One must disarm oneself

The hardest war is the war against oneself.

One must disarm.

I waged this war for years, it was terrible.

But now I am disarmed.

I’m no longer afraid of anything, because love banishes fear.

I am disarmed of the need to be right, to justify myself by judging others.

I am no longer on guard, jealously clutching my wealth.

I accept and share.

I do not particularly care about my ideas, my projects.

If somebody suggests better ones – no, I should say good ones not better ones – I accept without regrets.

I have stopped making comparisons.

What is good, true, real, is always best for me.

That’s why I’m not afraid anymore.

When we have nothing left, we have no fear.

If one disarms oneself, if one dispossesses oneself, if one opens oneself to the Love that makes all things new, then that Love erases the bad past

and makes for us a new time where everything is possible.

Athenagoras I, Patriarch of Constantinople  from 1948 to 1972

Translated from Olivier Clément’s French by Freddie Yam               httos://realization.org>athenagoras