Even all the incidents you experience are permitted by God so you can gain a spiritual benefit from them…
There are those who become nervously, psychologically or mentally affected by incidents. Others are affected spiritually by whatever events they experience; everything that happens to them makes them closer to God….
The people that you meet, are sent by God. Passing your way, they are for your own spiritual benefit, if you know how to benefit from them.
The righteous present you with an example and a blessing, while you benefit endurance, patience, and forgiveness for others from evil.
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, WORDS OF SPIRITUAL BENEFIT VOL. II
Category: KNOWLEDGE
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In our current age, there are some monks who have deviated in theological issues. Also, some monks are simple; they fall into faults without knowing I remember the first responsibility entrusted to me as a monk was caring for the library in the Syrian Monastery. At first, I coded the books, organized them, and read them as much as I could. In doing this, I would find inside the front cover of a book a curse and an anathema against anyone who removes it from the monastery or contradicts the book; however, the book is full of heresies and innovations. Probably, a person gave it as a gift to a monk, who thanked him for it and prayed for him, without knowing what is written inside this heretical book. Perhaps an unorthodox manuscript, or an incorrect icon, given as a gift, might be placed in the church, meanwhile, it is all wrong.
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Monastic Treasures for All of Us
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The monastic studies theological matters, not for educational purposes, but to benefit from them personally.
Sometimes when one studies, one seeks to teach others, considering it a buried talent if people do not benefit from this knowledge. If you learn theology for your own personal gain, this is good for you. If you study theology in order to teach others, then you will be fought with venturing outside your rite of isolation and meditation.
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Monastic Treasures for All of Us
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When one becomes preoccupied with theological books, one tries to teach everyone what one has learned, regretting the loss if no one benefits from the research you read in the spiritual books, and in the theological books. One might think, “If people do not benefit from what you learn, then what is the benefit?” So beware of being fought with the desire to teach others.
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Monastic Treasures for All of Us
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The person, however, must carefully choose the books they read and will be discipled unto, and must read with discernment and care, and must not adopt everything they read. For there are books, even by renowned authors, that contain unsound information. And not all books are without error.
Therefore, the reader should place in front of themself the saying of St. Paul the Apostle, “Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil;” and the saying of St. John also, “Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God.”
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Come, Follow Me
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“Return to the readings which used to affect you in the past and to the contemplations, sermons, liturgies and hymns. Know yourself and know the things which strengthen it, and cleave to them. Do not leave your soul without wood to kindle its fire.”
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III -
I find myself not wanting anyone to know what I’m struggling with until I can turn that struggle into medicine for others to consume, until it becomes a learned lesson, as if what I have to share only matters if a solution or teaching or proof of overcoming is embedded into it.
Tending to the shame of stuckness
Lisa Olivera -
Give every truth time to send down deep roots into the heart; the main point is—to love. Nothing gives rise to such severe fits of indigestion as eating too much and too hastily. Digest every truth leisurely, if you would extract the essence of it for your nourishment, but let there be no restless self-reflective acts.
—François Fénelon, Spiritual Progress
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God, who created all nature with wisdom and secretly planted in each intelligent being knowledge of Himself as its first power, like a munificent Lord gave also to us men a natural desire and longing for Him, combining it in a natural way with the power of our intelligence. Using our intelligence, we struggle so as to learn with tranquility and without going astray how to realize this natural desire. Impelled by it we are led to search out the truth, wisdom and order manifest harmoniously in all creation, aspiring through them to attain Him by whose grace we received the desire.
—St. Maximos the Confessor, Philokalia
SO GOOD QUOTES 