truisms

Ekaterina · Post by **Ekaterina** » Thu 15 February 2007 8:10 am

Many a man curses the rain that falls upon his head, and knows not that it brings abundance to drive away the hunger.
St Basil

Ekaterina · Post by **Ekaterina** » Thu 15 February 2007 8:41 am

The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Ekaterina · Post by **Ekaterina** » Thu 15 February 2007 8:47 am

Don't think that our kids (both sons and daughters) fail to see how Dad treats Mom and how you both love one another. Our children will both mimic and our daughters will expect the same (both good and bad). So "holding mama's hand" can accomplish a great deal more than you might think.
A parent, a father

Ekaterina · Post by **Ekaterina** » Thu 15 February 2007 3:47 pm

We have been given a supreme law of life which leads us straight to God - Love, a difficult and thorny path; but we must follow it, bearing our cross, with no excursions into byways.
Fr. Elchaninov, Diary of a Russian Priest p43

Ekaterina · Post by **Ekaterina** » Thu 15 February 2007 3:49 pm

It is better to live in such a way that we start with our own personal experience and pass from this to certain general ideas, rather than proceeding visa versa. Otherwise, we shall only be making verbal judgments about the experiences of others, without having experienced these things ourselves: but unfortunately this is precisely what we usually do in spiritual questions.
Fr. Elchaninov, Diary of a Russian Priest, P.41

Ekaterina · Post by **Ekaterina** » Thu 15 February 2007 3:54 pm

In the desert of the Thebaid, extreme fasts and constraints were imposed. Today the combat is not the same. We no longer need added pain. Hair shirts, chains, and flagellation would risk uselessly breaking us. Today mortification would be liberation from every kind of addiction – speed, noise, alcohol, and all kinds of stimulants. Asceticism would be necessary rest, the discipline of regular periods of calm and silence, when one could regain the ability to stop for prayer and contemplation… and above all to listen to the presence of others. Fasting, instead of doing violence to the flesh, could be our renunciation of the superfluous, our sharing with the poor and a joyful balance in all things.
Evdokimov

Ekaterina · Post by **Ekaterina** » Fri 16 February 2007 8:57 am

Life is the coffee..... the jobs, the money and position in society are the cups. The Cups are just tools to hold and contain life and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live. Many times we concentrate only on the cup and fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided for us. Be encouraged today knowing that the happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything. Learn to be content whatever the circumstances.
Philippians 4:11