“We speak about the events of the world, but how often do we really change them for the better? We speak about people and their ways, but how often do our words do them or us any good? We speak about our ideas and feelings as if everyone were interested in them, but how often do we really feel understood? We speak a great deal about God and religion, but how often does it bring us or others real insight? Words often leave us with a sense of inner defeat. They can even create a sense of numbness and a feeling of being bogged down in swampy ground. Often they leave us in a slight depression, or in a fog that clouds the window of our mind.”
—Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart: The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers
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“Before you speak, ask yourself: is it kind, is it necessary, is it true, does it improve on the silence?”
—Sai Baba -
Trust Your Vocation
You have to start trusting your unique vocation and allow it to grow deeper and stronger in you so it can blossom in your community. . . . Look at Rembrandt and van Gogh. They trusted their vocations and did not allow anyone to lead them astray. With true Dutch stubbornness, they followed their vocations from the moment they recognized them. They didn’t bend over backward to please their friends or enemies. Both ended their lives in poverty, but both left humanity with gifts that could heal the minds and hearts of many generations of people. Think of these two men and trust that you, too, have a unique vocation that is worth claiming and living out faithfully.
—Henri Nouwen -
“Never assume anything. I’ve been learning this over and over from assuming. I’ve told people don’t assume, and I still assume. It takes a long time to root this out. Don’t assume. Don’t assume you know. Don’t assume you understand. Don’t assume you have enough data. Don’t assume you’re qualified. One fact can change your whole interpretation of a scenario—just one fact. I’ve seen people hold grudges for years and years and years and years, and then one fact being presented changed it all, like, Oh, I didn’t know that. And then suddenly it’s like, oh man, but like, the last seven years we didn’t talk because you assumed. If somebody says something, don’t assume their intention, even if it looks blatantly obvious, don’t assume you’ve interpreted it right. If you’ve lived with someone for 40 years, still don’t assume just because you know them that well, that you’re right. You don’t know.”
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“When you come out of solitude, guard what you have gathered. When the cage is opened, the birds fly out. And then we shall find no further profit in solitude.”
—St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent -
“Every possible sorrow that comes to you can be overcome by silence.”
— Abba Poemen -
“We usually criticize others when we’ve ceased to control ourselves.”
— Saint Theophan the Recluse -
Committed to silence, and meditating for long stretches, one’s mind really slows down compared to normal. The urge to explain oneself subsides, the urge to comment and criticize subsides, and you finally realize the obscene volume of chatter that goes on in there on a regular day.
—David Cain, What Five Days of Silence Taught Me
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When you have to speak, before expressing what has entered your heart and letting it pass to your tongue, examine it carefully and you will find many things that are better not let past your lips. Know moreover that many things, which it seems to you good to express, are much better left buried in the tomb of silence. Sometimes you will yourself realise this, immediately the conversation is over.
Unseen Warfare
Lorenzo Scupoli
SO GOOD QUOTES 