Quotes of the Day for April 8, 2026 – Thoughts on Thoughts and the Heart
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Updated: 9 hours ago
“Often when we stand or sit to pray, it is not a coldness of heart that defeats us, nor a lack of will, nor a feebleness of character. It is, rather, the constant flood of thoughts that conquers the mind, which we realize we have little ability to control…As we have seen, it is futile to try to struggle against thoughts by our own willpower; rather, our struggle should be to raise our minds and hearts to the help of the Most High. This we can do simply and instantaneously through direct appeal to Christ.” (Bishop Irenei Steenberg, Hieromonk Damascene Christensen)
“The third stage [of struggling with our thoughts] is the inclination to the thought, or consent, when the will is so influenced by the sinful thought, has become so intertwined with it, that a man is ready to move on to action. The sin is already half committed in thought. As the Lord says in the Gospel: For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies (Matt. 15:19), thus showing that sin begins with an evil thought. And the Apostle James writes: Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death (Jas. 1:15).” (Archpriest Pavel Gumerov)
“The devil acts insidiously first through the heart, then through the mind. First, he incites a person to give free rein to the lusts of his heart, and when the heart is filled with impure joys, the mind follows it, helping the heart defile his life (cf. Mk. 7:21–23). The devil does not put the most evil and cursed thoughts into a person’s mind, but into his heart. After all, if he put them into his mind, then no matter how bad a person is and how darkened his mind, he would still be horrified when thinking about them, and maybe he would see their fatal consequences. Therefore, the enemy puts these thoughts into his heart, and the heart never thinks about the aftermath. The heart is eager to jump up and instantly fulfill any impulse that enters it, because the heart has no eyes, while the mind has. And when out of the abundance of a defiled heart the mouth speaks, or the hand writes, or other body parts act, the tongue becomes a source of iniquity (cf. Mt. 15:11–20). It defiles the whole body and inflames our whole lives, being set on fire by Gehenna itself (cf. Jas. 3:6).” (St. Constantin Sârbu)
“The warfare against various thoughts and imagination that distracts us in the reality of this world is the most difficult one. It is only through pure prayer, untainted by extraneous thoughts, that we experience God as compassionate Love extending to all people and all creation. Prayer is undoubtedly the greatest feat of Christians. We need it for our hearts to be filled with the grace of God and to experience the joy of unity with God.” (Metropolitan Serafim Joanta)
“Let us be attentive to our hearts and not unite with sinful thoughts, but drive them away in the name of Christ. Let us keep our hearts in humility and poverty of spirit, especially being wary of thoughts of condemnation and exaltation over our neighbors, since the Lord will never enter an arrogant heart…When God places a good thought into your heart, be sure to take action on it as soon as possible, before Satan comes to take it away from your heart (cf. Lk. 8:12), since you are slow to fulfill it. And when a dubious thought is placed into your heart, do not rush to put it into action, because a sword is tied to the thread of this thought, with which Satan can kill you and many others.” (Hieromonk Sebastian Kuznetsov, St. Constantin Sârbu)
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