Ma

“...their spiritual reading of the Bible, a reading understood as a means to salvation, an initiation into the Light, an approach to communion with the Living One, teaches us to be on our guard against two dangers. On the one hand, to beware of the dryness of a certain biblical exegesis today which offers, or claims to offer, exactness at the expense of the living nature of the message. On the other, to beware of the subjectivism which merely comes down to a certain virtuosity in playing the strings off the human psyche, giving the believer the suggestion of 'doing the truth in love' without giving any love for the truth, still less the truth itself.”
― Thomas Spidlik, Drinking from the Hidden Fountain: A Patristic Breviary. Ancient Wisdom for Today's World (Cistercian Studies Series)

“Friendship begins in the family, with your spouse and children and extends from there to strangers. But who, in fact, is a stranger? All human beings share a common parentage. Do you fail to recognize that person? There's a human being there! Are you dealing with an an adversary? There's a human being there! With an enemy? There's a human being there, too! Let a friend remain a friend and turn an enemy into a friend.”
― Augustine of Hippo

“...we must never do anything that, in our opinion, may upset or offend, whether it be our acts, our words, our attitudes or our expressions. I repeat, even a look can be offensive. Every time we know we are behaving with the intentìon of hurting or making another feel bad, we defile our conscience because we are aware of this intention.”
― Dorotheus of Gaza, Drinking from the Hidden Fountain: A Patristic Breviary. Ancient Wisdom for Today's World (Cistercian Studies Series)

“The Abbot Moses replied: '....Humility is therefore indispensable for acquiring true judgment, that is to say, for saving us from the danger of exaggeration in one direction or the other.”
― John Cassian, Drinking from the Hidden Fountain: A Patristic Breviary. Ancient Wisdom for Today's World (Cistercian Studies Series)