The saint sees that one hour of sleep per day is sufficient for a monk. While many people see that a person must sleep for eight hours per day, some specialists and those who have experience assert that the body, through habit, may be satisfied with less than that, without any effect on the productivity of the person, just like the stomach which gets used to being small or large in size.
Abba Arsenius The Tutor of the Emperor’s Sons
Bishop Macarius
Category: BEST OF
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God forms character in obscurity. Right now you might feel forgotten. Do not despise the hidden season. Hidden years are not wasted years.
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Clement possessed all the characteristics of the talented master: a flashing intellect, a fiery enthusiasm, and an ever youthful soul. He believed that teaching was a divine mission, and gave himself wholeheartedly to it. He went as far as opening his School to all who came, regardless of age and sex. And the people from all walks of life crowded to hear him: the rich and learned aristocrats; the women of high rank, powdered and perfumed; young “ne’er-do-wells,” coming from sheer curiosity, philosophers and rhetoricians. A medley of a crowd, if ever there was one. A cynic, looking at such a crowd, might well have declared that it was void of all good.
THE STORY OF THE COPTS
THE TRUE STORY OF THE CHRISTIANS OF EGYPT WHO HAVE LIVED THE BIBLE FOR 2,000 YEARSBY IRIS HABIB EL MASRI
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Always keep the same measure of self-control; otherwise through irregularity you will go from one extreme to another.
—St. Thalassios the Libyan -
Properly Valuing the Whole World
What is this whole world, with all its continents, its past, present, and future? What does it amount to? Nothing! I resonate with a statement from one scholar who once said: “When I was a child I saw myself in comparison to the world as a small speck of sand on an endless beach of an endless ocean.” So what if someone lives in any given city within a specific country, which is part of a specific continent, which in turn is a small part of planet Earth, itself just one of innumerable planets? What would that mean? It is nothing. What does this person turn out to be? He says: “When I was a child, I saw myself as a small speck of sand on an endless beach of an endless ocean, but now I know that I am the endless ocean and the whole world is a small speck of sand on my beach.”
What is this world?! One who sits to think of the world finds that it is frivolous. If you asked him, “What is the world?” he would say, “A small speck of sand on my beach.” And if you asked, “What is your endless beach?” he would reply, “This is the beach leading to eternity.” If you see yourself as the image and likeness of God, then what does this world amount to? With all its noise, struggles, desires, and status, what does the world amount to? Nothing. This is a person’s valuation of the world.
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Monastic Treasures for All of Us
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“If you want it to be private, don’t let it leave your lips.”
—Fr. Tadros Malaty -
“The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away; as it seemed good unto the Lord even so has it come to pass, blessed be the name of the Lord forever.” Let this speech be our utterance also over each event which befalls us, whether it be loss of property, or infirmity of body, or insult, or false accusation, or any other form of evil that happens to mankind, let us say these words:
“The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away; as it seemed good to the Lord so has it come to pass; blessed be the name of the Lord forever.”
If we practice this spiritual wisdom, we shall never experience any evil, even if we undergo countless sufferings, but the gain will be greater than the loss, the good will exceed the evil.
By these words you will cause God to be merciful to you, and will defend yourself against the tyranny of Satan. For as soon as your tongue has uttered these words, immediately the devil flees from you. And when he has hastened away, the cloud of dejection also is dispelled and the thoughts which afflict us take to flight, hurrying off in company with him. And in addition to all this you will win all manner of blessings both here and in Heaven. And you have a convincing example in the case of Job and of the apostle, who having for God’s sake despised the troubles of this world, obtained the everlasting blessings. Let us then be trustful and in all things which befall us let us rejoice and give thanks to the merciful God, that we may pass through this present life with serenity and obtain the blessings to come, by the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ to Whom be glory, honor and might always, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Saint John Chrysostom
On the Two Paralytics in the Gospels
Homilies on Profitable Subjects -
You feel after [sinning] void of inner peace, you feel unhappy, you feel there is no support, you feel the fear that bad things will happen, you feel that the Lord will not answer me because we live with this comfortable thing that God is supportive, but if God is not supportive, where can I go? I cannot afford life without having support from God.
—Fr. Jacob Magdy
SO GOOD QUOTES 