In our town of Petrovac there used to be a priest named Fr. B. He had a distinctive personality—a little rough, sharp-spoken, and demanding in discipline—but he had an unbelievable love for animals. There were always dogs and cats in his house. One autumn day he went to bless the home of a parishioner who had a huge ferocious German Sheperd. The dog was as big as a calf. When Fr. B. walked through the gate, the dog leapt forward and threw himself at the priest. Everyone was sure that he was attacking him. But the priest spread his arms wide and said, “Come, let’s wrestle!” The dog placed his paws on his shoulders and began to lick his face. Everyone was amazed. “He knows I like animals!” said the priest. This is what happens when a person has good thoughts. When animals, who are not rational beings, feel this, how much more will our fellow men feel our good thoughts? Our thoughts create either harmony or disharmony in the world.
Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives: the Life and Teachings of Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica
Category: LOVE
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Men consider silence to be the mere absence of noise and speech, but the reality is much more complex.
The silence of a couple who are dining alone can express the depth of a communion that no longer needs words; on the other hand, they may no longer be capable of speaking to each other. The first silence is a silence of communion, and the second—a silence of rupture. Each of these two opposite forms conveys a very strong message; the first says: I love you. The second: Our love is over.
—Dom Dysmas De Lassus
The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise
Cardinal Robert Sarah, Nicolas Diat -
Finally, to see how necessary it is to love yourself, look at God’s great commandment to love our neighbor as ourself. If you don’t love yourself, you can’t even get off the ground with that commandment. In the early days of Christianity, people were taught not to try to obey that commandment until they had developed a healthy love for themselves first, and learned to protect and benefit themselves in many ways. One holy teacher said it’s better to be regarded as a destitute tramp than to try to benefit your neighbor before you have learned to benefit yourself. Running around doing a lot of charitable things for others when you still aren’t able to do anything charitable for yourself is a dangerous waste of time, because it nourishes hypocrisy and arrogance and resentment and cruelty. And you can’t possibly understand how to protect and comfort another person, how to meet his needs or lead him into a good life, unless you’ve learned to do those things first for your own self. So before you worry much about anything else or think about really benefitting any other people in the world, take hold of the natural self-love God has given you and become a faithful benefactor to yourself.
Who is God? Who Am I? Who Are You?
Dee Pennock -
One Sunday, Met. Anthony Bloom gave a sermon as follows: “Last night a woman with a child came to this church. She was in trousers and with no headscarf. Someone scolded her. She left. I do not know who did that, but I am commanding that person to pray for her and her child to the end of his days to God for their salvation. Because of you, she may not go to church ever again.” He turned around and entered the altar. That was the entire sermon.
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God is perfect, He is faultless. And so, when Divine love becomes manifest in us in the fullness of Grace, we radiate this love — not only on the earth, but throughout the entire universe as well. So God is in us, and He is present everywhere. It is God’s all-encompassing love that manifests itself in us. When this happens, we see no difference between people: everyone is good, everyone is our brother, and we consider ourselves to be the worst of men — servants of every created thing.
—Elder Thaddeus
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Know that the desire to be perfect is probably the veiled expression of another desire—to be loved, perhaps,
How to Be Perfect
by RON PADGETT -
There is no such thing as good or bad fortune for the individual; we live in common. And no one can live happily who has regard to himself alone and transforms everything into a question of his own utility; you must live for your neighbour, if you would live for yourself.
—Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
SO GOOD QUOTES 