(no subject)

What I appreciate most about winter holidays is actually not their excitement or high spirits but the silence and peace. My quiet reading time, my chance to gaze into a snowfall or a snowstorm outside the window. For complete childish happiness, lacking only the crackling of wood in a brick stove. All those moments of no practical value but at the same time so priceless ones, which are sinking non-stop into oblivion.

(no subject)

Чем чище сердце, тем оно просторнее, тем более вмещает в себе любимых; чем грешнее, тем оно теснее, тем менее оно способно вмещать в себе любимых — до того, что оно ограничивается любовью только к себе, и то ложно.

 

Св. прав. Иоанн Кронштадтский

 

The purer the heart becomes, the larger it becomes; consequently it is able to find room for more and more loved ones; the more sinful it is, the more it contracts; consequently it is able to find room for fewer and fewer loved ones - it is limited by a false love; self-love.

St. John of Kronstadt