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Quotes from Saint Gregory Palamas



“If from one burning lamp someone lights another, then another from that one, and so on in succession, he has light continuously.  In the same way, through the Apostles ordaining  their successors, and these successors ordaining others, and so on, the grace of the Holy Spirit is handed down through all generations and enlightens all who obey their shepherds and teachers”

  [On how the Holy Spirit was manifested and shared out at Pentecost]


“The leaders of any given evil heresy also attempt to interpret their writings, but their purpose is to harm their followers and deny that  truth which is in accordance with piety, using the words of the Spirit against the Spirit.   The words of the Gospel of grace are lofty and suitable for mature ears and minds, but these words too our God-bearing Fathers  softened in their own mouths, making them appropriate for those of us who are less than perfect, just as mothers devoted to their children chew solid food and render it serviceable and easy to take for the babies still at the breast. The moisture in their mothers’ mouth is nourishment for the children, and the thoughts in the hearts of our God-bearing Fathers are suitable food for souls that listen and obey.   The mouths of evil, disreputable men, however, are full of deadly poison which, when mixed with the words of life, makes them lethal for careless listeners.”

 [Homily 34, On the Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ]

 

 

“A vow was given by those who marvelously begot her to return her that was given to the Giver, so accordingly the Mother of God strangely changed her dwelling from the house of her father to the house of God while still an infant.   She passed not a few years in the Holy of Holies itself, wherein under the care of an angel, she enjoyed ineffable nourishment such as even Adam did not succeed in tasting….”

[Homily on the Dormition of the Theotokos]


“…. Adam chose the treason of the serpent, the originator of evil, in preference to God’s commandments and counsel, and broke the decreed fast.   Instead of eternal life, he received death and instead of the place of unsullied joy, he received his sinful  place full of passions and misfortunes, or rather, he was sentenced to Hades and nether darkness.  Our nature would have stayed in the infernal regions below the lurking places of the serpent who initially beguiled it, had not Christ come.  He started off by fasting [Mark 1.13] and in the end, abolished the serpent’s tyranny, set us free and brought us back to life.”

[The Homilies, Volume II]


“Prayer changes from entreaty to thanksgiving, and meditation on the divine truths of faith fills the heart with a sense of jubilation and unimpeachable hope   This hope is a foretaste of future blessings, of which the soul even now receives direct experience, and so it comes to know in part the surpassing richness of God’s bounty, in accordance with the Psalmist’s words, ‘Taste and know that the Lord is bountiful’ [Psalm 34.8].   For he is the jubilation of the righteousness, the joy of the upright, the gladness of the humble, and the solace of those who grieve because of him”

 [The Philokalia, Volume 4]

 

“In her manner she showed that she was not so much presented into the Temple, but that she herself entered into the service of God of her own accord, as if she had wings, striving towards this sacred and divine love.   She considered it desirable and fitting that she would enter into the Temple and dwell in the Holy of Holies.


Therefore, the High Priest, seeing that this child, more than anyone else, had divine grace within her, wished to set here within the Holy of Holies.  He convinced everyone present to welcome this, since God has advanced it and approved it.   Through his angel, God assisted the Virgin and sent her mystical food, with which she was strengthened in nature, while in body she was brought to maturity and was made pure and more exalted than the angels, having the  Heavenly spirits as servants.   She was led into the Holy of Holies not just once, but was accepted by God to dwell there with him during her youth, so that through her, the Heavenly Abodes might be opened and given for an eternal habitation to those who believe in her miraculous birthgiving.”

 [Discourse on the Feat of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Holy of Holies]



“So, in order to render the Virgin worthy of this sublime purpose, God marked his ever-virgin Daughter now praised by us, from before the ages, and from eternity choosing her from out of his elect.


Turn your attention then, to where this choice began.  From the son of Adam, God chose the wondrous Seth, who showed himself a living heaven through his becoming behavior, and through the beauty of his virtues.  That is why he was chosen, and from whom the Virgin would blossom as the divinely fitting chariot of God.  She was needed to give birth and to summon the earth-born to heavenly sonship.  For this reason also, all the lineage of Seth were called ‘sons of God’’ [Genesis 6], because  from this lineage a son of man would be born as the Son of God.   The name Seth signifies  a rising or resurrection, or more specifically, it signifies the Lord, who promises and gives immortal life to all who believe in him.


And how precisely exact  is this parallel!   Seth was born of Eve, as she herself said, in place of Abel whom Cain killed through jealousy [Genesis 4.25], and Christ, the Son of the Virgin, was born for us in place of Adam, whom the author of evil also killed through jealousy.  But Seth did not resurrect Abel, since he was only a type of the resurrection.  But our Lord Jesus Christ resurrected Adam, since he is the very Life and the Resurrection of the earth-born, for whose sake the descendants of Seth are granted divine adoption through hope, and are called the children of God.  It was because of this hope that they were called sons of God, as is evident from the one who was first called so, the successor in the choice.    This was Enoch, the son of Seth, who as Moses wrote, first hoped to call on the Name of the Lord [Genesis 4.26].


In this manner, the choice of the future Mother of God, beginning with the very sons of Adam and proceeding through all the generations of time, through the Providence of God, passes to the Prophet-King David and the successors of his kingdom and lineage.”

[Discourse on the Feast of the  Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Holy of Holies]