Let us then, my brethren, love stillness until the world is made to die in our heart. Let us always remember death, and by this meditation let us approach God with our heart, despise the vanity of the world, and hold its pleasure as something contemptible... - St. Isaac the Syrian, The Ascetical Homilies (#64)
Rather different than Luther's concept of the gospel freeing us to return to creation in the form of our vocation, yes?
ReplyDeleteJack,
ReplyDeleteI think they're talking about different things. St. Isaac was running along the lines of Saint John's words: "Love not the world nor the things of the world; if anyone loves the things of the world, the love of the Father is not in him" or St. Paul's words: "Using the things of this world without becoming engrossed in them, because the world in its present form is passing away."