Quotessence
Home / Topics / Monasticism Quotes

Monasticism Quotes

Browse 30 quotes about Monasticism.

Monasticism Quotes

“We live liturgically, telling our sacred Story in worship and song. We fast and we feast. We marry and give our children in marriage, and though in exile, we work for the peace of the city. We welcome our newborns and bury our dead. We read the Bible and we tell our children about the saints. And we also tell them in the orchard and by the fireside about Odysseus, Achilles, and Aeneas, of Dante and Don Quixote, and Frodo and Gandalf and all the tales that bear what it means to be men and women of the West. We work, we pray, we confess our sins, we show mercy, we welcome the stranger, and we keep the commandments. When we suffer, especially for Christ's sake, we give thanks, because that is what Christians do. Who knows what God, in turn, will do with our faithfulness? It is not for us to say. Our command is, in the words of the Christian poet W.H. Auden, to "stagger onward rejoicing”

FaithChristianityTrustMonasticismRod DreherThe Benedict Option
Book:The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation
Create image

“We [vowed religious; nuns, monks] want to be squares, and we want others to be square, also. That's what religious have been doing. They're part of a square society. And let me be quite clear about the fact that liberalism doesn't get you off this hook, because liberals are part of the square society, too. It's better to be a liberal than a conservative, but they're both equally square.”

ReligionCultureSocietyDiversityLiberalismConformityConservatismMonasticism
Book:Thomas Merton on Prayer
Create image

“If you are forgetful of the Lord, you will not pray, and without prayer the soul will not dwell in the love of God, for the grace of the Holy Spirit comes through prayer.”

OrthodoxChristian QuotesOrthodoxyAncient WisdomOrthodox ChristianityMonastic LifeMonasticismGreek OrthodoxMonasteryOrthopraxy
Book:A Year in the Holy Spirit with Saint Silouan the Athonite: - A Calendar of Daily Quotes
Create image

“Seclusion Won’t Do (The Sonnet) Each of you must turn into a sufi saint, Each of you must turn into a latin lover. Each of you must turn into a shaolin monk, Each of you must turn into a bengal tiger. It won't do to seclude yourself in a monastery, It won't do to seclude yourself behind a desk. The monk must come down to the streets of life, The scholar must till the soil with their sweat. Service of humanity is the fulfillment of divinity, Service of humanity is the right use of intellect. Occasional seclusion is good, to charge up the mind, But life-long seclusion from society is sheer waste. Enlightenment that doesn't eliminate separation is no enlightenment. Intelligence that doesn't elevate the collective is no intelligence.”

MeditationEnlightenmentService Of HumanitySocial WorkerIntellectualismHumanitarian CrisisMonastic LifeMonasticismSocial Work PoetryMonkhood
Book:Amantes Assemble: 100 Sonnets of Servant Sultans
Create image

“Once, when Geronda Joseph underwent a great temptation, he went into the desert to pray, and as he was crying out to God, he saw a vision of a large, beautiful bird singing. In a moment, he found himself in Paradise where there were many birds. The birds were angels, and among them was the large bird, singing and keeping the bass note. Imagine that! He saw it with his own eyes!”

OrthodoxOrthodoxyMonastic LifeMonasticismGreek OrthodoxHomilyMonastic TraditionsGreek Orthodoxy
Book:Daily Quotes from "Words of the Heart" by Gerondissa Makrina Vassopoulou
Create image

“The Lord vouchsafed us to be in His likeness, but the Lord is so meek and lowly that wert thou to see Him, from much joy thou wouldst want to exclaim, "O Lord, I melt with Thy grace!" but at that moment thou art unable to utter a single word concerning God, for thy soul is transformed from the abundance of the Holy Spirit. Thus it was with St. Seraphim of Sarov - when he beheld the Lord, he was unable to speak.”

OrthodoxChristian QuotesOrthodoxyAncient WisdomOrthodox ChristianityMonastic LifeMonasticismGreek OrthodoxOrthopraxyCatechumen
Book:A Year in the Holy Spirit with Saint Silouan the Athonite: - A Calendar of Daily Quotes
Create image

“[The Lord] is exceedingly meek and lowly, and when the soul sees Him she is all transformed into love for God and her neighbour...becomes meek and lowly herself. But if a man lose grace, he will weep like Adam cast out of paradise.”

OrthodoxChristian QuotesOrthodoxyAncient WisdomOrthodox ChristianityMonastic LifeMonasticismGreek OrthodoxOrthopraxyCatechumen
Book:A Year in the Holy Spirit with Saint Silouan the Athonite: - A Calendar of Daily Quotes
Create image

“When a small child calls out, "I want bread! I am hungry," does his mother not...prepare him something to eat? Likewise, if all day we call out, "We want to be saved!...Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us." will Christ not send us His mercy?”

OrthodoxChristian QuotesOrthodoxyAncient WisdomOrthodox ChristianityMonastic LifeMonasticismGreek OrthodoxOrthopraxyCatechumen
Book:Daily Quotes from "Words of the Heart" by Gerondissa Makrina Vassopoulou
Create image

“The purpose of judgment must be that the one you are judging should mend his ways, and you must be compassionate with every soul...and in all things preserve a clear conscience yourself. Then deep peace will reign in mind and soul.”

OrthodoxChristian QuotesOrthodoxyAncient WisdomOrthodox ChristianityMonastic LifeMonasticismGreek OrthodoxOrthopraxyCatechumen
Book:A Year in the Holy Spirit with Saint Silouan the Athonite: - A Calendar of Daily Quotes
Create image

“We believe that true freedom means not sinning, in order to love God and one's neighbour with our whole heart and our whole strength. True freedom means constant dwelling in God.”

OrthodoxChristian QuotesOrthodoxyAncient WisdomOrthodox ChristianityMonastic LifeMonasticismGreek OrthodoxOrthopraxyCatechumen
Book:A Year in the Holy Spirit with Saint Silouan the Athonite: - A Calendar of Daily Quotes
Create image

“And the Mother of God - what was her love for the Lord, her Son? No human being can conceive of the nature of her love save the Mother of God herself. But the Spirit of God opens our eyes to love. And in her was and is this same Spirit of God, Which is love, and therefore he who has come to know the Holy Spirit is able in part to conceive of the nature even of her love.”

OrthodoxChristian QuotesOrthodoxyAncient WisdomOrthodox ChristianityMonastic LifeMonasticismGreek OrthodoxOrthopraxyCatechumen
Book:A Year in the Holy Spirit with Saint Silouan the Athonite: - A Calendar of Daily Quotes
Create image

“When the soul is full of the love of God, out of infinite joy she sorrows and in tears prays for the whole world, that all men may come to know their Lord and heavenly Father. There is no rest for her, nor does she desire rest, until all mankind delights in the grace of His love.”

OrthodoxChristian QuotesOrthodoxyAncient WisdomOrthodox ChristianityMonastic LifeMonasticismGreek OrthodoxOrthopraxyCatechumen
Book:A Year in the Holy Spirit with Saint Silouan the Athonite: - A Calendar of Daily Quotes
Create image

“Prayer comes with praying, as the Scriptures say; but prayer which is only a habit, prayer without contrition for our sins, is not pleasing to the Lord.”

OrthodoxChristian QuotesOrthodoxyAncient WisdomOrthodox ChristianityMonastic LifeMonasticismGreek OrthodoxOrthopraxyCatechumen
Book:A Year in the Holy Spirit with Saint Silouan the Athonite: - A Calendar of Daily Quotes
Create image

“We must be careful not to judge - extremely careful! It is so terrible that it is beyond words! "Judge not, that ye be not judged." Have we kept this? Even if we have no virtue but we don't judge, Christ will save us and take us to Paradise.”

OrthodoxChristian QuotesOrthodoxyAncient WisdomOrthodox ChristianityMonastic LifeMonasticismGreek OrthodoxOrthopraxyCatechumen
Book:Daily Quotes from "Words of the Heart" by Gerondissa Makrina Vassopoulou
Create image

“With my sins I am worse than a noisome cur but I began to beseech God for forgiveness, and He granted me not only forgiveness but also the Holy Spirit, and in the Holy Spirit I knew God.”

OrthodoxChristian QuotesOrthodoxyAncient WisdomOrthodox ChristianityMonastic LifeMonasticismGreek OrthodoxOrthopraxyCatechumen
Book:A Year in the Holy Spirit with Saint Silouan the Athonite: - A Calendar of Daily Quotes
Create image

“The effect of the mortification of the domestic affections upon the general character was probably very pernicious. The family circle is the appointed sphere, not only for the performance of manifest duties, but also for the cultivation of the affections; and the extreme ferocity which so often characterised the ascetic was the natural consequence of the discipline he imposed upon himself. Severed from all other ties, the monks clung with desperate tenacity to their opinions and to their Church, and hated those who dissented from them with all the intensity of men whose whole lives were concentrated on a single subject, whose ignorance and bigotry prevented them from conceiving the possibility of any good thing in opposition to themselves, and who had made it a main object of their discipline to eradicate all natural sympathies and affections.”

ReligionPoliticsChristianityIdeologyBigotryFamily LifeLeftismDomesticityMonasticismSjws
Book:History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne
Create image