truisms

[Ekaterina]

Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.
Muhammad Ali

[Ekaterina]

Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.
Muhammad Ali

[Ekaterina]

Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer.
Muhammad Ali

[Ekaterina]

The problem of the human heart (this deep, spiritual center of man) is that it very easily becomes hard. And that in its hardness it is capable of almost anything. The amount of atrocities carried out by professed believers is ample testimony to the dangers of the heart, even for Christians.
Fr Stephen Freeman

[Ekaterina]

The proper practice of Orthodoxy is ruthlessly self-honest and self-critical and believes that true belief in God can only be measured by the love we have for our enemy. Anything less than this is not the fullness of the Orthodox faith.
Fr Stephen Freeman

[Ekaterina]

You see, in the end, for each and every one of us, the sorrow and infirmity of our brothers and sisters is our sorrow and infirmity. And, it goes without saying, it should be a comfort to us to know that our own sorrow and pain is shared by those who are now around us.
Ancient Church

[Ekaterina]

For all of us are paralyzed in one form or another. We are paralyzed by sin and by fear. We are paralyzed by guilt, or by a refusal to forgive. We are paralyzed by what we refuse to surrender – that habit or fear or belief that we hold fast to ourselves, that we refuse to surrender, but which keeps us from moving forward. It keeps us from reconciliation and love. It keeps us from Christ. For all of us, that “something” is different, and some of us may not even realize that we are languishing in whatever that “something” is. But it is there, and as with the paralytic man, Christ awaits us to come to him, to receive forgiveness. To receive healing.
Ancient Church