Living springs, polluted springs, pictures of springs

by abbamoses

“Life-giving Spring” Icon

[W]hen a person is genuine, when he truly loves, when he has tasted the gift of the goodness of the Lord, then, even if his wording is deficient, he nevertheless helps his fellow man effectively, more than one who employs elaborate words and elegant theological expressions. This is so because it is one thing to come across a spring in the woods, which is not ornamented but provides cool and fresh water that quenches man’s thirst, and another thing to make a wonderful drawing of a fountain, which, however, has no water and cannot quench man’s thirst, or even to find a fountain which is very beautiful but unsuitable for quenching man’s thirst, since its water is recycled and dirty.

— Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos, prologue to the English edition of Counsels from the Holy Mountain: Selection from the Letters and Homilies of Elder Ephraim