The wisdom of God appears in afflictions.
By these He separates the sin which He hates,
from the son whom He loves.
By these thorns He keeps him from breaking over into Satan’s pleasant pastures,
which would fatten him indeed, but only to the slaughter.
James H. Aughey
(the homeless Christ sculpture by Canadian artist Timothy Schmalz outside Christ Church Cathedral / Dublin, Ireland / Julie Cook / 2015)
“This world is a sick man, whom sin has made sick,
for sin is a sickness,
and to scorn sinners is to scorn the sick.
With prayer our healer walks around the grievously sick patient,
with prayer he walks and
with prayer he heals and makes whole.
Do not scorn sinners, but pray for them.
Feel pity and compassion for every creature, but do not condemn.
Expand and deepen your soul with prayer,
and you will begin to cry over the mystery of the world bitterly and vehemently.
Make your heart prayerful, together with your soul and your mind,
and they will become inexhaustible fountainheads of tears for all mankind.
The most reverend man of prayer has made his whole soul prayerful,
together with his spirit and mind:
and he feels the sins of all sinners as though they were his own,
and he repents for all sins as though they were his own,
as he weeps and sighs.”
Saint Nikolai Velimirovich
cookiecrumbstoliveby 