Monastic Quotes

“By reading the scriptures I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with me. The sky seems to be a pure, a cooler blue, the trees a deeper green. The whole world is charged with the glory of God and I feel fire and music under my feet. ”
― Thomas Merton

“Not celibate are they who wear monastic garb and shut themselves away behind thick walls and massive iron gates, But
celibate are they whose hearts and minds are celibate, whether they be in cloisters or in the public marts.”
― Mikhail Naimy, The Book of Mirdad: The Strange Story of a Monastery Which Was Once Called The Ark

“My body kills me, so I kill it.”
― Dorotheus the Theban

“Stagnation and inactivity bring spiritual death.”
― Thomas Merton

“But does contemptus mean 'contempt,' dear? Of course not. That would imply arrogance, superiority, pride. So much that we call worldly is actually just flawed or being seen through a cracked lens. Imperfect or imperfectly understood. Who are we to judge as contemptible a thing or person whose existence God sustains? Everything, however imperfect, has its purpose.

No, Tony dear, contemptus mundi means 'detachment from the world,' seeing the world sub specie aeternitatis. Enduring or celebrating it, but never forgetting—even when it seems perfect and forever—that as the Bible says: 'all this shall pass like grass before the wind.”
― Tony Hendra, Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul

“If you are thinking of becoming a monk, in the conventional sense of the term, then let me tell you this, don’t waste your life force in being a hobo with a fancy uniform - put it to some good use instead.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Monk Meets World

“He who on earth through the Holy Spirit dwells in the love of God will be with the Lord in the other world, too, for love cannot disappear. But lest by reasoning we fall into error, let us humble ourselves according to the word of the Lord: 'Become as little children, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
― St. Silouan the Athonite

“If we do even one extra knot on our prayer rope, our guardian angel will record it; a few prayers or good thoughts will be stored up for later. Christ saves up all these things, and when the time comes for us to depart for the next life, we will take them and go to Christ.”
― Gerondissa Makrina Vassopoulou, Words of the Heart

“LIII

Abbott Palladiud said: The soul that wishes to live according to the will of Christ should either learn faithfully what it does not yet know, or teach openly what it does know. But if, when it can, it desires to do neither of these things, it is afflicted with madness. For the first step away from God is a distaste for learning, and lack of appetite for those things for which the soul hungers when it seeks God.”
― Thomas Merton OCSO

“LIII

Abbott Palladius said: The soul that wishes to live according to the will of Christ should either learn faithfully what it does not yet know, or teach openly what it does know. But if, when it can, it desires to do neither of these things, it is afflicted with madness. For the first step away from God is a distaste for learning, and lack of appetite for those things for which the soul hungers when it seeks God.”
― Thomas Merton OCSO