Sandra Dettori > Sandra's Quotes

“If a man cannot learn well a melody on pipe or harp,   unless he in every way strain his attention; how shall one, who sits as   a listener to sounds mystical, be able to hear with a careless soul?”
― John Chrysostom, The Complete Works of Saint John Chrysostom

“For it cannot, it cannot be, that a man should enjoy the benefit of grace except he watch.”
― John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle to the Romans [Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Vol 11]

“It is this that ruins churches, that you do not seek to hear sermons that touch the heart, but sermons that will delight your ears with their intonation and the structure of their phrases, just as if you were listening to singers and lute-players. And we preachers humor your fancies, instead of trying to crush them. We act like a father who gives a sick child a cake or an ice, or something else that is merely nice to eat--just because he asks for it; and takes no pains to give him what is good for him; and then when the doctors blame him says, 'I could not bear to hear my child cry.' . . . That is what we do when we elaborate beautiful sentences, fine combinations and harmonies, to please and not to profit, to be admired and not to instruct, to delight and not to touch you, to go away with your applause in our ears, and not to better your conduct.”
― John Chrysostom