Tag: conscience
How to Guard Humility
An old man said: Every time a thought of superiority or vanity moves you, examine your conscience to see if you have kept all the commandments, whether you love your enemies, whether you consider yourself to be an unprofitable servant and the greatest sinner of all. Even so, do not pretend to great ideas as… Read More ›
The Loss of the Sense of Sin
18 Over the course of generations, the Christian mind has gained from the Gospel as it is read in the ecclesial community a fine sensitivity and an acute perception of the seeds of death contained in sin, as well as a sensitivity and an acuteness of perception for identifying them in the thousand guises under… Read More ›
On Staying Humble
An old man said, “Every time a thought of superiority or vanity (pride) moves you, examine your conscience to see if you have kept all the commandments, if you love your enemies and are grieved at their sins, if you consider yourself as an unprofitable servant and the greatest sinner of all. Even then, do… Read More ›
Consolations from God
There is many a consolation to relieve the torment of a guilty conscience. God is kind and does not let us be tempted beyond our strength. Especially at the beginning of our conversion, he anoints our wounds with the oil of mercy so that the acute nature of our sickness and the difficulty of the… Read More ›
Patriarch, Pontiff and Prophet
Christ is the good Samaritan who rescues us as well as the physician who binds up our wounds: With what oil abounding was Christ anointed! From his bounty he poured oil into all our wounds! Yes, we are the wounded man who went down to Jericho, fell among brigands, was robbed, and wounded and left… Read More ›
Choosing the Proper Course of Action
It so happened that a certain brother in the coenobium committed a crime, and when he was condemned by the brothers he fled to Abba Antony. Some brothers who wanted to reform him went after him, and began to make out a case against him because of his crime, even though he denied having done… Read More ›
Civil Society is Never Ideal
The illusions and fictions encouraged by the appetite for self-affirmation in certain restricted groups, have much to be said for them and much to be said against them. They do in practice free a man from his individual limitations and help him, in some measure, to transcend himself. And if every society were ideal, then… Read More ›
Deformity of Conscience
There are crimes which no one would commit as an individual which he willingly and bravely commits when acting in the name of his society, because he has been (too easily) convinced that evil is entirely different when it is done ‘for the common good.’ As an example, one might point to the way in… Read More ›