Archpriest Andrei Tkachev

Question: If communicating with someone close to you harms your soul, what should you do? Step back? What about Christian humility and patience?

Answer: You know what, I'll tell you that Christian patience is not without limits. And if you suffer from some kind of communication, it will be inhumane to make you suffer for the sake of Christian patience all your life. You have to have some measure after all. In all your exercises. And to know your measure. And if there's anything above your measure, then don't take it. As St. Tikhon of Zadonsk writes: "Pride is always taken for something above its strength". So you'd better get out of the way. These strong words about Christian patience, it all sounds beautiful, but in life it is rarely justified. So know about yourself: what you can and cannot do. And where you can't, stay out of it. It will be very right and Christian. Anything that harms you must be far away from you. That's it."

(Archpriest Andrei Tkachev. Sermons)