Some wisdom

June 19, 2008 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: Christianity, Eastern Orthodoxy, humility, Orthodox Christianity, orthodoxy, religion, sayings, self-restraint, self-righteousness, virtue, wisdom

“Someone who is considered among men to be zealous for truth has not yet learnt what truth is really like: once he has truly learnt it, he will cease from zealousness on its behalf.”
–St. Isaac of Syria (7th century)

“No matter how ‘right’ you may be on various points, you must be diplomatic also. The first and important thing is not ‘rightness’ at all, but Christian love and harmony. Most ‘crazy converts’ have been ‘right’ in the criticisms that led to their downfall; but they were lacking in Christian love and charity and so went off the deep end, needlessly alienating people around them and finally finding themselves all alone in their rightness and self-righteousness. Don’t you follow them!…”
–Father Seraphim (Rose) (20th century California)

“Never say that God is just. If he were just, you would be in hell. Rely only on his injustice which is mercy, love and forgiveness.”
–St. Isaac the Syrian

“Have the heart of a son toward God, the mind of a judge toward yourself, and toward your neighbor, the heart of a mother.”
–Blessed Elder Cleopa (Ilie) (20th century Romania – met by English journalist Victoria Clark, as recounted by her in a passage of Why Angels Fall: A Journey through Orthodox Europe from Byzantium to Kosovo, shortly before his repose in 1998 )

“The man who follows Christ in solitary mourning is greater than he who praises Christ amid the congregation of men.”
–St. Isaac of Syria