Orthodox Portal

…The arena is in the heart. It is here that God must come, so that He and I can draw closer to each other, become acquainted, love each other, talk about things, and finally be united… the arena is here precisely because this is where the obstacles are: my ignorance and my heedlessness – the fact that I don’t even remember God in my daily life. And even when I cried out and said, “My God, my God,” I really wasn’t calling upon God, but was interested only in myself.
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I remember once when I had gone to the Holy Mountain, in a spot thickly planted with trees, I saw in the distance an ascetic who was chanting as he walked along a path. And from time to time, while he chanted, he would stop, bow down, make a prostration, and continue on his way. Who, I wondered, was he worshiping? I hurried through the trees, went up to him, and stopped him.
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St. Basil says: ‘Let words of consolation leap forward before the rest of your speech, confirming your love for your neighbor.’ You who are in the monastery, when you approach your brother; you who are married, when you approach your spouse; you who are a father or a mother, when you approach your child: ‘let words of consolation leap forward before the rest of your speech.’ Whatever you say, whatever you think of saying, say it only after you have said a word or two which will give the others joy, consolation, a breath of life.

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