Isaac of Syria: withdrawing from the world

Thursday, April 15, 2021
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)
    See also 1 Pet. 2:11; Matt. 6:25-34; Mark 8:35-37; Luke 17:33; John 15:19; Rom. 12:2; Phil. 3:18-19; Tit. 2:11-14; Jas. 4:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, turn my idle mind away from the world’s concerns and towards You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
    search    script    mobile
sub    fb    twt    Jonah    Ruth