And see how He also makes His discourse unexceptionable: not saying at all, "whether you will, or no, you must suffer this," but how? "If any man will come after me."
-St. John Chrysostom, Homily 55 on Matthew 16, 1. B#54, p.339., 4th Century


"I force not, I compel not, but each one I make lord of his own choice; wherefore also I say, 'If any man will.' For to good things do I call you, not to things evil, or burdensome; not to punishment and vengeance, that I should have to compel.
-St. John Chrysostom, Homily 55 on Matthew 16, 1. B#54, p.339., 4th Century


The key to knowledge is the humility of Christ. The door of the Kingdom of Heaven is open, not to those who only know in their learned minds the mysteries of faith and the commandments of their Creator, but to those who have progressed far enough to live by them.
-St. Bede the Venerable, Unknown, 8th century


To deny oneself means to give up one's bad habits; to root out of the heart all that ties us to the world; not to cherish bad thoughts and desires; to suppress every evil thought; to avoid occasions of sin; not to desire or to do anything out of self-love, but to do everything out of love for God. To deny oneself, according to St. Paul means "to be dead to sin. . . but alive to God."
-St. Innocent of Alaska, The Lenten Spring, SVS Press, p. 147, 19th Century


A Christian's . . . duty is to "take up his cross." The word cross means sufferings, sorrows and adversities. To take up one's cross means to bear without grumblings everything unpleasant, painful, sad, difficult and oppressive that ay happen to us in life. . .without expecting any earthly reward in return, but bear it all with love, with joy and with courageous strength.
-St. Innocent of Alaska, The Lenten Spring, SVS Press, p. 147, 19th Century


Interior crosses can found at all times, and more easily than exterior ones. You have only to direct your attention to yourself and examine yourself with a sense of repentance, and a thousand interior crosses will at once present themselves to you. . . Interior crosses are sometimes so burdensome that the sufferer can find no consolation whatever in anything.

All this can happen to you too! But in whatever position you may be, and whatever sufferings of the soul you may feel, do not despair and do not think that the Lord has abandoned you. NO! God will always be with you and will invisibly strengthen you even when it seems to you that you are on the very brink of perdition.
-St. Innocent of Alaska, The Lenten Spring, SVS Press, p. 148, 19th Century