DISCOURSES
OF SAINT ABBA DOROTHEOS OF GAZA
St Gregory says, 'Let us offer ourselves as first fruits [of the
resurrection], that is, let us sacrifice ourselves, let us die to
ourselves all the day long, as did all the saints, for the sake of
Christ our God. How did they put themselves to death? By not loving the
world or what is in the world as it says in the catholic
epistles, 'By rejecting the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and
the pride of life', that is, the love of pleasures, the love of
money and of vainglory, and taking up the cross and following Christ
and crucifying the world to themselves and themselves to the world..
About this the apostle says, 'Those who belong to Christ have crucified
the flesh with its passions and desires.' This is how the saints
put themselves to death.