Category: KNOWLEDGE & SELF-KNOWLEDGE

  • “We spare neither labors nor means in order to teach our children secular sciences, so that they can serve well the earthly authorities. Only the knowledge of the holy Faith, the service of the Heavenly King are a matter of indifference to us. We allow them to attend spectacles but we care little whether they go to Church and stand within it reverently. We demand an account from them of what they learned in their secular institutes—why do we not demand an account from them of what they heard in the Lord’s house?”

    —St. John Chrysostom

  • “A small fire often destroys a whole forest; so too a small flaw spoils all our labour.”

    —St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent

  • “Not only do my choices and their consequences effect those around me immediately, but my choices also effect those far away and those not yet born.”

    —Fr. Michael Gillis

    “Your lives in your homes are a responsibility, and have a deep effect in the generations coming after you.”

    —H.H. Pope Shenouda III

    “The life of each one of us does not end at death on this earth and birth into heaven. We place a seal on everyone we meet. This responsibility continues after death, and the living are related to the dead for whom they pray. In the dead we no longer belong completely to the world; in us the dead still belong to history. Prayer for the dead is vital; it expresses the totality of our common life.”

    —Metropolitan Anthony Bloom

    Every human being is an incalculable force, bearing within him something of the future. To the end of time, our daily words and actions will bear fruit, either good or bad; nothing that we have once given of ourselves will perish, but our words and works, handed on from one to another, will continue to do good or harm to remote generations. This is why life is a sacred thing, and we ought not to pass through it thoughtlessly, but to appreciate its value and use it so that, when we are gone, the sum total of good in the world may be greater.

    —Servant of God Elisabeth Leseur

  • “We can find something edifying in everybody’s life. Even the worst thief has something good in him.”

    —Elder Thaddeus of Serbia

  • “Openly appearing to those who look for Him with all their heart, while hiding from those who run from Him with all their heart, God governs human knowledge of His presence.  He gives signs that are visible to those who search for Him, and yet invisible to those who are indifferent to Him. To those who wish to see, God gives sufficient light; to those who do not wish to see, He gives sufficient darkness.”

    —Blaise Pascal

  • “The more we look at ourselves, the less we see.”

    —Fr. Michael Gillis
    Praying In The Rain, What is Worth Living For? A Response

  • Curiosity consists of trying to know everything without order, without aim, without distinguishing whether it is needful or not. It is only necessary that one should preserve a measure and order in exercising the senses, and direct them only to what is needful and to awareness of what is needful—then there will be no food for curiosity.

    —St. Theophan the Recluse, The Path to Salvation: A Manual of Spiritual Transformation

  • “He who establishes his argument by noise and command, shows that his reason is weak.”

    —Michel de Montaigne

  • “Try to unlearn officiousness and curiosity; for they can spoil solitude as nothing else can.”

    —St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent

  • So if a man does not watch himself well, he may begin some activity with the sole purpose of pleasing the Lord, but later, little by little, introduce into it a self-interest, which makes him find in it also a satisfaction of his own desires, and this to such an extent that the will of God becomes completely forgotten. Then he becomes so tightly bound by enjoyment of the work, that if God Himself were to hinder him in this practice, either through some illness, or through temptations from men or demons, or by some other means, he is filled with indignation, often blames one man or another for having interfered in the course of things he so loves, and sometimes even murmurs against God Himself. This is a sure sign that the disposition of his heart did not come from God, but has sprung from the rotten and corrupted root of self-love.

    Unseen Warfare
    Lorenzo Scupoli