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The Passions

How do I stop judging other people?

Somebody says, I'm struggling with judgmentalness. I see people, I have judgmental thoughts about them, I condemn them. So there's two paths. The number one path is you think, okay, I'm going to not have judgmental thoughts. It's like, okay, well tell me how that works out. I'm just not going to judge people. It's very, very hard to not judge people. It's borderline impossible. So you say, I'm not going to have judgmental thoughts. It's like, okay, well, good luck with that, and we'll see how that works. What the fathers tell us to do is to cultivate the Holy Spirit in repentance. So we'll put an example. You do your morning prayers, but you don't just say your morning prayers, you say your morning prayers from your heart, and you sorrow over your sins, and you see your pride and your egotism. And then you leave the house, you go to work, and someone does something. It is almost impossible to have a judgmental thought, because you've spent all your time looking at your own sins. And then you see what other people do, and immediately you go, who am I to judge them? Why? Because the fathers tell us, when we judge ourselves, we stop judging other people. The cure is always to go to God in prayer, and in sorrow, and in the spirit of humility. That takes away our judgment about other people. That's the way that we're actually cured of it.

Edited from his answer on camera. The clip has the full thing.

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From “Sermon: Pentecost

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