Isaac of Syria: withdrawing from the world

Monday, May 23, 2011
    Commemoration of Petroc, Abbot of Padstow, 6th century
Meditation:
    Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.
    —1 Peter 2:11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    No one can approach God without withdrawing from the world. By withdrawal I do not mean change of physical dwelling place, but withdrawal from worldly affairs. The virtue of withdrawal from the world consists in not occupying your mind with the world.
    ... St. Isaac of Syria (d. c. 700), quoted in Early Fathers from the Philokalia, Saint Makarios (Metropolitan of Corinth), comp. & E. Kadloubovsky, Gerald Eustace Howell Palmer, trs., Faber and Faber, 1959, p. 183 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, turn my idle mind away from the world’s concerns and towards You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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