СВЕТИ ГЕОРГИ

“Every ship is a romantic object, except that we sail in. Embark, and the romance quits our vessel, and hangs on every other sail in the horizon.”

—Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Experience”

“Creatures sin. To sin is to will what God wills what you should not will. Therefore, on Anselm’s understanding, free creatures introduce into the universe events which are against the will of God. Does Anselm’s view then diminish the divine nature? He does not state them explicitly, but there are at least two, mutually reinforcing responses to the charge. First, the entire system is God’s doing. If He chooses to qualify his absolute dominion by carving out a little space in creation for other free agents, it is His own choice and so it cannot be understood as some sort of external limitation on His power. Moreover, we might, as Aquinas proposed, judge the power of a cause by the nature of the effects it is able to produce. A created, primary agent, free in the libertarian sense, is a much more independent and powerful sort of thing than a secondary agent, free only in a compatibilist sense. That God makes the former rather than the latter is an indication of His power, not a limitation on it. True, He cannot absolutely control us, but that is exactly the point of created imagines dei who can act from themselves and participate in the divine aseity.”

—Katherin A. Rogers, Anselm on Freedom, 82.

Богородица

“‘If you do that, wouldn’t you be good?’

‘No,’ said Cal. ‘I think bad.’

Will had never met anyone who spoke so nakedly.  He was near to embarrassment because of the nakedness, and he knew how safe Cal was in his stripped honesty. ‘Only one more,’ he said, ‘and I won’t mind if you don’t answer it.  I don’t think I would answer it.  Here it is.  Suppose you should get this money and give it to your father—would it cross your mind that you were trying to buy his love?’

‘Yes, sir.  It would.  And it would be true.’”

—John Steinbeck

“The man who imagines he can conquer the demon of fornication by gluttony and by stuffing himself is quite like someone who quenches fire with oil.  And the man who tries to put an end to this struggle by means of chastity only is like someone trying to escape from the sea by swimming with just one hand.”

—John Climacus

We make a grave mistake when we devote ourselves to overcoming just one particular sin and leave the others alone.  Holiness is total.

“Quod potui, feci, veniam da mihi posteritas.”

—Leonardo da Vinci

“The man who wants to be reminded constantly of death and of God’s judgment and who at the same time gives in to material cares and distractions, is like someone trying at the same time to swim and to clap his hands.”

—John Climacus, Ladder of Divine Ascent

“One should seriously inquire if to live in a world permeated with God  and the knowledge of God is something they themselves truly desire. If  not, they can be assured that God will excuse them from his presence.  They will find their place in the “outer darkness” of which Jesus spoke.  But the fundamental fact about them will not be that they are there, but  that they have become people so locked into their own self-worship and  denial of God that they cannot want God.”

“Whereas the primal relationship of man to man is a giving one, in the state of sin it is purely demanding. Every man exists in a state of complete voluntary isolation; each man lives his own life, instead of all living the same God-life.”

From The Communion of Saints, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

And this from a man who truely gave.  “Greater love hath no man than this…”

“So blindly do we all rush in the direction of self-love, that every one  thinks he has a good reason for exalting himself and despising all others in  comparison.”

-From Institutes of the Christian Religion, by John Calvin.

How easily would I take these words of Calvin and bring them to my neighbor and say to him, “Look! See! This is what I have been trying to tell you.”  All the while ignoring the finger that points at me. Κύριε Ιησού Χριστέ, Υιέ του Θεού, ελέησόν με τον αμαρτωλόν.

“The philosophy of living with an underlying motive of doing  everything for one’s own personal peace and comfort rapidly colors  everything that might formerly have come under the headings of  “right” and “wrong.”  This new way of thinking adds entirely new  shades, often in blurring brushstrokes of paint that wipe out the  existence of standards or cast them into a shadow that pushes  them out of sight. If one’s peace, comfort, way of life, convenience,  reputation, opportunities, job, happiness, or even ease is threatened,   “Just abort it.” Abort what? Abort another life that is not yet  born. Yes, but also abort the afflictions connected with having a  handicapped child, and abort the burdens connected with caring  for the old or invalid. Added swiftly are the now supposedly thinkable attitudes of aborting a child’s early security in his or her  rights to have two parents and a family life; aborting a wife’s need  for having her husband be someone to trust and lean upon; aborting   the husband’s need for having a companion and friend as well  as a feminine mate; aborting any responsibility to carry through a  job started.”

-From Affliction, by Edith Schaeffer.