“Just as a man with fever has no right to commit suicide, so till our very last breath we must never give up hope.”
—St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Category: SUFFERING
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“No matter how much the waves of temptation rise up against your soul, always hasten to Christ. The Saviour will always come to your aid and will calm the waves. Believe that the Lord has providentially arranged such experiences for your soul’s healing and do not reject them, seeking bodily peace and imaginary tranquility, for it is better to be shaken and yet to endure. If you will gain an insight from this, it will greatly lighten your struggle and you will gain more peace than if you do not.”
—St. Leo of Optina -
“Suffering is what your mind does with your pain. A silent mind knows no suffering.”
—Elizabeth, Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation -
“Everyone is hurting. I assume no evil.”
—Jane Hwangbo -
As long as we are occupied and preoccupied with our desire to do good but are not able to feel the crying need of those who suffer, our help remains hanging somewhere between our minds and our hands and does not descend into the heart where we can care.
—Henri Nouwen,Out of Solitude: Three Meditations on the Christian Life -
“Those who can sit in silence with their fellow man, not knowing what to say, but knowing that they should be there, can bring new life in a dying heart.”
—Henri Nouwen,Out of Solitude: Three Meditations on the Christian Life -
Still, when we honestly ask ourselves which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not-curing, not-healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.
—Henri Nouwen, Out of Solitude: Three Meditations on the Christian Life
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“The more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you, in proportion to your fear of being hurt. The one who does most to avoid suffering is, in the end, the one who suffers most.”
—Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain -
A continuously happy life produces extremely unhappy consequences. In nature we see that there are not always pleasant springs and fruitful summers, and sometimes autumn is rainy and winter cold and snowy, and there is flooding and wind and storms, and moreover the crops fail and there are famine, troubles, sicknesses and many other misfortunes. All of this is beneficial so that man might learn through prudence, patience and humility. For the most part, in times of plenty he forgets himself, but in times of various sorrows he becomes more attentive to his salvation.
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“Without pain, we wouldn’t have some of the greatest works of art known to mankind.”
—Lauren Martin, It’s Proven: Why The Greatest People Are Many Times The Loneliest
SO GOOD QUOTES 