Discourses of Dorotheos of Gaza

by Dorotheus of Gaza

if we suffer good or evil from anyone, we should look at everything supernaturally and give thanks for all things which happen with us, always blaming ourselves and saying, as the father used to, "If anything good happens to us it is by God's providence. If anything bad, it is on account of our sins." And indeed everything we endure is the result of our sins. Because the saints of old, whatever they endured, they endured for God's name, either to show their virtue and so to aid all others, or to gain a greater prize from God. But we wretched souls, what can we say about these things? Everyone of us goes on sinning and we endure what we deserve. We have departed from the straight road of blaming ourselves and taken the crooked road of accusing our neighbor. Each of us is very careful, on each occasion, to cast the blame on his brother, and to hit him with its weight. Each one of us is apathetic and observes none of the commandments, and we ask in return that our neighbor observe all of them.