The monastic studies theological matters, not for educational purposes, but to benefit from them personally.
Sometimes when one studies, one seeks to teach others, considering it a buried talent if people do not benefit from this knowledge. If you learn theology for your own personal gain, this is good for you. If you study theology in order to teach others, then you will be fought with venturing outside your rite of isolation and meditation.
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Monastic Treasures for All of Us
Category: BEST OF
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When one becomes preoccupied with theological books, one tries to teach everyone what one has learned, regretting the loss if no one benefits from the research you read in the spiritual books, and in the theological books. One might think, “If people do not benefit from what you learn, then what is the benefit?” So beware of being fought with the desire to teach others.
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Monastic Treasures for All of Us
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The person, however, must carefully choose the books they read and will be discipled unto, and must read with discernment and care, and must not adopt everything they read. For there are books, even by renowned authors, that contain unsound information. And not all books are without error.
Therefore, the reader should place in front of themself the saying of St. Paul the Apostle, “Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil;” and the saying of St. John also, “Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God.”
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Come, Follow Me
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7. Comparison can be a guide
Let comparison point you towards what you want, and then do things in your own way. After all, the more you know what you really want and take steps towards it, the less it tends to matter what everyone else is doing.
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“Martha Graham once said, that each of us is unique and if we didn’t exist, something in the world would have been lost. I wonder, then, why we are so quick to conform—and what the world has lost because we have.”
—Donald Miller, Scary Close: Dropping the Act and Finding True Intimacy -
“Not only do my choices and their consequences effect those around me immediately, but my choices also effect those far away and those not yet born.”
—Fr. Michael Gillis -
When pride can’t get people to expect extravagant things of themselves, it does something that may be even worse. It makes them feel they ought to be doing certain fine and marvelous things, and makes them feel hopeless and guilty because they aren’t doing any of them. Like a cruel man overburdening a horse, pride piles heavy false obligations on us until we are nearly crumpled beneath the load. These false obligations are our “shoulds”—the things we have become convinced we “should” do by ourselves. We should avoid offending any other human being. We should make something of ourselves in the world. We should be tolerant and understanding. We should be considerate, generous, kind, and sacrificing. We should love and take care of everybody. We should accept full responsibility for everyone who’s unhappy. And so it goes, one devastating obligation after another. Pride makes people condemn and punish themselves unmercifully when they can’t meet such obligations. Many of the things pride may suggest to you are all right in themselves, but they’re things which are impossible for you to do with your particular personality, or impossible for you to do without growing a great deal spiritually, or impossible for you to do because God has something different in mind for you. And of course every one of them is impossible for you to do by yourself, without God. That’s the real catch with false obligations.
Sometimes pride will let a person think he’s meeting these false obligations well for quite a long time, let him bask in a feeling of personal success, and only then will pull the rug out from under him and point out what a lousy job he’s really been doing. Then a feeling of worthlessness, and often a feeling of being hopelessly doomed to failure, will start building up in a person. Catching false obligations early is a big help. Any time you have even a small feeling of guilt or failure or worthlessness that you can’t seem to get out from under, pray to be delivered from pride and false obligations—and keep praying, no matter how long it takes, until the false obligation that has caused your guilt or failure feeling becomes revealed to you so you can dump it. Praying for deliverance from pride always finally exposes any false obligations you may have and shatters your tyrannical fake conscience.
Who is God? Who Am I? Who Are You?
Dee Pennock -
God has created all people spiritually equal. Every person has the same propensity for good and evil. Every person has the same choice, as to whether to obey God or to defy him. Yet in other ways, we are very unequal. Some people are highly intelligent, while others have feeble intellects. Some people are physically strong and healthy, while others are weak and prone to illness. Some people are handsome and attractive, while others are plain. Those who are gifted in some way should not despise those less gifted. On the contrary, God has distributed gifts and blessings in such a way that every person has a particular place and purpose within a society—and thus everyone is equally necessary for a society to function well. So do not resent the fact that someone is more intelligent or stronger than you are. Instead give thanks for their intelligence and strength, from which you benefit. And then ask yourself: “What is my gift, and thence what is my place in society?” When you have answered this question, and you act according to your answer, all contempt and all resentment will melt away.
On Living Simply
St. John Chrysostom -
The stress that is placed upon the importance of educating the mind is enormous, yet misplaced. Without a good solid education, we are told, our life will amount to nothing. One of my grandmothers grew up in Wisconsin as a simple, uneducated woman. She worked much of her life as a laundry woman, spoke in simple ways, and loved God and her family with all her heart and soul. By the world’s standards she was not a well spoken woman, but when she spoke, her words went straight to the heart. While many rushed to become educated while ignoring the heart, my grandmother started with the heart. Her intellectual abilities were limited but her amazing heart is what made her a great lady.
—Abbot Tryphon
SO GOOD QUOTES 