"....I had asked someone once: 'What do you believe you are?  Christ’s warrior or temptation’s warrior? Did you know that temptation also has its warriors?'

 

A Christian must not be fanatic; he must have love for all people. Those who inconsiderately toss comments, even if they have truths, can cause harm.  

 

I had met an author who was extremely pious, but had the habit of speaking to (secular) people around him in a blunt manner - one that however penetrated them so deeply that it shook them to the core.  

 

He confided the following to me one day: “During a gathering, I said such and such a thing to a lady.”  However, the way that he said it, crushed her.

 

“Look”, I said to him, 'you could be tossing golden crowns studded with diamonds to other people, but the way that you throw them can smash heads – not only the sensitive ones, but also the solid ones.'

 

Let’s not stone our fellow-man in a…. Christian manner.  The person who - in the presence of others – checks someone for having sinned, or speaks in an impassioned manner about a certain other person, is not moved by the Spirit of God: he is moved by... another spirit.

 

The way of the Church is LOVE; it differs from the way of the legalists.

 

The Church sees everything with tolerance and seeks to help each person, whatever he may have done, however sinful they may be.

I have observed a peculiar kind of logic in certain pious people. Their piety is a good thing, and their predisposition for good is also a good thing; however, a certain spiritual discernment and amplitude are required so that their piety is not accompanied by narrow-mindedness or strong-headedness (strong, as in “unchanging”). The entire basis is for someone to be in a spiritual state, thanks to which he will have that spiritual discernment, because otherwise, he will forever remain stuck to the “letter of the Law”, and the letter of the Law can be “deadly”.  

 

The one who possesses humility will never act like a teacher; he will listen, and whenever his opinion is requested, he will respond humbly. In other words, he will reply like a student.  Whoever believes that he is capable of correcting others is filled with egotism.

-Elder, when someone begins to do something with a good intention and eventually reaches an extreme point, does this mean that he lacks discernment?

-There is a latent egotism hidden beneath this action and he is unaware of it, because he does not know himself that well - which is why he goes to extremes.  

 

People quite often begin with good intentions, but look where they may find themselves!  

 

This was the case with the “icon-worshippers” and the “icon-combatters” in the past: both cases were extremes!  The former had reached the point of scraping icons of Christ and placing the scrapings into the Holy Chalice in order to “improve” Holy Communion; the latter, on the other hand, burnt and totally discarded all icons…..  

 

That is why the Church was finally obliged to place the icons in higher places, out of reach, and, when the dispute was over, lowered them so that we can venerate them and thus confer the appropriate honor to the persons portrayed therein….