“Remember that, in the Biblical narrative, humanity’s estrangement from God is first manifested in relation to food. Our unruly appetite is a prime example of our enslavement to our own desires, of our addiction to getting what we want when and how we want it.”
—Fr. Philip LeMasters, Fasting for Fulfillment
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When life is full of troubles, people get the feeling that the curse and anger of God has come upon them. But when these trials have passed, they’ll see that God’s wonderful providence protected them meticulously in all facets of their existence. Thousands of years of experience, transmitted from generation to generation, tells us that, when God sees faith in the soul of people who are striving for His sake, as He did in the case of Job, He leads them into depths and heights that are inaccessible to others. The more complete and powerful people’s love and trust in God are, the greater will be the measure of their trial and the fulness of their experience, which can reach very great heights. It then becomes apparent that they’ve reached the boundary beyond which a human person cannot pass.
—Saint Sophrony of Essex -
“It is well known that obedience is the chief among the initiatory virtues, for first it displaces presumption and then it engenders humility within us.”
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“Ministry is the least important thing. You cannot not minister if you are in communion with God. A lot of people are always concer“Ministry is the least important thing. You cannot not minister if you are in communion with God. A lot of people are always concerned about: ‘How can I help people? Or help the youth come to Christ? Or preach well?’ But these are all basically non-issues. If you are burning with the love of Jesus, don’t worry—everyone will know. They will say, ‘I want to get close to this person who is so full of God.’”
—Henri Nouwen -
“Fasting is a commandment that was given for human nature to observe from the beginning and the First-Created fell from there.”
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When God recedes in order to educate us, this brings great sadness, humility and even some measure of despair to the soul. The purpose of this is to humble the soul’s tendency to vanity and self-glory, for the heart at once is filled with fear of God, tears of thankfulness, and great longing for the beauty of silence.
—St. Diadochus of Photiki
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“It is useless to accuse those around us and those who live with us of somehow interfering with or being an impediment to our salvation and spiritual perfection… Spiritual or emotional dissatisfaction comes from within ourselves, from inexperience and from poorly conceived opinions we do not want to abandon, but which bring on doubt, embarrassment, and misunderstanding. All of this tires and burdens us, and brings us to a sorry state. We would do well to comprehend the Holy Fathers’ simple advice: If we will humble ourselves, we will find tranquility anywhere, without having to mentally wander about many other places, where we might have the same, or even worse, experiences.”
— Saint Ambrose of Optina
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The perfect person does not only try to avoid evil. Nor does he do good for fear of punishment, still less in order to qualify for the hope of a promised reward.
The perfect person does good through love.
His actions are not motivated by desire for personal benefit, so he does not have personal advantage as his aim. But as soon as he has realized the beauty of doing good, he does it with all his energies and in all that he does.
He is not interested in fame, or a good reputation, or a human or divine reward.
The rule of life for a perfect person is to be in the image and likeness of God.
—St. Clement of Alexandria, A Perfect Person’s Rule of Life -
“If you rebuke someone and do it with anger, you have allowed a passion to control you. You have not saved anyone and have destroyed yourself.”
SO GOOD QUOTES 