On Life and Death
One must live not “easily” but with the greatest possible exertion of all one’s strength, both physical and spiritual. When we spend our strength to the utmost, we do not “exhaust” ourselves; we multiply the source of our strength.
Either we look back sadly on the past, or we wait for the future, as though real life were to begin only then. But the present, that is, what in truth is our life, passes precisely in this fruitless drifting and in daydreams.
If you are rich, think whether you would be able to bear poverty with dignity. If you are happy, imagine how to meet misfortune with dignity. When people praise you, think whether you would be able to bear reproach with dignity. And all your life long think how to meet death with dignity.
Do what you would wish to have done before your death. Metropolitan Philaret
Death will not wait until we are ready to meet it. Metropolitan Philaret
Do not think that the departed will never come home again, but rather that you too will soon be joined to him.
When you get ready for sleep, remember death, of which sleep is the image and the threshold.
Death is terrible to man, but the believer does not fear it, as winged creatures do not fear chasms and falling.
If it is possible, let us remember death without ceasing; for from this remembrance is born detachment from the vain cares of this world, and unceasing prayer, dispassion toward the body and hatred of sin — and, to tell the truth, almost every living and active virtue takes its beginning from it. Therefore, if it is possible, let us do this as unceasingly as we breathe.
The end of this life, I think, is unjustly called death; it would be more right to call it a release from death, a deliverance from corruption, the end of slavery, the cessation of turmoil, the cutting off of warfare, a coming out of darkness, rest from labours, a refuge from shame, an escape from the passions — and, speaking generally, it is the boundary of all evils… Fighting unyieldingly against the world and the flesh and all the evil that comes from them… the saints kept the dignity of their souls unharmed. Maximus the Confessor
Perhaps the trees from which the boards of our coffin will be hewn have been growing for a long time already. Ephrem the Syrian
In vain does King David beg the Lord to make known to him the days of his life. The all-good and all-wise providence does not give us this fearful knowledge, so that by not knowing the last day it may save from despair those who would fall into it if they knew their end, and on the other hand free from excessive self-assurance those who would think the day of their death far off — while it obliges each of them to keep watch and fulfil his duty without sloth.
