Suicide - Orthodox Church Quotes

Bridegroom Matins: Judas loves money with his mind. . . .

Judas loves money with his mind.
The impious one moves against the Master.
He wills and plans the betrayal.
Receiving darkness, he falls from the light.
He agrees to the price and sells the priceless one.
A payment for the deeds the wretch gains hanging and a terrible death.
From his lot deliver us, O Christ God, granting remission of sins to those who celebrate Thine immaculate passion with love.

+ Kathisma Hymn (Tone 8) of Bridegroom Matins of Holy Tuesday

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St. Jerome: You may see many women widows before wedded . . .

“You may see many women widows before wedded, who try to conceal their miserable fall by a lying garb. Unless they are betrayed by swelling wombs or by the crying of their infants, they walk abroad with tripping feet and heads in the air. Some go so far as to take potions, that they may insure barrenness, and thus murder human beings almost before their conception. Some, when they find themselves with child through their sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when (as often happens) they die with their offspring, they enter the lower world laden with the guilt not only of adultery against Christ but also of suicide and child murder.”

— St. Jerome, Epistula 22

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St. Peter of Damascus: Should we fall, we should not despair . . .

St. Peter of Damascus, Sayings from Saints, Elders, and Fathers / By Orthodox Church Quotes

“For to sin, even in the case of those who are most righteous, is easy, while repentance is not easy for everyone because death is near; and even before death comes there is despair. It is good, then, not to fall; or, if we fall, to rise again. And should we fall, we should not despair and so estrange ourselves from the Lord’s love. For if He so chooses, He can deal mercifully with our weakness. Only we should not cut ourselves off from Him or feel oppressed when constrained by His commandments, nor should we lose heart when we fall short of our goal. Rather, let us learn that a thousand years in the sight of the Lord are but a single day, and a single day is as a thousand years (cf. Ps. 90:4). Let us be neither hasty nor tardy, and let us be always ready to make a new start. If you fall, rise up. If you fall again, rise up again. Only do not abandon your Physician, lest you be condemned as worse than a suicide because of your despair. Wait
on Him, and He will be merciful, either reforming you, or sending you trials, or through some other provision of which you are ignorant.”

+ St. Peter of Damaskos, “Twenty-Four Discourses,” VIII Mortification of the Passions, The Philokalia: The Complete Text (Vol. 3)

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