Abba Dorotheos
Rating: 3,8|Votes: 4
When your soul becomes insensitive, brother, it is useful to read the Holy Scriptures and the heart-touching words of the Holy and God-bearing Fathers, to remember God's Last Judgment, the departure of the soul from the body, and the terrible powers that can greet it, and with whose cooperation the soul committed evil acts in this brief and tormented life.
Rating: 10|Votes: 1
Abba Dorotheus said that one who trusts in his own understanding or judgment cannot submit to nor follow the good example of his neighbor. He likewise said: Being passionate, we cannot at all believe in our own hearts; for a crooked rule will make even the straight crooked.
If you do not wish to fall into irritability and remembrance of evil, have no attachment whatever to things and do not be overly concerned for them, neither despise them as being of little importance or insignificance.When someone asks something of you, give it to him; and if he by chance, or by carelessness, should break or lose something, do not be grieved.
Rating: 6|Votes: 1
Believe that reproaches and dishonors are medicines which heal the pride of your soul, and pray for those who make you meek as the true physicians of your soul, be convinced that he who hates dishonor hates humility, and he that flees those who offend him is fleeing meekness.
The Fathers say that half of spiritual life is to remain in the cell, and visiting the elders is the other half. This expression means that both inside the cell and outside the cell we must be equally heedful, and we must know why we should keep silence in the cell and why we should go to the fathers and brethren; for one who keeps sight of these aims strives to act as the Fathers teach.
