`Abba what are the attributes of the saints?
`Love with humility, simplicity with discernment, these are the attributes of the saints.If the man compels himself with discernment to follow saints’ way of living, he sanctifies himself. We will receive much aid in the work for acquiring virtues if we take the saints as models.
By comparing ourselves with the saints we see our own passions, we rebuke ourselves, we humble ourselves and we strive with magnanimity and divine zeal to follow their example. We have no reason for not moving forward as long as we have the tips and the lives of the saints, their holy example. All saints are God’s children and help us, poor children of God showing us how we can avoid the traps of the cunning one. By studying the lives of the saints our soul is exalted and is urged to follow their example and advance bravely in the fight for acquiring virtues. The same spiritual fervour can be noticed at all saints, only each one manifests it in a different way. He sees the love they had for God and thus is lit up inside him the divine zeal to follow them.
Source: Pious Paissios the Athonite, Passions and Virtues, Evanghelismos Publishing, p. 157.
