We are always in need of repentance, of the willingness to acknowledge our state of forgiveness; we are always being forgiven, transfigured and forgiving, and thus being part of God’s transfiguration of creation.
The word “martyr” derives from the Greek for a first-hand witness: one whose knowledge derives from personal observation. Its first appearances in Christian literature—Matthew 18:16 and Mark 14:63—carry this original meaning: that the Apostles were “witnesses” of Christ’s activities and sayings. However, since this witness got them into trouble with the law, where they were regarded as unreliable citizens in refusing to pay respects to the state deities, the word began to carry the added significance of conveying the risk of physical punishment, or even death, for their persistence
In brief, do everything as though in the presence of God and so, in whatever you do, you need never allow your conscience to wound and denounce you, for not having done your work well. Proceeding in this way you will smooth for yourself a true and straight path to the third method of attention and prayer which is the following: the mind should be in the heart
God is always infinitely near and infinitely far. We are fully aware of Him only if we experience both of these aspects. But sometimes, when our awareness of Him has become shallow, habitual—not warm and not cold—when He has become too familiar to be exciting, too near to be felt in his infinite distance,
We fear physical pain, aging, dying. We fear the force of our own distress or depression. We fear being so easily bogged down, bringing no identifiable goodness into the world. Praying takes us right into the middle of these fears and opens their constant little trickle into a swift running stream, for in prayer every early effort to still our fears only intensifies them. We try all the familiar tricks—reciting familiar set phrases, psalms, hymns.
Despite disincentives and persecution, people [in the early church] were drawn to churches in which there was spiritual power, question-posing behavior and a combination of catholicity with community. But what was it that formed Christians and Christian communities so that they would embody these qualities that attracted outsiders? Two community-forming realities stand out: catechesis and worship
Spiritual practices could be called life practices or humane practices, because they help us practice being alive, and humanely so. They develop not just character but also aliveness, alertness, wakefulness, and humanity.
Philosophy being nothing else but the study of wisdom and truth, it may with reason be expected that those who have spent most time and pains in it should enjoy a greater calm and serenity of mind, a greater clearness and evidence of knowledge, and be less disturbed with doubts and difficulties than other men.
You must settle down and quiet yourself. Your present state if encouraged will be in the end as bad for you spiritually as physically. I know it is not easy to do. Nevertheless it will in the nature of things come about gradually and I want you to help it all you know. If you allow rapture or vehemence to have its way too much,
Community life offers more blessings than can be fully and easily enumerated. It is more advantageous than the solitary life both for preserving the goods bestowed on us by God and for warding off the external attacks of the Enemy.