but a discerning heart tastes delicacies as a lie"
"A person must acquire a companion with whom to eat, drink, read, study and sleep; to whom he can reveal his secrets, the secrets of the Torah, and the secrets of everyday life." Rabbi Nathan
A person without a friend is like a left hand without a right P.C. Beentjes
The pericope on friendship in Manuscript C is in fact a combination of Sir 6:5-17 and 37:1-6. Friendship is one of the themes Ben Sira treats in his work, and this text is his best-known passage on friendship. The first part of the text reminds the reader that one must be cautious in friendships. Ben Sira then goes on to mention three kinds of danger to friendship. Finally, he closes his pericope with a description of the faithful friend.
but a discerning heart tastes delicacies as a lie"
"A person must acquire a companion with whom to eat, drink, read, study and sleep; to whom he can reveal his secrets, the secrets of the Torah, and the secrets of everyday life." Rabbi Nathan
A person without a friend is like a left hand without a right P.C. Beentjes
The pericope on friendship in Manuscript C of the Book of Sirach is in fact a combination of Sir 6:5-17 and 37:1-6. Friendship is one of the themes Ben Sira treats in his work, and this text is his best-known passage on friendship. The first part of the text reminds the reader that one must be cautious in friendships. Ben Sira then goes on to mention three kinds of danger to friendship. Finally, he closes his pericope with a description of the faithful friend.
He kept it all in his head, and paired people together by some inner instinct of his own
I sensed that he saw further than I did, and I decided to listen to him
We bring you a story by Jere Bilan about a man who, perhaps just as in your own life, stands there beside you, often quietly and unnoticed, through good times and bad - and simply makes himself available to you...
"Those who fear God will also find a faithful friend."
In Heraclea, in Pontus, there is a poisonous honey. Those who eat it lose their wits, for the bees gather it from the aconite that abounds there. Just so is false and wicked friendship, which is founded on the sharing of false and wicked goods.
Among the passions of the soul, love holds the first place. It reigns over all the movements of the heart, draws everything into itself, and makes us like unto that which we love.
Love is divided into two kinds. One is called the love of benevolence, the other the love of desire. The love of benevolence is that love by which we love a person for the sake of the good we wish for them. For what else is the love of benevolence toward a person, but to wish them well?
When the love of benevolence flows in mutual return, then it takes the name of friendship.
I recently read the book Pod krilima anđeoskim(published by Stella Maris). It tells of a religious sister from Brazil who, from the age of four, became aware of the presence of her guardian angel. At the time she did not even know what a guardian angel was; she called him "my new friend". Only later, at the school run by the sisters, did she hear that we all have a guardian angel. In her simplicity she thought that everyone communicated with their angel just as she did. It reminded me of the saints who were also given this grace, such as Padre Pio or Gemma Galgani (we have her biography published by Sion), who thought that others too spoke with their guardian angel as she did, but that it was kept quiet as something intimate. These souls were very humble and simple, and suffered a great deal for the salvation of others. They were victim souls, and so they received that special comfort which our Lord himself received in Gethsemane, so that they should not lose heart: "And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him" (Lk 22:43).
