truisms

Ekaterina · Post by **Ekaterina** » Wed 14 March 2007 12:19 pm

So many times I tend to want to blame others, to make my faults something they caused. But of course my faults are my own. The problem is within me, in my pride, in my unwillingness to put others first. I know that it is important, especially during the Lenten season, to put aside pride, to resist the deadly seduction of anger, to love equally. Even though I am aware of the problem, I tend to let myself get rattled by the smallest things, things that at the time seem enormous, but really mean absolutely nothing. Many times I let negative emotions get in the way and cloud my judgement.
November in my Soul

Ekaterina · Post by **Ekaterina** » Thu 15 March 2007 9:40 am

However dark and profitless, however painful and weary, existence may have become, life is not done, and our Christian character is not won, so long as God has anything left for us to suffer, or anything left for us to do.
Frederick William Robertson

Ekaterina · Post by **Ekaterina** » Thu 15 March 2007 9:42 am

Men... are bettered and improved by trial, and refined out of broken hopes and blighted expectations.

It is not the situation that makes the man, but the man who makes the situation.
Frederick William Robertson

Ekaterina · Post by **Ekaterina** » Thu 15 March 2007 9:43 am

The Divine wisdom has given us prayer, not as a means whereby to obtain the good things of earth, but as a means whereby we learn to do without them; not as a means whereby we escape evil, but as a means whereby we become strong to meet it. Pray till prayer makes you forget your own wish, and leave it or merge it in God's will.
Frederick William Robertson

Ekaterina · Post by **Ekaterina** » Thu 15 March 2007 9:44 am

The humblest occupation has in it materials of discipline for the highest heaven.
Frederick William Robertson

Ekaterina · Post by **Ekaterina** » Thu 15 March 2007 9:45 am

We win by tenderness. We conquer by forgiveness.
Frederick William Robertson

Ekaterina · Post by **Ekaterina** » Thu 15 March 2007 10:33 am

Fasting is a secret thing, a tryst between God and Man whereby we prioritise His jealous love for us in the totality of a surrendered life. If we step back and admire our zeal in keeping the commandments then we have already broken all of them by a single act of pride.
Fr Gregory, St. Aidan's Orthodox Church