“If you are remembering evil against someone, then Pray for him; and through your Prayer, you will remove the pain of the remembrance of the evil he has done, and you will stop the advance of the passions.”
Saint Maximos the Confessor
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“Love all your fellow men, even your enemies. This is the most basic thing. Always love not only those who love us, but also those who hate us. Let us forgive them and love them all even if they have done us the greatest evil; then we are truly children of God. Then our own sins are also forgiven.”
Saint George Karslides
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“Of all the words, the most difficult is ‘Forgive me’. But it is this that opens the Heavenly Gates.”
Monk Simeon of Mount Athos
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“The first and most essential means of making peace with those who offend and persecute us is to Pray for them, according to the Commandment of Christ.”
Saint Leo of Optina
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“Lord, I thank You that through this person, you are showing me how far my heart is from You and I cannot keep my peace.”
A Prayer to overcome ones enemy, by Saint Sophrony of Essex
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“My joy put your trust in God and ask for His help, but know how to forgive your neighbour – and you will be given all that you ask.”
Saint Seraphim of Sarov
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“Do not say then, ‘I am hated, and that is why I do not love.’ For this is why you ought to love most.”
Saint John Chrysostom
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“Why do you go to Church every day, and yet you haven’t made up with your children?”
Saint George Karslides
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“Why does the Lord command us to love our enemies and to Pray for them? Not for their sake, but for ours! For as long as we bear grudges, as long as we dwell on how someone offended us, we will have no peace.”
Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica
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“Never confuse the person, formed in the Image of God, with the evil that is in him: because evil is but a chance misfortune, an illness, a devilish reverie. But the very essence of the person is the Image of God, and this remains in him despite every disfigurement.”
Saint John of Kronstadt
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“The forgiveness of insults is a sign of true love, free from hypocrisy. For thus the Lord also loved this world.”
Saint Mark the Ascetic
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“‘But I say to you,’ the Lord says, ‘love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, Pray for those who persecute you.’ Why did He command these things? So that he might free you from hatred, sadness, anger and grudges, and might grant you the greatest possession of all, perfect love, which is impossible to possess except by the one who loves all equally in imitation of God.”
Saint Maximos the Confessor
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“Grant us, O Lord, if we are unable to love our enemies, at least to forgive them.”
Saint Barsanuphius of Optina
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“If you store up grievances and nurse old animosities, and then try to Pray, you are like a person going to draw water with a bucket full of holes.”
Saint Evagrios of Pontus
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“Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them. Enemies have driven me into Your embrace more than friends have.”
Saint Nikolai Velimirovich
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“Wickedness does not do away with wickedness; but if someone does you wrong, do good to him, so that by your action you destroy his wickedness.”
Abba Poemen the Great
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“If a man insults me, kills my father, my mother, my brother, and then gouges out my eye, as a Christian it is my duty to forgive him. We who are pious Christians ought to love our enemies and forgive them. We ought to offer them food and drink, and entreat God for their Souls. And then we should say: ‘My God, I beg you to forgive me, as I have forgiven my enemies.'”
Saint Kosmas Aitolos
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“Forgiveness is better than revenge.”
Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk
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“Do not forget to send gifts to those who hurt you.”
Saint Seraphim of Sarov
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“If you have anything against any man, forgive it: you come here to receive forgiveness of sins, and thou also must forgive him that has sinned against you. Else with what face will you say to the Lord, ‘Forgive me my many sins’, if you have not yourself forgiven your fellow-servant even his little sins.”
Saint Cyril of Jerusalem
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“The Christian who loves all people has a great reward, especially if he forgives those who do him evil. For if we don’t love our neighbour, all the good works we do will be worthless. They amount to nothing, we will be worthless. Love, my brethren. God requires love from us.”
Saint George Karslides
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“Remembrance of the Lord’s Passion will heal your soul of resentment by making it ashamed of itself when it remembers the patience of the Lord.”
Saint John Klimakos