Category: JUDGMENT

  • 69. We should not become angry with those who sin, even if what they do is criminal and deserves punishment. On the contrary, for the sake of justice we ought to correct and, if need be, punish them ourselves or get others to do so. But we should not become angry or excited; for anger acts only in accordance with passion, and not in accordance with good judgment and justice. Moreover, we should not approve those who show more mercy than is proper. The wicked must be punished for the sake of what is good and just, but not as a result of the personal passion of anger.

    —St Anthony the Great
    On the Character of Men and on the Virtuous Life
    One Hundred and Seventy Texts

  • Love sinners, but hate their works; and do not despise them for their faults, lest you be tempted by the same.

    —St. Isaac the Syrian

  • Do not disdain those who are deformed from birth, because all of us will go to the grave equally privileged.

    —St. Isaac the Syrian

  • “One person appears to be silent and yet condemns others in his heart; such a person is speaking all the time. However, another person talks from morning until evening and yet keeps silent; that is, he says nothing except what is helpful to others.”

    — Abba Poeman

  • “We usually criticize others when we’ve ceased to control ourselves.”

    — Saint Theophan the Recluse

  • “That the war comes upon you is not your doing; but to hate it is; and then the Lord, seeing your mind, that you are striving … parts death from your soul” (XXVI.

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

  • Some men, indeed, are bad because they choose to be bad; but others are bad in spite of themselves. They fight against it and resent it, but do not succeed in overcoming it.

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

  • Saints of God, he says, may be found sitting in the theatres, apparently looking on at the performance, while their hearts are holding intercourse with God (XV. 8, cp. XXIX. 1). It is part of Christian perfection to pass no judgment upon those who remain in the world, not even upon those whose lives are notoriously bad (XVIII. 8, cp. XLII.)

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

  • We have to realize the importance of the time in which we are living, so that we do not waste days and years, and have to submits ourselves to grace and truth, until we have removed all the obstacles of growth, because the time of visitation will end and the door will be shut, and we will suddenly find ourselves before the judgment. Time for each person is the present moment, because he cannot ensure the next moment; therefore, Paul the Apostle says, “And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep.” (Romans 13:11)

    —H.E. Metropolitan Youssef, How to Develop Your Personality

  • The one who asks for good always finds it… Even in a passing word, from anyone, in a casual incident that accidentally happened to him or others. He profits from his own and other people’s mistakes.

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III, WORDS OF SPIRITUAL BENEFIT VOL. II