• The fact alone that we perceive that He loves us is sufficient in place of the work we ought to do if we are not capable of it.

    —St. Isaac the Syrian

  • Stay inside your commitments and your family—they will teach you where life is found and what love means.

    —Ronald Rolheiser, Domestic Monastery

  • But if they depart from such strict obedience they will fail completely in the spiritual life and in every form of virtue.

    —St Theodoros the Great, Ascetic A Century of Spiritual Texts

  • “How deluded we sometimes are by the clear notions we get out of books. They make us think that we really understand things of which we have no practical knowledge at all.”

    —Thomas Merton

  • “Christians should regard their occupations as sidelines and prayer as their work.”

    —St. Nicodemos the Hagiorite

  • “Why do we all know so much? And why do we feel the unbearable urge to tell each other that we know so much? It’s as if we are burdened by the question of what to do with thought, by our brains, by the very weight of the organ…”

    Infinite Resignation
    Eugene Thacker

  • “How are things going?” “Oh, I can’t complain…” The greatest complaint of all.—

    Infinite Resignation
    Eugene Thacker

  • If everything is going well, you’ve obviously overlooked something…

    Infinite Resignation
    Eugene Thacker

  • While visiting the University of Notre Dame, where I had been a teacher for a few years, I met an older experienced professor who had spent most of his life there. And while we strolled over the beautiful campus, he said with a certain melancholy in his voice, “You know,… my whole life I have been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted, until I discovered that my interruptions were my work.”

    —Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out

    “Anyone who complains about the people surrounding him suffers because of his own fault, because he did not understand: those who are near him are exactly what he needs.”

    — Archimandrite Emilian (Vafidis)

    When we receive visits from our brethren, we should not consider this an irksome interruption of our stillness, lest we cut ourselves off from the law of love. Nor should we receive them as if we were doing them a favor, but rather as if it is we ourselves who are receiving a favor; and because we are indebted to them, we should beg them cheerfully to enjoy our hospitality.

    —St Theodoros the Great, Ascetic A Century of Spiritual Texts

  • The unrest incident to youth, the vacillating response to disparate appeals, the insatiable hunger for whatever appears attractive or beautiful will subside, and a steady orientation towards the essential and decisive become dominant.

    Supernatural readiness to change should grow with age..

    Transformation in Christ
    Dietrich von Hildebrand