To help you grow in enduring others, you should find excuses for them. And when I say, “find excuses,” I am speaking about finding real excuses. Like the Lord on the cross, He said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do,” which was a real excuse. They did not know that He is the Messiah, the Son of God. When you find excuses for others, this will help you to endure them.
—H.E. Metropolitan Youssef, How to Endure Injustice
Category: ANGER
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Do not be this person, who does not have the grace of God. Do not be the person who embitters those around him, causing trouble in the community.
Do not be the person by whom others become defiled, through a thought of judging someone, a thought of / anger, a thought of revenge, and so on. Do not be this character.—H.E. Metropolitan Youssef, How to Endure Injustice
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He who accepts present afflictions in the expectation of future blessings has found knowledge of the truth; and he will easily be freed from anger and remorse.
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To those who suppose that they can only progress in the spiritual life when all else is “well,” St. John Cassian replies, “You should not think that you can find virtue when you are not irritated — for it is not in your power to prevent troubles from happening. Rather, you should look for patience as the result of your own humility and longsuffering, for patience does depend upon your own will” (Institutes). Towards the end of his life, St. Seraphim of Sarov suffered from open ulcers on his legs. “Yet,” as his Life tells us, “in appearance he was always bright and cheerful, for in spirit he felt that heavenly peace and joy which are the riches of the glorious inheritance of the saints.”
—Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, ILLNESS AND THE WORK OF PERFECTION
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“So in every test, let us say: ‘Thank you, my God, because this was needed for my salvation.’”
—Elder Paisios of Mount Athos -
“Those who have been humbled by their passions may take courage. For even if they fall into every pit and are trapped in all the snares and suffer all maladies, yet after their restoration to health they become physicians, beacons, lamps, and pilots for all, teaching us the habits of every disease and from their own personal experience able to prevent their neighbours from falling.”
—St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent -
“If you find yourself becoming irritated, control your nerves and control your tongue, control your facial expressions and control your movements, and do not allow yourself to mistreat another, however much they erred against you.”
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III -
If you are suffering from a trial, which you are going through because of [your] upbringing and education, and if you endure this suffering with your true self and you expose it to the light of the grace of Christ, then Scripture says to you, “That you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”(James 1:4) The following will take place: your true self will grow and become complete and lacking nothing, through this suffering.
As for the grumbling soul, which is not joyful, but is always complaining about its upbringing in such a home, it will neither grow nor be healed.
—H.E. Metropolitan Youssef, How to Develop Your Personality
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People look at their homes as a place to complain about and to reject, and unfortunately, in the recent days, the culture that we live in encourages more of that. But My home is a place for me to be holy, to be saintly. And if I don’t realize this, I will be lost. I’ll be truly confused. I’m not living with my family so one day I could go to another family—that’s my goal. That’s terrible, as if almost I’m not able to embrace and enjoy the life I’m living. Same thing when I’m married, same thing with my spouse, my house—I have to look at this place—this is the place of my holiness, this is the place of my purity, the place of my charity, the place of my discipline, the place of my obedience. Where else can I pray and practice real virtue, unless I am with the people that I love the most.
—Fr. Mina Dimitri -
58. Any circumstance in which a man finds himself unwillingly is a prison and a punishment for him. So be content with whatever circumstances you may now be in, lest by being ungrateful you punish yourself unwittingly. This contentment can be achieved in but one way: through detachment from worldly things.
St. Anthony the Great: On the Character of Men and on the Virtuous Life: One Hundred and Seventy Texts
Philokalia
SO GOOD QUOTES 