SO GOOD QUOTES

  • It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.   Mark 10:25

    Studies say, the higher you go, the higher your net worth, the more money you have, the less percentage you end up giving. The more people have, the less people give on average percentage wise. Why is that? Because when you have little, you know that the little is not going to take care of you. When you only have a few things, you say, “this cannot possibly provide for me – my trust is in someone bigger.”

    —Fr. Antony Paul, THE DECEITFULNESS OF RICHES

  • We cannot afford to waste our time doing things that don’t glorify God. Every second of every day was given to us as an opportunity.
    …
    Every detail matters; no factor in life is insignificant. Our mannerisms, our works, our thoughts, the music we listen to and our hobbies… these are all small, but proactive ways to glorify God.

    And we must trust that the reward is worth it.

    —Fr. Antony Paul, BATTLING AGAINST SPIRITUAL LAZINESS

  • We should always say the Jesus prayer wherever we are; not just in the morning or at night. When we walk, we should not waste our free time, but instead take advantage of it and repeat the prayer. When we are working in a busy place and it is difficult for us to concentrate on praying, we can quietly chant without disturbing others.

    —Saint Paisios

  • “Be happy about your growth, in which of course you can’t take anyone with you, and be gentle with those who stay behind; be confident and calm in front of them and don’t torment them with your doubts and don’t frighten them with your faith or joy, which they wouldn’t be able to comprehend. Seek out some simple and true feeling of what you have in common with them, which doesn’t necessarily have to alter when you yourself change again and again.”

    —Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

  • “Much can be said without much being spoken.”

    —Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart: The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers

  • A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attach him saying, ‘You are mad; you are not like us.’

    —St. Anthony the Great

  • Our first and foremost task is faithfully to care for the inward fire so that when it is really needed it can offer warmth and light to lost travelers. Nobody expressed this with more conviction than the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh:

    “There may be a great fire in our soul, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passersby only see a wisp of smoke coming through the chimney, and go along their way.  Look here, now what must be done?  Must one tend the inner fire, have salt in oneself, wait patiently yet with how much impatience the hour when somebody will come and sit down–maybe to stay? Let him who believes in God wait for the hour that will come sooner or later.”

    Vincent van Gogh speaks here with the mind and heart of the Desert Fathers. He knew about the temptation to open all the doors so that passersby could see the fire and not just the smoke coming through the chimney. But he also realized that if this happened, this fire would die and nobody would find warmth and new strength. His own life is a powerful example of faithfulness to the inner fire. During his life nobody came to sit down at his fire, but today thousands have found comfort and consolation in his drawings, paintings, and letters.

    —Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart: The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers

  • There was another remarkable thing about John. If anyone came to borrow something from him, he did not take it in his own hands and lend it, but said, ‘Come in, take what you need.’ When a borrower brought anything back, John used to say, ‘Put it back where you found it.’ If a man borrowed something and did not bring it back, John said nothing to him about it.

    The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks
    Benedicta Ward

  • A hermit said, ‘If you lose gold or silver, you can find something as good as you lost.  But the man who loses time can never make up what he has lost.’

    The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks
    Benedicta Ward

  • “Once when I was talking to some brothers for the good of their soul they became so drowsy that they could not even keep their eyelids open. I wanted to show them that this was the devil’s work, so I started gossiping: and at once they sat up and began to enjoy what I was saying.”

    —Saint John Cassian