What is the measure of love?

What is the measure of love?

What is the limit of perfection?

What is the limit of perfection?

“During times of dryness, when the heart is hard and prayer does not flow, stand your ground patiently. Even if you do nothing but struggle against despondency, you have already fulfilled your task.”

St. Gregory of Sinai
(On Stillness and Prayer)

“When God sees that a soul is not negligent but continues to knock at the door and seeks Him sincerely, He will remove the darkness that separates us from Him. But it is through endurance and patience that we reach this place. Do not be faint-hearted when you feel nothing, for the feeling of His presence is not the goal, but the purification of the heart is.”

St. Macarius the Great
(Homily 27)

The Church is not simply an institution. She is a 'mode of existence,' a way of being. The mystery of the Church is deeply bound to the being of man, to the being of the world and to the very being of God.
Ecclesial being is bound to the very being of God. From the fact that a human being is a member of the Church, he becomes [participates as/in] an 'image of God', he exists as God Himself exists, takes on God's way of being. This way of being is not a moral attainment, something that man accomplishes. It is a way of relationship with the world, with other people and with God, as an event of communion, and that is why it cannot be realized as the achievement of an individual, but only as an ecclesial fact.
However, for the Church to present this way of existence, she must herself be an image of the way in which God exists. Her entire structure, her ministries etc. must express this way of existence.

Met. John D. Zizioulas (Being as communion)

Blessed is the man who can see the hell within him and the paradise within others.

"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense.

What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of; You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself."

C.S. LEWIS, Mere Christianity

No man knows how bad he is until he has tried very hard to be good.

C.s lewis