I read this on one of my email lists this morning, and it really resonated with me. Being passionate by nature (being Italian helps that along, I think), I need to remember this, so I'm posting it here.
"The objects which the passions look for can’t satisfy them because objects are finite and as such don’t correspond to the unlimited thirst of the passions. Or as St. Maximus puts it, the passionate person finds himself in a continuous preoccupation with nothing; he tries to appease his infinite thirst with the nothingness of his passions, and the objects which it is gobbling up become nothing, by their very nature. In fact, a passion by its very nature searches for objects, and it seeks them only because they can be completely under the control of the ego, and at its mercy. But objects by nature are finite, both as sources of satisfaction and in regard to duration; they pass easily into nonexistence, by consumption. Even then the passion also needs the human person in order to be satisfied, it likewise reduces him or her to an object, or sees and uses only the objective side; the unfathomable depths hidden in the subjective side escape him."
From Dmitru Staniloae’s Orthodox Spirituality
"...However, when the Day of Judgment comes, when the resurrection of the dead comes... when the sinners see the righteous shining like the sun, they will be in dreadful fear, and in anguish they will groan and say, this is the man whom we once held in derision! We thought that His life was madness! We are the fools! We took our fill of the paths of lawlessness and destruction, and we journeyed through trackless deserts. What good has our boasted wealth profited us? We were deceived. We were deceived!
"These two chapters of the Wisdom of Solomon present us with a tremendous picture of the psychology of the ungodly—the mind of the worldly man—who will discover his deception on that day. The Apostle Peter also talks about all these things. These are exceedingly important—let’s look at this:
"'Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God because of which the heavens will be kindled and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire!' (II Peter 3:11-12)
"So why are we wasting ourselves dealing only with earthly matters in a world that is about to be pulverized, to dissolve and collapse, a world that is going to be renovated? How should we spend our lives, knowing all this? Shouldn’t we be characterized by holy conduct? And see what he says, …yearning for and hastening… yearning and hastening with a joyous expectation, and racing towards that day of the coming of the Lord..."
Fr. Athanasios Mitilinaios
Revelation Homilies, translated by Constantine Zalalas
"As sincere, fervent prayer is connected with abstinence, abstinence and fasting are necessary in order to maintain within ourselves the Christian life -- the ardour of faith, hope, and love. Nothing so soon extinquishes the spirit of faith within us as intemperance, indulgence, excessive search for amusement, and an irregular life.
"Those who reject fasting forget from what the fall into sin of the first men proceeded (intemperance) and what means to counter sin and the tempter were indicated to us by our Lord -- when He Himself was tempted in the desert, He fasted forty days and nights. They do not know -- or do not wish to know -- that a man most frequently falls away from God through intemperance.
"Begin to fulfill the commandments relating to small things, and you will come to fulfill the commandments relating to great things; everywhere small things lead to great things. Begin by fulfilling the commandment of fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays, or the tenth commandment relating to evil thoughts and desires, and you will eventually learn to fulfill all the commandments. He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much."
St. John of Kronstadt
No comments:
Post a Comment