• Trials and temptations subject to our volition are chiefly caused by health, wealth and reputation, and those beyond our control by sickness, material losses and slander. Some people are helped by these things, others are destroyed by them.

    —Ilias the Presbyter

  • Suffering deliberately embraced cannot free the soul totally from sin unless the soul is also tried in the fire of suffering that comes unchosen.

    —Ilias the Presbyter

  • He afflicts only to amend; even when He seems to overwhelm, He means nothing but good

    —François Fénelon, Spiritual Progress

  • Privations are meat for men; by them the soul is rendered hardy, is separated from self, and offered in a pure sacrifice to God; but we give up all, the moment they commence. We cannot but think that everything is going to ruin, when, in fact, the foundations are just beginning to be solidly laid. Nothing would give us more delight than that God should do all his pleasure with us, provided it should always be to magnify and perfect us in our own eyes. But if we are not willing to be destroyed and annihilated, we shall never become that whole burnt offering, which is entirely consumed in the blaze of God’s love.

    —François Fénelon, Spiritual Progress

  • This trial from the hand of God, will be far more serviceable to you, than the self-sought sweetness of prayer. You know very well that constant retirement is not necessary, in order to love God. When He gives you the time, take it and profit by it, but until then, wait in faith, well persuaded that what He orders is best.

    —François Fénelon, Spiritual Progress

  • Distress checks sensual pleasure; the fear of punishment withers desire.

    —St. Thalassios the Libyan

  • The experience of suffering afflicts the senses; distress annuls sensual pleasure.

    —St. Thalassios the Libyan

  • How hard it is to sit at home with nothing to do but wait. To wait—the most difficult thing in the whole world. To wait—with no living soul in whom to confide one’s doubts, one’s fears, one’s relentless hopes.

    —Anna Kavan, “Airing a Grievance”

  • You should dwell on something exactly to the point that dwelling on it further doesn’t do you any good.

    —Bret Weinstein

  • “He was looking for joy and found the Cross. What remedy is there for his sadness? He must rediscover the spirit of poverty. A rich person is someone who expects everything. A poor person is someone for whom everything is a gift. Nothing is owed us, not even our existence. ‘What do you have that you have not received?’ Friendship, happiness, joy are not owed us.”

    —Jean-Yves Leloup, Being Still