If we knew all, our hearts would be full of compassionate love even for those who have wronged us. They have wronged themselves more than they can possibly wrong us; they have wounded a person to their own hurt.
The Art of Being a Good Friend
Hugh Black
Category: FORGIVENESS & REPENTANCE
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Love is the center of a circle that broadens out in ever-widening circumference.
Dante tells us in La Vita Nuova that the effect of his love for Beatrice was to open his heart to all and to sweeten all his life. He speaks of the surpassing virtue of her very salutation to him in the street. “When she appeared in any place, it seemed to me, by the hope of her excellent salutation, that there was no man mine enemy any longer; and such warmth of charity came upon me that most certainly in that moment I would have pardoned whomsoever had done me an injury; and if anyone should then have questioned me concerning any matter, I could only have said unto him ‘Love,’ with a countenance clothed in humbleness.” His love bred sweetness in his mind and took in everything within the blessed sweep of its range.
The Art of Being a Good Friend
Hugh Black -
The strife-makers find in themselves, in their barren hearts and empty lives, their own appropriate curse. The blow they strike comes back upon them. Worse than the choleric temperament is the peevish, sullen nature. The one usually finds a speedy repentance for his hot and hasty mood; the other is a constant menace to friendship and acts like a perpetual irritant. The root of this temperament is selfishness, and it grows by what it feeds on.
When offenses do come, we may indeed use them as opportunities for growth in gracious ways, and thus turn them into blessings on the lives of both. To the offended, it may be an occasion for patience and forgiveness; to the offender, an occasion for humility and frank confession; and to both, a renewing of love less open to offense in the future.
The Art of Being a Good Friend
Hugh Black -
Within the repentant person there is first fear, then the lightness of hope; sorrow, then comfort; terror to the point of despair, then the breath of the consolation of mercy. One thing replaces another, and this supplies or keeps a person who is in a state of corruption or parting with life in the hope, however, of receiving new life.
—St. Theophan the Recluse, The Path to Salvation: A Manual of Spiritual Transformation
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Better that it create in me a sense of my own responsibility before the world, which can lead me through faith in God into holiness of life, peace of soul, and joy of heart. Dostoevsky captures this concept in The Brothers Karamazov, when the Elder Zosima recounts a conversation between his dying brother Markel and his mother: “[ I] tell you, dear mother, that each of us is guilty in everything before everyone, and I most of all.” . . . “How can it be . . . that you are the most guilty before everyone? There are murderers and robbers, and how have you managed to sin so that you should accuse yourself most of all?” “Dear mother, heart of my heart . . . you must know that verily each of us is guilty before everyone, for everyone and everything! I do not know how to explain it to you, but I feel it so strongly that it pains me. And how could we have lived before, getting angry, and not knowing anything?” Thus he awoke every day with more and more tenderness, rejoicing and all atremble with love.
How to Be a Sinner
Peter Bouteneff -
The mistake might have taken one second, perhaps when we impulsively press “send” on a really bad e-mail. It might have taken years of festering in a toxic relationship. But suddenly we realize that we have totally blundered, and are filled with regret. Such failures can lead us into vain replayings of our mental tape-loops, about how stupid I sounded when I made that remark about my colleague. But compunction over our serious errors can sometimes serve as a promising lead-in to a more thorough and constructive inventory of our lives.
How to Be a Sinner
Peter Bouteneff -
For inner healing to occur, two very important components are needed. One is forgiveness, and the other is reconciliation. Without these two, the inner healing process cannot be completed. Many people say, “Let me calm down first, recover a little, and then I will forgive and reconcile.” This is exactly like someone saying, “Let me heal first, and then I will take the medicine.” This does not work. This is the reason the Lord Jesus, while in the midst of His pain on the cross, did not say, “Give Me some time to calm down and then I will forgive,” but rather said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34).
INNER HEALING
H.E. Metropolitan Youssef -
There is no objection to having old friends if you can attract them to repentance with you. If you cannot, then let your relationship with them be superficial. If they are dangerous to you, then you should prefer your relationship to God over your relationship to them. Even if you encounter difficulty, bear it for the sake of the Lord. Remember what Abram the father of fathers did when the Lord called him. He left his family, kindred, and country to walk behind God (Genesis 12.1). Likewise, in order to preserve your repentance for the sake of God, you leave all who hinder you.
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, The Life of Repentance and Purity
SO GOOD QUOTES 