. . . I have always lived on contrasts! To me the only death is monotony. Beware of monotony; it's the mother of all the deadly sins.
Those sins that seem most sweet in life, will prove most bitter in death
Ten commandments yet seven deadly sins: conflict?
Abba Dorotheos said: No matter what kind of sorrow comes to you, don't blame anyone but yourself, and say, "This has happened because of my sins. "
An implicit confession is almost as bad as an implicit faith; wicked men commonly confess their sins by wholesale, We are all sinners; but the true penitent confesses his sins by retail.
Prayer is the surest remedy against the devil and besetting sins.
Of what use is a long life, if we amend so little? Alas, a long life often adds to our sins rather than to our virtue!
One is punished by the very things by which he sins.
In the matter of fellowship God looks not at how much we apprehend of His will but rather at what our attitude towards His will is. If we honestly seek and wholeheartedly obey His desires, our fellowship remains unbroken, even though there should be many unknown sins in us. Should fellowship be determined by the holiness of God, who among all the most holy saints in the past and the present would be qualified to hold a moment's perfect communion with Him?
Little sins carry with them but little temptations to sin, and then a man shews most viciousness and unkindness, when he sins on a little temptation. It is devilish to sin without a temptation; it is little less than devilish to sin on a little occasion. The less the temptation is to sin, the greater is that sin.
I learned from my Adventist upbringing that the biggest sins were sexual.
The deepest sins are camouflaged as holiness.
A man met a lad weeping. "What do you weep for?" he asked. "I am weeping for my sins," said the lad. "You must have little to do," said the man. The next day, they met again. Once more the lad was weeping. "Why do you weep now?" asked the man. "I am weeping because I have nothing to eat," said the lad. "I thought it would come to that," said the man.
First, therefore, [the Jew] goes about making up to the people for his previous sins against them. He begins his career as the 'benefactor' of mankind. Since his new benevolence has a practical foundation, that the left hand should not know what the right hand giveth; no, whether he likes it or not, he must reconcile himself to letting as many people as possible know how deeply he feels the sufferings of the masses and all the sacrifices that he himself is making to combat them.
Some people understand the charity of our Lord and are saved by it; others, relying on this mercy and kindness, continue in their sins, thinking that it may be theirs whenever they wish. But this is not so, for then they are too late and are taken in their sins before they expect it, and so damn themselves.
We are not our parents, Gabriel. We do not have to carry the burden of their choices or their sins.
I am wonderfully content with a God who does not deal with me as my sins deserve.
We are all the judges and the judged, victims of the casual malice and fantasy of others, and ready sources of fantasy and malice in our turn. And if we are sometimes accused of sins of which we are innocent, are there not also other sins of which we are guilty and of which the world knows nothing?
The task of the Church after Jesus' resurrection and ascension was to proclaim the forgiveness of sins to all nations.
Take adultery or theft. Merely sins. It is evil who dines on the soul, stretching out its long bone tongue. It is evil who tweezers my heart, picking out its atomic worms.