Our various trials and weaknesses and disadvantages are perfectly in proportion to our callings and our given abilities—those gifts, that grace has put into each of us to handle our life circumstances so we can succeed in fulfilling God’s purpose for us.
God’s Path to Sanity
Dee Pennock
-
I should never have contentions with somebody. You should never see someone in the hallway [of church] and look the other way.
—Fr. Mina Dimitri -
What you do to God, He does to you. He reciprocates what you do. If you give Him something, you receive that same thing multiple fold. If you give Him money, you receive money. If you give Him effort, then He facilitates your life—and this is the rule, with no exception.
—Fr. Jacob Magdy -
You feel after [sinning] void of inner peace, you feel unhappy, you feel there is no support, you feel the fear that bad things will happen, you feel that the Lord will not answer me because we live with this comfortable thing that God is supportive, but if God is not supportive, where can I go? I cannot afford life without having support from God.
—Fr. Jacob Magdy -
We say that we have faith in God, but anything happens, we get worried, we get anxious. We just said we have faith in God. We just said that He resurrected from the dead, and everything is in His hands. In 50 days, we’ve been doing nothing but saying that He is risen from the dead, and He trampled death by His death. Death, which is the greatest enemy, nothing is higher than death. Any issue happens, we get scared. Why did God Leave me? Why did God allow this to happen in my life? So we say words and our actions don’t necessarily line up. This lesson from today’s Gospel is: your faith and your works have to match together. Is faith enough or is works enough? St. James tells us that you’re saved by your faith, but you show your faith by your works. “I believe that God is in control.” But what’s the true test? When something happens, Am I in peace, or am I worried? Am I anxious? Am I regretful? I can’t fall asleep. I’m always going to Abouna or to people saying, “help me, I don’t know what to do.”… If we believe that God is in control, if it’s good or it’s bad, it’s still God in control, who said that something bad is always bad, maybe something bad is an opportunity. Maybe something bad.
—Fr. Benjamin Girgis
-
Galatians 6:4
But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.
Let go of comparison. Spiritual comparison is the enemy of joy and fruitfulness. We look at other spiritual lives and feel I’m less or I’m better. St John Climacus says this: “Do not compare yourself with the strong lest you become discouraged, nor with the weak lest you become proud.”
What’s the worst word that we say as Egyptians comparison? Ishmahna.
I don’t know how many times you would say ishmahna, like, how come this person gets to do this? And I’m comparing. Because God wants them to do this and God wants you to do another thing.
You feel that you’re being measured and that’s why ishmahna this person gets this. Be careful of this. Your value is not based on what you’ve been chosen to do. Everybody has their calling.
—Fr. Paul Girguis -
Despair is the firstborn child of pride. Those who despair cannot make any progress because despair is the murderer of hope.
-
164. A man knows God and is known by Him in so far as he makes every effort not to be separated from God; and he will succeed in this if he is good in every way and refrains from all sensual pleasure, not because he lacks the means to indulge such pleasure, but because of his own determination and self-control.
Anthony the Great: On the Character of Men and on the Virtuous Life: One Hundred and Seventy Texts
Philokalia -
“The thought is not a sin.”
—Fr. Paul Girguis -
Do not trust to abstinence not to fall. One who had never eaten was cast from heaven.
Certain learned men have well defined renunciation, by saying that it is hostility to the body and a fight against the stomach.
With beginners falls usually occur by reason of luxury; with intermediates because of haughtiness as well as from the same cause which leads to the fall of beginners; and with those approaching perfection, solely from judging their neighbour.
(…) Do not expect to confute the demon of fornication by arguing with him; for with nature on his side, he has the best of the argument.
He who has resolved to contend with his flesh and conquer it himself struggles in vain. For unless the Lord destroys the house of the flesh and builds the house of the soul, the man who desires to destroy it has watched and fasted in vain.
Offer to the Lord the weakness of your nature, fully acknowledging your own incapacity, and you will receive imperceptibly the gift of chastity.
—St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent
SO GOOD QUOTES 