Enter into your entertainments only as you are asked to do so. Be friendly, but do not seek out invitations. Those who watch you, at least the reasonable ones, will be happy to see you sociable enough to join them, but be careful enough to not always be found entertaining yourself. When you do appear at these entertainments, do so in a godly manner. The world is critical of people who condemn its ways while living by its rules.
—François Fénelon, The Seeking Heart
Category: BEST OF
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Most psychological problems, including the difficult ones like addiction, may be eliminated through relationships.
—H.E. Metropolitan Youssef, How to Develop Your Personality
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This [same] description may be applied to departments and organizations. Someone might go to a [new] church, and after frequenting it for several months, he would say, “This church is bad and I will not go to it again. Its service is bad, there is no orderliness in it, but even everything in it is bad.” Then he looks for another church, and classifies it as bad too. In the end, he separates himself from every church, because he will not find a perfect church on earth. Every church has flaws and weaknesses.
I read once a saying of an author, which included the following: “There is no perfect church, devoid of weaknesses and deficiencies, in this world. And if it so happened that we find a perfect church with no flaws in it, I advise that you should not go to it, because you are an imperfect person, and none of us is perfect; therefore, as soon as you enter it, this church will be imperfect, because of the presence of an imperfect person in it—that is, you.”
And we sometimes isolate ourselves from others, whom we have characterized as evil, or we isolate [ourselves] from church. Or perhaps a person may isolate himself from his job, when he is doing a work he does not like, and so he submits his resignation and looks for another job, and so he moves from work to work, and everywhere he goes he finds flaws only. Therefore, he keeps on saying that he has not found people who love him, and there is no fairness in this work, etc. And this person continues to search for perfection, and will not find it, for there is no absolute perfection on earth.
—H.E. Metropolitan Youssef, How to Develop Your Personality
Many of us come to Orthodoxy having read good books about great spiritual athletes and it is easy to form romanticised expectations about what the clergy should be like. If we come to church with unrealistic ideas the devil may use them to disappoint us and convince us that things aren’t good enough and that we should look elsewhere. We must remember that the demons will do everything in their power to prevent us from becoming part of Christ’s Church and our own lack of discernment can be a dangerous pitfall. The grace of the priesthood is a real and wonderful blessing, but it is given to men of flesh and blood. The devil will delight in telling us how unworthy the priest is: but rest assured, the priest is only too aware of his own unworthiness.
A certain monk lived in a monastery, and he was always angry. He decided, “I will leave this place and dwell by myself as a hermit, and then I will no relations with anyone, and the passion of anger will leave me.” Leaving the monastery, he settled in a cave. One day, having taken up a pitcher of water, the monk set it one the ground, and it tipped over. Again he drew the water, and the pitcher tipped a second time. The he drew it again, and it fell a third time. The brother got angry, picked it up and broke it. When he had come to himself, he understood that the devil had triumphed over him and said, “Behold, I have gone away into seclusion, and I am conquered! I will go back to the monastery, for patience and the help of God are necessary everywhere!” And he returned to his previous place.
—Ancient Patericon -
“As you approach the truth, your solitude will increase.”
—Michel Houellebecq, TO STAY ALIVE -
“It is better to suffer from loneliness than to suffer from sin.”
—H.E. Metropolitan Youssef -
“Sometimes loneliness has led us to new heights of creativity, and sometimes it has led us to drugs, alcohol, and emotional paralysis; sometimes it has led us to the true encounter of love and authentic sexuality, sometimes it has led us into dehumanizing relationships and destructive sexuality; sometimes it has moved us to a greater depth of openness toward God and others, to fuller life, and sometimes it has led us to jump off bridges, to end life; sometimes it has given us a glimpse of heaven, sometimes it has given us a glimpse of hell; sometimes it has made the human spirit, sometimes it has broken it; always has it affected it. For loneliness is one of the deepest, most universal, and most profound experiences that we have.”
—Ronald Rolheiser,The Restless Heart: Finding Our Spiritual Home in Times of Loneliness
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“Only through shame can you be freed from shame.”
—St. John Climacus -
Think of their loneliness on holidays or Sundays, when single people find themselves alone upon leaving Mass, whereas the others are going to spend the day with their family; think of the loneliness in the evenings, when once the day is done, they go back home to find…four walls! Think of the loneliness of heart, even in the midst of friends, which is often made even more bitter at the sight of those who are not alone.
The Noonday Devil: Acedia, the Unnamed Evil of Our Times
Jean-Charles Nault -
“Being alone never felt right. Sometimes it felt good, but it never felt right.”
SO GOOD QUOTES 