“Why do men learn through pain and suffering, and not through
pleasure and happiness? Very simply, because pleasure and happiness
accustom one to satisfaction with the things given in this world,
whereas pain and suffering drive one to seek a more profound happiness
beyond the limitations of this world. I am at this moment in some pain,
and I call on the Name of Jesus—not necessarily to relieve the pain, but
that Jesus, in Whom alone we may transcend this world, may be with me
during it, and His will be done in me. But in pleasure I do not call on
Him; I am content then with what I have, and I think I need no more. And
why is a philosophy of pleasure untenable?—because pleasure is
impermanent and unreliable, and pain is inevitable. In pain and
suffering Christ speaks to us, and thus God is kind to give them to us,
yes, and evil too—for in all of these we glimpse something of what must
lie beyond, if there really exists what our hearts most deeply desire.”
+ Fr. Seraphim Rose, quoted in Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works
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