Nectarius of Aegina Quotes

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

The intellectual nature is self-motivating and thus free.

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

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

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

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.

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.