Cassian on His Conferences

"Our ignorance, O holy brothers, has cast as much light for you as it could on the knowledge and teaching of the illustrious fathers. Even if perchance our unskilled language has confused it instead of clarifying it, I pray that our blameworthy rudeness not nullify the renown of our Judge to lay bare this magnificent teaching, if one reflects upon its sublime insights, the offensive boorishness of our words cannot hinder the reader's profit. And we ourselves are concerned more about usefulness than renown. To be sure, I advise all into whose hands these little works may fall to realize that whatever is pleasing in them is from the fathers, whereas whatever is displeasing is ours." (The Conferences: 17.30.3)

"It remains for the spiritual zephyr of your prayers to accompany me now, tossed about as I have been thus far by a most dangerous tempest, to the safe harbor of silence." (24.26.19)

Now to that great harbor of silence...

Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica

"We must bear everything patiently and forgive all. If we have good thoughts and desires, these thoughts will give us peace and joy in this life and even more so in eternity. Then we will see that there is no death, that the Lord has vanquished death, and that he has given us eternal life." - Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica

See the rest of this six part video here.

Animals Are Grateful to God ... Not Us Men

"Once, Fr. Thaddeus shared a meal at Vitovnica with a pious visitor from Belgrade. After the meal, the visitor noticed several bread crumbs in the elder's long beard.  When they had both risen from the table, he gently told Fr. Thaddeus that he ought to shake the crumbs from his beard, so that the other visitors would not see them and wonder what kind of monk he was.  However, the elder only smiled and said, 'It is a pity to throw these crumbs away, when the birds can feast on them!' Then he sat on a bench in the garden, leaned back in his seat, and called to a sparrow sitting on a nearby tree, 'Come, little sparrow, come and eat!' The visitor saw with his own eyes how the sparrow flew down and settled on Fr. Thaddeus' beard, pecking at it until it had eaten the last crumb.