One Voice United

Exploring the intersections between Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox Christianity

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"God is love, so the one who desires to describe this, attempts with dim eyes to weigh the sand in the sea."

- St. John Climacus

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"The sleepy are plundered without trouble, and so are they who look for virtue close to the world."

- St. John Climacus

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"Just as a spark has many times kindled much wood, so it has been discovered that one good work can blot out many sins."

- St. John Climacus

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"At one time the Abbot Arsenius was taking counsel with an old man of Egypt about his thoughts. And another, seeing him said, “Abbot Arsenius, how is it that thou, who art so great a scholar of Latin and Greek, dost take counsel of this common countryman?” And he answered, “I have indeed apprehended the learning of the Greeks and the Latins as this world goes: but the alphabet of this countryman I have not yet been able to learn.”

- Sayings of the Desert Fathers

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"Amazing, indeed amazing and unintelligible is the evil of the wicked spirits."

- St. John Climacus

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"All the things that befall us, visible or hidden, can be received by us with an inclination that is good, or passionate, or somewhere in between. I observed three bothers chastised. One was angry, one repressed his grief, but the third harvested the fruit of abundant joy."

- St. John Climacus

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"Simplicity is the regular practice of the soul that has become impermeable to wicked thoughts."

- St. John Climacus

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"Never be overly confident until you hear the final judgment against yourself, keeping in mind the wedding guest who made it as far as attending the wedding. But then he was tied up, hand and foot, and cast into the outer darkness."

- St. John Climacus

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"The Lord frequently leads those who are vainglorious to a position of meekness by means of disgrace."

-St. John Climacus

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"The one who requests gifts from God in exchange for his effort has set an unstable foundation. The one who thinks himself an unworthy debtor will hastily and without warning obtain wealth."

- St. John Climacus

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"Many times it happens that when a worm is fully grown it acquires wings and lifts itself up high. So also when vainglory grows it begets pride, the start and the maturity of all evil."

- St. John Climacus

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"A man who was hospitable and an avarice man once met each other, and the latter referred to the other as incomprehensible."

- St. John Climacus

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"Do not suppose you can defeat the demon of sexual immorality by debating with him, because with physical nature on his side, he has the superior argument."

- St. John Climacus

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"The ruler of the demons is the fallen Lucifer, and the ruler of the passions is gluttony."

- St. John Climacus

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"He who delights in his stomach and desires to vanquish the spirit of sexual immorality, is like one who attempts to extinguish a flame with oil."

- St. John Climacus

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Abba Longinus said that just as a corpse does not feel anything or judge anyone, so the man who is humble of mind cannot judge anyone, even if he should see him worshipping idols.

- Sayings of the Desert Fathers

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"There are few who can hold water without a bucket and still fewer who can control an unrestrained tongue."

-St. John Climacus