Fr. Thomas Colyandro

“Blessed are you When men revile you and Persecute you and Utter all kinds of evil against you Falsely on my account” (Matthew 5:11, RSV). When the tongue of the world Sharpens itself against you, Do not sharpen yours in return. Hear what Christ says: Blessed are you. Not the vindicated, Nor the admired, Nor the proven right, but you, Reviled, persecuted, Spoken of falsely “on my account.” Those words turn the wound into a window. The slander that finds you has already Passed through Him Who...

No one wakes up one morning and Decides to become bitter. It happens the way erosion happens, A little rain and A little wind... Season after season. A slight remembered. A kindness withheld. A small compromise made because You were tired, and because You had been hurt. “Gray hairs are sprinkled upon him, and He knows it not” (Hosea 7:9). The heart ages unnoticed. Love does not break; it cools (Matthew 24:12). The conscience is not silenced by a shout, but By a thousand quiet refusals to...

There is a hurt that comes from the hands of others, and It is the hardest to carry quietly. A friend who became a stranger overnight. Christ knew this road: “When He was reviled, He did not revile in return; When he suffered, He did not threaten, But entrusted himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23). And from the cross he whispered, “Father, forgive them, For they know not what they do.” This is nobility: Not the proud refusal to be hurt, But the quiet refusal to hate. I think of...