Source: floating about the Internet for years.</>

“You cannot know God — but you have to know Him to know that.”
- Fr. Thomas Hopko

This small quote from Fr. Thomas has stayed with me since I first heard it. It says so much by saying so little.

I find two groups of people increasingly common in my conversations – those who profess to not know God (agnostics) – and those who struggle greatly with what they have been told about the Christian God. The largest group within my conversations are those who feel very secure in their knowledge of God but who believe a lot of strange things that they cannot possibly know. I feel a calling to help people know a lot less so they can know anything at all.

More…

It is good to have a dream so long as you do not let it gnaw at the substance of your present. I have seen men consumed by their dreams, and it is a sour business. If you cling too tightly to a dream – a poodle bitch or a personal sausage chef or whatever – then you miss the felicity of your heart beating and the smell of the grass growing and the sounds lizards make when you run through the neighborhood with your friend. Your dream should be like a favorite old bone that you cherish and chew upon gently. Then, rather than stealing from you a wasted sigh or the life of an idle hour, it nourishes you, and you become strangely contented by nostalgia for a possible future, so juicy with possibility and redolent of sautéed garlic and decadent slabs of bacon that you feel full when you’ve eaten nothing. And then, one fine day when the sun smiles upon your snout, when the time is right, you bite down hard. The dream is yours. And then you chew on the next one.

— St. Peter of Damaskos.

“The fool, with all his other faults, has this also: he is always getting ready to live.

“Reflect, my esteemed Lucilius, what this saying means, and you will see how revolting is the fickleness of men who lay down every day new foundations of life, and begin to build up fresh hopes even at the brink of the grave. Look within your own mind for individual instances; you will think of old men who are preparing themselves at that very hour for a political career, or for travel, or for business. And what is baser than getting ready to live when you are already old?”

— Seneca

Unbeaten by rain
Unbeaten by wind
Unbowed by the snow and the summer heat
Strong in body

Own this poem on a poster and benefit Japan earthquake victims: unbeatenbyrain.com

Free from greed
Without any anger
Always serene

With a handful of brown rice a day
Miso and a small amount of vegetables suffice

Whatever happens
Consider yourself last, always put others first
Understand from your observation and experience
Never lose sight of these things

In the shadows of the pine groves in the fields
Live modestly under a thatched roof

In the East, if there is a sick child
Go there and take care of him
In the West, if there is an exhausted mother
Go there and relieve her of her burden
In the South, if there is a man near death
Go there and comfort him, tell him “Don’t be afraid”
In the North, if there is an argument and a legal dispute
Go there and persuade them it’s not worth it

In a drought, shed tears
In a cold summer, carry on
Even with a sense of loss

Being called a fool
Being neither praised nor a burden

Such a person I want to be

Update: This translation is © 2011 by Catherine Iwata, Fredrich Ulrich, Orlagh O’Reilly, Helen Bartos, Minaeri Park, Mokmi Park, Helen Bartos, Sophie Sampson, Kotomi Okbo, Eva Tuunanen, Alessanra Lauria, Sophie Sampson, Miwa Block, Nancy O’Reilly, Jasmina Vico & Yasuko Akiyama.

— from an Athonite Gerontikon