Love every grain of sand, every leaf, every ray every day!

atoz

"Brothers, have no fear of men's sin.
Love a man even in his sin, for that is the semblance of Divine Love and is the highest love on earth.
Love all God's creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it.
Love every leaf, every ray of God's light.
Love the animals,
love the plants,
love everything.
If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things.
Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day.
And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.

Love the animals:
God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy untroubled.
Do not trouble it, don't harass them, don't deprive them of their happiness, don't work against God's intent.

Man,
do not pride yourself on superiority to the animals;
they are without sin,
and you,
with your greatness,
defile the earth by your appearance on it, and leave the traces of your foulness after you- alas, it is true of almost every one of us!

Love children especially,
for they too are sinless like the angels; they live to soften and purify our hearts
and, as it were, to guide us.
Woe to him who offends a child!
Father Anfim taught me to love children.
The kind, silent man used often on our wanderings to spend the farthings given us on sweets and cakes for the children. He could not pass by a child without emotion. That's the nature of the man.

At some thoughts one stands perplexed, especially at the sight of men's sin, and wonders whether one should use force or humble love.
Always decide to use humble love.
If you resolve on that once for all, you may subdue the whole world. Loving humility is marvellously strong, the strongest of all things, and there is nothing else like it.

Every day and every hour, every minute,
walk round yourself and watch yourself,
and see that your image is a seemly one.
You pass by a little child,
you pass by, spiteful, with ugly words, with wrathful heart;
you may not have noticed the child,
but he has seen you,
and your image, unseemly and ignoble, may remain in his defenceless heart.
You don't know it,
but you may have sown an evil seed in him and it may grow, and all because you were not careful before the child, because you did not foster in yourself a careful, actively benevolent love.

Brothers,
Love is a teacher;
but one must know how to acquire it,
for it is hard to acquire,
it is dearly bought,
it is won slowly by long labour.
For we must love not only occasionally, for a moment, [Matthew 5:43, 46-47]
but for ever. Matthew 5:44-45, 48.]

Everyone can love occasionally, even the wicked can."
THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV
1879
by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky

with all Love & Respect,
atoz

Diane · Cobra Joined: 17 Sep 2004 Posts: 470

Lovely, atoz!

Time to reread TBK. Thanks....in love:)

Elizabeth Barrett Browning: "The earth is crammed full of heaven and every bush is aflame with the fire of God, but only those who have eyes to see take off their shoes. The rest just pick the berries."

Love, Di

atoz · Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 7:36 am Post subject:

Diane · Cobra Joined: 17 Sep 2004 Posts: 470

atoz wrote:

Diane · Cobra Joined: 17 Sep 2004 Posts: 470

atoz wrote:

atoz · Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 4:56 pm Post subject: