In hindsight, it’s incredible how trivial some of it seems. At the time, though, it was the perfect storm. I include wording like “impossible situation,” which was reflective of my thinking at the time, not objective reality.
Tim Ferriss on How He Survived Suicidal Depression and His Tools for Warding Off the Darkness
Category: BEST OF
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Those who have not found Christ live in this life without hearty faith; they think and care more about worldly things—how to enjoy themselves, how to eat and drink pleasurably, how to dress exquisitely, how to satisfy their carnal desires, how to kill time, with which they do not know what to do, though time seeks them and, not finding them, quickly flies away before their eyes. Day flies away after day, night after night, month after month, year after year, until, finally, the last terrible hour strikes, and they hear a voice: “Stop, the course is finished; your time has been lost; your sins and iniquities have preceded you; they will fall upon you with all their power, and will crush you with their weight eternally.”
—St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ
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St. Dorotheus of Gaza says there are two kinds of fear: one is the kind of fear that a beginner has and the other the kind of fear that a Saint has. The first person [the beginner] fears God because he is afraid of hell, he is afraid of punishment, he is afraid that at the end of days, he’ll be cast into darkness.
The other Saint fears God because he seeks to please God because he loves Him. The fear is not of somebody being afraid of some kind of punishment, but because somebody has tasted the sweetness of God, the sweetness of being with God, and because of that, fears losing his relationship with God. St. Dorotheus of Gaza calls this the perfect fear: not a fear of punishment—not a fear of hell, but a fear of upsetting the one he loves.
—Fr. Daniel Fanous
Fear God, but don’t be afraid -
What vanities, what foolish fancies often occupy most of us, even in sight of the highest, the most important objects of faith, in sight of the greatest holiness. For instance, when a man stands before the icons of the Lord, of the Mother of God, of an Angel, of an Archangel, of one or a whole assembly of Saints, at home or in the temple, and, sometimes, instead of prayer, instead of laying aside, at this time, in this place, all worldly cares, he casts up his accounts and reckonings, goes over his expenses and receipts, rejoices at the gain, and grieves at the loss of profits, or the failure of some undertaking (without, of course, a single thought of spiritual profit or loss), or else he thinks evil of his neighbour, exaggerating his weakness, his passions, suspecting him, envying him, judging him, or if it is in church, he looks at the faces of those, standing near him, also how they are dressed, who is nice looking, and who not, or making plans what he shall do, in what pleasure or vanity he will spend the day, and so on. And this often happens at the time when the greatest, the most heavenly Sacrament of the Eucharist, that is, of the most-pure Body and Blood of our Lord, is being celebrated; when we ought to be wholly in God, wholly occupied in meditations on the mystery accomplished for our sakes, of the redemption from sin, from the eternal curse and death; and on the mystery of our being made godly in the Lord Jesus Christ. How low we have fallen, how earthly-minded we have become, and from what does it all proceed? From inattention, and the neglect of our salvation, from attachment to temporal things, from weakness of faith, or unbelief in eternity.
—St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ -
“The simple person is transparent. He doesn’t know how to be two different people.”
Simplicity in relationship to my neighbor means that I am towards others as I am towards God. I don’t have two faces, or three faces, or four faces, but what you see is what you get. Exactly how I am in my room alone with God is exactly how I am in public. I don’t know how to be different. I don’t know how to wear a mask. I don’t know how to pretend to be this for that person and this for that person and this for God. The simple person is transparent. He doesn’t know how to be two different people.
—Fr Kyrillos Ibrahim
He who is precise is not only meticulous when he is among people but even more so when he is alone in his private room. Precision is relatively easy in the presence of people because by nature we do not like to be criticized by others and fear exposing our faults and weaknesses before them. That is why the true criterion of our precision is made manifest when we are alone, seen by no one. If we are precise when we are alone, then it is a true precision without hypocrisy.—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Characteristics of the Spiritual Path
Whoever gives importance to decency within his own room will no doubt act decently outside. He who, in his own private room, is too embarrassed to act indecently on account of the spirits of the angels and the saints, will no doubt proceed with decency in front of other people. Decency becomes one of his characteristics. On the other hand, whoever does not care to sit modestly in his private room will not mind sitting the same way in front of other people.
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, The Life of Repentance and Purity
We must reconcile our way of life within the Church and our way of life outside it, so that they proceed along the same line without any contradictions.
It is not good for a person to have two personalities: one for the House of God and another for the world.
The righteous person is always the same, he does not wear a different face for each different occasion.
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Experiences in Life
“Act, in whatever you do, as you would act if anyone at all were looking on; because solitude prompts us to all kinds of evil.”
—Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
“For as I am outside, so I am within.”
—Abba John Colobos -
My own definition of success is “leaving your corner of the world better than you found it.” Your “corner” may be focused on a single town or a neighborhood within a city, or it may carry you to dozens of countries. Whatever your sphere of influence, when you are seeking to enrich the lives of others through relationships, you will find the most satisfying form of success.
Love as a Way of Life
Gary Chapman -
“Instead of asking ourselves what we got done on a given day, perhaps we should be asking if our time was well spent.”
—Srinivas Rao -
As tribulation then came of rest, so also after tribulation, rest must be expected. For neither is it always winter, nor always summer; neither are there always waves, nor always a calm; neither always night, nor always day. Thus tribulation is not perpetual, but there will be also repose; only in our tribulation, let us give thanks to God always.
—St. John Chrysostom
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And therefore God, the Creator of all, caring above everything for the restoration of His handiwork, and knowing that the root and cause of offenses lie not in others but in our own selves, has bade us not to separate ourselves from consort with the brethren, nor to avoid those whom we think that we have injured or that they have injured us, but rather to soothe their feelings, knowing that a perfect heart is acquired, not by drawing apart from men, but by the virtue of patience. This virtue, when it is firmly held, will make us to hold to the love of peace even with them that hate peace, and when we possess it not, our lack thereof makes us constantly at enmity with those who may be perfect and higher in virtue than we. For it needs must be that, in the course of human intercourse, occasions of perturbation will arise which will make us hurry to quit the company of those to whom we are bound, and for this reason, when we leave one set of companions for another, we are not ridding ourselves of causes of sadness, but only changing them.
+St. John Cassian, Selected Writings of St. John Cassian the Roman
