Take no greater care than to correct your will and inward disposition. In this consists all the power of Christian piety. All outwardness without inwardness is nothing. Whatever is not inside the heart does not exist in actual fact. Virtue is not true virtue when it is not within the heart. Therefore correct your heart and your will, and you shall be good and your outward deeds will be good, for the inward is the beginning of the outward.
Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk, “Inward Search” (Chapter 3), Journey to Heaven, George D. Lardas (tr), Holy Trinity Monastery, Jordanville, NY, 1991, p. 59.
hat tip: Daily Dynamis ~Church Fathers Wisdom
Filed under: Christian, Eastern Orthodox, prayer, spiritual life Tagged: christian piety, Dmitri Petrov’s Prayer of an Expectant Mother (2005), Eastern Orthodox Church, Holy Trinity Monastery, holy trinity monastery jordanville, Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk, true virtue
