Whether, therefore, we receive what we ask for, or do not receive it, let us still continue steadfast in prayer. For to fail in obtaining the desires of our heart, when God so wills it, is not worse than to receive it; for we know not as He does, what is profitable to us.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of perseverance in prayer, regardless of whether one's requests are granted or not, trusting in a higher wisdom.
Saint John Chrysostom's quote suggests that the act of steadfastness in prayer is more significant than the results of those prayers. It highlights a belief that divine wisdom understands what is truly beneficial for us, and that sometimes, not getting what we desire is actually preferable. The core message is about faith, acceptance, and the relationship between human desire and divine will.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a church service to encourage the congregation to maintain faith.
No one has ever been accused for not providing ornaments, but for those who neglect their neighbour a hell awaits with an inextinguishable fire and torment in the company of the demons. Do not, therefore, adorn the church and ignore your afflicted brother, for he is the most precious temple of all.
It is simply impossible to lead, without the aid of prayer, a virtuous life.
When we teach our children to be good, to be gentle, to be forgiving (all these are attributes of God), to be generous, to love their follow men, to regard this present age as nothing, we instill virtue in their souls, and reveal the image of God within them.
Abba Moses asked Abba Sylvanus, Can a person lay a new foundation every day? The old man replied, If you work hard, you can lay a new foundation every moment. Abba Pimen said, To throw yourself before God, not to measure your progress, to leave behind all self-will; these are the instruments for the work of the soul. The desire to rule is the mother of heresies.
I hear no one boast, that he hath a knowledge of the Scriptures, but that he owneth a Bible written in golden characters. And tell me then, what profiteth this? The Holy Scriptures were not given to us that we should enclose them in books, but that we should engrave them upon our hearts.
Prayer should be the means by which I, at all times, receive all that I need, and, for this reason, be my daily refuge, my daily consolation, my daily joy, my source of rich and inexhaustible joy in life.
What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we cannot cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves?
I'm interested in the fact that the less secure a man is, the more likely he is to have extreme prejudice.
Pervading nationalism imposes its dominion on man today in many different forms and with an aggressiveness that spares no one. The challenge that is already with us is the temptation to accept as true freedom what in reality is only a new form of slavery.
The rash assertion that "God made man in His own image" is ticking like a time bomb at the foundation of many faiths.
When we say we begin with God, we begin with our idea of God, and our idea of God is not God. Instead, we ought to begin with Godβs idea of God, and Godβs idea of God is Christ
We must be careful with our lives, for Christ's sake, because it would seem that they are the only lives we are going to have in this puzzling and perilous world, and so they are very precious and what we do with them matters enormously.
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