#monastic

The Lord does not require us to wear a [cassock] — He wants us to be good and kind. ↗

— Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica

#eastern-orthodoxy #jesus-christ #kindness #monasticism #spirituality

...for you know that soft is stronger than hard, water stronger than rock, love stronger than force." Vesadeva to Siddartha ↗

— Hermann Hesse

#buddhism #monasticism #siddhartha #siddhartha-gautama #love

[A]s though mindful of the wife of Lot, who looked back from behind him, thou deliveredst me first to the sacred garments and monastic profession before thou gavest thyself to God. And for that in this one thing thou shouldst have had little trust in me I vehemently grieved and was ashamed. For I (God [knows]) would without hesitation precede or follow thee to the Vulcanian fires according to thy word. For not with me was my heart, but with thee. But now, more than ever, if it be not with thee, it is nowhere. For without thee it cannot anywhere exist. ↗

— Héloïse d'Argenteuil

#celibacy #convent #dignity #following #grief

And while over-indulgence destroys the virtues, frugality destroys the stronghold of vice. ↗

— St. Neilos

#monasticism #religion #religion

The monk's ultimate goal is direct union with the Godhead. But to aim at that goal is to miss it altogether. His task is to rid himself of ego so that consciousness, once its usual discordant mental content is dumped out of it through ritual prayer and meditation, may experience nonself as a living formlessness and emptiness into which God may come, if it please Him to come. ↗

— Walter M. Miller Jr.

#experience

My body kills me, so I kill it. ↗

— Dorotheus the Theban

#death #desert-father #dying #holy-father #monastic

prepare your food in keeping with monastic traditions—simple, basic, healthy, balanced. ↗

— Mary DeTurris Poust

#food #monastic-traditions #simplicity #food

Often the best way to access a treasure is to imagine its loss. ↗

— Br. Jerome Leo

#monasticism #st-benedict #imagination