I know a man who, when he saw a woman of striking beauty, praised the Creator for her. The sight of her lit within him the love of God.
Interpretation
The quote expresses admiration for beauty as a reflection of divine creation.
In this quote, John Climacus highlights how the experience of witnessing beauty can evoke feelings of reverence and love for the Creator. It suggests that beauty, when recognized, can serve as a bridge to a deeper spiritual appreciation and connection to God, emphasizing the idea that the appreciation of physical beauty can lead to a greater understanding of divine love and creation.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about finding divinity in everyday life.
The first stage of this tranquility consists in silencing the lips when the heart is excited. The second, in silencing the mind when the soul is still excited. The goal is a perfect peacefulness even in the middle of the raging storm.
Someone who is elated with wine speaks the truth on all subjects, even without meaning to. In the same way, anyone who is inebriated with the spirit of penitence will never be able to tell lies.
God belongs to all free beings. He is the life of all, the salvation of all ~faithful and unfaithful, just and unjust, pious and impious, passionate and dispassionate, monks and laymen, wise and simple, healthy and sick, young and old just as the effusion of light, the sight of the sun, and the changes of the seasons are for all alike; 'for there is no respect of persons with God.'
Obedience is the burial of the will and the resurrection of humility.
The slave of the belly ponders the menu with which to celebrate the feast. The servant of God, however, thinks of the graces that may enrich him.
Ascend, my brothers, ascend eagerly. Let your hearts' resolve be to climb. Listen to the voice of the one who says: 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of our God' (Isa. 2:3), Who makes our feet to be like the feet of the deer, 'Who sets us on the high places, that we may be triumphant on His road' (Hab. 3:19).
Ten kisses short as one, one long as twenty.
In a competition of love we'll all share in the victory, no matter who comes first
Depression is the flaw in love. To be creatures who love, we must be creatures who can despair at what we lose, and depression is the mechanism of that despair.
If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it; that surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die.
Clouds pass and disperse. Are those the faces of love, those pale irretrievables? Is it for such I agitate my heart?
Alas! for that accursed time They bore thee o'er the billow, From love to titled age and crime, And an unholy pillow! From me, and from our misty clime, Where weeps the silver willow!
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