thanks to His love, into eternity.
296. 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.
297. To a novice: Be careful about two things. Love, without discrimination, without condemnation... and humility, as if you are the slave of everybody.
298. Never expect anybody to understand you. Only God.
299. 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.
300. People tell us that which we inspire.
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