Mother Gabriel
The Sayings
From: Mother Gabriel, The Ascetic of Love, by Sister Gabriel, publisher www.toperivoli.gr
301. 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.
302. A person lives only when he loves. Otherwise he is a lifeless creature, with only organic powers.
303. The love which binds people together, is the greatest Divine Gift.
304. 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.
305. 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.
306. 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.
307. 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.
308. Blessed are those who begin to feel that they have become a "shadow". This is the beginning of "non-existence".
309. Changes, great changes, inner journeys must continue. Woe betide him who stays still like stagnant water.
310. Heaven is the monastery of the angels and earth their priory (outpost).
311. We should live permanently in the joy of the resurrection.
312. 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.
313. Few words, much love... The powers of darkness are waiting for an opportunity. Let us not talk, so that we do not regret it.
314. Even in this life, Christ raised us too from the dead.
315. What a gift God gave to the world, in sending His Son Jesus Christ.
316. The resurrection of Lazarus is the symbol of the resurrection of our soul in the world.
317. Read one Father of the Church and only him.
318. He who does to another what he hates, is "sent". Watch him.
319. 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.
320. Evening readings do not go into the soul.
321. If we do not have boldness when the Lord calls us, we are lost.
322. 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.
323. Where there is attunement to the will of God, there there is prayer.
324. 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.
325. 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?
326. 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.
327. God works in eternity. Not in the hurry of our temporary life. Everything will happen as and when He wants.
328. I hope you are always in a position for God to use you in His work.
329. Love of neighbour according to God, joy, and calm, are acquired by continuous prayer.
330. 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.
331. Don't listen to what they say. Look at what they do.
332. 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.
333. 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.
334. I always remember what one of my Abbots once said to me: Your mind to God, your hand to the plough.
335. 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.]
336. Only when an Abbot or Abbess is at rest in their souls, can those under obedience find rest.
337. The greatest Christmas present we can give to Christ is ourselves.
338. How valuable are little and simple things.
339. 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!".
340. The God-sent Mother of the Apostles, true Mother of God we magnify You.
341. Somebody said, "When you are conformed to the world, you are deformed. Only when you meet God are you transformed."
342. Just imagine if "volunteer" angels are hidden within incurable psychopathic patients... just to test our love...
343. 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...
344. 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)
345. 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".
346. Christ is the Original.
347. 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)
348. 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.
349. Read Isaac the Syrian.
350. Don't be concerned what people will say to you or do to you.
351. 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.
352. Couples should not try to "attract" each other through jealousy. Jealousy is from Satan.
353. 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.
354. But above all I thank Him that He directs everything, guides everything, loves everybody and everything and has sent into my life only angels...
355. Always obey your conscience. Your conscience is from God.
356. Forget everything. Be united with Him in prayer. And then, you will be get messages and will know the way...
357. Together with Him we conquer all.
358. 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.
359. 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.
360. At the "sound" of Him we should, like the Samaritan woman, leave the "pitcher". That is the only way God can help.
361. When our health gives us a knock, it is a message that we should stop something.
362. Beware of fame. It is not what God wants.
363. 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!
364. 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.
365. 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.
366. 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.
367. There are some people who deprive us of solitude without offering us companionship.
368. 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.
369. To a woman in mourning: Above all, give up all "material" recollections and expectations.
370. 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.
371. 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.
372. 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!
373. God is free, and love dwells within freedom.
374. Love of money leads to hell, because the man who loves money steals.
375. He who loves can only do beautiful things.
376. I do not have to know you. I have to love you.
377. I am not "intellectual". I am simply happy to be alive and to love Him and everybody.
378. Photographs and graves are such sad and pitiable things when the generation that loved them has gone...
379. 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.
380. 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.
381. Indulgence during Lent causes illness, and illness brings sluggishness.
382. Always forwards. Even at a tortoise space.
383. You feel freedom when the behaviour of others does not bother you and you forgive them.
384. Love does acrobatics in people's hearts.
385. The person has not yet been born who will make me upset...
386. 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.
387. It is pain that allows freedom.
388. Come - be silent.
Everywhere are people of God. You never know if the one you see today might tomorrow be a saint.
And 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.
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