Let your hands be open…
Do not let your hands be open to gather in; let them rather be open to give.
— Abba Chomai (A Desert Father)
What sort of people are we…
What sort of people are we if we want to receive, when God offers, but when God asks, we refuse to give? For when a poor man hungers, it is Christ who suffers want, as he himself has said: “I was hungry and you gave me no food.” Do not despise the misery of the poor if you want a sure hope of forgiveness for your sins. Christ is hungry now, brethren, in all the poor. He consents to suffer hunger and thirst – and whatever he receives on earth he will give back in heaven.
–Saint Caesarius of Arles (460-542)
Endure gratefully when tested…
When tested by some trial you should try to find out not why or through whom it came, but only how to endure it gratefully, without distress or rancor….If it is not easy to find anyone conforming to God’s will who has not been put to the test, we ought to thank God for everything that happens to us.
–Saint Mark the Ascetic (Fifth Century)
How can patience be…
How can your patience be rewarded if no adversity test it? How can you be a friend of Christ if you are not willing to suffer any hardship? Suffer with Christ and for Christ if you wish to reign with Him.
–Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471)
Whatever the Lord…
Whatever the Lord sends us, He does only for the benefit and salvation of our soul. It may be that, in the beginning, it doesn’t seem to bring us any benefit, but later we’ll realize that what God has allowed us to go through has been better for us than what we ourselves would have wanted to happen.
–Saint Nil Sorski (c.1453-1508)
God has made…
God has made you in his image that you might in your person make the invisible Creator present on earth.
–Saint Peter Chrysologus (c. 380 – c. 450)
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