And he advised her thus: “Never give up the church, never stay away from the Communion. For these things happened to you because you did not attend the mysteries for five weeks.”
—Palladius, The Lausiac History , CHAPTER XVII. — MACARIUS OF EGYPT 112
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Everything in life is uncertain. That is how you know you are existing in the world, the uncertainty. Of course, this is why we sometimes want to return to the past, because we know it, or think we do. It’s a song we’ve heard.
—Matt Haig, How to Stop Time
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I have been so many different people, played so many different roles in my life…I was people I hated and people I admired.
—Matt Haig, How to Stop Time -
Excellence, here, was in proportion to obscurity: the one who was best was the one who was least observed, least distinguished.
—Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain -
We often take the name of Jesus for granted; failing to recognize its power and how uttering it with love can transform the heart and mind. It is of this we are reminded on the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus!
“Jesus Name is a concrete and powerful way of transfiguring men in their deepest and most divine reality. The men and women we meet in the street, factory, office, and especially those who seem to be irritating and unlikable, let us go toward them with Jesus’ name in our heart and on our lips …If we see Jesus in each man, if we say ‘Jesus’ over each person, we will go through the world with a new vision and with a new gift in our heart. We can thus transform the world, as much as it is within us, and make our own the word Jacob spoke to his brother: ‘I saw your face and it was like seeing God’s face.’”
—Fr. Lev Gillet -
When we think back to the places where we felt most at home, we quickly see that it was where our hosts gave us the precious freedom to come and go on our own terms and did not claim us for their own needs. Only in a free space can re-creation take place and new life be found. The real host is the one who offers that space where we do not have to be afraid and where we can listen to our own inner voices and find our own personal way of being human. But to be such a host we have to first of all be at home in our own house.
—Henri Nouwen
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Even if I hold the ‘correct’ opinion, even the opinion of a saint or of all of the saints, even the clear opinion of the Holy Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church, if I hold such a correct opinion and I harbour in my heart conceit or selfish ambition or I look out mostly for my own interests rather than for the interests of others, then I am not of the same mind with any saint or with the Church—no matter how correct my opinion is or isn’t.
Being of One Mind: What It Is and Isn’t
ARCHPRIEST MICHAEL GILLIS | 27 FEBRUARY 2021 -
“Nothing ever happens either in the world or in the universe without the will of God or His permission. All that is good and noble is God’s will, and all that is negative and bad happens because He allows it. He knows why He allows these things to happen and for how long. If the incorporeal angelic powers or we men were allowed to do as we please, there would be total chaos in the world and in the entire universe. But God is present everywhere and He is Light, a Light that penetrates all.”
—Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica -
In the end, both the optimist and the pessimist have it wrong, because each is looking at only part of the evidence. When we open our eyes to the fullness of reality, what we find is a chiaroscuro canvas of both darkness and light. The totality of evidence elicits in us something like ‘melancholic joy’: a grateful and uninhibited joy for the goodness of being, but one tinged by sadness at the pervasiveness of evil and melancholy because it all comes to an end. Seeing the evil in the world helps us to live well while we can, because death is coming for us all, and entropy is gnawing at the fringes of our existence. And seeing the goodness helps us to live gratefully, softening the sting of reality.
The ‘melancholic joy’ of living in our brutal, beautiful world -
But the moments of silence lead infallibly to profound decisions, wordless decisions, a gift of my inmost “self”. Conversions take place silently and not in spectacular gestures. Returning to God, burying oneself in him, this total gift, these moments of intimacy with God are always mysterious and secret.
+Cardinal Sarah
SO GOOD QUOTES 