Sayings of St. Ieronymos of Aegina

 

How often do you commune? How often does your soul thirst? If tears do not come to you at all, do not commune. Every fifteen days is good. But that must be determined by your spiritual father.

Do not speak much. Restrain your tongue. Love silence. If you become accustomed to it, you will no longer want to speak. Such is the beauty of silence.

Also love prayer. One man prayed the whole night. The words of his prayer came to him one after another without difficulty.

Have joy! Let joy and sorrow be your guests, but not despair. To despair, close the door! A Christian must be neither cowardly nor despairing.

Others tell you what they know. They live their own life, they know their own life, and that is what they speak to you about. Your life they do not live, do not know, do not love! So then, since they do not know your language, how can you expect them to speak to you!

Do not get angry. They will mock you, you will suffer. But do not fear. They offer you pepper—give them sugar. Think to yourself: “I have no pepper; I have sugar, and I give sugar.”

In every prayer, you must have a tearful knot. And when compunction comes upon you, do not speak of it anywhere, for it is a divine gift—lest you lose it!

Listen to the preacher, but do not draw too near. We are all human. You may notice weaknesses and say, “He says one thing and does another.”

Do not become angry. Sweeten others with your sugar—that is, with your kind word.

Do not offer instruction, for teaching without the other’s will becomes hostility and turns into sin—both for the one who hears and does not act, and for you who become distressed and troubled.

Love compunction; bring to mind the causes that will bring you to tears.

Say to the other only as much as you believe he can bear, no more.

When you give alms, do not examine the person to whom you give, whether they are good or bad. Almsgiving is a great thing; it blots out a multitude of sins.

Tears at the time of prayer are a sign of love for our Savior.

If you have the fear of the Lord, you have learned theology. If you do not have the fear of the Lord, you have learned a craft in order to make a living.

Building with dry stones is not good. Mud is needed, and lime is needed too. So it is with prayer: without tears, it is not prayer. Tears are necessary—otherwise no benefit remains from the prayer.

You will do all you can for your children, for in the next life Christ will ask of you either your children saved, or the wounds on your knees from your abundant prayer. Parents, unfortunately, do not realize the responsibility they bear for their children.

Every person has some gift. Find their gift and praise them. Praise is needed (for encouragement), and kindness and love. Then, even if the other is not very good, he is reproached by the honor, the praise, the love shown to him, and becomes better.

To a clergyman: As much as you can, avoid the outside. Shut yourself in your room. Press your mind until it opens, that you may see spiritual light. Say to yourself, “When will I reach my room and shut myself in?” Study, pray. If you are not strengthened, how will you strengthen others? And the world is running, seeking to satisfy the thirst of the soul through the Church, through its instruments—through the cassock! What will you give if you have nothing, and how will you have anything if you do not ask it from God? Labor in prayer and study, and you will be strengthened.

Have humility. When it rains, the water does not remain on the peaks or the mountains, but flows down to the plain. Humble people receive grace, bear fruit, and are blessed.

Are you a priest? Be careful—you do not belong to yourself. You are like a needle in the hand of God. Be good; do not be like a rusty needle that cannot do its work. That is, for yourself—weaknesses, passions, etc.—you must not exist. The cassock, your covenant, is with God. Let it shake you to the core, and say: What does this mean? What is it saying to me? Yes—to love God and to labor in what He has appointed me to do.

Be watchful. The devil uses all kinds of ways to harm the clergyman, for from just one holy clergyman, thousands can benefit and be saved; and likewise, from one who does not struggle, thousands can perish.

The clergyman must be like the many-eyed ones—that is, to have eyes everywhere, to be blameless, strong in mind, wise, holy.

After the words of the Services—Compline, etc.—pray to God also with simple words, with your own words, about your problems, your pain, as though He were before you and you see Him. These painful and compunctionate words are like kindling for the fire to catch—that is, the longing for God. And then come the tears.

 

Greek source: http://users.uoa.gr/~nektar/orthodoxy/gerontikon/gerwn_ierwnymos_aigina.htm