“Never assume anything. I’ve been learning this over and over from assuming. I’ve told people don’t assume, and I still assume. It takes a long time to root this out. Don’t assume. Don’t assume you know. Don’t assume you understand. Don’t assume you have enough data. Don’t assume you’re qualified. One fact can change your whole interpretation of a scenario—just one fact. I’ve seen people hold grudges for years and years and years and years, and then one fact being presented changed it all, like, Oh, I didn’t know that. And then suddenly it’s like, oh man, but like, the last seven years we didn’t talk because you assumed. If somebody says something, don’t assume their intention, even if it looks blatantly obvious, don’t assume you’ve interpreted it right. If you’ve lived with someone for 40 years, still don’t assume just because you know them that well, that you’re right. You don’t know.”
Category: BEST OF
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Empty talk is the door to criticism and slander, the spreader of false rumours and opinions, the sower of discord and strife. It stifles the taste for mental work and practically always serves as a cover for the absence of sound knowledge. When wordy talk is over, and the fog of self-complacency lifts, it always leaves behind a sense of frustration and indolence. Is it not proof of the fact that, even involuntarily, the soul feels itself robbed?
Unseen Warfare
Lorenzo Scupoli -
“Sometimes I will think of something to say and then I ask myself: is it worth it? And it just isn’t.”
— Miranda July, No One Belongs Here More Than You
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Saints of God, he says, may be found sitting in the theatres, apparently looking on at the performance, while their hearts are holding intercourse with God (XV. 8, cp. XXIX. 1). It is part of Christian perfection to pass no judgment upon those who remain in the world, not even upon those whose lives are notoriously bad (XVIII. 8, cp. XLII.)
Fifty Spiritual Homilies of Saint Macarius the Egyptian
Introduction
A.J. MASON, D.D. -
Happy work is best done by the man who takes his long-term plans somewhat lightly and works from moment to moment “as to the Lord.” It is only our daily bread that we are encouraged to ask for. The present is the only time in which any duty can be done or any grace received.
—C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory -
Growth and change take time, but one of the wonderful things is that the person does not know how growth takes place. The Lord Christ spoke about the changes that happen in the life of a person, and mentioned the following parable. “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head.” (Mark 4:26-28) The statement “he himself does not know how,” means that when a person places himself under grace, and with divine truth, he will grow and change, yet he himself does not know how; but he has to begin now.
—H.E. Metropolitan Youssef, How to Develop Your Personality -
But on the other hand, from the divine perspective, nothing a human being can do forces God’s hand or makes God reveal Himself. When the time is right, when everything is ready, then God comes to us. God comes to us very seldom as a rushing wind or a bright light, but God comes to us most often as a gentle breeze, as an apprehension of some profound beauty resonating deeply in our psyche, in our souls. God comes to us and if we are ready, we perceive Him in some small way, in a way that we can never forget or deny, but almost always in a way that we cannot explain or defend.
A Small Affliction Born For God’s Sake
ARCHPRIEST MICHAEL GILLIS -
But on the other hand, from the divine perspective, nothing a human being can do forces God’s hand or makes God reveal Himself. When the time is right, when everything is ready, then God comes to us. God comes to us very seldom as a rushing wind or a bright light, but God comes to us most often as a gentle breeze, as an apprehension of some profound beauty resonating deeply in our psyche, in our souls. God comes to us and if we are ready, we perceive Him in some small way, in a way that we can never forget or deny, but almost always in a way that we cannot explain or defend.
A Small Affliction Born For God’s Sake
ARCHPRIEST MICHAEL GILLIS
SO GOOD QUOTES 