As well as a human being doesn’t eat wheat without first grinding it in order to make bread, the devil doesn’t eat anybody without first grinding him down with tribulation. In order to eat you he first needs to grind you up. Therefore, even if you are amidst affliction but remain whole, don’t worry. No harm will come to you. Does the wheat grain fear the threshing that separates it from the straw? No, as the straw is blown away, the grain is set free of all it does not need. (Commentary on the Psalms, 100, 12).
Usually human beings do not truly know themselves. They do not know of what they are able and what not. Often they presume that they can do certain things when they cannot while at the same time presume they cannot do others of which they are perfectly capable. Only when trials come to test them do they discover their own possibilities, possibilities hidden from them but known to their Creator. (Commentary on the Psalms, 55, 2).
A curious lot people are, curious to pry into the lives of others, but slow when it comes to correcting their own. (Confessions 10, 3, 3).
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