And beware you do not blindly insist that things must work out according to what you consider to be right and good. God sometimes does permit such blind insistence to be followed by the fulfilment of our ardent desires. This always leads to misery and disaster (intended to open our eyes on our folly), and happens particularly often when our desires are founded on wild passions.
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Make a rule never to speak to any one but your confessor either of your illusions or of your temptations.
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If He intends that you should be this man’s wife all hindrance will be overcome, and marry him you will. But if God does not wish it, no matter how you plan and strive for it, will be of no avail.
And beware you do not blindly insist that things must work out according to what you consider to be right and good. God sometimes does permit such blind insistence to be followed by the fulfilment of our ardent desires. This always leads to misery and disaster (intended to open our eyes on our folly), and happens particularly often when our desires are founded on wild passions.
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How do you how do you hear God’s voice? Because I think that’s a very key part, like knowing and discerning the voice of God versus, you know, the voice of you know, the devil or the voice of men. Like, how do you discern the voice of God, and how do you act accordingly, knowing that this is what God wants.
The more serious the decision and or the issue, the more clear God will make his voice. And it won’t always come from just one source. I feel it comes from a number of sources. As I said earlier, I also don’t like to make either natural decisions, and so I hear God’s voice through consultation, through deliberation, through thought process, through prayer, of course, that underpins all of that. So yes, a lot of people around me, young and old, adults and children, I feel that they culminate into how I hear God’s voice.
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Try to make sure that nothing you do in life is not something that can’t be sanctified. Don’t do things that cannot be blessed by God.
—Archbishop Angaelos -
“I’m like, this is really cool that I’m allowed [the Antonians]– I feel in this pursuit of godliness to link it – we’re in this pursuit of becoming holy, and we also have a distinct personality, and this is okay, right? The whole be yourself, don’t sin, the very Antonian He who knows himself knows God. Have your character and don’t do wrong with it. And so even in the stories that included wrong, there’s still a sense of you’re allowed to be your own personality.
Abouna Angaelos was a trouble-maker. Those people have the image of the elder Abouna Angaelos in the late days sitting in a chair advising, praying, blessing, healing, all these things, but that was after decades of this. He wound up there and increased in faithfulness, and God increased him.
But it was a sense of I’m allowed to be me growing. I’m going to make mistakes. I shouldn’t want to make mistakes or make mistakes on purpose, but I’m going to, And am I going to be healed? Am I getting instruction?
Because when they tell these stories, there’s a message behind it, and it taught me this and my eyes became open to this. How can I not pursue this? How can I having tasted health want to be sick? How having tasted God can I desire to be a sinner? I am a sinner. How can I want that if I have tasted God?”
—Fr. Antony Paul -
Whether it was an angel or whether it was a demon that had left the purse, we distributed the money. As for you and me, whether what happened in our cases occured on account of an angel or on account of a demon, let us give glory to God, for occurences like these do not profit the soul at all except to purify it. Nevertheless, I give glory to you for having received food from an angel. Yes, it is possible for demons to steal some loaves of bread and bring them to someone, but such loaves will not nourish the body because things that belong to demons stink and if something comes from the demons the soul is confused when it sees it. If, however, it comes from the angels, the soul is not confused but remains steadfast and at peace at that time.
The Life of Evagrius
Coptic Church Review, Volume 21, Number 1, Spring 2000 -
If God is really trying to tell you something, it will not only be in one way at one time. He’s not going to be limited by whether you got the memo [or not].
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He was full of wisdom, advanced in age; and we know that silence is the trait of the wise. After three years had passed, through which he persisted in asking God to help him that he may be saved, he heard a voice saying to him, “Flee, keep silence, and be still.”37 And these three words are suitable, as an approach, for all. For when you are surrounded by troubles, when you feel unsure toward something, when you need to take a critical decision, or when you are approaching a new stage [in your life], do this: “Flee, keep silence, and be still.”
Abba Arsenius The Tutor of the Emperor’s Sons
book by Bishop Macarius
SO GOOD QUOTES 