Showing posts with label -Abbess Thaisia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label -Abbess Thaisia. Show all posts

Monday, December 28, 2020

Abbess Thaisia: When we are treated unkindly


 You write: "I notice that some of the sisters treat me unkindly, and at this I become disturbed."  Many "unskilled" souls, those not "made perfect in the love of Christ" (cf 1 John 4:18) suffer from this infirmity.... As fire sometimes kindles into a mighty blaze from a little spark which was not extinguished in time, so also from a small spark of distrust and unkindness a whole flame of enmity breaks out, devouring many years of labor in virtue. If in fact a sister, through her weakness, shows you negligible kindness, then before blaming her for this look in your own heart, examine your own attitude toward her. Perhaps an attentive and impartial self-examination will prove to you that you yourself gave cause for this, and therefore are guilty in all. Strive to preserve in your heart absolute peace towards everyone, according to the word of the Apostle: "If it be possible, as much as lies in you, live peaceably with all men" (Rom 12:18). This inner peace of your own soul serves as the best pledge or security that others will have peace and love towards you; and there is nothing higher or more honorable than love, as also the Apostle affirms, calling love "the fulfillment of (all) law" (Rom 13:8) and "the bond of perfectness" (Col 3:14), in the presence of which "the peace of God settles in our hearts" (cf. Philip 4:7).
+Abbess Thaisia, from Letters to a Beginner On Giving One's Life to God, Letter #5 On Mutual Love.

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Abbess Thaisia: Strive to Love everyone!

I can tell you this first time only one word, but a word of such importance that all your further success will depend on how you fulfill it, as well as your personal calmness and peace of soul, which is precisely the first condition of our salvation. Here is the word: Strive to love everyone! the commandment is not difficult, but is proper to our very nature; and besides, it is so sweet and pleasant that its fulfillment fills the heart which loves its neighbor with a certain wonderful peace. "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Matt 19:19) says the Gospel.
The same circumstances in life which give you an occasion to fulfill this, also give you the opportunity to train your heart towards love with all the multifarious virtues which are contained in it, such as humility, forgetfulness of wrongs, forgiveness of offences, and readiness for any service towards your neighbor, even though it demands self-sacrifice. If you will view your neighbor as a person close to you, not foreign, as your brother who has been redeemed by the priceless blood of the God-Man and through Him adopted by the Heavenly Father, then, if there burns in your heart even a small spark of love towards the Lord, you certainly will love your neighbor also, for "He who loves God should love his brother also" (1 John 4:21).
+Abbess Thaisia, from Letters to a Beginner on Giving One's Life to God, Letter 1, Upon Entering the Monastery