One of the marks of a certain type of bad man is that he cannot give up a thing himself without wanting every one else to give it up. That is not the Christian way. An individual Christian may see fit to give up all sorts of things for special reasons—marriage, or meat, or beer, or the cinema; but the moment he starts saying the things are bad in themselves, or looking down his nose at other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turning.
—C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Category: BEST OF
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Offer to those who visit you what is necessary both for the body and for the spirit. If they are wiser than we are, let us show our philosophy by silence. And if they are brethren following the same way of life, let us open the door of speech to them in due measure. Yet it is better to regard all as superior to us.
—St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent -
If any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him. For you are worse than he thinks you to be.
— Charles Spurgeon -
Never allow yourself boldly to judge your neighbour; judge and condemn no one, especially for the particular bodily sin of which we are speaking. If someone has manifestly fallen into it, rather have compassion and pity for him. Do not be indignant with him or laugh at him, but let his example be a lesson in humility to you; realising that you too are extremely weak and as easily moved to sin as dust on the road, say to yourself: ‘He fell today, but tomorrow I shall fall.’
—Lorenzo Scupoli, Unseen Warfare
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“If you praise your neighbor to one man and criticize him to another, you are the slave of self-esteem and jealousy. Through praise you try to hide your jealousy, through criticism to appear better than your neighbor.”
—St. Mark the Ascetic -
When Silvanus was sitting one day among the brethern, he was taken up into a rapture, and fell on his face. After a while he got up and wept. The brothers asked him, ‘What is the matter, abba?’ But he was silent, weeping. When they pressed him for an answer, he said to them, ‘I was taken before the judgement seat, and I saw many of our kind going down to torment,and many from the world going into the kingdom.’ Silvanus grieved and after that he would not leave his cell: and if he was forced to go out, he covered his face with his shawl and said, ‘Why should I see the light of this world, where nothing is any use to me?’
The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks
Benedicta Ward -
Three things will surprise you when you die and enter the Kingdom of Heaven:
1. The people you didn’t think would make it to Heaven are there.
2. The people you thought would be in Heaven aren’t there.
3. You are in Heaven.
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Do not offend others, even in your thoughts.
Do not let the Devil sow enmity and malice in your heart against your neighbour; do not let these feelings nestle in any way in your heart; otherwise your malice, even if not expressed in words, but shown only in your glance, may infect through sight the soul of your brother.
—St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ
Train yourself to honour and love others, whether in their presence or in their absence.
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, A Whisper of Love: Poems, Prayers and Sayings
We should have the same attitude toward all of our fellow men. We must not classify people, saying, “This one I like, but so and so I do not.” By doing so, you will have declared war on the other person and that person will not tolerate you. Even though you may not have given any outward sign of dislike by word or gesture, you have done so by your thoughts and that is enough.
—Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica, Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives
Just as soon as he shows us some fault in our neighbor, we must quickly reject the thought—lest it take root in us and grow. Take warning: we must cast it out so no trace is left in us, and replace it with thoughts of the good qualities we know our neighbor possesses (or of those qualities people generally should possess).
—Fr. Jack Sparks, Unseen Warfare p.63
Find excuses for others and try your best to defend them in a rightful way, not through hypocrisy.
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Words of Spiritual Benefit Vol. 1
Remember people’s love for you and their good past with you, whenever you are fought by doubts of their sincerity and whenever you see them erring against you, for then their past love will intercede for them and your anger will subside.
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III
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You ought to express your feelings without speaking about your analysis of the other person’s personality, because by doing so you judge them. No one can examine another person; God alone is He who examines the mind and heart. Someone might say to you, “I feel that you do not trust me.” This is neither a sensation nor a feeling. A sensation means that I am happy or I am distressed, etc. But “I feel that you do not trust me” is an analysis of the other person. If these words were untrue, the other person may feel distressed, and the disagreement may escalate between them. The proper expression is to say to him, “I feel hurt from what you have done.” Here you are speaking about a behavior which could be measured and could be judged, but you cannot judge what lies behind this behavior.
When Christ was struck by the chief priest’s servant, He said to him, “Why do you strike Me?” He did not analyze his personality, though the servant was related to Malchus whose ear Peter cut off. Christ could have said to him, “Are you striking me to take vengeance for your relative whose ear Peter cut off?” or, “Do you strike me to please the chief priest?” If Christ had directed these questions to him, He would have been judging him and analyzing his personality, though He has the right to do this, because He is the Judge of the whole earth, and He is the One who “searches the minds and hearts.” But Christ said to him, “If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why do you strike Me?”
—H.E. Metropolitan Youssef, How to Deal with Anger
SO GOOD QUOTES 