Don’t work too hard for future goals. Enjoy the presence of each other, hasten by asking God to bless you with the gift of children, give life what belongs to life, and God what belongs to Him.

Try to be happy together, because life is like a ghost, the only thing real is God and His presence in the world. Years pass fast, and you will grow old but try to be young in spirit.

I will tell you a word that will help you: shared life is hard (in monastery or in the bosom of a family) is hard. You need to know how to obtain forgiveness. Listen to me: to obtain forgiveness! It’s not hard to forgive but to obtain forgiveness – and not through a meaningless sentence of conventional use, but through something that comes from the bottom of your soul, true humbleness that will impress the person you hurt (or you made him hurt you through a treacherous game of your intelligence) through humble love that will bring you the true forgiveness.

(Translated from Viaţa Părintelui Gheorghe Calciu după mărturiile sale şi ale altora, ediţie îngrijită la Mănăstirea Diaconeşti, Editura Christiana, Bucureşti, 2007, p. 266)