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St. John of Damascus on the Permanent Things

Let no one think that I mean by “the choicest gifts” the things that to most people’s liking–the things greedy minds always long for, which do not last, nor are capable of making their possessor a better person. Such are the pleasant things of the present life, which cannot attain to lasting power, but “collapse […]

Let no one think that I mean by “the choicest gifts” the things that to most people’s liking–the things greedy minds always long for, which do not last, nor are capable of making their possessor a better person. Such are the pleasant things of the present life, which cannot attain to lasting power, but “collapse around themselves” and immediately perish, even if people possess them in superfluity. No indeed, it is not for us to admire such things, nor is this portion of those who fear the Lord! Rather, we admire the gifts that are really attractive and lovely to those whose thoughts are true, goods that remain forever: things that please God and that produce ripe fruit in those who have acquired them. I mean the virtues, which give their fruit in due season–give the fruit, that is, of eternal life in the coming age for those have labored worthily and have invested the results of their exertions there, as far as possible. Labour, after all, comes before the virtues, and eternal blessedness follows them! ~St. John of Damascus, On the Dormition of the Holy Mother of God, Homily I (from On the Dormition of Mary, St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1998)

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