Category: BEST OF

  • In some cases the hindrance to conscious blessedness lies not in sins, but in weights which hang around the soul. Sin is that which is always and everywhere wrong; but a weight is anything which may hinder or impede the Christian life, without being positively sin. And thus a thing may be a weight to one which is not so to another. Each must be fully persuaded in his own mind. And wherever the soul is aware of its life being hindered by the presence of only one thing, then, however harmless in itself, and however innocently permitted by others, there can be no alternative, but it must be cast aside…

    The Gift of Suffering
    by F.B. Meyer

  • Perhaps you look too much inwards on self, instead of outwards on the Lord Jesus.—The healthiest people do not think about their health; the weak induce disease by morbid introspection. If you begin to count your heartbeats, you will disturb the rhythmic action of the heart. If you continually imagine a pain anywhere, you will produce it. And there are some true children of God who induce their own darkness by morbid self-scrutiny. They are always going back on themselves, analyzing their motives, re-considering past acts of consecration, or comparing themselves with themselves. In one form or another self is the pivot of their life, albeit that it is undoubtedly a religious life. What but darkness can result from such a course? There are certainly times in our lives when we must look within, and judge ourselves, that we may not be judged. But this is only done that we may turn with fuller purpose of heart to the Lord. And when once done, it needs not to be repeated. “Leaving the things behind” is the only safe motto. The question is, not whether we did as well as we might, but whether we did as well as we could at the time.

    We must not spend all our lives in cleaning our windows, or in considering whether they are clean, but in sunning ourselves in God’s blessed light. That light will soon show us what still needs to be cleansed away, and will enable us to cleanse it with unerring accuracy.

    The Gift of Suffering
    by F.B. Meyer

  • Sometimes it looks as if we are bound to act. Every one says we must do something; and indeed things seem to have reached so desperate a pitch that we must…It is not easy at such times to stand still and see the salvation of God; but we must. God may delay to come in the guise of His Providence…He stays long enough to test patience of faith, but not a moment behind the extreme hour of need. “The vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and shall not lie; though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come; it will not tarry.”

    The Gift of Suffering
    by F.B. Meyer

  • I am speaking of the selfishness of good people, devout people, those who have succeeded through spiritual exercises and self-denial in being able to make the proud profession before the altar of the Most High, “Lord, I am not like the rest of men.” Yes, we have had the audacity at certain times of our lives to believe we are different from other men. And here is the deepest form of self-deception, dictated by self-centeredness at its worst: spiritual egotism. This most insidious form of egotism even uses piety and prayer for its own gain.

    ….

    There is no limit to such self-deception. And the path, once entered upon, is so slippery that God has to treat us harshly to bring us back to our senses. But there is no other way of opening our eyes. It has to be painful. But often it isn’t enough. Disaster, illness, disappointment hover like birds of prey over the poor carcass that had the temerity to say, “Lord, I am not like the rest of men.” How can we possibly entertain the idea that we are different from other men, when we shout, cry, feel afraid, lack determination, and behave atrociously just like everybody else?

    Letters from the Desert
    by Carlo Carretto

  • and I repeat again St. Augustine’s words: “Love and do as you will.” Don’t worry about what you ought to do. Worry about loving. Don’t interrogate heaven repeatedly and uselessly saying, “What course of action should I pursue?” Concentrate on loving instead. And by loving you will find out what is for you. Loving, you will listen to the Voice. Loving, you will find peace.

    Letters from the Desert
    by Carlo Carretto

  • When the blessed St. Arsenius was about to depart, the brethren saw him weeping, scared and terrified. His disciples asked him, “Even you fear this hour, O father?” He said unto them, “The dread of this hour has been with me from the time I became a monk.” And so he died.

    Abba Arsenius – The Tutor of the Emperor’s Sons
    Bishop Macarius

  • The first sign of pride is to measure the other by your yardstick
    by Archpriest Sergei Filimonov.

    Why do we show dissatisfaction with others? Why are we annoyed with them or are angry? There are several reasons for this. First, we measure another person with our yardstick. When we are healthy, when our heart beats smoothly, normal pressure, when both eyes see and both knees bend, we can not understand another person who feels bad. Our character is equal, but maybe that person is a choleric person, or vice versa – he is calmer and more pragmatic than we are.

    “I”, which reigns in our heart, makes us look at other people through the prism of our own physical, mental and spiritual properties, and we involuntarily consider ourselves a stencil, a model for others. From this, a storm begins in my soul: I do, but he does not; I do not get tired, but he complains that he is tired; I sleep five hours, and you see, eight hours are not enough for him; I work tirelessly, but he shirks and early leaves to sleep. This is characteristic of a proud person; namely the proud says: “Why am I doing this, but he does not? Why do I keep it, but he does not? Why can I, but he can not cope? ”

    But the Lord created all people different. Each of us has our own life, our own way of life, our life situations. Well-fed does not understand, a healthy patient will never understand. A person who does not pass through troubles and temptations will not understand the grieving person. A happy father will not understand an orphaned child who has lost his father. The bride will not understand the divorced. A person who has parents alive will not understand the one who just buried his mother. One can theorize, but there is a practice of life. We often do not have life experience, and when we start to find it, we remember those who were condemned, with whom we were strict. We did not understand what this man was feeling. We tried to edify him, but he was not up to remarks. His hands sank with grief, his soul was mourning, he did not need moral teachings and high-flown words. All he needed was sympathy, compassion and consolation, but we did not understand it. And when the Lord conducts us through the same, we begin to feel what the other person felt.

    Here is one of the signs of pride – we measure other people by our yardstick. When we do this, it shows that there is no magnanimity in us. And all that is needed is to try not to condemn another person, not to be irritated, but to accept him as he is. But it is difficult.

  • “Live at home like a traveler.”

    —Henry David Thoreau

  • There was an artist in the city of Kouroo who was disposed to strive after perfection. One day it came into his mind to make a staff. Having considered that in an imperfect work time is an ingredient, but into a perfect work time does not enter, he said to himself, It shall be perfect in all respects, though I should do nothing else in my life. He proceeded instantly to the forest for wood, being resolved that it should not be made of unsuitable material; and as he searched for and rejected stick after stick, his friends gradually deserted him, for they grew old in their works and died, but he grew not older by a moment. His singleness of purpose and resolution, and his elevated piety, endowed him, without his knowledge, with perennial youth. As he made no compromise with Time, Time kept out of his way, and only sighed at a distance because he could not overcome him.

    Walden
    by Henry David Thoreau

  • Let’s be honest. Christian perspectives are also about social ethics; they’re about the same.

    —Archbishop Angaelos