A humble man who lives a spiritual life, when he reads the Holy Scriptures, will relate all things to himself and not to others.(St. Mark the Ascetic, Sermon, 1.6)
In the following beautiful passage, Saint Gregory the Theologian summarizes many of the various blessings of marriage: In our living together we are one another’s hands, ears, and feet. Marriage redoubles our strength, rejoices our friends, and causes grief to our enemies. A common concern makes trials bearable. Common joys are all the happier, and accord makes riches more pleasant; it is even more delightful than riches for those without wealth. Marriage is the key of moderation and the harmony of the desires, the seal of a deep friendship, …the unique drink from a fountain enclosed, inaccessible to those without. United in the flesh, one in spirit, they urge each other on by the goad of their mutual love. For marriage does not remove from God, but brings all the closer to Him, for it is God Himself who draws us to it. 7
a quotation from a wedding sermon preached by Saint Tikhon of Moscow in San Francisco in 1902, while he was bishop of the Church in America. We know of no more wonderful description of the creation of Eve to be Adam’s helpmate than we find in this sermon: “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make a helpmeet for him”(Gen. 2: 18), said God Himself, when our forefather Adam was still in Paradise. Without a helpmate the very bliss of Paradise was not complete for Adam. Endowed with the ability to think, speak, and love, the first man in his thoughts is seeking another being who is able to think. His speech sounds sorrowfully in the air, and only a lifeless echo serves as an answer to him. And his heart, full of love, is looking for another heart that is close and equal to his. His entire being desires another being similar to him, but there is no such being. The creatures of the visible world around him are lower than he is and cannot be helpmates appropriate for him; and the beings of the invisible, spiritual world are higher than he is.
Then the All-Merciful God, who cares about the bliss of man, fulfills his need and creates for him a helpmate appropriate for him –a wife.

Belinda Emmett

I've been guilty of disliking celebrities.
Probably because they are exalted up, and not for virtues and Holiness and righteousness and love, but because of this I have been guilty of rejecting them.

I think it does us all good to remember we are all equal, we are all human and have human feelings.

I suppose this video has brought back a love to me as celebrities as people, who need just as much love, comfort, and spirituality as we all do.

Maybe it's hard for them being loved for being celebrities, and not for being people.



I also like this song by Belinda Emmett

'God wants us to be whole-hearted participants in his work, though he obviously doesn't need our help to do anything.
Perhaps this is like a mom having her children help her make cookies, though she could do it a lot more efficiently alone, God loves us. He wants us to participate in his work, because he wants to be in communion with us.'

- Frederica Mathewes-Green
From the moment your start praying,
raise your heart upward and turn your eyes downward.
Bring your focus to your innermost self,
and there pray in secret to your heavenly Father.

- Aphrahat the Persian
Jesus said: "My peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you." He came not to give the peace of the world, which is only that we don't bother each other. He came to give the peace of heart that comes from loving - from doing good to others.

- Mother Teresa
Have you experienced the joy of giving? I do not want you to give to me from your abundance. I never allow people to have fund-raisers for me. I don't want that. I want you to give of yourself. The love you put into the giving is the most important thing. I don't want people donating just to get rid of something. Giving is something different. It is sharing.
~ Mother Teresa
"...true compassion is being willing to walk with someone through pain...
to say " I will suffer with you "
- Rose discussing the support she felt she needed to not have had her abortion.
From the book Real choices
by Frederica Mathewes Green

A Mothers Love

Mary goes to Jesus
- from the film the Passion of the Christ

OCMC missionary Lynette Hoppe died of cancer on August 27, 2006. Just 2 weeks before she died, she delivered a talk to a group of young Albanian girls about what she was facing. This inspiring talk is now available for download by clicking HERE.

http://www.prayforlynette.org/
"Prayer changes things" and often the first thing that changes is us.
- Frederica Mathewes-Green
prayer is a necessity to prevent us from constantly falling into temptation
- Saint Teresa of Avila
our whole welfare consists in doing the will of God. If we start with the false principle of wishing God to follow our will and to lead us in the way we think best, upon what firm foundation can this spiritual edifice rest?
- Saint Teresa of Avila
true perfection consists in the love of God and our neighbour, and the better we keep both these commandments, the more perfect we shall be
- Saint Teresa of Avila
in every state of life all our help must come from God; may He in His mercy grant it us
- Saint Teresa of Avila
our understanding and will become more noble and capable of good in every way when we turn from ourselves to God: it is very injurious never to raise our minds above the mire of our own faults
- Saint Teresa of Avila
I believe we shall never learn to know ourselves except by endeavouring to know God, for, beholding His greatness we are struck by our own baseness, His purity shows our foulness, and by meditating on His humility we find how very far we are from being humble.
- Saint Teresa of Avila
And if He know, one may say, what we have need of, wherefore must we pray? Not to instruct Him, but to prevail with Him; to be made intimate with Him, by continuance in supplication; to be humbled; to be reminded of thy sins.
- Saint John Chrysostom

St. Mary El Masria Part 2


St. Mary El Masria Part 1


"being here"




A beautiful clip from the film the switch - the true story of Larry McAfee, who was paralyzed in a motorcycle accident. Angry and frustrated with a system that drains him of his insurance money and leaves him in one nursing home after another, he sues for the right to have a switch installed on his ventilator that will allow him to turn the machine off.

This clip shows him after he has won this legal right and then living in an independent living centre

I believe being here for one another is one of the greatest meanings and purpose of life.
God is still love,
he is still loving the world.
Today God loves the world so much
that he gives you and he gives me to love
the world, to be his love and compassion.
- Mother Teresa
'As one grows in prayer one grows also in the knowledge of oneself and if not in one's sinfulness, then certainly in potential sinfulness. It brings about a real understanding of what St Phillip Neri said, "There go I, but for the grace of God". And, as time goes on, it's much easier to accept the weakness of others because deep down there is at least the potential for sinfulness in oneself because we are all human, we all have the same human weakness.'
- Sister Kateri

empathy



"When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace."
- the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso
O Lord and Master of my life,
take from me the spirit of sloth, despondency,
lust of power, and idle talk;
But grant rather
the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love
to thy servant.
Yea, O Lord and King,
grant me to see my own transgressions,
and not to judge my brother;
for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages.
Amen.
- Saint Ephrem of Syria
You know my God. My God is called love.
—Mother Teresa
IT were indeed meet for us not at all to require the aid of the written Word, but to exhibit a life so pure, that the grace of the Spirit should be instead of books to our souls, and that as these are inscribed with ink, even so should our hearts be with the Spirit. But, since we have utterly put away from us this grace, come, let us at any rate embrace the second best course.

For that the former was better, God hath made manifest,both by His words, and by His doings. Since unto Noah, and unto Abraham, and unto his offspring, and unto Job, and unto Moses too, He discoursed not by writings, but Himself by Himself, finding their mind pure. But after the whole people of the Hebrews had fallen into the very pit of wickedness, then and thereafter was a written word, and tables, and the admonition which is given by these.

And this one may perceive was the case, not of the saints in the Old Testament only, but also of those in the New. For neither to the apostles did God give anything in writing, but instead of written words He promised that He would give them the grace of the Spirit: for "He," saith our Lord, "shall bring all things to your remembrance." And that thou mayest learn that this was far better, hear what He saith by the Prophet: "I will make a new covenant with you, putting my laws into their mind, and in their heart I will write them," and, "they shall be all taught of God." And Paul too, pointing out the same superiority, said, that they had received a law "not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart."

But since in process of time they made shipwreck, some with regard to doctrines, others as to life and manners, there was again need that they should be put in remembrance by the written word.
- Saint John Chrysostom
whosever shall be having the substance of the world and shall be seeing his brother having need and shuts up his bowels of compassion from him, how does the love of God abide in Him?
My little children, let us not be loving in word nor in the tongue, _but_ in deed and in truth!
And by this we know that we are of the truth, and we will assure our hearts before Him,
- first epistle of Saint John
and we have known and have faith of the Love which God holds in us, God is love, and who abides in love, in God abides, and God in them
- The first epistle of Saint John
he who takes upon himself the burden of his neighbour; he who, in whatsoever respect he may be superior, is ready to benefit another who is deficient; he who, whatsoever things he has received from God, by distributing these to the needy, becomes God to those who receive [his benefits]
- Mathetes


"We must be the change we wish to see in the world"
- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
God none at any time have seen, but if we love one another, God in us abides, and the love of His is accomplished in us
- the first epistle of Saint John
"Our liberation does not come from liberating our desires [as in the west], but our liberation comes from our enslavement to God."
- Imam Zaid Shakir
"You can think about what might happen, and what you would like to do and so on, but until the time actually arrives, you don't have the experience."
- Morrie Schwartz
God our King is more affectionate than any friend,
more just than any ruler,
more loving than any father,
more a part of us than our own limbs,
more neccessary to us than our own heart.
- Nicolas Casbasilas