“We suffer more often in our imagination than in reality.”
—Seneca, Letters from a Stoic
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“Guard your mind and you will not be harassed by temptations. But if you fail to guard it, accept patiently whatever trial comes.”
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Let me ask you another question. Who is more useful to society, a doctor or a monk?“ Thomas asked pensively. Father Maximos grinned and sighed. “I have been asked this question before. What does monasticism offer to society? Well, this question is characteristic of a modern way of thinking. It is an activist orientation toward the world. Every act, every person, is judged on the basis of their utility and contribution to the whole. Parents urge their children to excel so that they may be useful to society. Based on our spiritual tradition I prefer to see human beings first and foremost in terms of who they are and only after that in terms of their contributions to society. Otherwise we run the risk of turning people into machines that produce useful things. So what if you do not produce useful things? Does that mean that you should be discarded as a useless object? I am afraid that with this orientation contemporary humanity has undermined the inherent value of the human person. Today we value ourselves in terms of how much we contribute rather than in terms of who we are. And that attitude toward ourselves often leads to all sorts of psychological problems. I see this all the time during confessions.”
—Kyriacos Markides, The Mountain of Silence
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Another Father of the Holy Church, Saint John Chrysostom takes a different view, very human and ecclesiastically sound: that of the expression of love for those in sin and for the Lord Jesus. He says that indifference on our part towards those who are sinning demonstrates that we don’t love them and also that we don’t love the body of the Church, of which the sinners are members. He calls upon us to show an interest in our brothers and sisters who have sinned and to rebuke them, but calmly and with good sense, not in a spirit of anger.
We shouldn’t say that we’re not interested in what others are doing, nor say that each of us will bear the burden of our own sins. (Gal. 6, 5). We’re also guilty if we see others going astray and don’t bring them back onto the right path. In fact, if, according to Mosaic law, we shouldn’t be indifferent even towards an animal belonging to our enemy, how will we be forgiven by God if we’re indifferent not towards an animal, nor even towards the soul of an enemy who is lost, but towards the soul of a friend (and our brother or sister in Christ)?
We can’t, therefore, use Cain’s excuse, when he said to God: ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ and so say that we’re not interested in people who are sinning. Chrysostom considers this attitude not merely unacceptable but inhuman and in conflict with that of the Church. He stresses that all wickedness arises from the fact that we consider as foreign something that belongs to our own body. He goes on to say: ‘So don’t be inhuman, uncaring or indifferent. Because the words you speak are words of great harshness and indifference, as is shown by the following: if a part of your body is suffering from an illness, why don’t you say that you’re not interested? Why don’t you ask how we know that we’ll get well if we look after ourselves and show an interest? In fact you everything you can so that, even if you don’t get better you can’t berate yourself for not doing something you should have. If we take such good care of the members of our body, is it right to ignore the members of Christ?
Indifference to those who are sinning is itself a sin
Christos Karadimos -
“In a weird way, it’s easier to do the fighting than to do the praying. It’s easier to do the discussing, it’s easier to do the arguing, it’s easier to try to convince than it is to stand & pray. Why is that? It’s easier to go to doctor after doctor after doctor, it’s easier to read different books, go to different seminars—it’s easier to try all these different things than pray. Why? Because we don’t really believe in the effectiveness of prayer. I’m happy to pray if I know at the end of the prayer, the problem is solved, but because we don’t see that direct one to one correlation, we would rather do something that seems more productive.”
—Fr. Anthony Messeh
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“Guilt is something that is only good if it leads you to doing something about it. Guilt is only good if it makes you turn away from whatever it is that makes you feel guilty.”
—Bishop Angaelos -
“What makes us feel liberated is not total freedom, but rather living in a set of limitations that we have created and prescribed for ourselves.”
—Andrea Zittel
“Things that we think are liberating can ultimately become restrictive, and things that we initially think are controlling can sometimes give us a sense of comfort and security.”
—Andrea Zittel -
God doesn’t need anything. He rejoices, however, when He sees someone finding peace with His image and honouring it with love. If someone comes to you to ask for something of yours, don’t say in your heart that you’ll keep it for yourself, for your own sake, and that God will find another way to supply their need. Because that’s what’s said by the unrighteous, who don’t know God. Just and virtuous people are sensible of the honour paid to them by their impoverished brother or sister and don’t transfer it to someone else. They don’t allow themselves to miss the opportunity to be generous.
SO GOOD QUOTES 