He shows that we can dissolve envy, just by bringing an end to comparing our life situation with that of others. The Bible is full of reminders that we are all called into different circumstances in life, and for different purposes of God. As the Lord has called each person, so let each person walk (I Cor. 7:17), says Scripture.
—Dee Pennock, God’s Path to Sanity
Category: DESPONDENCY
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The greed of Self-Love, say holy counselors, will often spawn Envy. As one who is discontented looks around and sees people blessed with better lives, fewer problems, greater gifts, more secure families and friendships, envy can occur. Much discontent produces envy even of the unborn, because they are free of pain, as the Preacher showed when he said, Rather than the living, I envy the dead; better than both of these is one who has not been born to have to see evil (Ecc. 4:2,3). Another said about his life: Cursed be the day when I was born. Cursed be the man who brought the news, because he did not kill me, so that my mother might have been my grave…. Instead, I came out of the womb to see labor and sorrow (Jer. 20:14-18). For anyone gripped by dissatisfaction and pain, and hatred of the way life has gone, here’s a prayer that can lift a soul up from that discontent, if one faithfully stays with it.
Lord Jesus Christ, forgive me and deliver me from hating life.
—Dee Pennock, God’s Path to Sanity
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You can’t resent other people because you let yourself down. But you can try.
—John Tottenham -
“They don’t remember something happening, but remember something not happening. They’ve missed out, and now they’re obsessed with the past that they did not live that does not exist for them.”
commentary on The Unhappiest Person in the World | Soren Kierkegaard’s Either/Or
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My walk on the cliffs was unfortunately a failure. And yet never had the light been so beautiful, never had the air been so fresh and reinvigorating, never had the green of the meadows been so intense, never had the reflection of the sun on the wavelets of the almost flat ocean been so enchanting; neither, I think, had I ever been so unhappy.
—Michel Houellebecq, Serotonin: A Novel
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From the outside a soul may appear to be healthy, while within, in the depths of consciousness, it may suffer from some hidden sickness. It can be healed from the outside through being pierced by reproof, and from within through the renewal of the intellect. Whoever, then, rejects such reproof, and shamelessly continues to lie on his bed in the sickroom of lethargy, is a fool.
—Ilias the Presbyter -
That it is our duty to perform each task considered as worthy with the utmost enthusiasm is insured by the terrible caveat that performing Godly work in a careless manner curses it. But worry, or the many worries that trouble the heart and give it no peace, is a disease of fallen man, who under took to decide his own fate and who is tossed and turned on all sides. Worry disturbs our thoughts and does not even allow us to focus on the task at hand. I suggest, therefore, that you look into this and, if you find that such a worry occasionally overwhelms you, try to drive it out and do not give it any ground. Have enthusiasm for your work and, performing it with utmost care, expect success from God, dedicating the task itself to Him, no matter how small it is, and you will get rid of worry.
Do this, and everyday occupations and tasks will not distract you from God.
May the Lord help you!
—St. Theophan the Recluse
SO GOOD QUOTES 