Category: SUFFERING & TRIBULATION

  • “How will we know whether we are living according to the will of God or not? If you are sad for whatever reason, this means that you have not given yourself over to God, although from the outside it may seem that you have. He who lives according to God’s will has no worries. When he needs something, he simply prays for it. If he does not receive that which he asked for, he is joyful as though he had received it. A soul that has given itself over to God has no fear of anything, not even robbers, sickness, or death. Whatever happens, such a soul always cries, ‘It was the will of God.’”

    —Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica

  • Note the events of your life. Everything has deep meaning. You don’t understand them now, but later much will be revealed…

    —Venerable Barsanuphius of Optina

  • At times you will be forsaken by God, at times troubled by those about you and, what is worse, you will often grow weary of yourself. You cannot escape, you cannot be relieved by any remedy or comfort but must bear with it as long as God wills. For He wishes you to learn to bear trial without consolation, to submit yourself wholly to Him that you may become more humble through suffering. No one understands the passion of Christ so thoroughly or heartily as the man whose lot it is to suffer the like himself.

    —Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

  • We have seen that creative people are used to solitude, and we have explored some of the reasons for this. Instead of seeking friends in whom to confide, or counsellors to whom to tell their troubles, they use their gifts to come to terms with, and to make sense of, their sufferings. Once a work is completed, it can be shared with others; but the initial response to depression is to turn inward rather than outward.

    Solitude, a Return to the Self
    Anthony Storr

  • Hence, the rewards for these pains and this despondency were much greater. “For each one will receive his own wages,” it says, “according to his own toil.” I will not stop saying this continually.

    —Saint John Chrysostom, Letters to Saint Olympia

  • If, therefore, sufferings have great rewards, and despair is the most grievous and most painful of all sufferings, imagine what will be the recompense for it! I will not cease chanting this refrain to you, in order to fulfill now what I promised in the beginning: to draw out from despondency itself the considerations that will give birth to consolation from despondency in you.

    —Saint John Chrysostom, Letters to Saint Olympia

  • Nevertheless, as powerful as despondency can be, he is convinced that she can overcome it, through the power of her own will, working in cooperation with God’s grace—and inspired by his ardent desire and will for her to be free from his affliction.

    —Saint John Chrysostom, Letters to Saint Olympia

  • Man starts over again everyday, in spite of all he knows, against all he knows.

    —Emil Cioran

  • A source of spiritual death, despair can also lead a man to suicide: inciting him to no longer expect anything from life, it implants ideas of suicide in his soul and prompts him to accomplish them. In explaining this matter, St. John Chrysostom maintained the possibility of a demonic influence, but stressed that it was not the only cause, as he wished to once again insist on the responsibility of the individual himself. ‘These baneful thoughts’ he wrote to Stagirius, do not only come from the demon; your own melancholy is also very much to blame. Yes, indeed, this dark sadness even more than the evil spirit provokes these thoughts, and perhaps they are the only cause. It is certain that some individuals, quite apart from any demonic obsession, suffer from this mania for suicide after excessive suffering.

    Mental Disorders & Spiritual Healing: Teachings from the Early Christian East
    Jean-Claude Larchet

  • we want to keep ourselves from putting blame for our misfortune on anybody else, no matter how obviously it may appear to be the fault of another person. Misfortune is meant to give us a bigger purpose than looking for someone to blame. It is to draw our attention to God and our need for God to bring us to repentance.

    —Dee Pennock, God’s Path to Sanity