It is more important that we should remember God than that we should breathe: indeed, if one may say so, we should do nothing else besides.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the significance of remembering and being mindful of God above all else, suggesting it's more vital than even the act of breathing.
Gregory of Nazianzus illustrates the profound importance of spiritual awareness and connection with God in human life. He asserts that our primary focus should be on remembering God, as this devotion and mindfulness are foundational to existence itself, even more crucial than the biological necessity of breathing. This statement prompts us to evaluate our priorities and what truly sustains our lives beyond mere physical existence.
In practice
In a sermon about spirituality, a speaker might invoke this quote to encourage the congregation to prioritize their relationship with God.
Do not delay in coming to grace, but hasten, lest the robber outstrip you, lest the adulterer pass you by, lest the insatiate be satisfied before you, lest the murderer seize the blessing first, or the publican or the fornicator, or any of these violent ones who take the Kingdom of heaven by force (cf. Mt. 11:12). For it suffers violence willingly, and is tyrannized over through goodness.
Who gave you the ability to contemplate the beauty of the skies, the course of the sun, the round moon, the millions of stars, the harmony and rhythm that issue from the world as from a lyre, the return of the seasons, the alternation of the months, the demarcation of day and night, the fruits of the earth, the vastness of the air, the ceaseless motion of the waves, the sound of the wind?
To all earth's creatures God has given the broad earth, the springs, the rivers and the forests, giving the air to the birds, and the waters to those who live in water, giving abundantly to all the basic needs of life, not as a private possession, not restricted by law, not divided by boundaries, but as common to all, amply and in rich measure.
Let us treasure up in our soul some of those things which are permanent..., not of those which will forsake us and be destroyed, and which only tickle our senses for a little while.
Keep the Feast of the Resurrection. Be a Peter or a John; hasten to the Sepulchre, running together, running against one another, vying in the noble race (cf. Jn. 20:3-4). And even if you be beaten in speed, win the victory of zeal; not looking into the tomb, but going in.
All who have lived according to God still live unto God, though they have departed this life. For this reason, God is called the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, since He is the God, not of the dead, but of the living
..where effective competition can be created, it is a better way of guiding individual efforts than any other... regards competition as superior not only because it is in most circumstances the most efficient method known but even more because it is the only method by which our activities can be adjusted to each other without coercive or arbitrary intervention of authority.
Only an armed people can be the real bulwark of popular liberty.
Institutionalised in sports, the military, acculturated sexuality, the history and mythology of heroism, violence is taught to boys until they becomes its advocates.
The complexity of the connection between the world of perception and the world of physics does not preclude that such a connection can be shown to exist at any time.
The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity by contributing to the establishment of the kingdom of God, which can only be done by the recognition and profession of the truth by every man.
The function of ritual, as I understand it, is to give form to human life, not in the way of a mere surface arrangement, but in depth.
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