He responds to moral questions with nuanced discernment, holding contradictory perspectives without cognitive dissonance, appreciating partial truth in opposing views.
-
He read a little in the Bible and did not stop at the literal meaning of words, or their superficial implications, but rather should put the spiritual depth of the words. As Paul the Apostle has said, “Nevertheless, in church, I would rather speak five words with my mind, in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue” (1. Cor. 16:19).
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Contemplations on the Life of St. Antony the Great
-
He sought the virtues in every person he encountered and learned from them, although he did not copy any one person.
…
St. Antony sought knowledge from every available source. That was his first quality as a student. He did not seek knowledge just from great teachers, but from everything and everybody, from every event, every person and even from sinners.
He learned his first lesson from a dead man. Isn’t it amazing that he gets his first lesson in monasticism not from a living person but from a dead man, and that dead man was his father? When his father died he looked at his body and learned something from it. He looked at his dead father who owned 300 acres of the best farm land in upper Egypt and who had the wealth, power, and influence and said, “Where is your power, your greatness and your might? You have departed from this world not by your choice; I however, will leave it by my choice before I am forced out.” That was his first lesson about dying to the world. “Behold that great rich man filling the world with power and influence, now lies motionless with no control over his own body!”
—H.H. Pope Shenouda III, Contemplations on the Life of St. Antony the Great
-
Clement stresses the fact that philosophy can never take the place of divine revelation. It can only prepare for the acceptance of the faith. Thus, in the second book, he defends faith against the philosophers.
(on the book Stromata)
FATHERS OF THE SCHOOL OF ALEXANDRIA – “ST. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA”
Esmat GabrielCoptic Church Review
V1 number 1
Spring 1980 -
The voice of God was the only answer for all my needs. It was the voice of father, friend, comrade and guide. No sooner did I feel the need for his voice than I heard it speaking inside me a thousand times stronger than an ear would ever hear. For what the ear hears, the mind forgets. But what the heart hears, time can never erase.
—Matthew the Poor (Abouna Matta El Meskeen)
-
A brother asked an old man. ‘What shall I do, father, for I am not acting at all like a monk, but I eat, drink, and sleep carelessly; and I have evil thoughts and I am in great trouble, passing from one work to another and from one thought to another?’ The old man said,
‘Sit in your cell and do the little you can untroubled.
For I think the little you can do now is of equal value to the great deeds which Abba Antony accomplished on the mountain, and I believe that by remaining sitting in your cell for the name of God, and guarding your conscience, you also will find the place where Abba Antony is.’
The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers
Benedicta Ward
SO GOOD QUOTES 