“In our culture, if someone spoke about coldness of the heart, we would likely describe it as an emotional issue, and dismiss it or diminish it as merely unfortunate. If, on the other hand, we were to speak about something interfering with our acquisition of information, we would treat it as a crisis of first-order. We do not understand that the greatest crisis in our lives is found in our coldness of heart. Indeed, even our acquisition of information is distorted by coldness of the heart.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“We grow cold within when our heart is distracted, when it cleaves to something other than God, worrying about different things, getting angry and blaming someone, when we are discontented and pander to the flesh, wallowing in luxury and wandering thoughts. Guard against these things, and the coldness will diminish.” (St. Theophan the Recluse)
“We must beware of the hardening of our hearts (1 Timothy 3:15). In Greek, the word “harden” refers to “making stubborn” or “unbending…A hardened heart refuses to respond to the Spirit and closes itself off to the truth. It shields itself against the Gospel, lest the mercy and goodness of God penetrate the soul. The source of the hardness of heart can be extreme adversity such as the hunger and thirst of the Children of Israel in the desert. It can come from the disappointment that turns to despair or an unwillingness to believe in what cannot be seen. Its origin can be a spirit of pride, anger, revenge, resentment or hurt…If we find our hearts turning stony and cold, we must pray to God to fulfill His promise, “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26).” (Fr. Basil)
“Parents always want their children to be happy, content, and thankful to them for all their work and sacrifice. So when they see their children in a bad mood and unthankful, they’re saddened. It’s the same with our Heavenly Father. He has given us everything, but we are always unsatisfied and gloomy. Instead of thanking and praising God for everything, we only express our thankfulness with our lips, and our hearts remain cold…Gratitude to God warms the heart and fills our supplications with zeal and devotion. Lack of appreciation for our blessings makes the heart cold. Then our appeals to God become demands rather than childlike requests to our Heavenly Father.”(Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica, Fr. Basil)
“In a world where love has grown cold, where hatred has replaced love and pleasure has replaced meaningful joy, we must cling to the little love we have for Christ in order to cultivate it…If we offer ourselves to God with all our strengths and weaknesses, He will use us to the glory of his Kingdom….let us commit ourselves to give all that we are to God as they did, so that…we may radiate the love of God into a cold and unbelieving world.” (Constantina R. Palmer, Archpriest Steven Rogers)
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