Nectarios of Aegina

The manic lover does not love his beloved as much as God loves the repentant soul.

Christianity is not a system of philosophy, nor is it established solely on the knowledge of man, but also upon volition and conscience, because the origin of Christianity is not simply the formation of the spirit, but the moulding of the heart.

Sinners and those who do not confess due to shame deliver their soul unto death. They suffer in a similar fashion to those who are ill, who do not run to the doctors because of shame.

Nectarios of Aegina (Νεκτάριος Αιγίνης, 1 October 1846 – 8 November 1920), Metropolitan of Pentapolis and Wonderworker of Aegina, is one of the most renowned Greek saints, venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church and officially recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1961. His feast day is celebrated every year on 9 November.

Quotes

On Confession

• Woe unto those who request money rather than devotion, contrition, and the satisfaction of the divine through true and virtuous life for the forgiveness of sins.

• Those who sin out of ignorance must recognize that they are hoarding great wrongs in themselves.

On Concern for the Soul

as translated by Anna Skoubourdis

• Ignorance of the beautiful, of the good, of the true would make man an amoral being and would make ‘morality’ a word devoid of meaning.

• Moral freedom makes man a moral being and an image of God.

• The being who is unfree and dependent, subjected to instinctual drives, is not an intelligent being because the spirit is free and independent by nature and in no way subordinate.

• The intellectual nature is self-motivating and thus free.

• The aesthetic nature is unfree because it is moved by something else and does not move according to its own will.

• We should employ even the irrational passions with rationality.

• We should regulate those passions rationally and lead them with authority and hold the reins ... in no way enduring the subjugation of our free agency.

• It is necessary for us to will our salvation so as to seek it.

• The grace of God, despite being infinite, does not save on its own, because He does not wish to violate the free agency of man.

• In the Kingdom of God the old man who is corrupted by sin cannot enter. For this reason, he must strip himself of the old man along with the passions and desires and be clothed in “the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.”

• The true will is the will of the spirit, which is the desire for the good.

• The divine law was written on the heart of man because God formed his heart to be the seat of the love of the good.

• Only through self-denial can we be saved.

• We renounce the law of the flesh along with the passions and desires.

• Christianity is not a system of philosophy, nor is it established solely on the knowledge of man, but also upon volition and conscience, because the origin of Christianity is not simply the formation of the spirit, but the moulding of the heart.

• We should employ even the irrational passions with rationality,

• We should regulate those passions rationally and lead them with authority and hold the reins, ... in no way enduring the subjugation of our free agency.

• It is necessary for us to will our salvation so as to seek it;

• The grace of God, despite being infinite, does not save on its own, because He does not wish to violate the free agency of man.

• In the Kingdom of God the old man who is corrupted by sin cannot enter. For this reason, he must strip himself of the old man along with the passions and desires and be clothed in “the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.”

• We should employ even the irrational passions with rationality.

• We should regulate those passions rationally and lead them with authority and hold the reins, ... in no way enduring the subjugation of our free agency.

• It is necessary for us to will our salvation so as to seek it.

• The grace of God, despite being infinite, does not save on its own, because He does not wish to violate the free agency of man.

• In the Kingdom of God the old man who is corrupted by sin cannot enter. For this reason, he must strip himself of the old man along with the passions and desires and be clothed in “the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.”

• The true will is the will of the spirit, which is the desire for the good.

• The divine law was written on the heart of man because God formed his heart to be the seat of the love of the good.

• Only through self-denial can we be saved.

• We renounce the law of the flesh along with the passions and desires,

• Christianity is not a system of philosophy, nor is it established solely on the knowledge of man, but also upon volition and conscience, because the origin of Christianity is not simply the formation of the spirit, but the moulding of the heart.

• Christianity ... does not demand from its followers only the knowledge and theory thereof, but also their application; ... it demands the cooperation of the volition.

• The Christianity in discussion is a religion which demands not only the knowledge of its theories, but also their application in life.

• Christianity demands the whole man, ... to and refashion him into a new man and to breathe into him a new religious and moral life.

• His true followers are not those who accept the principles of Christianity in word alone and yet reject them in deeds, but rather those who embrace them in both word and deed, and bring their life and manners and morals to order according to the divine commandments of Christianity.

• Sin debases the divine beauty of the image of both the soul and of the body and makes it ugly and useless.

• Sin removes all compunction and makes sinners shameless for the darkening of their souls.

• Man had a duty to be exalted unto God and for his nous to be offered to God alone and not to search out delight in the enjoyment of created things.

• They have adorned everything , overlooking their mind and their attitude like it is a cheap inn of no value,

• Regret is a disposition for returning to God,

• Not only does He accept the repentance of those who want to repent from the awareness of their own sin, but beckons those unto repentance who, from stupor and hardness, are turned away, so as to save them.

• From the time Adam fell into sin, God has not ceased to call sinners to repentance and communion with Himself.

• Two significant Fathers of the Western Church, Saints Augustine and Jerome, in seeking to publicly renounce the false teaching of Pelagius, responded to Pelagius by countering that the power of Divine Grace was the only thing that could save man. ... But the Church, walking the middle path, denounces both teachings as flawed. ... Both grace and the consent of man are necessary for the salvation of man.

• God ... demands self-denial for salvation, that is, without his own consent and volition, it is impossible.

• While the Grace of God beckons and illumines the nous and the heart, the will concurs by laying open the eyes and purifying the heart.

• Salvation is commenced by Grace, it is shaped by the will, and then perfected by Grace, which crowns it.

• It is necessary for us to want to be saved so that we may be saved through Grace.

• The Grace of God forsakes the unrepentant man because he disdained God’s wealth of uprightness, forbearance, and longsuffering.

• Having lived in sin, perhaps we want to die in it.

• It is right for he who forsakes God to be forsaken by him; it is right for he who rejects the beckoning Grace to be rejected; it is right for God to turn his face away from him who rebels and does not approach Him.

• It is necessary for us to hasten to repentance before sin becomes a habit within us, because then it is impossible for us to be saved.

• We ought to be unyielding towards sin because once it cheats our consent, it becomes our true lord.

• Semiramis managed to convince her husband, King Ninos of Assyria, to give up his rule and give her the sceptre of the kingdom for one day. But what was the first act of the new queen? It was to have King Ninos her husband executed and to secure her authority for life. ... Sin, being Semiramis, practices every bit of flattery to attain the consent of man, and immediately upon attaining its desire, it gains dominion, it captures and kills the rational faculty, it sets its throne upon the heart and directs all of life.

• Let us not do anything that the inner man does not will;

• Let us not subject our free will to the will of sin;

• Let us make our hearts harder than steel before the most flattering words.

• Repentance is the moral rebirth of man and the starting point of a new virtuous life.

• Sinners and those who do not confess due to shame deliver their soul unto death. They suffer in a similar fashion to those who are ill, who do not run to the doctors because of shame.

• Those who are burdened by their sins and delight in them and commune in Church desecrate the holiness of the Church and hinder the work of this great commission.

• Those who sin out of ignorance must recognise that they are hoarding great wrongs in themselves

• The heart seeks to justify divine justice out of a deep-seated drive because deep inside he desires and seeks the dominance of the divine law and strives to be enabled by its eternality. ... This deep-seated desire originates from the identification of the faculty of will within man with the law of God.

• People have to pay retribution for the deeds of recklessness committed by their kings.

• When we sin, we sin before God and become enemies of the divine law.

• The people of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel were punished many times over for the arrogance of their kings.

• The manic lover does not love his beloved as much as God loves the repentant soul.

• God ... does not reject anyone who turns to Him,