Ethan D Good

“The battle with thoughts—which Br. Tomislav had experienced and whose mystical depths he had touched even as a young child—began in earnest when he became a monk. He began to understand, based on his own experience, that being a Christian meant waging a constant and merciless battle against evil and death in one’s own heart, a battle with no front lines or cease-fires, in which the enemy neither sleeps nor tires.”
― Thaddeus of Vitovnica, Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives: the Life and Teachings of Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica

“If we ourselves do not learn humility, God will not stop humbling us,” were words that Fr. Thaddeus often repeated during the last years of his earthly life when he recounted how he had tried to avoid his obediences and the cross that he had been given by the Lord. Or, as the old Byzantine saying goes: If it is the king that is persecuting you, run; if it is God Who is persecuting you, sit down!”
― Thaddeus of Vitovnica, Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives: the Life and Teachings of Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica

“He also undertook to translate some of these texts into Serbian, including The Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian. This would one day prove to be of great significance for him, when he found himself in the same situation as St. Paisius (Velichkovsky): in the eighteenth century St. Paisius was unable to obtain a spiritual father, but he found spiritual guidance in the God-enlightened mind and experience of the Holy Fathers, expressed in their theology and teachings.”
― Thaddeus of Vitovnica, Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives: the Life and Teachings of Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica

“All the Holy Fathers lived a good life, a quiet life. All of them say that the perfection of the Christian life is in extreme humility. This means that patient long-suffering is what we most need in this life. We must bear everything patiently and forgive all. If we have good thoughts and desires, these thoughts will give us peace and joy even in this life, and even more so in eternity. Then we will see that there is no death, that the Lord has vanquished death, and that He has given us eternal life!”
― Thaddeus of Vitovnica, Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives: the Life and Teachings of Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica