St Maximos the Confessor

A true friend is one who in times of trial calmly and imperturbably suffers with his neighbor the ensuing afflictions, privations and disasters as if they were his own.
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First the intellect marvels when it reflects on the absolute infinity of God, that boundless sea for which it longs so much.

Then it is amazed at how God has brought things into existence out of nothing.

But just as ‘His magnificence is without limit’ (Ps. 145:3. LXX), so ‘there is no penetrating His purposes’ (Isa. 40:28).

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Resentment is linked with rancor.


When the intellect forms the image of a brother’s face with a feeling of resentment, it is clear that it harbors rancor against him.

‘The way of the rancorous leads to death’ (Prov. 12:28. LXX), because ‘whoever harbors rancor is a transgressor’ (Prov. 21:24. LXX).

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