Kindle Notes & Highlights
“Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now I keep Thy Word. . . . It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn Thy statutes. . . . If Thy law had not been my delight, I should have perished in my afflictions. I will never forget Thy precepts, for by them Thou hast given me life. I am Thine, save me!” (Psalm 119:67, 72, 92–94).
ready to count the cost and pay the price
disposed to receive
Solitude is a state of soul, not a matter of geographical location, and the real desert lies within the heart. As St. Basil said, we return to ourselves; and having returned inwardly, we ascend to
When you pray you yourself must be silent. . . . You must be silent; let the prayer speak.
Flee from sin, dive into yourself, and in your soul you will discover the stairs by which to ascend. 13
not jump to attack the passion in an effort to overcome it, but descend into your heart [physical, then spiritual] and strive to restore quiet there.
We go into our heart and stay until we are calm.
Your own home is paradise after an absence. Exactly the same feeling comes when, after distraction, we return to attention and to the inner life. When we are in the heart, we are at home; when we are not in the heart, we are homeless. And it is about this above all that we must take trouble.
The heart is exquisitely sensitive to emotions and emits an energy field five thousand times stronger than the brain’s, one that can be measured more than ten feet away.
carnal heart serves as an instrument for these feelings, just as the brain serves as an instrument for the mind.
St. Theophan said, “Do not be lazy about descending into the heart. In the heart is life, and you must live there. Do not think it is something to be attempted only by the perfect. No. It is for everyone who has begun to seek the Lord.”
Unless we look at a person and see the beauty there is in this person, we can contribute nothing to him. One does not help a person by discerning what is wrong, what is ugly, what is distorted. Christ looked at everyone he met, at the prostitute, at the thief, and saw the beauty hidden there. Perhaps it was distorted, perhaps damaged, but it was beauty none the less, and what he did was to call out this beauty.
Father Schmemann said, “A Christian is one who, wherever he looks, finds Christ and rejoices in Him. This joy transforms all his human plans and projects, decisions and actions, making all his mission [vocation] the sacrament of the world’s return to Him who is the life of the world.”
We condemn others only because we avoid knowing ourselves.
Instead of condemning others, strive to reach inner peace. Keep silent, refrain from judgment. This will raise you above the deadly arrows of slander, insult and outrage and will shield your glowing hearts against all evil. 31
God makes us. We don’t make ourselves.
The help of God is always ready and always near, but it is only given to those who seek and work, and only to those who put their own powers to the test, then cry out with all their heart: Lord, help us. So
“It is necessary to be at ease to know God.”
God wants men to attend chiefly to two things: to eternity itself, and to that point in time where we contact eternity.
Hence, God has you and me right where He wants you and me. This is hugely liberating.
That’s our job, to redeem the time.
“God’s Name is not known. It is wondered at.”
“Acedia [despondency] is there every time one begins something, and there is no worse passion, but if a man recognizes it for what it is, he will gain peace.”
