The way this blog works is that if I want to add a quote to the “A Word” section in the right column, I have to publish it as an entry first. And I’m also a little hindered by the fact that only short quotes will fit.

So I’ve entered two quotes in entries below and another from Clement of Alexandria some time ago, but I wanted to put the full text of them here as well, because I thought both were thought-provoking and I hated having to edit them down. (They all come from my “Daily Lives” readings, by the way.):

Have great care of your children. We live at a time when much freedom is given to the expression of thought, but little care is taken that thoughts should be founded on truth. Teach them to love truth.
– Elder Macarius of Optina

It is possible to find a word that between two views that will signify both. But a middle view between two opposite views concerning the same thing is impossible . . . There is no room for compromise in matters of the Orthodox faith.
– Mark of Ephesus

The wording of that last quote was difficult for me. But in a nutshell, I believe the point he’s making is that we can offer lip service to opposing viewpoints and hide our true allegiance behind carefully chosen words. People do it all the time — think of how politicians find code words like “right to privacy” for “right to abort” and “health care” for “abortion”. But it’s not possible to hold a view that unites two utterly disparate views. All the carefully chosen words and all the wishes to be inoffensive will not make a decidedly pro-choice person pro-life, or vice versa. As Christians, we seek to be peacemakers, we seek to find common ground where we can — both in the interests of our own humility in sacrificing for others and in our love of fellowship. But we can’t sacrifice the truth just to please a world that loves lies. We have to pick our battles, but hold onto the integrity that gives us courage to fight the battles we pick. It’s just a little more of the tension that all Christians live with. “Be ye therefore wise as serpents, but gentle as doves.”

True repentance is to be found guilty no longer of the same things, but to uproot them altogether from the soul. To repent truly is to cease from sin and to look back no longer.
– Clement of Alexandria

Well, yes. Let him (or her, as the case may be) who has ears to hear, understand … and all that. If I had to recount the number of times I want to just come up to for confession and just say, “Remember last time? Well, ditto.” Or maybe have pre-printed cards just to save time. “Blew it on this, did that thing I really know I shouldn’t do, basically punted the whole ‘fasting’ kind of thing … blah blah blah.” And then you’ve got that life-long project of trying to really comprehend in your deepest soul — not just hear from a good source, or consider briefly when you’re in a good mood — what it means to repent. Because it’s not the same as feeling guilty, or hating yourself, or (heaven forbid) being really, really sorry that you’re suffering the consequences of your behavior. It’s something apart, though I feel like God has been able to use those things occasionally to point me in the right direction. But pointing in the right direction is not taking steps. So it’s probably a good thing that the Nativity Fast is approaching, even if all I know at the end of it — as happens far too often with me and appointed fasts — is what repentance isn’t.