SO GOOD QUOTES

Category: FORGIVENESS

  • “It is shameful for the gnostic to be involved in a lawsuit, whether as plaintiff or defendant: if as plaintiff, [it is shameful] because he will not have endured patiently; if as defendant, because he will have acted unjustly.”

    —Evagrius Ponticus

  • We are quick enough to feel and brood over the things we suffer from others, but we think nothing of how much others suffer from us.

    —Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

  • And therefore God, the Creator of all, caring above everything for the restoration of His handiwork, and knowing that the root and cause of offenses lie not in others but in our own selves, has bade us not to separate ourselves from consort with the brethren, nor to avoid those whom we think that we have injured or that they have injured us, but rather to soothe their feelings, knowing that a perfect heart is acquired, not by drawing apart from men, but by the virtue of patience. This virtue, when it is firmly held, will make us to hold to the love of peace even with them that hate peace, and when we possess it not, our lack thereof makes us constantly at enmity with those who may be perfect and higher in virtue than we. For it needs must be that, in the course of human intercourse, occasions of perturbation will arise which will make us hurry to quit the company of those to whom we are bound, and for this reason, when we leave one set of companions for another, we are not ridding ourselves of causes of sadness, but only changing them.

    +St. John Cassian, Selected Writings of St. John Cassian the Roman

  • “Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?”

    —Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

  • “Life is grace. Sleep is forgiveness. The night absolves. Darkness wipes the slate clean, not spotless to be sure, but clean enough for another day’s chalking.”

    —Frederick Buechner, The Alphabet of Grace

  • We want to keep ourselves from putting blame for our misfortune on anybody else, no matter how obviously it may appear to be the fault of another person. Misfortune is meant to give us a bigger purpose than looking for someone to blame. It is to draw our attention to God and our need for God-to bring us to repentance.

    God’s Path to Sanity
    Dee Pennock

  • “Hurt people hurt people, but hurt people heal people, too.”

    —Fr. Paul Girguis

  • Why do we keep hiding our deepest feelings from each other? We suffer much, but we also have great gifts of healing for each other. The mystery is that by hiding our pain we also hide our ability to heal. . . . We are called to confess to each other and forgive each other, and thus to discover the abundant mercy of God. But at the same time, we are so terribly afraid of being hurt more than we already are. This fear keeps us prisoners, even when the prison has no walls! I see better every day how radical Jesus’ message of love really is.

    —Henri Nouwen

  • “The abbot Paphnutius, the disciple of the abbot Macarius, related that the old man said, ‘When I was a boy, I was tending calves with the other boys, and they went to steal figs; and as they ran, one of the figs dropped, and I picked it up and ate it; and when I remember it, I sit and weep.’

    Fifty Spiritual Homilies of Saint Macarius the Egyptian
    Introduction
    A.J. MASON, D.D.

  • “That chosen vessel, the aged Macarius of Egypt, once asked me how it is that in remembering the wrongs done to us by men we ruin our powers of memory, but take no harm by remembering the wrongs done by devils. I was at a loss for an answer, and begged him to tell me the reason. He answered, ‘It is because the former is contrary to nature; the latter is in accordance with our mental constitution.’

    Fifty Spiritual Homilies of Saint Macarius the Egyptian
    Introduction
    A.J. MASON, D.D.