Abba Agathon said: “Somebody who is dear to me, if he be excessively [dear] and I realize the he is dragging me into transgression, I cut him off from me.”
Give Me a Word: The Alphabetical Sayings of the Desert Fathers
Category: DISCERNMENT
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Not every spiritual father is appropriate for everyone seeking to grow in their faith and in their spiritual knowledge, very few priests or bishops or monks are suitable guides to everyone. The spiritual exercise that brings salvation to one might create only pride or depression or nothing at all in another.
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Salvation comes to those who seek and ask and knock. There would be no seeking if the first door one knocked on opened right away.
—Fr. Michael Gillis
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“This is not optimal, but it is what works for me.”
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There was this that set him above many [others]: if he were asked about a phrase in Scripture or some spiritual matter, he did not answer immediately, but would say he did not know the answer. And if he were pressed further, he would not give an answer.
—Abba Pambo
Give Me a Word: The Alphabetical Sayings of the Desert Fathers -
Flatterers are our greatest enemies. They blind our eyes, do not let us see our many defects, and thus hinder us upon the way to perfection, especially if we ourselves are self-loving and not far-seeing. This is why we must always stop those who natter us, or avoid them. Woe unto him who is surrounded by flatterers! Happy is he who is surrounded by simple-hearted people who do not hide the truth, although it may be unpleasant!
—St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ
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The spiritual man does not say all that comes to his mind from words or ideas. He weighs each word before he utters it. His scale does not stop at the essence of the word, if it is right or wrong in itself… But his concern is also about the effect of the word on others, its reactions and the result of that.
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III,The Spiritual Man
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One may talk much, so he loses the virtues of silence, thinking and contemplating. And one may remain silent and loses the advantage of the word of benefit, the word of consolation, the word of advice and also loses witnessing for the truth. As for the integral man, he knows when to remain silent and when to talk.
He does not remain silent when it is good to talk, and does not talk when it is good to remain silent.
When he is silent, it is by wisdom. And when he talks, it is for a benefit. He controls the two matters together and uses each of them at its good time.
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, The Spiritual Man
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“No one changes unless they want to. Not if you beg them. Not if you shame them. Not if you use reason, emotion, or tough love. There’s only one thing that makes someone change: their own realization that they need to do it…”
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“A person may talk much and so lose the virtue of silence and thinking and contemplation, and a person may keep silent, and so lose the virtue of speaking a word of benefit, or a word of comfort, or a word of advice, as he loses witnessing to the truth… The wholesome personality, however, knows when to keep silent and when to speak; he does not keep silent when speaking is better, and he does not speak when silence is better.”
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III
SO GOOD QUOTES 