I tend to have a fascination with the words and sayings of others. Whether it is from those still living or those who have passed on, I always learn something new to incorporate into my life after I read a good quote. I think it also fosters within me a wider sense of connection with people which is something I deeply long for. Another reason I believe I am fascinated with quotes is that it almost brings to life what once was, and at the same time recreates something new when the words are heard by new people. Here are a few quotes that I have been connecting with as of late.
"We do not go to church to understand. Rather, we go to church to meet God, and there is probably a great deal of that meeting which will have nothing to do with understanding."~ Archmandrite Meletios Webber in his book Bread & Water, Wine & Oil: An Orthodox Christian Experience of God
This is a beautiful quote from an Ancient Christian writer Tertullian, regarding the type of marriage that Jesus rejoices over:
"Where the flesh is one, one is the spirit too. Together they pray, together prostrate themselves, together perform their fasts; mutually teaching, mutually exhorting, mutually sustaining. Equally are they both found in the Church of God; equally at the banquet of God; equally in straights, in persecutions, in refreshments. Neither hides from the other; neither is troublesome to the other; the sick is visited, the indigent relieved, with freedom. Alms are given without danger of torment; sacrifices without scruple; daily diligence without impediment; there is no stealthy singing, no trembling greeting, no mute benediction. Between the two echo psalms and hymns; and they mutually challenge each other which shall better chant to their Lord. When Christ sees and hears such things, He rejoices. To these He sends His own peace. Where two are, there withal is He Himself. Where He is, there the evil on is not."
~Marriage and Virginity According to St. John Chrysostom by Archpriest Josiah Trenham.
"If the king wants someone to love him, to trust him and respect him for his own sake, he must be prepared to open up sufficiently to allow his friends to be fully human and fully free. He has to take the risk of being rejected."~ Archmandrite Meletios Webber in his book Bread & Water, Wine & Oil: An Orthodox Christian Experience of God
"At some point along the spiritual path we learn that pain is a teacher, and we actually derive benefit from accepting it rather than rejecting it. Far from being an enemy, hunger has been given to us in order to teach us the finer things in life." ~ Archmandrite Meletios Webber in his book Bread & Water, Wine & Oil: An Orthodox Christian Experience of God
"There are all sorts of monsters to be met with on the way, and the monsters are not devils, they are not our neighbor, they are just ourselves." ~Beginning to Pray by Anthony Bloom
"We should develop an ache in our hearts. I don't mean the physical heart, but at the core of us, an ache that will be a desperate longing for God, a feeling that, 'I am alone, where is He?' at the moment when you have lost touch in prayer." ~Beginning to Pray by Anthony Bloom
"This is the Kingdom, the sense that we are free from possession, and this freedom establishes us in a relationship where everything is love-human love and love divine." ~Beginning to Pray by Anthony Bloom
"Then I perceived that this silence was not simply an absence of noise, but that the silence had substance. It was not absence of something but presence of something. The silence had a density, a richness, and it began to pervade me. The silence around began to come and meet the silence in me....At the heart of the silence there was He who is all stillness, all peace, all poise." ~Beginning to Pray by Anthony Bloom
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