SO GOOD QUOTES

Author: SO GOOD QUOTES

  • A chaste person’s look is not lustful but bashful.

    This does not apply only to sex, but even to respect towards elders. The son dares not look boldly to his father but rather with great reverence, not even lifting up his eyes towards him as if in challenge. It is said that St. Abba Pigimi lived for 18 years in the company of holy elders in the monastery, and he never looked any of them fully in the face.

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Fruits of the Spirit

  • The woman should not cause offense with her beauty and femininity, nor the man with his temptations, emotions, and promises, or through extending friendship and familiarity. These usually start innocent, in fact or in appearance, then end the opposite way.

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Fruits of the Spirit

  • Fair criticism is innocent and objective. It seeks only the truth, judges things soundly and mentions the good points before other points which he rejects, thus giving everyone his right. He does not search people’s intentions and inner purposes, which God alone knows.

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Fruits of the Spirit

  • A person with a chaste tongue is always objective in his arguments and never broaches personal matters. His speech is reasonable and logical. He does not ascribe ignorance or lack of understanding to the other party, nor expose these qualities in him, but he rather concentrates on the issue subject of discussion.

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Fruits of the Spirit

  • A chaste tongue cannot utter impolite or rude words.

    It cannot for instance utter foul sexual words, nor tell sexual stories or jokes, nor even listen to them from others. A person with a chaste tongue can never sing indecent songs, but rather is ashamed of uttering them even at home when alone.

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Fruits of the Spirit

  • Therefore, whoever uses hurting or hard words like stones cast on others is not a person of chaste tongue. The chaste tongue does not defame or expose anyone, because it is a polite and decent tongue that weighs every word before uttering it.

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Fruits of the Spirit

  • If a person has an opportunity to save someone from an attack against him, would he not do under pretext of gentleness?

    He could say: It is not my business. What have I to do with that? Leave me alone! Or rather he advances valiantly to save him, gently. In this way the Lord Christ saved the woman caught in the very act from being stoned. He said to those who wanted to stone her: “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” He said this gently, without revealing their sins, but wrote them down on the ground.

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Fruits of the Spirit

  • …If you keep silent, your silence will be wrong. Gentleness does not mean that you live like a still corpse in the society. You should have your own personality, but in a gentle way, even to express yourself with one word as the Baptist did, saying: “It is not lawful for you” (Mt 14: 4)

    St. Paul the Apostle said, “Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.” (Acts 20: 31) His gentleness did not prevent him from warning everybody, but gently: with tears!

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Fruits of the Spirit

  • Good-heartedness is the prevailing nature in the gentle person, but whenever the situation calls him to act gallantly or bravely, or to witness for the truth, he should not refrain under the pretext of gentleness.

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Fruits of the Spirit

  • The gentle does not get angry for every cause.

    If he gets angry, it is for something serious, and often for God’s sake. His anger is not for his own sake, for his own dignity, nor for his own rights as others do.

    If he gets angry, he does not become furious or nervous. His anger is merely an expression of his objection and dissatisfaction. He is usually calm; does not easily get upset, nor flame with rage.

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Fruits of the Spirit