True luxury is having an admirable soul and experiencing a state of pleasure. For example, a person may eat, drink, and engage in revelry, yet if they suffer from cares and loss of spirits, can they truly be considered to be in a state of delight?So, true luxury is found in having a life without sorrows. Let us explore who can attain such a life—whether the rich or those who are not rich. It is not exclusive to either group, but rather to those who order their souls in a way that minimizes grounds for sorrows. Now, where can we find such a life? This pleasure, this true luxury, does not depend on meats, wine, sauces, silk robes, or a sumptuous table. If I can demonstrate that such a life is achievable without relying on these external factors, then welcome this pleasure and this way of life.
First, acknowledge that true luxury is to have no sorrows causing annoyance. Don’t ask for indulgences but recognize that a life without sorrow is the ultimate pleasure. Often, our sorrows arise from miscalculations. Who, then, will have more sorrows? The one who cares for none of these things or the one who cares for them? The one who fears changes or the one who does not fear? The one in dread of jealousy, envy, false accusations, plottings, and destruction or the one who stands aloof from these fears? The one who wants many things or the one who wants nothing? The one enslaved to numerous masters or the one enslaved to none? The one with many needs or the one who is free? The one fearing one lord or the one fearing innumerable despots? Clearly, the greater pleasure lies in the latter.
—St. John Chrysostom
-
-
Just as a body left idle grows sickly and unattractive, exercise and labor make it healthy and attractive. The same applies to the soul: like iron left unused, it rusts, but when active, it shines brightly. Adversity keeps the soul in motion, just as arts perish without activity. Adverse circumstances stir the soul to action; without them, it would languish.
—St. John Chrysostom
-
God dwells in those who have abhorred the world, and even themselves, and who have carried the cross. He feeds their souls with a joy that enriches them and makes them grow noticeably. Among those who accept this celestial joy are a few to whom God reveals His heavenly secrets. He also shows them their celestial positions while they are still in the body. Such people have boldness before Him and He gives them all that they ask for. They are gifted with talents and help people. In every generation, some people have reached that status. And the coming generations will continue to have examples of such people, not only among men, but also among women. Each one of them will be an example to his or her generation and condemn it, because these people struggled until they became perfect.
—St. Anthony the Great -
When you live your life witnessing as an icon of the resurrection, even your parents can be inspired and their lives transformed. Kids will sometimes come and say, I don’t know what to do with my parents—I don’t know what to do. I’ll tell you what to do. If your parents are difficult or if they’re hard people or if they are mean to you sometimes, I’m telling you, live by the power of the spirit in your home, in humility and in love, and let the resurrection in your life transform your entire household. It can have a huge impact. I’ve witnessed it with my own eyes.
—Fr. Michael Sorial -
For inner healing to occur, two very important components are needed. One is forgiveness, and the other is reconciliation. Without these two, the inner healing process cannot be completed. Many people say, “Let me calm down first, recover a little, and then I will forgive and reconcile.” This is exactly like someone saying, “Let me heal first, and then I will take the medicine.” This does not work. This is the reason the Lord Jesus, while in the midst of His pain on the cross, did not say, “Give Me some time to calm down and then I will forgive,” but rather said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34).
INNER HEALING
H.E. Metropolitan Youssef -
Attend, and let us learn what corporeal and what spiritual beauty are. There is soul and body: they are two substances. There is a beauty of body, and there is a beauty of soul. What is beauty of body? An extended eyebrow, a merry glance, a blushing cheek, ruddy lips, a straight neck, long wavy hair, tapering fingers, upright stature, a fair blooming complexion. Does this bodily beauty come from nature or from choice? Confessedly it comes from nature. Attend that you may learn the conception of philosophers. This beauty whether of the countenance, of the eye, of the hair, of the brow, does it come from nature or from choice? It is obvious that it comes from nature. For the ungraceful woman, even if she cultivate beauty in countless ways, cannot become graceful in body, for natural conditions are fixed and confined by limits which they cannot pass over. Therefore the beautiful woman is always beautiful, even if she has no taste for beauty, and the ungraceful cannot make herself graceful, nor the graceful ungraceful. Wherefore? Because these things come from nature.
Well! You have seen corporeal beauty. Now let us turn inwards to the soul: let the handmaid approach the mistress! Let us turn, I say, to the soul. Look upon that beauty, or rather listen to it, for you cannot see it since it is invisible. Listen to that beauty. What then is beauty of soul? Temperance, mild-ness, almsgiving, love, brotherly kindness, tender affection, obedience to God, the fulfillment of the law, righteousness, contrition of heart. These things are the beauty of the soul. These things then are not the results of nature, but of moral disposition. And he who does not possess these things is able to receive them, and he who has them, if he becomes careless, loses them. For as in the case of the body I was saying that she who is ungraceful cannot become graceful; so in the case of the soul I say the contrary: that the graceless soul can become full of grace. For what was more graceless than the soul of Paul when he was a blasphemer and insulter; what was more full of grace when he said, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim. 47)? What was more graceless than the soul of the thief? What was more full of grace when he heard the words, “Verily I say unto you today shall you be with me in paradise (Lk. 23:43? What was more graceless than the publican when he practiced extortion? But what was more full of grace when he declared his resolution? (Lk. 19:8). Do you see that you cannot alter grace of body, for it is the result not of moral disposition, but of nature. But grace of soul is supplied out of our own moral choice.
You have now received the definition. Of what kind are they? That the beauty of the soul proceeds from obedience to God. For if the graceless soul obeys God it puts off its un-gracefulness and becomes full of grace. “Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute Me? and he replied, And who are You Lord? I am Jesus” (Acts 9:4-5). And he obeyed, and his obedience made the graceless soul full of grace. Again, He says to the publican, “Come follow Me (Matt. 9:9), and the publican rose up and became an apostle, and the graceless soul became full of grace. Whence? By obedience. Again He says to the fishermen, “Come ye after Me and I will make you to become fishers of men” (Matt. 4:19), and by their obedience their minds became full of grace.
Saint John Chrysostom
HOMILY TWO, After Eutropios, having been found outside the church, was taken captive
On the Vanity of Riches -
Inasmuch then as our Master knew that if He carved out only one road for us, many must shrink from it, He carved out various roads. It may be you cannot enter the Kingdom by the way of virginity. Enter it then by the way of single marriage.
Can you not enter it by one marriage? Perchance you may by means of a second marriage. You cannot enter by the way of continence? Enter then by the way of almsgiving. Or you cannot enter by the way of almsgiving? Then try the way of fasting. If you cannot use this way, take that—or if not that, then take this. Therefore the prophet spoke not of a garment of gold, but of one woven with gold. It is of silk, or purple, or gold. You cannot be a golden part? Then be a silken one. I accept you, if only you are clothed in My raiment. Therefore also Paul says, “If any man builds upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones” (1 Cor. 3:12). You cannot be the precious stone? Then be the gold. You cannot be the gold? Then be the silver, if only you are resting upon the foundation. And again elsewhere, “There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars” (1 Cor. 15:41). You cannot be a sun? Then be a moon. You cannot be a moon? Then be a star. You cannot be a large star? Be content to be a little one if only you are in the Heaven. You cannot be a virgin? Then live continently in the married state, only abiding in the Church. You cannot be without possessions? Then give alms, only abiding in the Church, only wearing the proper raiment, only submitting to the queen. The raiment is woven with gold; it is manifold in texture.
I do not bar the way against you, for the abundance of virtues has rendered the dispensation of the King easy in operation. Clothed in a vesture woven with gold, manifold in texture. Her vesture is manifold: unfold, if you please, the deep meaning of the expression here used, and fix your eyes upon this garment woven with gold. For here indeed some live celibate, others live in an honorable estate of matrimony being not much inferior to them; some have married once, others are widows in the flower of their age. For what purpose is a paradise? And wherefore its variety? Having various flowers and trees and many pearls. There are many stars, but only one sun; there are many ways of living, but only one Paradise; there are many temples, but only one mother of them all.
There is the body, the eye, the finger, but all these make but one man. There is the same distinction between the small, the great, and the less. The virgin has need of the married woman; for the virgin also is the product of marriage, that marriage may not be despised by her. The virgin is the root of marriage. Thus all things have been linked together, the small with the great, and the great with the small. The queen stood on your right hand clothed in a vesture wrought with gold, manifold in texture.
Saint John Chrysostom
HOMILY TWO, After Eutropios, having been found outside the church, was taken captive
On the Vanity of Riches -
Do not be aloof from the Church; for nothing is stronger than the Church. The Church is your hope, your salvation, your refuge. It is higher than the heavens, it is wider than the earth.
Saint John Chrysostom
HOMILY TWO, After Eutropios, having been found outside the church, was taken captive
On the Vanity of Riches
SO GOOD QUOTES 