Salvogesis

How can we have perfect bliss? We will know perfect bliss when we arrive cold, tired, and happy at our destination. We will knock at the door, and the pub keeper will scold us and refuse to open the door. When we wait until the morning in the snow, slush, and wind, cold and drenched, without any feeling of malice for this man, we shall pray for him. Only then will we know perfect bliss. I have a book of daily quotes complied by Leo Tolstoy. This is one he chose for the beginning of the New Year. I thought it would be good for our second daily devotion of 2022 for Salvogesis. After all, What good is it to add to our own suffering of external harms, internal ones of hatred and discontent? www.sheepspeak.com www.facebook.com/salvogesis

Leo Tolstoy: Whatever names we dignify ourselves with, whatever uniforms we wear, whatever priests we anoint ourselves before, however many millions we possess, however many guards are stationed along our road, however many policemen guard our wealth, however many so-called criminals, revolutionists, and anarchists we punish, whatever exploits we have performed, whatever states we may have founded, fortresses and towers we may have erected - from Babel to the Eiffel Tower - there are two inevitable conditions of life, confronting all of us, which destroy its whole meaning;(1) death, which may at any moment pounce upon each of us; and (2) the transitoriness of all our works, which so soon pass away and leave no trace. Whatever we may do - found companies, build palaces and monuments, write songs and poems - it is all not for long time. Soon it passes away, leaving no trace. And therefore, however we may conceal it from ourselves, we cannot help seeing that the significance of our life...