“Believe me, if God discloses the calamities we were exposed to and those He cast away from us, if He uncovers these, our whole life will not be enough to thank Him.”
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III
Category: FAITH
-
If there is a time for everything under heaven, as the Preacher says, and by the word ‘everything’ must be understood what concerns our holy life, then if you please let us look into it and let us seek to do at each time what is proper for that occasion. For it is certain that for those who enter the lists there is a time for dispassion (I say this for the combatants who are serving their apprenticeship); there is a time for tears, and a time for hardness of heart; there is a time for obedience, and there is a time to command; there is a time to fast, and a time to partake; there is a time for battle with our enemy the body, and a time when the fire is dead; a time of spiritual storm, and a time of spiritual calm; a time for heartfelt sorrow, and a time for spiritual joy; a time for teaching and a time for listening; a time of pollutions, perhaps on account of conceit, and a time of cleansing by humility; a time for struggle, and a time for safe relaxation; a time for quiet, and a time for undistracted distraction; a time for unceasing prayer, and a time for sincere service. So let us not be deceived by proud zeal and seek prematurely what will come in its own good time; that is, we should not seek in winter what comes in summer, or at seed time what comes at harvest; because there is a time to sow labours, and a time to reap the unspeakable gifts of grace. Otherwise we shall not receive even in season what is proper to that season.
—St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent -
For the Lord demands of you that you be angry with yourself and engage in battle with your mind, neither consenting to nor taking pleasure in wicked thoughts. The uprooting of sin and the evil that is so embedded in our sinning can be done only by divine power. For it is impossible and outside man’s competence to uproot sin. To struggle, yes, to continue to fight, to inflict blows and to receive setbacks is in your power. To uproot, however, belongs to God alone. If, indeed, you could have done it on your own, what would have been the need for the coming of the Lord? For just as an eye cannot see without light, just as one cannot speak without a tongue, nor hear without ears, nor walk without feet, nor carry out one’s works without hands, so you cannot be saved, nor enter into the kingdom of heaven without Jesus.
(St Macarius the Great,Homilies 3.3,4, in Spiritual Homilies)
-
“How close God is to us when we come to recognize and to accept our abjection and to cast our care entirely upon HIm! Against all human expectation He sustains us when we need to be sustained, helping us to do what seemed impossible. We learn to know Him, now, not in the ‘presence’ that is found in abstract consideration – a presence in which we dress Him in our own finery – but in the emptiness of a hope that may come close to despair. For perfect hope is achieved on the brink of despair when, instead of falling over the edge, we find ourselves walking on the air. Hope is always just about to turn into despair, but never does so, for at the moment of supreme crisis God’s power is suddenly made perfect in our infirmity. So we learn to expect His mercy almost calmly when all is most dangerous, to seek Him quietly in the face of peril, certain that He cannot fail us though we may be upbraided by the just and rejected by those who claim to hold the evidence of His love.”
—Thomas Merton -
“Faith can be viewed from three dimensions or sources: faith that comes through the witness of others, faith that expands through our own experiences, and faith received as an infusion of Gods grace to the soul through our obedience and cooperation.”
All That I Have Is Yours: 100 Meditations with St. Pope Kyrillos VI on the Spiritual Life
Kyrillos Ibrahim -
Intelligence without faith is not as admirable as faith without intelligence.
—St. Augustine -
How do we acquire faith, the deep conviction that produces the most zeal? The saints teach that it comes from gathering knowledge. He who does not know the truth cannot have true faith; for in the nature of things, knowledge comes before faith (Hesychius).
…
How quickly you can have faith depends upon how quick, and how willing, you are to put available facts together into knowledge.
God’s Path to Sanity
Dee Pennock -
SECT. VII. Third Comparison, drawn from a Statue.
If a man should find in a desert island a fine statue of marble, he would undoubtedly immediately say, “Sure, there have been men here formerly; I perceive the workmanship of a skilful statuary; I admire with what niceness he has proportioned all the limbs of this body, in order to give them so much beauty, gracefulness, majesty, life, tenderness, motion, and action!”
What would such a man answer if anybody should tell him, “That’s your mistake; a statuary never carved that figure. It is made, I confess, with an excellent gusto, and according to the rules of perfection; but yet it is chance alone made it. Among so many pieces of marble there was one that formed itself of its own accord in this manner; the rains and winds have loosened it from the mountains; a violent storm has thrown it plumb upright on this pedestal, which had prepared itself to support it in this place. It is a perfect Apollo, like that of Belvedere; a Venus that equals that of the Medicis; an Hercules, like that of Farnese. You would think, it is true, that this figure walks, lives, thinks, and is just going to speak. But, however, it is not in the least beholden to art; and it is only a blind stroke of chance that has thus so well finished and placed it.”
—François Fénelon, Existence of God -
“We may study as much as we will but we shall still not come to know the Lord unless we live according to His commandments, for the Lord is not made known through learning but by the Holy Spirit. Many philosophers and scholars have arrived at the belief in the existence of God. To believe in God is one thing, to know God is another.”
— St. Silouan the Athonite -
Thank You, Lord, for, had You seen a better situation for me than where I am, You would have taken me there. Or, if I deserved more than this, You would have given me. Certainly, You always give me above what I deserve. It is enough that I trust Your wisdom and love in planning my life; this deserves thanks.
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Dialogue with the Divine
SO GOOD QUOTES 