“In my relationship with others, I should like to plunge deep into every situation, entering the very soul of each person who comes to me, speaking to him as if he were the person most dear to me in the entire world. But where are we to find a love so great as to embrace everyone? How are we to love the foolish, the conceited who fuss over their mean little futilities, when (to make it worse) we are convinced that paying them attention only does them harm? I suppose that each of us needs to be a saint in order to grasp, through the thick layer of deposited rubbish, the element in each person which is unique and cannot be repeated – his soul – and to address that alone.”
-Fr. Alexander Elchaninov, The Diary of a Russian Priest
Gladsome Lights 
Thought-provoking.
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Excellent questions for which I have no answer.
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Very good. I was thinking about this sort of thing the other day. How we only see the surface of most people around us, and how we could probably love them more easily if we only had time to visit and get to know them. But we can’t do this with very many people because of our limitations. I guess only the Holy Spirit can give us this love for people in general.
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Oh… I think this is beautiful.
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