175 quotes found
“There is no sobornost without crucifixion, because it is through pain that one acquires that deep knowledge that has nothing to do with books and education that deep knowledge that is given by God ...”
“The wish to pray is a prayer in itself.”
“. . .fasting gives me singularly happy afternoons.”
“For centuries after Christ, the church and other religions that use cruciform symbols have misrepresented the physical nature of Christ's death with a satanic symbol (cross), and a pagan idol (corp...”
“In the afternoon the digestion of the meal deprives me of the incomparable lightness which characterizes the fast days.”
“When I walk in the forest just before the meal, while reciting the scriptural phrase that I "meditate" for that day, spiritual joy comes over me as if by appointment.”
“When a person eats shortly before going to bed, digestion accompanies sleep. The two great physiological functions are completed together, leaving the maximum of freedom to the mind during the day.”
“A Christian people doesn't mean a lot of goody-goodies. The Church has plenty of stamina, and isn't afraid of sin. On the contrary, she can look it in the face calmly and even take it upon herself,...”
“O miraclethus to be able to give [peace] we ourselves do not possess, sweet miracle of our empty hands!”
“We pay a heavy, very heavy price for the superhuman dignity of our calling. The ridiculous is always so near to the sublime. And the world, usually so indulgent to foibles, hates ours instinctively.”
“His face frankly displays his suffering, expressing it with a truly royal simplicity. At such moments even the very best people are apt to give themselves away with the kind of look which says to y...”
“The capacity to love is determined by the fact that man is ready to seek the good consciously with others, to subordinate himself to this good because of others, or to subordinate himself to others...”
“The Child Christ lives on from generation to generation in the poets, very often the frailest of men but men whose frailty is redeemed by a child's unworldliness, by a child's delight in loveliness...”
“Between optimism and pessimism, there is confidence in God.”
“We could scrub the floor for a tired friend, or dress a wound for a patient in a hospital, or lay the table and wash up for the family; but we shall not do it in martyr spirit or with that worse sp...”
“In the world as it is, torn with agonies and dissensions, we need some direction for our souls which is never away from us; which, without enslaving us or narrowing our vision, enters into every de...”
“Christ must be born from every soul, formed in every life. If we had a picture of Our Lady's personality we might be dazzled into thinking that only one sort of person could form Christ in himself,...”
“Only by having a sense of history's trajectory (even if one does not believe in Parousia) can one love earthly reality and believewith charitythat there is still room for Hope.”
“Feelings trap us in the self, Tony dear. Doing a thing because you feel wonderful about iteven a work of charityis in the end a selfish act. We perform the work not to feel wonderful but to know an...”
“When God laughs at the soul and the soul laughs back at God, the persons of the Trinity are begotten. When the Father laughs at the Son and the Son laughs back at the Father, that laughter gives pl...”
