The spiritual person is socially successful, loved by all, at the same time, he uses a correct spiritual and faultless way.
It is easy for a spiritual person to train himself to be silent so that he would not err by the tongue… Stronger than him is the spiritual person who talks, not only without fault, but in a positive way to benefit others. He is a tactful speaker whose talk people enjoy…
It is quite easy for a spiritual person to abstain from joking and become always serious. Few will be able to harmonise with his continual seriousness. They will be pleased to see a spiritual person who is at the same time cheerful and happy, laughs with them without any fault on his side or theirs.
Spirituality does not mean being grave, it turns people off…
Spirituality has nothing to do with isolation from society and its faults. Otherwise, religion would not be good for society…
To become adapted to society is a side of spirituality. It is a higher level than the social. It is not wise for some to put it on a lower level, or else that could be one way of self-centeredness…
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, WORDS OF SPIRITUAL BENEFIT VOL. II
Category: LOVE
-
-
Sometimes showed more love and gave more grace to strangers than to the people closest to me
cruel optimism new year
rayne fisher-quann -
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
-
So much of how the world decides who we are depends upon how we hold ourselves.
—Susan Dominus -
It is therefore of supreme importance that we consent to live not for ourselves but for others. When we do this we will be able first of all to face and accept our own limitations. As long as we secretly adore ourselves, our own deficiencies will remain to torture us with an apparent defilement. But if we live for others, we will gradually discover that no one expects us to be “as gods.” We will see that we are human, like everyone else, that we all have weaknesses and deficiencies, and that these limitations of ours play a most important part in all our lives. It is because of them that we need others and others need us. We are not all weak in the same spots, and so we supplement and complete one another, each one making up in himself for the lack in another.
—Thomas Merton -
But like our tribal ancestors, modern society needs wildcards and weirdos too. Humanity needs some source of innovation in order to take a gamble just as much as we need the stability that runs our everyday lives.
Maybe the hypersensitive anxiety that gives panic attacks to the girl at your office is the same hypersensitive anxiety that will inspire her to write a brilliant novel or poem.
Maybe the psychopathic asshole CEO of your company is good at making business decisions precisely because he’s a psychopathic asshole. He only sees the numbers, not people. And strangely, you all benefit financially from his lack of empathy.
Maybe that autistic kid in your calc class will go on to produce major advances in quantum physics and win a Nobel prize one day. So stop stealing his lunch money, asshole.
-
“When we demand respect and attention from others, they usually turn their backs on us; but when we give no thought to the respect of others and care nothing about it, then people flock around us and follow us.”
—Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica -
What you should feel is the kind of feeling felt by a son, whose only concern is that his father should be pleased with him. It is not the feeling of the slave, whose only concern is to be saved from punishment.
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Return To God
SO GOOD QUOTES 