truisms

Ekaterina · Post by **Ekaterina** » Wed 17 January 2007 8:39 am

The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green.
Thomas Carlyle

Ekaterina · Post by **Ekaterina** » Wed 17 January 2007 8:41 am

To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man will undertake; and all but foolish men know, that the only solid, though a far slower reformation, is what each begins and perfects on himself.
Thomas Carlyle

Ekaterina · Post by **Ekaterina** » Wed 17 January 2007 8:42 am

War is a quarrel between two thieves too cowardly to fight their own battle.
Thomas Carlyle

Ekaterina · Post by **Ekaterina** » Wed 17 January 2007 9:28 am

One cannot love without suffering. The greatest pain is that of loving to the utmost. Christ loved so much that He gave Himself up to a terrible death. The saints too. Paradise always costs this price. Prayer for the world is the fruit of extremely deep and acute suffering.
Archimandrite Sophrony of Essex

Ekaterina · Post by **Ekaterina** » Wed 17 January 2007 10:29 am

If one flees to the Orthodox Church never expecting to encounter sinners again, one is deluded. Sinners are to be found in abundance not only among the laity, but among the clergy as well. St. John Chrysostom taught that the roads of hell are paved with the skulls of erring Orthodox priests, and erring Orthodox bishops are the lamp posts!
"After the Chrism Dries..."

Ekaterina · Post by **Ekaterina** » Wed 17 January 2007 10:37 am

The antidote to the comfy poison of prosperity is ascetic effort. Ascetic effort is the directed and controlled violence of war against the passions. Ascetic effort can be derailed by pride, publicity, and legalism.
"After the Chrism Dries..."

Ekaterina · Post by **Ekaterina** » Wed 17 January 2007 10:57 am

There are times we Orthodox, again on both the individual and corporate levels, can simultaneously make the Pharisee blush and the publican despair. There are some who deny the centrality of ascetic effort, especially fasting. There are others who can keep a Lenten kitchen more fastidiously than any scribe or lawyer of old could ever have hoped to keep Kosher. Where humility and mercy are lacking, God is banished in the name of Orthodoxy, and souls are led astray.
"After the Chrism Dries..."