Quotes about Hope

Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark.

If a blade of grass can grow in a concrete walk and a fig tree in the side of a mountain cliff, a human being empowered with an invincible faith can survive all odds the world can throw against his tortured soul.

Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light.

If we are unwilling to admit the specific sins in our lives, those that bring us suffering and turmoil, we cannot be freed from them by God's mercy. It is easy for us to admit in a general way that we are sinners, but are we ready to admit every situation where we have done wrong? This is hard work, and we must overcome a great deal of fear by trusting in our Lord.

We sometimes hear people say, 'I'm only human.' We hear it in songs, in conversation, perhaps in confession. It sounds like an excuse in our fallen condition not to change. Therefore, let us challenge ourselves and others to be 'truly human' rather than 'only human.' To be truly human we must commit ourselves to rise above the bodiless powers with the Theotokos { The Virgin Mary } who is more honorable than the Cherubim and more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim in pursuit of the likeness of God.

Your Father in Christ,
Bishop JOSEPH
http://www.antiochianladiocese.org/

Beware of despair.  You do not serve a tyrant, but your service is to a kind Lord, Who, taking nothing from you, He has given you all.  And when you did not exist at all, He fashioned you so that you would be in that [ state ] in which you now are.  Who is sufficient to render Him thanks for the fact that He has brought us into existence?  O the immeasurable grace!  Who can sufficiently honor Him with hymns?  For He has given us knowledge of all things.  And not only those which are manifest, but also of the hidden things.  For we know that if there is anything we do not know, it is necessary for us only to ask this [ knowledge ] from Him.

"When a man begins to perceive the love of God in all its richness, he begins also to love his neighbor with spiritual perception.  This is the love of which all the scriptures speak.  Friendship after the flesh is very easily destroyed on some slight pretext, since it is not held firm by spiritual perception.  But when a person is spiritually awakened, even if something irritates him, the bond of love is not dissolved; rekindling himself with warmth of the love of God, he quickly recovers himself and with great joy seeks his neighbor's love, even though he has been gravely wronged or insulted by him.  For sweetness of God completely consumes the bitterness of the quarrel."

Saint Diadochos of Photiki

Do not fear, neither let your heart lose courage; our Christ invisibly helps you with a hidden hand; He tests you in order to give you His grace.  As much as the earth of the heart is cultivated, and as deep as the farmer pushes the plow, so much more will the field give fruit in its time.  Even so does the great Farmer, God, do with our souls.  He allows trials, afflictions, suffering and distress to come to us and enter deeply into the heart, and many times we find ourselves at an impass, not knowing how to manage this or that trial, and we suffer and feel great pain.  But for those who love God, He works together with them that these things turn out for the good.

If we can recognize that change and uncertainty are basic principles, we can greet the future and the transformation we are undergoing with the understanding that we do not know enough to be pessimistic.

Love means to commit oneself without guarantee, to give oneself completely in the hope that our love will produce love in the loved person. Love is an act of faith, and whoever is of little faith is also of little love.

The basic mood of the future might well be one of confidence in the continuing revelation that takes place in and through the Earth. If the dynamics of the Universe from the beginning shaped the course of the heavens, lighted the Sun, and formed the Earth, if this same dynamism brought forth the continents and seas and atmosphere, if it awakened life in the primordial cell and then brought into being the unnumbered variety of living beings, and finally brought us into being and guided us safely through the turbulent centuries, there is reason to believe that this same guiding process is precisely what has awakened in us our present understanding of ourselves and our relation to this stupendous process. Sensitized to such guidance from the very structure and functioning of the Universe, we can have confidence in the future that awaits the human venture.

This Road called Life.........


There is no destination on this Road.
It is constant awakening, and reawakening,
discovery after discovery.

Awakening is like waking up after a long nap
and feeling like you have been sleeping your life away;
caught in the mundane rituals of living.

The learning process on this road is never finished.
There is no Master degree, there is no certification.
There is only the point where we Cross over
to the Blue Road of Spirit
and look upon this life
and see the beauty and magnificence
of it in the Great Web;
Of the lessons learned,
and the Lives touched.

Marianne Goldweber

Your job is not to find the answer but to listen to the answer.

Since there' s no hope, there' s no love; since there' s no love, there's no life

I may not be the one you asked for. I may not be the one you expect. I am however, the one who was sent.

I am Mother;

Life bringer
Nourisher
Leader
Provider
Healer
Warrior
Shape shifter
Sage
Goddess
and Prophesier

I am the wellspring;
for any and all that thirst or need fed.

I fill my cup from an inexhaustible source;
I am love and comfort
I am patience and truth
I am encouragement and strength
I am Faith.
and give you my cup to slake your thirst.
Marianne Goldweber

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

Hope is a state of mind, not of the world. Either we have hope or we don't; it is a dimension of the soul, and it's not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation. Hope is not prognostication. It is an orientation of the spirit, and orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons ...Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The more propitious the situation in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper the hope is. Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.

Believing in things you cannot see
Even with my trembling arms
I want to protect someone dear to me
The place my thought that proggressed
up to now struggle on to
To see hopes
Even in a black, confined world

Wisdom is like the breath.  We have to replenish it constantly.

Water the Tree of Life and all that surrounds you becomes sacred ground that you may plant seeds of freedom , peace , hope and lovingkindness.

Truth is Evidence of Love and Nothing Can Destroy the Power of Trusting and Loving Unconditionally.

I have a feeling that my boat
has struck, down there in the depths,
against a great thing.
And nothing
happens!  Nothing...  Silence...  Waves...

 - Nothing happens?  Or has everything happened,
and are we standing now, quietly, in the new life?

I stood on the balcony dark with mourning...
hoping the earth would spread its wings
in my uninhabited love.

Religion is the branding of spirituality.

Pragmatism is the art of walking across the quicksand of ideologies.

Why don't you think of [God] as the one who is coming, who has been approaching from all eternity, the one who will someday arrive, the ultimate fruit of a tree whose leaves we are?

Come,
Come, whoever you are!
Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving
Come.
This is not a caravan of despair
It doesn't matter if you've broken your vow a thousand times, still
Come,
And yet again, come!

There are times I forget to be grateful
easier to see things that are wrong
as I dishonor the the gifts I've been given
with worry, angst and woe.

There are times I need reminding
of the things I take for granted each day;
my children, my home or a stranger,
sent to brighten my way.

Take some time to say thank you
for the blessings that color your day;
Those colors will form a rainbow,
and chase the darkness away.

Marianne Goldweber

So don't be afraid to make mistakes, to stumble, to fall, cause most of the time the greatest rewards come from doing the things that scare you the most. Maybe you'll get everything you wish for... Maybe you'll get more than you ever could have imagined... Who knows where life will take you. The road is long and in the end... the journey is the destination

On occasion it is the kind thing to do, to dash someone's hope.  And sometimes it is just plain evil.