Reframing difficulties in marriage

 

The married are…also to be admonished to consider not so much what each has to endure from the other, as what the other is made to endure. 

Virtue in the face of evil

True patience consists in bearing calmly the evils others do to us, and in not being consumed by resentment against those who inflict them. Those who only appear to bear the evils done them by their neighbors, who suffer them in silence while they are looking for an opportunity for revenge, are not practicing patience, but only make a show of it.  Paul writes that 'love is patient and kind.' It is patient in bearing the evils done to us by others, and it is kind in even loving those it bears with. Jesus himself tells us: 'Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who persecute you.' Virtue in the sight of others is to bear with those who oppose us, but virtue in God's sight is to love them. This is the only sacrifice acceptable to God. 

 

May this be true of us all

As you move forward, attract others to go along with you.  Desire to have companions on the road to the Lord. 

Keep the eternal perspective

Hold to patience in your hearts, my friends, and put it into action when the situation calls for it.  Don't let any abusive word from your neighbor stir up hatred in you, and don't allow any loss of things that pass away to upset you.  If you are steadfast in fearing the loss of those things that last forever, you will never take seriously the loss of those that pass away; if you keep your eyes fixed on the glory of our eternal recompense, you will not resent a temporal injury.  You must bear with those who oppose you, but also love those you bear with.   Seek an eternal reward in return for your temporal losses. 

Embracing sorrow in wisdom

Almighty God has allowed His chosen to succumb to certain sins. This is so that He may restore hope of forgiveness to others, who are under sin's domination, if they will only rise up to Him wholeheartedly: for then God can open up for them the way to heaven through sorrow and repentance. Let us then embrace sorrow, let is rid ourselves of our sins by tears and 'fruits worthy of repentance.' We must not squander the time that has been granted us. We see so many freshly washed clean of the wrongs they have done: what else do we have in them except a pledge of the compassion from on high! 

Preparing for Holy Pentecost

And my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. My friends, consider the greatness of this solemn feast that commemorates God's coming as a guest into our hearts! If some rich and influential friend were to come to your home, you would promptly put it all in order for fear something there might offend your friend's eyes when he came in. Let all of us then who are preparing our inner homes for God cleanse them of anything our wrongdoing has brought into them.

On II Corinthians 5:17

For to despise the present age, not to love transitory things, unreservedly to stretch out the mind in humility to God and our neighbor, to preserve patience against offered insults and, with patience guarded, to repel the pain of malice from the heart, to give one's property to the poor, not to covet that of others, to esteem the friend in God, on God's account to love even those who are hostile, to mourn at the affliction of a neighbor, not to exult in the death of one who is an enemy, this is the new creature whom the Master of the nations seeks with watchful eye amid the other disciples, saying, ‘If, then, any be in Christ a new creature, the old things are passed away. Behold all things are made new,’ (2 Cor. 5:17).

Nourishment for the soul

Every day you provide your bodies with good to keep them from failing. In the same way your good works should be the daily nourishment of your hearts. Your bodies are fed with food and your spirits with good works. You aren't to deny your soul, which is going to live forever, what you grant to your body, which is going to die. St. Gregory the Great