Fr Zacharias of Essex's Visit to Toronto

A few excerpts of Fr Zacharias of Essex's remarks during his visit to Toronto, Ontario in Mid-February:

+ There is one passion which is the most fearful of all, namely, despondency, [which means] spiritual laziness, a lack of care for eternal salvation. 

+ All our civilization is the result of spiritual despondency. 

+ One who thanks God is a stranger to despondency. 

+ When we enter the grace of thanksgiving, we acquire the right kind of godly zeal, which befits the children of God. 

+ The Divine Liturgy is where we are taught how to give perfect thanks to the almighty and beloved God in a manner worthy of Him. 

+ If we have put all our life in those things we offer Him, bread and wine – all our faith, all our love, all our humility, all our repentance, all our expectation of Him – then He will do the same: He will fill the gifts with His life, and return them to us. And we make this exchange of our little life with the boundless life of God, in the Liturgy. 

+ The spirit of God is the spirit of humility that illumines the heart to see all the benefits of God and to offer thanksgiving to Him. So, humility and thanksgiving go hand in hand for the faithful. And thanksgiving cleanses the eye of the heart. Then we acquire a spiritual vision, to know the traces of God’s benevolent providence everywhere, and to follow these traces which are the traces of His will. And in His will, there is life! 

+ The Lord Himself said, “I am the Way.” It is important to know His Way. We know that the sign of His Way is humility...To be humble and meek, these are the two conditions necessary for us to walk in His Way. 

+ If we have humility, and zeal which directs all the powers of the soul towards God, then we are building the Temple of God within us. 

+ A negative though which we accept against our brother is in fact an attack against God’s Temple in him...And “whoever destroys the Temple of God, him shall God destroy.” 

+ There are many ways of [building up the temple of God in our fellows]. One important way is to pray for one another. 

+ The constant in our life, like the constant in a mathematical formula, is what Job the Righteous said: “Blessed be the Name of the Lord forever”...Let pain come. Any kind of pain. And make it energy for prayer. And the end result will be beautiful. 

+ If we love our immortal soul, then we will never justify ourselves but always condemn ourselves before God. And in doing so, we will fulfil all the commandments. 

+ Building the Temple of God in us and in our fellows is our destiny. That’s why the Lord says, through his Apostle, that we should not let any corrupt communication come out of our mouth. But we should speak good things which can inform with grace the heart of the listener. And this is a lesson by St. Paul how to be co-workers with God in the building up of the Temple of God in our fellows. 

From St Silouan Mission Parish, Toronto. Quarterly Newsletter – SPRING 2014 http://stsilouan.org/