On Love and Forgiveness

The following was written for monks but there are principles that apply to all aspects and callings in the Christian life:

On Love and Forgiveness
by Elder Ephraim

My children, fight the good fight; let brotherly love continue; may love be the center of all actions within the synodia—may egotism be far from your thoughts and words.

  “Whoever wants to be first must be the slave of all,” says the Lord. And if we do not become like little children in terms of innocence and simplicity, we shall by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

  When love governs a synodia, Christ invisibly blesses everything; joy, peace, and self-sacrifice for the brethren are afire in the hearts of every brother—but also prayer intensifies then. The more love abounds, the more love in Christ and self-sacrifice enriches their souls, and then Christ is glorified and worshipped, and we become humble instruments for the glorification of the holy name of God.

  Genuine love does not envy the good gifts of one’s brother; it does not rejoice when it hears humiliating words or criticism of a brother; it does not restrain itself from constantly commending a brother’s progress. Love does not envy; love does not parade itself, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, but its brother’s interests; it is not provoked; it thinks no evil; it bears all things, endures all things Whoever has genuine love never falls by sinning against his brother.

  So my children, pray that Love itself—our God will grant you the gift of love in Christ. When this love comes to reign in our hearts, words, and deeds, then we should hope for prospects of forming a synodia in Christ with a Christian spirit, with spiritual radiance and an unshakeable foundation—a synodia closely united with one mind and one soul in many bodies.

Foundation of the Truth of Orthodoxy

"All the truths of Orthodoxy emerge from one truth and converge on one truth, infinite and eternal. That truth is the God-man Christ. If you experience any truth of Orthodoxy to its limit, you will inevitably discover that its kernel is the God-man Christ. In fact, all the truths of Orthodoxy are nothing other than different aspects of the one Truth--the God-man Christ...

...Orthodoxy is Orthodoxy through the God-man. And we Orthodox, by confessing the God-man, indirectly confess the Christ-image of man, the divine origin of man, the divine exaltation of man, and thus also the divine value and sacredness of the human personality..."

+ Archimandrite Justin Popovich , THE GOD-MAN THE FOUNDATION OF THE TRUTH OF ORTHODOXY, http://www.sv-luka.org/library/thegodman_jp.htm

An Indicator of Love

"Truly to love a person means to love them for themselves even when they no longer give us anything...For if we remain firm in our love towards others despite their incomprehensible hardness towards us, we make a true proof of love, of the love which we have for them."

+ Fr. Dumitru Staniloae 

(Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.)

Inequalities Overcome

"When he reaches the point of having life, movement, and being in Christ, he has put far from him the monstrous origin of inequalities and he no longer carries within himself the contrary dispositions of these passions, as I was saying, after the manner of the male female opposition. In this way reason is not enslaved by them, having remained aloof from their unstable fluctuations. In it the holiness of the  divine image has been naturally included to persuade the soul to transform itself by its free will to the likeness of God and to belong to the great kingdom which subsists substantially with God, the Father of all. It becomes a radiant abode of the Holy Spirit and receives, if one can say it, the full power of knowing the divine nature insofar as this is possible. By this power there is discarded the origin of what is inferior, to be replaced by that of what is superior, while the soul like God keeps inviolable in itself by the grace of its calling the realization of the gifts which it has received. By this power, Christ is always born mysteriously and willingly, becoming incarnate through those who are saved. He causes the soul which begets him to be a virgin-mother who, to speak briefly, does not bear the marks of nature subject to corruption and generation in the relationship of male and female."

+ St Maximos the Confessor, Commentary on the Our Father, in "Maximos the Confessor Selected Writings" (New York: Paulist Press, 1985) 109.

Lectures on Addiction

St. Herman's Seminary Lectures on Addiction (4 Part Series)
by Fr George Aquaro

Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8Naf47PKI4

What Christianity Offers

"Orthodox Christianity has much, much more to offer the contemporary world. In Orthodoxy, one can find not only the correct faith in the true God but also the correct perception of humankind as the image of God, of the world, and of creation."

+ His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, Enthronement Address, Nov 2, 1991

Born of Love

Uninterrupted prayer is born of love, but fault-finding, idle talk and self-indulgence are the death of prayer.

+ St Silouan

Je Nai Nan.

Forgive me and pray for me.

The Way: A Preview of the Orthodox 'Alpha Course'

Found the First Seven Lectures of The WAY which I like to call the Orthodox "Alpha Course." I think it's a great way to introduce people to the Orthodox Church and the package includes twelve sessions that are to be presented along with meal and discussion groups (good for Parish discussion groups and for missions & evangelism).

Of course I have my reservations with any 'packaged' theology or 'Orthodoxy in a box' method, but I think if Parishes or Dioceses are to implement a program like the Way, it's a good framework to Catechize and offer Orthodoxy using a Taste and See methodology. Important thing is to link this program with a LIVED Theology experience. In other words, parishes that do this should live out the Liturgy and have Liturgical Life permeate every aspect of their missiology, preaching and service so that visitors can taste and see, Christ is in our midst.

What is THE WAY?

It is the outreach programme of the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies. It is a course of 12 sessions, usually over 12 weeks, and consists of:

• a meal together
• a talk on a central aspect of Christian belief
• free discussion in small groups
• a "question and answer" session, where members of each group put questions to a panel

The titles of the twelve talks are:

1. The Search for Faith
2. God the Holy Trinity: "The Lover of Mankind"
3. Being Human: Fully Alive
4. Why Did Jesus Come to Us?
5. Salvation in Christ
6. The Holy Spirit
7. What on Earth is the Church? Isn't God Enough?
8. Living the Faith: (1) The Divine Liturgy - "A Pearl of Great Price"
9. Living the Faith: (2) The Holy Mysteries
10. Living the Faith: (3) The Bible, Prayer, and Fasting
11. Living the Faith: (4) Christian Behaviour
12. "Heaven on Earth": Members of the Church and Citizens of Heaven

You can order The WAY from
http://www.iocs.cam.ac.uk/courses/courses_way.html
http://www.conciliarpress.com/the-way.html
http://www.gazellebookservices.co.uk/ISBN/187289710X.htm
http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Run-Way-Introducing-Christianity/dp/187289710X/


+ + +

How to Run the WAY Courses:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsm23T1MtlE

And the first 7 of the series:

Present In All Places

Happy Feast of St. Phillip, one of the seven Deacons. I've recently been thinking again about the Third Hour in the Coptic Rite, where a beautiful prayer is prayed in the Canonical Book of the Hours to one of the Persons of the Holy Trinity (Holy Spirit in this Prayer) :

O Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, who is present in all places and fills all, the treasury of good things and the Life-Giver, graciously come, and dwell in us and purify us from all defilement, O Good One, and save our souls.

He Who is present and fills all things...

It's daily Orthodox prayers like these which are sometimes terrifying to pray because of the magnitude that they imply. With this prayer there's again the reminder that is aparent during every Liturgy...Christ is in our midst. God is everywhere present. This understanding and awareness of God in the nowness and His active work in the material world. We're called to see Christ in all people, but I think that perhaps the Third hour prayer also implies seeing God in all things too, that the very creation bears His imprint of His work much like one can tell an artist's 'signature' by the craftwork. In a life that is filled with this understanding of His presence the ordinary, the everyday as well as the spectacular moments are all opportunities and means of growing in union with God. Or as the Akathist of Thanksgiving mentions: "Glory to Thee; on my knees, I kiss the traces of Thine unseen hand." (Ikos 3) and "Incline my heart to call upon You, present in everything." (Ikos 10)

I think perhaps that these prayers point to a lived reality that resonates with the Church's reaction to the Arians who claimed our Lord Christ was created and "there was a time when He was not."

A heretical claim which the Church responded through the lives of her saints saying and affirming that her Bridgegroom is

"only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages; Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten, not created, of one essence with the Father through Whom all things were made"

or in other words "there was NEVER a time when He was not!" 

We can also see in the Church's prayers the correlative affirmation: "there is NEVER a place where He is not."

Of course this also suggests that the Liturgy is to be lived out every moment and likewise so is the Church, His Body, present in all places. May it be so and may we always participate in this divine and holy work.

Glory to the Holy Trinity.

For more on this I've referenced a recent article by Fr. John Behr further exploring the question of materiality and God's presence:

Is God Wholly Separate from the Material Universe?

by Father John Behr from http://bigquestionsonline.com/content/god-wholly-separate-material-universe

Adam Our Ancestor?

An interesting read that touches a possible Orthodox response to modern historical understanding of the early chapters of Genesis...

 + + +

Adam Our Ancestor?

by Stephen Thomas

I have been frequently referring to a “before” and an “after” situation, using the language in a kind of narrative. There was for Man a “before,” when humankind was in a primordial state of bliss. Then there was an “after,” a point in our past after which things seem to have gone wrong, so that we lost our original happiness with God. This “after” shows humankind as sick and in need of healing; deification is that healing.

I have argued that the Bible has coherence as a whole, that it is an orderly account which explains things in terms of what previously happened and in terms of what are the real moving forces behind life. Thus the Bible is, in some sense, a “history.” It is a unique kind of history with God as the main character or agent, the subject of which is our salvation.

A Worthwhile Struggle

"Throughout the history of humankind, mystics have sought to liberate themselves from their ego, their fundamental selfishness, in order to live in a deeper union with God and to be free to love as God loves — with compassion. There have also been men and women who, though they may not have specifically sought a union with God, were seekers of truth and compassion, and worked for peace and the unity of humanity.

This union with God, this trust that we are loved by God and held in the arms of God, gives us inner strength and fortifies our desire to be, and to be true. It permits us to see each person, each event, the great march of history, and the whole universe itself as God sees them. This in itself diminishes our need to prove ourselves or to hide behind barriers of power or knowledge. It lessens our fears of being rejected. It also prevents us from making an absolute of anything. No one person, no one group, not even humanity in its entirety is God.

This communion with God does not create a tension between our bodies and our spirit. God is at the source of all our being—spirit and matter. This communion brings us to inner wholeness. The danger for us is to block off the life that flows into us from the heart and Source of the universe when we seek affirmation of our ego in a constant  search for power and recognition. With the death of our false self, we liberate the life of God in us and, in the words of Martin Buber, we allow God to flow through our hearts and our beings and thus to enter into our world. The message of Jesus has often been mangled. Yet Jesus came to lead us all into a society that is a body, where each part, weak or strong, able or disabled, finds its place and is free. This vision for humanity, which is a vision of goodness and compassion for each person, comes from a God of Love, who wants to change our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh.

Humanity needs to return to this humble, loving God who is all heart. It needs to rediscover the message of gentleness, tenderness, nonviolence, and forgiveness, to rediscover the beauty of our universe, of matter, of our own bodies, and of all life. This path of rediscovery will be a struggle, but a worthwhile one." 

+ Jean Vanier, Becoming Human, 132-133

Unity From Above

"Lord, You have given us grace to offer these common prayers with one heart. You have promised to grant the requests of two or three gathered in Your name. Fulfill now the petitions of Your servants for our benefit, giving us the knowledge of Your truth in this world, and granting us eternal life in the world to come."

+ Inaudible Prayer at the Second Antiphon, Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, Byzantine Rite.

"And make us worthy of the heavenly peace that suits Your divinity and is full of salvation that we may give it to one another in perfect love and that we may greet one another with a holy kiss."

+ Prayer before the Deacon Entreats Congregation to Exchange the Holy Kiss, Divine Liturgy of St Cyril, Coptic Rite.

The Responding Icon

THE RESPONDING ICON

by Anna Kartsonis

 Icons have long been regarded as one of the most potent expressions of the culture of Byzantium. They stand as supreme visual statements of its religiosity, spirituality, and piety. In icons and through icons the intangible becomes tangible, divinity and holiness become accessible, the unpredictability of the supernatural may become predictable, and the power and philanthropy of the Christian God, the Virgin, the angelic orders, and the armies of saints that have earned the privilege of sharing in God’s holiness may be invoked by the faithful to operate their power, which is not limited by natural law. And the faithful may be granted—individually or collectively, perceptibly and obviously or imperceptibly and mysteriously—their fervent and pious wishes for safety and salvation now and in the hereafter. Icons are, in other words, one of the answers of Byzantium to the universal problem of human existence and the concern over the unpredictability of the fate of man on this earth and beyond. Icons are also one of the answers of Byzantium to man’s perennial quest for access to, and participation in, the realm of the divine.

Beyond Dialogue

 A very good read about the nuances of the Joint Commission and the need for unity...

+ + +

Beyond Dialogue: The Quest for Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Unity Today

Rev John H Erickson, Dean

http://www.svots.edu/content/beyond-dialogue-quest-eastern-and-oriental-orthodox-unity-today

Symposium on 1700th Anniversary of Christian Armenia
October 27-28, 2000

Henry Chadwick, distinguished church historian and veteran observer of the ecumenical scene, is fond of remarking that the chief reason for Christian division today is division itself.  Whatever may have been the issues initially leading to division, a division once established very quickly takes on a life of its own, as each side tries to justify its own role in the division.  Differences that would not in themselves have been church-dividing are invested with new meaning, to the point of becoming symbols of division rather than examples of legitimate diversity.  Signs of particular divine favor are discovered on each side, whether in supernatural portents or in the steadfastness of new confessors and martyrs.  Competing ecclesial structures are erected.  Anathemas are hurled.  And even if the issues that led to the division are eventually resolved, the division itself - buttressed in these many ways - remains.

Creation Crowned

"Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven..."

+ The Lord's Prayer

I think in our fallen state there is a divide between intent and action, that things separate and create dischord and distress. This is a diabolical work that afflicts our fallen state and what Fr Stephen Freeman defines as the "two storey universe."

In contrast and in total rejection of this diabolical tendency, the Church witnesses and shows the world something else. What she, the Body of Christ has affirmed, what she professes is...union*, the union and restoration of humanity and all of creation into its proper place.

[* unity in its proper state, not fallen or idolatrous unity but rather unity from above which "is a unity neither extracted from the world nor reduced to its level." ie. refer to Schmemann's The Eucharist, 147]

St Ignatius, one of the early Church Fathers says...

"I pray for a union both of the flesh and spirit of Jesus Christ, the constant source of our life, and of faith and love, to which nothing is to be preferred, but especially of Jesus and the Father."

+ St Ignatius of Antioch

Soul as Portrait

St John Chrysostom uses the metaphor of the Imperial Portrait to discuss restoration, in this exhortation to Catechumens:

" Then, as in the case of painters, so let it now be the case for you. For they, after setting out their panels, and drawing on them with white lines, sketch out the royal images before they apply the truth of the the colours. And with full freedom they wipe out some things, and redraw other parts, and correct mistakes and change things which are not right. But when they bring in the final tempera, they no longer have the power to wipe things out or redraw them, since they will destroy the beauty of the portrait, and the thing will be defective...

...Consider the soul to be your portrait. So, before the true tempera of the spirit comes, wipe away the habits which have been wrongly put into it [a long list of sins follows]... correct your habits, so that when the colors are laid upon it and the imperial portrait shines forth, no longer will you wipe things out again, and damage or scar the beauty which has been given to you by God."

+ St. John Chrysostom, Catech.2.3[49.235], from Margaret M. Mitchell, "The Heavenly Trumpet: John Chrysostom and the Art of Pauline Interpretation"(Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002) 60.

Beautifully this again echoes the theme of restoration and ancient beauty that is used in Orthodox theology to approximate in language the participation in the Divine Life of Christ.

May we all be led back to be refashioned into that ancient beauty, that portrait of Love and the glory of His Likeness.

Glory to the Holy Trinity.

O Holy Trinity, Have Mercy on us.

St Cyril On The Church's Message

Since, then, God knows and at the same time observes everything about  us, let us have a faith that is sure and stable. And let us rid ourselves of the shame coming from duplicity, remembering  what  the  blessed  Paul  writes: "Therefore, my brothers, be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in God's work." (1Cor 15:58)

The Palace

"The heart is Christ's palace, a place where the King enters to rest, and with Him go the angels and the spirits of the saints. There He dwells and brings His kingdom"

+ St Makarios the Great

Life, Beauty, Personhood and Identity: The Human Questions

I've been thinking about the issues concerning abortion (they appear to be complex and not easily split into neat categories of pro-life and pro-choice political camps) which has become a sort of 'rally-cry' for freedom, social justice and societal's norms of what makes a 'good' or 'successful' life. The questions raised by the whole issue are fundamentally linked to the very way that society regards human life and personhood.

Icon at St Anthony's Monastery
Red Sea, Egypt

For example, within the debate there are researchers who claim that "pain is not felt by the fetus." An argument that is linked to a definition of life that says human life is constituted by a functional nervous system or cognition in general. It's a presupposition which could also have implications on our perspective of suffering and of untility in the 'good life.' (Metropolitan Anthony Bloom mentions a similar concern on how our society is coping with pain in this interview by the CBC http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2OtD5OkHHo )

This presupposition concerning fetal pain raises questions on our views on those who are mentally impaired or mentally ill. Those questions then raise further questions on what we see as 'functional' or 'useless' in our world, or more alarming who we say are functional, able-bodied, important, acceptable, employable or worthy.

It's a question that seems to call for apophatic prayer and thought not only cataphatic approaches because the question of life appears to be linked to questions on personhood and on identity, on humanity and on what is beautiful.

Such questions are also linked to ecology: do we permit destruction of what we define as non-functional or incognitive matter? Do we say that there are no consequences to deforesting an area because it has no psychological impact on us?

Introduction to the Orthodox Faith Part 1 & 2

Two talks introducing Orthodoxy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSe4UrhBkIA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_83u_44VAM

Health Care and Theosis

Here is another really good article for Orthodox who are in the medical industry...

Health Care and Theosis
by Fr. Philip LeMasters

...Orthodox Christianity envisions the salvation of the whole person - body, soul, and spirit -in the Kingdom of God. No bit of human existence, or of the creation as a whole, is by nature isolated from our Lord’s salvation. The incarnation of Jesus Christ is Good News for every dimension of us, especially when we are sick and in need of physical healing.

Theology of the Body and Bioethics

David Bently Hart's article on John Paul II's Theology of the Body. The article touches on some deeper issues and raises the some questions that are relevant to an Orthodox answer to Bioethical issues. Hart writes:

"I must say that what I, as an Eastern Orthodox Christian, find most exhilarating about the Theology of the Body is not simply that it is perfectly consonant with the Orthodox understanding of the origins and ends of human nature (as indeed it is), but that from beginning to end it is a text awash in the clear bright light of uncompromising conviction...It simply restates the ancient Christian understanding of man...and invites the reader to enter into the world it describes. And at the heart of its anthropology is a complete rejection--or, one might almost say, ignorance--of any dualism between flesh and spirit."

It's an interesting read for any Christian involved in the medical industry.

+ + +

The Anti-Theology of the Body

David B. Hart

"The Pornography Culture" (Summer 2004)

How we see

Was thinking on how in our community we speak about God...and how we interpret events as aligned or contrary to God's will. I'm wonder how much of this behavior and interpretation has been influnced by our presuppositions and by non-Orthodox ethos/theology. What I'm refering to is not the understanding that God is ever present and Pantocrator, but rather our interpretation, our hermeneutic lens, so to speak, as Christians. Often the topic of God's will appears in talks and Christian discourse in North America, and at times we are presented with an ultra-spiritualist, sometimes dualist, fatalist or platonic, perpective from monasteries and the mission field. Perhaps I'm suggesting that as Orthodox, we be self-critical on how we see and interpret our life, our situation, the events and God's presence among us.

Recently read a post related to this topic entitled "Does God Have a Wonderful Plan for Your Life?" by Steve the Builder, in which he points out the self delusion of significance. In particular he points out the temptation of interpreting events in life through a hermenutical lens that "carries the baggage of defining my life by what I do, or constraining it in some significant way that means I forego something that could have been"better" in some significant way."

What I find intruiging is how much of his thought resonates with the thoughts of one Orthodox Priest I heard speak about the "will of God in our lives" where as long as union with the Holy Trinity is being worked out the choice of what vocation matters less (this does not preclude passivity, rather such an approach encourages participation).

I get a sense that the focus is on having "peace with God and with others" (another thought from another Priest), that the vocation, the calling, the work, the service, the mission, the career are in themselves not the goal or necessarily interchangable, but rather the place, the workshop of encountering the mystery of God with honesty and joy.

Scripture as Song

"The Scripture is the song of God, both sung to the Church by God and sung to God by the Church. In the life that is that song, the Church is continually conformed to the image of Christ. This is the Church’s liturgy (and God’s liturgy), the song of the image of God.

The life that is the continual liturgy is the Christ-conforming life of the believer in union with others within the Body of Christ sharing in the one Spirit. The Scriptures are not a source or reference-book for that Christ-conforming life, they are part of that life itself."

+ Fr Stephen Freeman, How the Church Reads the Church

Are there two types of Orthodoxy?

Some thoughts by some people of prayer on whether there should be different types, 'denominations,' or brands of Orthodoxy...

The Beautiful Struggle

"...there is nothing that separates us from him as far as love is concerned – his love – and as far as our longing – our longing – is concerned. But we must struggle and change and become new, new creatures, with his help. Forgiveness does not erase the past. It heals it in co-operation between God and us."

+ Metroplitan Anthony Bloom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzhhFRqjF_o

Forgiveness

Sermon by Metroplitan Anthony Bloom, 5 December 1999
From Coming Closer To Christ: Confession and Forgiveness

Three types of Theological Models of Mission

The different theological models of mission proposed by Justo L. González and Dorothea Sölle:

 

• Type A is mission as saving souls and extending the church;
• Type B is mission as discovery of the truth;
• Type C is mission as commitment to liberation and transformation.

Type C is the most compatible with the Orthodox Ethos.

Read review of the following book http://khanya.wordpress.com/2010/03/22/constants-in-context-a-theology-of-mission-for-today-book-review/


Type C also resonates strongly with this talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1sVNtrfhbY

Perhaps Type C is most compatible because of the purpose of Orthodox Mission is a turning of hearts to God. Mission is about restoration, healing, offering the world back to God. About encountering, identifying and helping ourselves and others "find and attain the Kingdom of God, to overcome sin by His power, to be transformed into the Light of His Blessedness."

Perhaps mission is less about doing and more about being and becoming? Perhaps becoming and being holy because of our encounter with the Holy of Holies.

Glory to God for all things.

Beauty and Liturgy

"...beauty partakes of mystery, what beauty represents is something that can’t be put into words, we sense it with our whole being though it’s not something we can define. And that is true of our worship as well as we approach God, there is something that is so beyond our words, our ability to verbalize, that it requires the mystery of beauty around it in order to enable us to come into it at all.

Image by Tatiana Boyle

Again this is something that I think runs very contrary to the way the world looks at things. That everything should be accessible, everything should be easy to understand. "

+ Khouria (Tasoni) Frederica Mathewes-Green

The Challenge of Encounter

"A missionary is more than a development aid worker: she has the wellbeing of the entire person in mind."

+ Jan DeVolder, The Spirit of Fr Damien

"The community that preaches the divine word would by its very life serve as proof of what it is proclaiming."

+ Metropolitan Anthony Bloom

What is Compassion?

"Compassion isn't just doing things for people, it's revealing to people: You're beautiful, you're a child of God, you have value. Their anger isn't just against society-our competitive society-but the greatest pain is when people become angry with themselves, and begin to hate themselves. This is one of the greatest pains."

+ Jean Vanier, Speaking about Compassion at St John the Compassionate Orthodox Mission

Akathist of Glory to God for all things

The Akathist Hymn: "Glory to God for All Things"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPBkkDViWNI

The popular account of the history of the Akathist:

This Akathist (Hymn, The word akathist itself means "not sitting"), also called the "Akathist of Thanksgiving," was found on the articles of Protopresbyter Gregory Petrov (Composed by Metropolitan Tryphon of Turkestan but was often attributed to Hieromartyr Gregory Petrov (+1942)) who prayed this shortly before his death in a prison camp in 1940. The title is from the words of Saint John Chrysostom as he was dying in exile. It is a song of praise from amidst the most terrible sufferings.

To Be A Comfort

"The Lord Christ, during the period of His incarnation on earth, wandered about doing good, giving relief to the weary, curing sick people and driving out devils from the paralytic. He was a loving heart, compassionate to all. In His crucifixion, He relieved us from our sins, and from the sentence of death. After resurrection He relieved His disciples. He relieved Peter, who was heavily burdened by his conscience because of his previous denial of God; He relieved Thomas from his doubts; He relieved the whole Church by handing over the rules of faith to the apostles.

As for you, what are you doing to relieve others?

To relieve other people, there are two ways: one is positive and the other is negative. The positive way is to offer them your love and assistance, and the negative way is to keep away from all that troubles them. What are the matters that we should keep away from so as to relieve others? You may relieve others by obedience, and yielding and abstaining from disagreement and dissension. This can be applied by children in relation to their parents, the subordinate in relation to his chief, the wife in relation to her husband, by all people in relation to one another. The gentle person is loved by all. As for the dissenting partner, he is a thorn in the throat of his colleague.

Therefore, you should not be obstinate or always fighting for your own opinion, but you should be gentle in your dealings with others. You should not get in the habit of saying `no', in small matters as well as in grave ones. You should stick to your opinion in matters that trouble your conscience, since God has to be obeyed more than people.

Love Wins (Transcript)

Love Wins - An Orthodox View

uploaded by YouTube User: sevpr on Feb 19, 2011

A comparison of the mainstream substitutionary atonement views and the Orthodox view of salvation illustrated with chairs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WosgwLekgn8

Two views...

The Purpose and Approach to Scripture

Does Orthodoxy look at scripture on a literal level? What is the purpose of theology? How does Orthodoxy see Scripture within Tradition?

Scripture cannot give us a complete intellectual knowledge of God’s nature; rather, it gives us a record of the impact of God’s operations or energies upon human beings, shaped by the guidance of the Holy Spirit so as to express this experience truly in words. The inspired words show enough of the beauty and goodness of God’s nature to draw us toward him. They help us to realize that, despite our apparent unlikeness to God, such is his generosity and the effectiveness of his grace, we can be his friends (John 15:13—15) really —or, ontologically.

Nevertheless, not even the inspired words of Scripture are adequate to the actual experience of God’s energies. Every inspired writer and Saint has admitted that the words they use are only approximations; they point to something greater than words and sentences. This is why the Orthodox Church can never be literalist about the Scriptures.

Although God is in himself unfathomable, his generosity toward us causes his revelation to be exact. Here I return to the theme of the akriveia or “accuracy” of Orthodoxy. The words are exact enough to be our guide for life. Consequently, every word of Scripture and its position in the structure of the Bible as a whole gives a variety of applications to our situations in life. It teaches us in poetry, story, and in chronicles of events that actually happened.

To read the Bible, then, is not only to gain guidance about how to be deified: it is actually part of the process of our deification, as we are led up into the presence of God through human signs.



Stephen Thomas, "Deification in the Eastern Orthodox Tradition: A Biblical Perspective." (New Jersey: Gorgias Press, 2007) 74.

Orthodox Hymn "My Dear Patriarch"

One of the most beautiful hymns in the Orthodox Church. Georgian Orthodox Hymn "Chemo Patriarqo" (My Dear Patriarch) is a beautiful reminder to pray for all our heirarchs and the Patriarchs of all the local Churches.

Currently as the Coptic Orthodox and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church also prays for our new Patriarchs, let us also pray for HH Pope Shenouda III, HH Abune Paulos and all the Patriarchs who have reposed. Let us also ask for the prayers of Patriarch Ilia II of Georgia and all the Patriarchs of all the Orthodox Churches who are currently reigning on their respective thrones.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxfGOxs2rJk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdq2cm0hp1I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qCRK3YbltY

“My (dear) patriarch” (Monastic Mothers’ chant)

1) The Georgian chant is covered by divine grace
The Iberian soul “breaths” the sunlight
You have the heavenly (clear, clean) eyes coloured by the Sky (Heaven) 
In whiteness of your soul the divine grace is flying (over you) (…opens the wings)

2) The Cross covered by the warmness like (covered) by the snow – blossomed
The tender soul surrounds you all over
The poor dugout “dreams” about the Iberia of the friars
The chrism (anointing oil) drops on Mtskheta’s shafts (places)

3) The Father’s May covers Lomisi (Saint George)
Incense (implement as an incense) the fleecy (smoky) Sky in your soul 
Clear our hearts, our sweet (dear) patriarch
(Our hearts are) Hailed by the sorrows, befog them with the divine grace.

4) The Queen of the Heaven accepted you as her child
Cover us with the soul of Iberian father
Agmashenebeli gave you the soot (from flowers) as “Davitiani” (hymnary) 
The thorns (crucifixion thorn) of Christ “kissed” your forehead

5) The prayer’s refinement “snows” on Ghudushauri (the last name of patriarch)
The Holy (Heavenly) Spirit of Achkhoti has the grace of matins
The horn of “Davituri” is acting in the Sky as the cherubs 
The grace of the Christmas makes you the Saint in Gergeti

6) The Georgian chant reached the dome (of the Church) (made the circle)
Vakhtang makes the capital from Mtskheta  
Pray for our father, go to Heaven, Iberia
Tamar –the crowned Queen makes your crown shine as the colour of the sun

7) Dear heavy Cross, most sweet Cross
Make the grace from the black sorrow of the world
Pray for our father, our great Ancestors
Dear Invincible (Powerful) Cross, pray for our father

(8) Mirkani put on the cape of the chiton
The grace flies over you in the holiness of Mtskheta
You have the clear (clean) eyes “fed” by the Sky (Heaven)  
“My (dear) patriarch”, “My (dear) patriarch”
(repeat verse 8 two times)

NOTES:
Mtskheta - was the capital of Georgia
Agmashenebeli - David Agmashenebeli was the King of Georgia (Agmashenebeli is his last name and he was the grand father of Queen Tamar, which was called as King here, because of her braveness)
Achkhoti - is the place in Georgia, small village, there is the great church (it's in the chant)
Vakhtang - Vakhtang Gorgasali was the king of Georgia also, he was the founder of Tbilisi - the capital of Georgia
Mirkani - is a Georgian name and a place

Literal translation from the Georgian by Niniko from http://www.onehourtranslation.com. Thank you so much Niniko!

Being Present

"Simple awareness of the presence of God is the power within the present moment. The present moment-now-is the only place where God is. He discloses Himself through the reality of the present moment-nowhere else. This is a mystery we can participate in by simply trying to be aware of His presence.
Awareness, conscious contact with God, is the key."

+ Dr. Albert Rossi, Time Management: An Orthodox Perspective, http://livingorthodoxtheology.blogspot.ca/2012/10/time-management-orthodox-perspective-by.html

The Masks We Wear

Jean Vanier on Forgivenesss...

"We all tend to wear masks, the mask of superiority or of inferiority, the mask of worthiness or of victim. It is not easy to let our masks come off and to discover the little child inside us who yearns for love and for light, and who fears being hurt. Forgiveness, however, implies the removal of these masks, an acceptance of who we really are: that we have been hurt, and that we have hurt others.

Forgiveness of ourselves, then, implies an acceptance of our true value. The loss of a false self-image, if it is an image of superiority, or the need to hide our brokenness can bring anguish and inner pain. We can only accept this pain if we discover our true self beneath all the masks and realize that if we are broken, we are also more beautiful than we ever dared to suspect. When we realize our brokenness, we do not have to fall into depression; when we see our true beauty, we do not have to become proud as peacocks.

Seeing our own brokenness and beauty allows us to recognize, hidden under the brokenness and self-centeredness of others, their beauty, their value and their sacredness. This discovery is sometimes a leap in the dark, a blessed moment, a moment of grace and a moment of enlightenment that comes in a meeting with the God of Love, who reveals to us that we are beloved and so is everyone else.

As the desire grows in us to be whole and to struggle for this wholeness in ourselves, in others, in our community, and in the world, and as we desire to be free in order to free others, a new energy is born within us, an energy that flows from God. It is as though we are crossing the Red Sea from slavery to freedom. We can start to live the pain of loss and accept anguish because a new love and a new consciousness of self are being given to us."

+ Jean Vanier, Becoming Human, http://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Human-Jean-Vanier/dp/0809145871

Mission and Liturgy

“The worship of the Church is the centre of the Orthodox ethos...the mission follows naturally from true worship and feeds into it. It is in the eucharistic worship of the Church that the Orthodox have a foretaste of the Kingdom which is coming.” + Dr. Paulos Mar Gregorios

Missiology Reflected

Sometimes we get these gems from the work in the Roman Catholic Church, which acutely captures and articulates an approximation of Orthodox Lex Orandi. In the milleu of charismatic mega-Church worldviews, such work from the See of Rome is a sober reminder for us Orthodox to avoid packaging and reducing our theology (our lex Credendi) and also a reminder of our Orthodoxy missiology which is kenotic, restorative and about theosis...nothing less than union with God, of participating in the Divine Life, and of becoming holy as He is Holy. On behalf of all and for all...

"To be a witness does not mean engaging in propaganda or in stiring people up rather it means be a living mystery; living life in such a way that one's life would have not sense if God did not exist.  To be a witness is much less a matter of external changes in one’s way of living than of firm determination to establish a real community of destiny with the disinherited masses."

+ Cardinal Emmanuel Célestin Suhard, Mission de France

"Mission is revealing to others their fundamental beauty, value and importance in the universe, their capacity to love, to grow and to do beautiful things and to meet God. Mission is transmitting to people a new inner freedom and hope; it is unlocking the doors of their being so that new energies can flow; it is taking away from their shoulders the terrible yoke of fear and guilt. To give life to people is to reveal to them that they are loved just as they are by God, with the mixture of good and evil, light and darkness that is in them: that the stone in front of their tomb in which all the dirt of their lives has been hidden, can be rolled away. They are forgiven; they can live in freedom."

+ Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, http://www.amazon.com/Community-Growth-Jean-Vanier/dp/0809131358