Justification is theosis

"Justification is theosis, through which we receive the divine light and therefore life." + Seraphim Hamilton http://onbehalfofall.org/theosis-and-justification-in-pauls-second-letter-to-the-corinthians/

The Nonexistent Athiests

"Some say that they are atheists, but there is no such thing as an atheist... No such thing. Even the devil believes and trembles (cf. James 2:19), but he refuses to do good. There is no such thing as a person who does not believe in God, and there is no rational being on earth that does not long after life with all his heart. We will give anything to live eternally, and we all long after perfect love, love that never changes but lasts forever. God is life, He is love, peace, and joy. There are those who oppose Him, but they can do nothing to hurt Him. It is we who complicate our own lives with our negative thoughts."

+ Elder Thaddeus, Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives, 147.

Knowledge Needs Reality

"Despite 20 years teaching experience I was to discover that the real teacher was not me, but mission life and the poor themselves. Knowledge in and of itself is not enough; it needs to find a reality." 

+ FrDn Pawel Mucha

http://svotssynaxis.wordpress.com/2011/11/11/st-john-the-compassionate-mission-toronto-on/

Praying for Enemies

In light of Beruit, Paris, Syria, Kenya, Egypt and reported or unreported acts of violence....Lord have mercy on us all. 

A Prayer for Enemies
By Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic 

A Serbian Bishop and writer of the spiritual book called the Orchid

A prayer composed by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic, Serbian Bishop who spoke out against the Nazi regime, was arrested, and taken to Dachau.

Orthodoxy on Other Christians…

Orthodoxy on Other Christians…
http://thehandmaid.wordpress.com/holy-orthodoxy-on-other-christians/
by Blessed Fr. Seraphim Rose


A few years before he died, Fr. Seraphim received a letter from an African-American woman who, as a catechumen learning about Orthodoxy, was struggling to understand the uncharitable attitude that some Orthodox Christians showed to those outside the Church, an attitude which reminded her of how her own people had been treated. “I am deeply troubled,” this woman wrote, “as to how Orthodoxy views what the world would call Western Christians, i.e., Protestants and Roman Catholics. I have read many articles by many Orthodox writers, and a few use words like ‘Papists,’ etc., which I find deeply disturbing and quite offensive. I find them offensive because as a person of a race which has been subjected to much name-calling I despise and do not wish to adopt the habit of name-calling myself. Even ‘heretic’ disturbs me….
“Where do I stand with my friends and relatives? They do not know about Orthodoxy or they do not understand it. Yet they believe in and worship Christ.… Am I to treat my friends and relatives as if they have no God, no Christ?… Or can I call them Christians, but just ones who do not know the true Church?
“When I ask this question, I cannot help but think of St. Innocent of Alaska as he visited the Franciscan monasteries in California. He remained thoroughly Orthodox yet he treated the priests he met there with kindness and charity and not name-calling. This, I hope, is what Orthodoxy says about how one should treat other Christians.”

The Otherness of God

Otherness in common speech, in our habitual perception of life, signifies, points towards, separation, distinction, estrangement and as a consequence the fear of aggression or the fear of rejection and loneliness. This is not what we find in God. The otherness which we perceive between human beings is indeed what I have just described. The other one is perceived by us as 'what I am not'. God is not to be perceived as 'what I am not' because the distinction itself does not make sense.. He is so radically, so ultimately other than me that we cannot draw comparisons; we cannot speak of Him in contradistinction; He is Him and I am I, and it is because He is so perfectly, so gloriously Himself that He need not prey upon me, He does not need to be an aggressor, He does not need to take possession of me, He can leave me free, and yet relate to me in complete and perfect harmony.

+ Metropolitan Anthony Bloom

Source: http://masarchive.org/Sites/texts/1979-11-18-1-E-E-T-MA06-999WhoIsGod.html

Orthodox Apologetics

Apologetics
by Archbishop John Shahovskoy

The essence of pastoral Orthodox apologetics is to reveal and expound Orthodoxy. The Lord’s Word is  not only Truth, but also Spirit and Life. In the same way  Orthodoxy is not only truth, but also spirit and life. St. Paul in the second Epistle to the Corinthians (1,20) says that the Lord Jesus Christ is “Yea” and “Amen,”— and the whole depth of the Orthodox apologetics as positive speech and action is expressed by these words.

Knowledge of Weakness

“Blessed is the man who knows his weakness. This knowledge becomes for him the foundation and the beginning [of his coming] unto all good and beautiful things.” + St Isaac of Syria

Archbishop Lazar Puhalo's Persepctive on Marriage and Monasticism

Archbishop Lazar Puhalo's Perspective on Marriage and Monasticism
By Dr. Andrew J. Sopko, on the The Theo-Anthropology of Archbishop Lazar Puhalo

How Atheists can help us...

How atheists can help us....
by Fr Roberto Ubertino

http://stsilouan.org/priestmusings/How%20atheist%20can%20help%20us.html

On The Creation

On The Creation

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." So he denies that matter shared with God the time before the beginning, eternity; or that it was uncreated, as some say.  He doesn't present something that didn't exist at one time as coinciding with and co-existant with the eternal; he doesn't confuse the temporary, something which was brought into existence ... with that which is from time immemorial; something that changes to something which is always itself; nor something which is corruptible with that which is incorruptible! 

On the contrary, he makes creation happen in a moment, ..., because starting from nothing it was brought to be what it is according to the divine will. What he certainly does not say, is that matter existed already, had already been invented, and that God limited himself to being its director and workman, giving form to what was amorphous, and only imposing on matter different qualities, dimensions and volumes.  On the contrary he says that, thanks to a secret and unutterable power, in the beginning God brought into being what was not and did not exist in any way whatever!

As for the way in which he made creation happen, we do not have the means to say.  I affirm that it is beyond any way of expression known to us: how indeed could what exceeds understanding be explained?  In my opinion, the approach imagined by the supreme Being and the way that leads to an understanding of his enterprise will be always as inaccessible to our human condition as we are by nature lower than this Being himself. When Moses said, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth", understand that he condenses and summarizes in some way all the details in a single word, when he describes the genesis of all creation. Then, he attempts to say somehow how this creation was put in order and how all the things created were assigned the role in life which they have.

Moses also states that that God created through the all-powerful Word: in fact his creator-Word of the universe is God himself and proceeds from God by nature. "God said," Moses continues, "Let there be a firmament!" and this firmament  instantaneously becomes real by the operation of the Word, and God gives it the name of 'heaven'. "God said: Let the dry land appear!" and the waters gather in a single body. God said moreover: 'Let the sun be!' and it was; and so for the moon, the stars, the day, the terrestrial and aquatic animals, and the birds.  But by nature the elements themselves cannot draw from their own resources the possibility of escaping corruption, on the contrary, they need the hand of He that maintains them in good condition: this is the sense of the words of Moses: "the breath of God was moving over the waters." Indeed the breath of God vivifies anything, because He is life also by nature, as He proceeds from the life of the Father; everything needs Him, and there is no other means for anything to obtain existence in order to be what it is.

So contemplate, as I have just said, the firmament firmly established by the Word and the firm ground emerging after the gathering of the waters in a single body; contemplate the green earth full of grass and trees, and the vital forces included in them which makes possible for them to conceal their transitory nature with the virtue of eternity, to last and remain; see the luminaries of the firmament, created by God only for the purpose of lighting what is on earth, to mark the moments of time, the days, the years! Moses adds that the earth accepted the order to give rise to the brute animals, the Creator on his side distributing to each its form, size and conditions of existence.

And when everything in the world had finally been created, when nothing was lacking to supply the needs of man, then, and only then, did the Creator begin to think of the way in which He was going to realise man himself. Because the creation of man, unlike the other creative acts, could not be improvised. ... He decided to form the animal in His own image, as much as could be made. Also, having every reason to ensure that this, which must be in His image and resemblance, namely man, did not appear weak, contemptible or different enough from the other animals, He chose to create him only after serious reflection.

However, it will be said without inaccuracy, that nothing could escape the divine spirit, since He knows everything indeed before it is born; why then did God reflect, even though He knew in advance the nature of man?  The incomparable Moses, as I said, affirms that it was in conformity with the divine economy that man was to some extent honoured by the deliberation of the Creator; he shows that his creation was not done quite simply, might one say, not just like any other: everything happens as if God had taken a particular care of this action. The expression is undoubtedly forced --- but I grant that it appears quite sensible; we affirm that the man is most important of the animals, and was made to resemble He that created him.

God spoke thus to us:

    "I said: You are gods, and you are all the sons of the Almighty." 

In fact, when the Creator of the world had made the thinking and reasonable creature, according to His own image and His own semblance, in His great kindness He honoured it with the name of 'god': and there was nothing wrong with this, since we also are accustomed to giving, say for example to a portrait of a man, this same name of 'man'!

Therefore the thinking and reasonable creature, because God holds it in greater regard than those lacking reason and thought, seems to have received in part a higher glory since the denomination of 'god' haloed it with gold; in any case, absolutely no other creature was named 'god'. In fact, like the universe, the sky is not a living being in the true sense of the expression, it is not even endowed with a soul. ....

That He demands that we honour Him, that He requires obedience and understands that human nature is like his in every kind of virtue, it would be the easiest thing in the world for me to bring a thousand veracious testimonies drawn from the inspired Scripture. God wants us to honour him, and that by the holiness of our life, we will conform ourselves to him on the spiritual level, by engraving his beauty in our souls.  

+ St Cyril of Alexandria, Against Julian: Address of the blessed Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria, to the very pious emperor Theodosius, devoted to Christ.

--
Thanks to Father Athanasius Iskander Of St. Mary's Coptic Orthodox Church in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada for sharing this.

On Hospitality, Generosity and Giving

"When we love the name of salvation, of our Lord Jesus Christ, and have mercy upon each other, we fulfill all the Law. Through mercy, Abraham was pleased, to host God, and His holy angels.
...When we continue to keep Him, in our inner being, He will make us rich, so we can give to others. We do not ask for, the wealth of this world, but for the salvation of our souls, by calling upon His holy name."

+ Wednesday Watos Psali, Midnight Praises, Coptic Orthodox Church, http://tasbeha.org/hymn_library/view/356 

"I am frightened at the possibility of being condemned. Not because I have robbed, or committed adultery, or done something forbidden, but rather for having failed to care for Christ himself in the person of the poor. Servants of Christ, let us then visit Christ! Let us take care of Christ! Let us feed Christ! Let us welcome Christ...in the person of the poor."

+ St Gregory of Nazianzus

Theosis/Deification in the Oriental Orthodox Liturgical Tradition

Someone has compiled a list of prayers and references in the Oriental Orthodox Liturgical Tradition which teach about Theosis/Deification . The list contains references to deification in the liturgical life of the Orthodox Church. In particular the list focuses primarily on the Coptic Orthodox prayers but also includes a few references to other Oriental Orthodox liturgical prayers:

Original list reblogged from: http://www.writeurl.com/publish/0vnlqlqd3rqkpygoc69d

On The Unconditionality of Divine Love

Here are some links to a very well written set of articles by Fr Aidan Kimel on the Eclectic Orthodoxy blog (make sure to also read the comments section of each post):

Hell (Unfortunately)?
https://afkimel.wordpress.com/2015/06/16/hell-unfortunately/

Universalism and the Deluge of Condemnation
https://afkimel.wordpress.com/2015/06/18/universalism-and-the-deluge-of-condemnation/

The Gospel of Deluge
https://afkimel.wordpress.com/2015/06/21/the-gospel-of-deluge/

Debating Universalism: The Need to Do One’s Homework
https://afkimel.wordpress.com/2015/06/23/debating-universalism-the-need-to-do-ones-homework/

Orthodoxy and the Damnation of the Damned
https://afkimel.wordpress.com/2015/06/25/orthodoxy-and-the-damnation-of-the-damned-2/

The Unconditionality of Divine Love and the Universalist Hope
https://afkimel.wordpress.com/2015/06/27/the-unconditionality-of-divine-love-and-the-universalist-hope/

Highly recommended is the most recent post "The Unconditionality of Divine Love and the Universalist Hope" which is also reblogged below:

St Nicholas Cabasilas And The Life In Christ

http://modeoflife.org/2012/06/22/st-nicholas-cabasilas-and-the-life-in-christ/

By Anthony Papantoniou

(Source: Greek Australian Vema, English Section, June and July 2009 Issues)

Lex Orandi and the Test of all Dogma

"The liturgical and sacramental life of a Church is the authentic expression of the faith, or the mind and of the spiritual experience of her clergy and people. On the other hand the liturgy stamps its imprint on the consciousness of the worshipping community, as a channel of grace. All dogmas are ultimately tested in the life of the Church against the basic tradition on the one hand, and against the experience of the age on the other."

+ H.H. Karekin I, "Problems of Consensus in Christology: The Function of Councils" in Christ in East and West, ed. by Paul R. Fries and Tiran Nersoyan (Mercer University Press, 1987), 49-64.

Sacraments

"All sacraments are an epiclesis, all sacraments call the Holy Spirit upon a reality to reveal the fullness of that reality, to bring forth what is there, to release the full potential."

+ Fr Roberto Ubertino

"We might say that the symbol does not so much “resemble” the reality that it symbolizes as it participates in it, and therefore it is capable of communicating it in reality...

By its very nature the symbol unites disparate realities, the relation of the one to the other always remaining “absolutely other.” However real a symbol may be, however successfully it may communicate to us that other reality, its function is not to quench our thirst but to intensify it: “Grant us that we may more perfectly partake of Thee in the never ending day of Thy Kingdom.” It is not that this or that part of “this world” — space, time, or matter — be made sacred, but rather that everything in it be seen and comprehended as expectation and thirst for its complete spiritualization: “that God may be all in all.”

Christian worship is symbolic because, first of all, the world itself, God’s own creation, is symbolic, is sacramental; and second of all, because it is the Church’s nature, her task in “this world,” to fulfill this symbol, to realize it as the “most real of realities.” We can therefore say that the symbol reveals the world, mankind and all creation as the “matter” of a single, all-embracing sacrament."

+ Fr Alexander Schmemann,

On Compassion and Forgiveness

“Remember People’s love and their past good experiences with you. Should you doubt their sincerity or find out they have wronged you, Their old love will intercede and your anger will fade away.” 

+ H.H. Pope Shenouda III

"I beseech you, put this to the test. When a man affronts you or brings dishonor on your head, or takes what is yours, or persecutes the Church, then pray to the Lord, saying: “O Lord, we are all Thy creatures. Have pity on Thy servants and turn their hearts to repentance,” and you will be aware of grace in your soul. To begin with, constrain your heart to love enemies, and the Lord, seeing your good will, will help you in all things, and experience itself will show you the way."

+ St Silouan the Athonite

"Christianity honors man greatly, and raises his value as the crown of all creation who has the sole dominion over it. But it is a spiritual religion which aims to create a religious society, eliminating the spirit of evil in man, to bring him back to his first state before the fall when God made him in His image and according to His likeness (Genesis 1:26). When Christianity asks us to love our enemies, bless those who curse us, do good to those who hate us, and pray for those who spitefully use us and persecute us (Matthew 5:44), it does that to elevate the state of all parties that they become no more enemies but friends. In doing that, it does not convert us to passive fearful people, but to good and active people. It gives us a powerful weapon by which we defeat our enemies. It is the weapon of goodness which eliminates evil from its root "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good" (Romans 12:21). Hence, withstanding is out of strength and not of weakness, for "He who rules his spirit is better than he who takes a city" (Proverbs 16:32). The matter is very clear in our own lives, in fulfilling such commandments - which some consider as lowering to human honor - one gains honor and tribute via humility and love, and not via roughness and haughtiness, and he converts enemies to friends." 

+ Bishop Yoannis of Gharbia

Some Ideas for Summer Camp

Here are two posts from Fr Johnathan Tobias' blog that organizers of Summer Camps, Youth Conferences or Mahragan Alkeraza might find interesting.

Cool scientific facts that should be talked about at summer camp

http://janotec.typepad.com/terrace/2014/06/cool-scientific-facts-that-should-be-talked-about-at-summer-camp.html

More cool science facts that should be talked about at summer camp (or OCF)

http://janotec.typepad.com/terrace/2014/06/more-cool-science-facts-that-should-be-talked-about-at-summer-camp-or-ocf.html

The articles are also reblogged for reference below:

The Struggle of Love

"Don't wage your Christian struggle with sermons and arguments, but with true love."

+ Elder Porphyrios

"When we argue, others react. When we love people, they are moved & we win them over. When we love...we are the first to benefit." 

+ Elder Porphyrios

The Purpose of Orthodox "Spirituality"

One of our professors once mentioned that the term "Spirituality" is a category that is rooted in the presuppositions of protestant ethos or the result of the Protestant Reformation. Our professor referred instead to a term 'pastoralia' to refer to the pastoral application of the 'spirituality' of the Church's living theology. So one could say that when we think of 'spirituality,' the whole life of the Church is 'spiritual' just as it is 'physical' or 'worldly' or 'eschatological'. Likewise all of the Church is to be applied pastorally, thereby hinting that 'pastoralia' is indeed a more accurate term...if under certain circumstances we are asked to use terms and categories. Better perhaps to point towards the beauty of the life of the Church, the beauty of the Lord and say "Taste and see."

The Purpose of Orthodox "Spirituality"
by Metropolitan Saba Esber
Source: http://araborthodoxy.blogspot.ca/2013/05/met-saba-esber-on-purpose-of-orthodox.html

Question: I know, father, that many Orthodox do not like to use the term "spirituality." But insofar as it is a term that is current in the field of religion as in other fields, can you explain to us what is Orthodox spirituality?

How much? How Little?

There is no lowest common denominator of Christianity. There is no modest form of the faith around which we may gather. There is only the “faith, once and for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3). Anything less is either no longer Christian, or building a foundation for something that in time will not be Christian.

+ Fr Stephen Freeman, http://glory2godforallthings.com/2007/05/17/how-much-is-too-little-how-much-is-enough/

Jim Forest on Peacemaking

Seven Aspects Essential in Christian Peacemaking

Excerpt from "Following Christ in a Violent World," presented to the Orthodox Student Association of Finland in 2003. Source: http://www.jimandnancyforest.com/2005/01/09/following-christ-in-a-violent-world/

Reflecting on the word and example of Christ, we can identify seven aspects of spiritual life that are essential aspects of Christian peacemaking: love of enemies; prayer for enemies; doing good to en­emies; turning the other cheek; offering forgiveness; breaking down walls of division; and resisting evil in ways which may lead one’s en­emies toward conversion.

A Study on Modern Evolutionary Anthropology

"Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them”:
The experience of biblical theological analysis of the realities of modern evolutionary anthropology
http://www.bogoslov.ru/en/text/2580297.html

Father Oleg Mumrikov (Doctor of Theology, lecturer at St Tikhon’s Orthodox Humanities University, teacher at the Moscow Theological Academy), asks a rather important question for the field of theology in a report presented during the session "On the Origin of the World and of Man" at the Moscow Theological Academy 20th International Educational Christmas Readings on 24 January 2012: how should one understand the array of facts, supporting evolutionary anthropogenesis, which have been gathered in anthropology?

What is meant by a Living Liturgical Tradition?

"In the East the alternative to an imposed legalism and rubricism is not anarchic individualism but spontaneous fidelity to the common tradition. Take for example the Byzantine rite. Except for some synodal decrees and a few novellae of Justinian, there is no corpus of liturgical law obligatory in the Byzantine Churches. Incredible as it may seem, this most splendid, complex, highly ceremonialized worship in the whole of Christendom has evolved and maintained itself for the most part in a natural way, without the need of formal law. This is precisely what we mean by a living liturgical tradition."

+ Fr Robert F. Taft, "Beyond East and West: Problems in Liturgical Understanding." 2nd Rev. Ed. (Rome: Pontifical Oriental Institute Press, 2001) 149

Created in Love

"What profundity of richness, what mind and exalted wisdom is God’s. What compassionate kindness and abundant goodness belongs to the Creator! With what purpose and with what love did He create this world and bring it into existence! What a mystery does the coming into being of this creation look towards! To what a state is our common nature invited! What love served to initiate the creation of the world! This same love which initiated the act of creation prepared beforehand by another dispensation the things appropriate to adorn the world’s majesty which sprung forth as a result of the might of His love.

In love did He bring the world into existence; in love does He guide it during this its temporal existence; in love is He going to bring it to that wondrous transformed state, and in love will the world be swallowed up in the great mystery of Him who has performed all things; in love will the whole course of the governance of creation be finally comprised. And since in the New World the Creator’s love rules over all rational nature, the wonder at His mysteries that will be revealed then will captive to itself the intellect of all rational beings whom He has created so that they might have delight in Him, whether they be evil or whether they be just. With this design did He bring them into existence, even though they among themselves have made, after their coming into being, this distinction between the just and the wicked. Even though this is so, nevertheless in the Creator’s design there is none, from among all who were created and who have come into being—that is, every rational nature—who is to the front or to the back of God’s love. Rather, He has a single equal love which covers the whole extent of rational creation, all things whether visible or invisible: there is no first place or last place with Him in this love for any single one of them, as I have said.

And just as there is not a single nature who is in the first place or last place in creation in the Creator’s knowledge—I refer here to this knowledge which was set in His purpose eternally, that He would bring them into being: it was not the case of His knowing one before or after another, but all of them equally without any before or after, in a twinkling of an eye—similarly there is no before or after in His love towards them: no greater or lesser amount of love is to be found with Him at all. 

Rather, just like the continual equality of His knowledge, so too is the continual equality of His love; for He knew them all before they ever became just or sinners. The Creator and His love did not change because they underwent change after He had brought them into being, nor does His purpose which exists eternally change. And if it were otherwise, He would be subject to change just as created beings are—a shocking idea.

My brethren, if there is anyone to whom these things are difficult to believe, he should be careful lest, by running away from one element in the argument he fall into blasphemy at another: imagining that he is spurning the words of a fellow human being, he may find himself arming himself against what concerns the divine Nature, being forced by the logic of his case to reduce the glorious Nature of his Creator to weakness and change.

But we know that everyone is agreed on this, that there is no change, or any earlier and later intentions, with the Creator: there is no hatred or resentment in His nature, no greater or lesser place in His love, no before or after in His knowledge. For if it is believed by everyone that the creation came into existence as a result of the Creator’s goodness and love, then we know that this original cause does not ever diminish or change in the Creator’s nature as a result of the disordered course of creation."

+ St Isaac the Syrian, The Second Part, Chapter 38.

Theosis as Beautification: A Passion and Paschal meditation

On this Great and Holy Friday may you continually encounter the beauty of the Cross and the Resurrection.

If you've a few moments, please see the following meditation by Fr Johnathan Tobias:


Theosis as Beautification -- a Passion and Paschal meditation
by Fr Jonathan Tobias
http://janotec.typepad.com/terrace/2015/04/theosis-as-beautification-a-passion-and-paschal-meditation.html

What is Orthodox Theology?

What is Theology? What is Orthodox Theology?
Fr. Andrew Louth

"What is theology?" We first need to avoid a trap set by the word itself. There are lots of areas of knowledge designated by the suffix -logy: biology, anthropology, psychology, psephology, geology... I've lost count of the number of times people have asked me what I am a professor of, and in response to my saying "theology" have responded by saying how fascinating it must be to study rocks, and the formation of continents, and so forth!

The Small Things

"In whatever work we engage patience gives birth to courage, courage to commitment, commitment to perseverance, and perseverance to an increase in the work done. Such additional labor quells the body's dissolute impulses and checks the desire for sensual indulgence. Thus checked, desire gives rise to spiritual longing, longing to love, love to aspiration, aspiration to ardor, ardor to self-galvanizing, self-galvanizing to assiduousness, assiduousness to prayer, and prayer to stillness. Stillness gives birth to contemplation, contemplation to spiritual knowledge, and knowledge to the apprehension of the mysteries. The consummation of the mysteries is theology, the fruit of theology is perfect love, of love humility, of humility dispassion, and of dispassion foresight, prophecy and foreknowledge. No one possesses the virtues perfectly in this life, nor does he cut off evil all at once. On the contrary, by small increases of virtue evil gradually ceases to exist."

+ St. Gregory of Sinai.

The Structure and Meaning of Holy Week

The Structure and Meaning of Holy Week

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65QgZlNQ1yQ

http://www.christthesaviour.ca/ 

https://soundcloud.com/christthesaviouroc/the-structure-and-meaning-of

The Eucharist

“…if we really yearn for eternal life, if we long to have the provider of immortality within ourselves, let us not abstain from the Eucharist like some of the more negligent, nor let us provide the devil in the depths of his cunning with a trap and a snare for us in the form of a pernicious kind of reverence. ‘Yes, indeed,’ someone might say. ‘But it is written: “Anyone who eats of the bread and drinks of the cup unworthily, eats and drinks judgment upon himself” (cf. I Cor. 11:29). I have examined myself and I see that I am not worthy.’ But then when will you be worthy? My response would be: ‘When will you present yourself to Christ? If you are always going to be afraid of falling, you will never cease falling – “For who can discern his faults,” as the holy Psalmist says (Ps. 18:12 LXX) – and you will end up totally bereft of a share in saving sanctification.’ Make up your mind, then, to lead a more devout life in conformity with the law, and so partake of the Eucharist in the conviction that it dispels not only death but even the diseases that are in us (cf. I Cor. 11:30). For when Christ has come to be within us he lulls to sleep the law that rages in the members of flesh. He rekindles our reverence towards God, while simultaneously causing the passions to atrophy. He does not reckon our faults against us. Instead, He binds up that which has been wounded, he raises that which has fallen, as a good shepherd who has laid down His life for the sheep (Ez. 34:16; Jn. 10:11).”

+ St. Cyril of Alexandria (Cyril of Alexandria: The Early Church Fathers by Norman Russell, Commentary on John 6:56)

Being Christian and the Liturgy in Life

"The Eucharist Liturgy as our properly defined relationship with God may also help us understand what it is we have to say to the world about the Triune God who so loved the world as to enter into it in order to bring us all to union with God." 

+ Fr Ted Bobosh, http://frted.wordpress.com/2013/07/03/witnessing-to-christ/

“QUESTION: The people around me are non-believers. I often try to explain to them Who it is that I believe in, and what the content of my faith is. But from their side I encounter mockery. Am I doing the right thing in trying to explain things to them, or is this what our Lord Jesus Christ said: ‘pearls before swine’?

ANSWER: If your explanations provoke mockery, don’t offer explanations.  It would be better to pray for those people. The truths of Christianity can’t be forced on others; they have to be accepted freely. But if these people ask you questions, you have to answer, but consider why they asked the question. It is important to capture the right moment, when they will listen to you attentively and with a desire to understand. You also have to take into account the fact that your explanations might really be unconvincing. It wasn’t by accident that Christ said: ‘Don’t be teachers.’ If you yourself would really be a carrier of the truths of Christianity, your explanations would be convincing. To ‘cast your pearls’ means to speak words without confirming them by your life. Whether our words are pearls or the truth depends not on those who hear us, but on us ourselves.”

+ Father Dmitrii Dudko, Our Hope, pg. 22

On Death

On Death
by Metropolitan Anthony Bloom

Divinization is Humanization

“...the very nature of humanity is to be like God, for that is what it means to be created in the image of God. The more humanity becomes like God, the more it becomes itself. Divinization is humanization. Theosis is anthropoiesis.” 

+ H.G. Paulos Mar Gregorios, Cosmic Man, pg. 230

“Life in man is the glory of God; the life of man is the vision of God.”

Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, Book 4, 20:7

“The glory of God is a living man; and the life of man consists in beholding God”

Saint Irenaeus of Lyons (Another Translation)

"The glory of God is a man fully alive."

Saint Irenaeus of Lyons (Another Translation)

Reflections of a Reluctant Vigiller

Reflections of a Reluctant Vigiller

I wasn't sure I would want to do it – spending a long evening sitting alone in a dark room – not getting done any of the things I needed to get done, not visiting any of the people I wanted to visit, not having any of the adventures I wanted to have on a Friday night.

7 pm to midnight prayer vigil.

Fr John Behr on Forgiveness Vespers

"This evening we stand at the entrance to the Great Fast, and we enter into this holy season by asking each other for forgiveness.

Forgiveness is at the heart of Christianity, the mystery of Christ. It expresses the love that God has shown us in Christ, our mediator, reconciler, redeemer, and creator, the one who breaks down the wall of separation that we erect through our hardness of heart and brings us into unity with God and with each other.

It is at once the easiest thing—my yoke is light says Christ (Matt. 11:30)—and the hardest thing, as hard as our own hearts, our own sense of self—righteousness and self-worth. It is as hard as taking up the cross, and yet so easy, if only we can embrace it fully.

That which stands in the way of our taking the path of forgiveness is primarily our own hard-heartedness: we often don't want to forgive others, preferring to lick our wounds, aggrieved with others, but satisfied with ourselves, and build our identity on these wounds—“poor me"—and even more we often don’t want to ask for forgiveness, preferring to blame others because they can’t see how right we really are.

How hard it is, yet so easy, to cut through all of this self-righteousness, to accept the forgiveness that Christ offers us, and to forgive one another. By taking the first step, by asking one another for forgiveness, We cut down our ego and all that which would assert itself and justify itself, and we allow our hearts of stone to be cracked open, to receive the love of God, to become hearts of flesh, capable of loving one another.

When we do this we will find that forgiveness is not just a matter of saying "forget it," "it doesn't matter," "let's pretend it never happened." Rather we will find that even the evil and sin that has happened becomes an occasion of joy and life. Just as when Joseph's brother - who had sold him into slavery - were told by Joseph when they approached him: You thought that you did this? In fact, it was God who sent me here to preserve life (Gen. 45:5).

In the same way, if our hearts are set upon Christ and following him into the glory prepared for us from before the foundation of the world, if this is so, then everything that has happened, and happens still, becomes the means by which God is forming us, breaking our stony hearts, so that we might be conformed to the First-Born of many brethren (Rom. 8:29), so that we can indeed rejoice in all things, not only those things for which it is easy to be thankful - the good things that have come our way and the joy that others bring - but also all the trials and tribulations by which we now suffer, pummelling us and softening us, to share in the Pascha of Christ, the Pascha which, as we will sing in a minute, allows us to forgive all in the resurrection of Christ.

It is to this end, and this end alone, that all the extra prayers and ascetic efforts of the coming days are directed - certainly not that we should feel ever more proud of our achievements in them.

According to the Fathers, our life comes from our neighbor. God is the source of life, but it is a life that is lived here and now, with one another. And so our steps to a renewed life must begin concretely here, with one another. And so our steps to a renewed life must begin concretely here, with one another, beginning by asking each other for forgiveness, for all the things we may have done or not done, loose words or deliberate actions, for any offence caused, and, more generally, for having fallen short of what Christ has asked from each of us."

+ Fr John Behr, "The Cross Stands, While The World Turns" (Yonkers: St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2014) 25-26.

The Meaning of Love

The Meaning of Love

By Metropolitan Anthony Bloom

The meaning of love is the meaning of life, because love, in spite of what we very often think or imagine, is not a simple feeling. When we speak of God, and we say that God is love, we do not mean that he is infinite feeling. We mean something deeper than this; that God is a plenitude of life and of being. And this applies also to our human love. Someone who is possessed by love is a man who has a plenitude of life in himself, in whom the sense of life, the power of life is so full, so great, that life is sure of itself. And this generates joy, courage, enthusiasm, and it goes so deep that it is beyond death itself. Holy Scripture says that love is stronger than death, indeed it is stronger than death because it has placed itself by its fullness, its power in intensity in the realm of the resurrection, in the realm of eternal life. And this is why love is capable of final sacrifice, not only of giving and of receiving but of laying down one's life, because this life, if it is given, is also possessed in its fullness. It is plenitude of life which finds expression in final sacrifice. You may remember the words of Christ: 'No one is taking my life from me, I give it freely myself.' In that respect love, the fullness of life which it expresses, is invulnerable. People may take our lives, people may put us to any test, and yet one remains invulnerable because no one in reality is taking; the person who loves is giving.

God is love. God is compassionate. Merciful. Kind. Good. True.

God is love. God is compassionate. Merciful. Kind. Good. True.
by Dr Mary Marrocco

"God is love. God is compassionate. Merciful. Kind. Good. True.

Familiar words. Not so hard to say. Not so difficult to write. Everybody’s heard them, whether from catechisms, Sunday school, old people, dusty Bibles, even the odd TV show. They don't seem to have much to do with everyday life, though, most times. We know God is love. We know Yellowknife is capital of the Northwest Territories, too, but that doesn't help us decide what to have for breakfast in the morning. What does it have to do with - well, my life? God is watching over us and has compassion on us.

We Must Pray for All: The Salvation of the World According to St Silouan

We Must Pray for All: The Salvation of the World According to St Silouan
by Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware)
http://www.bogoslov.ru/en/text/2314168.html

Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia analyses the soteriological theology of St Silouan the Athonite. Identifying the similar sense of cosmic unity found both in Dostoevsky and St Silouan, the Metropolitan discusses the influence of St Isaac the Syrian on both men, moving on to examine St Silouan's burning desire and constant prayer for the salvation of the whole world and its theological implications.

Blindness and Seeing

THE STORY OF BARTIMAUEUS 
by Metropolitan Anthony Bloom

I believe that one of the reasons which prevent us from being truly ourselves and finding our own way is that we do not realise the extent to which we are blind! If only we knew that we were blind, how eagerly would we seek healing: we should seek it, as Bartimaeus probably did, from men, doctors, priests, healers; and then, having lost all hope 'in princes, in the sons of men in whom there is no salvation', we might, perhaps, turn to God. But the tragedy is that we do not realise our blindness: too many things leap to our eyes for us to be aware of the invisible to which we are blind. We live in a world of things which command our attention and assert themselves: we have no need to affirm them, they are there. Things invisible do not assert themselves - we have to seek them out and discover them. The outside world demands our attention: God entreats us diffidently. <…>

Oh how does the Source of Life pass from death to life?

Oh how does the Source of Life pass from death to life?
by Fr Roberto Ubertino, Aug 15, 2013

http://www.stsilouan.org/sermons/Oh%20how%20does%20the%20Source%20of%20Life%20pass%20from%20death%20to%20life%20Aug%2015,%202013.html

We are standing in one of the most beautiful feast days of the year. There is a very ancient tradition that places a celebration in honor of the Mother of God at this time of the year. It started in Palestine and evolved to this present feast day that we call the Dormition or Falling Asleep of the Mother of God (falling asleep is the Christian term for death.)

Union with Christ

"When the head is detached from the body then the body ceases to be alive. Likewise when we are not united to Christ in an intimate manner, as close as that of our own head with our own body, then we will find that we begin to lose that life and salvation which He provides to His body. How necessary it is for us to be united with our Head. He must become the source of our thoughts and desires, as He will also become the source of life and salvation."

+ Fr Peter Farrington

Merciful Works, Martyrdom and Theosis

"Nothing is so fitted for deification…and nearness to God as mercy offered with pleasure and joy to those who stand in need. For if the Word has shown that the person who is in need of having good done to him is God - "inasmuch as you have done it,"(Mt24:40) - then He will much more show that the person, who can do good and does it, is truly God by grace and participation, because he has taken on a proper imitation of the energy (energia)…of His own kindness."

+ St Maximus the Confessor, Mystagogy 24 (PG 91 713A-B)

"There is yet another way (of demonstrating the Incarnation), which is not theoretical in nature: namely, the certainty that results from (spiritual) exercise and inner purification. The fathers, who along this path have arrived at the utmost end, have testified that the Christian faith alone is true. The proof of this is their attainment of contact with God to the extent that (divine) traces of him became manifest in them, as well as their constancy in that faith and their devotion to it until they offered themselves up (in martyrdom) without separation from it and in obedience to it."

+ Al-Safı ibn al-Assal, Brief Chapters on the Trinity and the Union, ch. 9 ed. Khalil Samir, SJ, in Patrologia Orientalis 42.3, no. 192 (Brepols: Turnhout/Belgique, 1985). Trans. S. Davis.

An Important Matter

Today wanted to share a large block quote by St John Damascus on the importance of matter in Christianity. Matter plays a very important role in authentic Christian understanding, and a challange for many Orthodox is to avoid the extremes. We are neither called to misuse or abuse matter, nor are we called to consider a "spiritual" platontic ideal in opposition to a base or banal "world". Such dualism would mean buying into the early heresies which the Church sought to correct: Gnosticsm and Docetism.

From his book "Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy," Fr Andrew Damick defines these two erronous movements as:

Docetism: The teaching that Jesus was indeed divine, but that He only “appeared” to be man. This heresy is mentioned (though not by name) in the New Testament and also in the writings of St. Ignatius of Antioch. One of the ramifications of this heresy is a denial of the involvement of physical matter in our salvation (called dualism, the opposition of the spiritual to the physical). The Docetists would therefore abstain from the Eucharist.

Gnosticism: A broad term for a large group of different teachings. Almost all were dualistic (like Docetism) and included fanciful and complicated cosmological schema regarding the arrangement of the universe and everything in it. Most gnostic groups taught that a saving knowledge (gnosis) was what was necessary for salvation. They often also taught that only a select few were able to reach the highest spiritual plane and that most people could only function on a lower level. Those who ascended to this higher level had esoteric, “secret” teaching passed on from Jesus.

+ Fr Stephen Andrew Damick, "Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy: Exploring Belief Systems Through the Lens o f the Ancient Christian Faith." (Chesterton: Conciliar Media Ministries, 2011) 20.

St John responds to those who deny the importance of iconography and iconology by claiming that such 'iconoclastic' sentiments are contrary to the revealled mystery that the Church confesses. To summarize his argument says "Do not abuse matter; for it is not dishonorable"

Here's the excerpt (I highly recommend the book too):

Blessed are the Dispassionate

"What do you do with obnoxious people?  You know who I mean—difficult people, insolent people, nasty, mean, irritating, drive you out of your mind and push your crazy buttons people.  Maybe we’re talking about friends, acquaintances, or total strangers.  Then again, maybe we’re talking about family members.  For us monastics, we might be talking about those who belong to our brotherhood or sisterhood.  In any case, we’re talking about times and circumstances and people that pose a challenge.  I’ll spell this out.  Here’s what I have in mind—when someone puts you on the spot and forces the issue.  I just hate it when that happens.  It ruins my day.  Is this a problem for you?  It is for me.  How do we handle it?

Two strategies come to mind.  The first consists in applying the old maxim that the best defense is a good offense.  In other words, jump into the drama and beat them at their own game.  Blast them for what they say and do, what they are about to say and do, and—just in case—whatever you suspect they might be thinking of saying or doing.  Get them first.

This plan has a consequence, though.  Even if I win the argument, I lose in another way.  It boomerangs on me.  When I lose my cool with somebody, my cool usually stays lost a lot longer than I want.  With interpersonal relations, victory doesn’t bring peace.

The other strategy amounts to sizing up the situation and then running away.  No, I don’t necessarily mean running in a literal sense.  We can do that, too, but running can take other forms, more figurative forms.

Hypocrisy and self-abasement, for example.  Pretending you don’t understand.  Giving a vague reply that deliberately misses the point and hoping the other guy doesn’t insist on pursuing the matter.

Buttering the other person up with flattery.  Insincere agreement.  All these responses have something in common—a retreat into the inner sanctum of our thoughts and feelings, where we probably stew over the matter in a spirit of ever-increasing outrage, resentment, self-pity, self-justification, and a helpless sense of victimization.  I may walk away from the real-life situation and then play it out in my own head, staging rehearsals and performances, taking on all the roles myself in my fantasy—and then writing a review of the production.

In other words, even when I bite my tongue and put on my great stone face act, I land in the same turmoil as when I rush into the fray.  So much for peace of mind. Whichever of these two strategies we pick, then, we end up entangled in drama.  Either we engage in an external drama, or we move the theater inside our own psyche for an internal drama.  In either case, we might as well just announce that “the show must go on.” Neither strategy works very well, then, does it?  We could pose one question of both of them—is this any way to live?  And we would have to answer no.

Just speaking for myself now, I know that I have to find a better way.  That is, I fall into each of these strategies from time to time—with a clear preference for massive retaliation—and I don’t consider the results successful.  Besides, it occurs to me every so often that the four monastic vows I took include a commitment to stability.  Among other things, that means emotional stability.  And I can’t maintain emotional stability if I leap into someone else’s drama or if I run away in fear and then withdraw into my hideout to lick my wounds. There has to be a better way.

I think there is.  It requires us to resist the temptation toward external drama on the one hand and internal drama on the other.  But how do we accomplish that?  Well, I believe we can draw on what some of the Monastic Fathers write about the four stages of becoming captivated by a thought.  The Fathers developed their analysis specifically about thoughts that interrupt our prayers, but their account works equally well when we apply it to our dealings with other people. Anyway, the four stages go like this, with an application of to the subject at hand.  First is the provocation, which would be the words or actions of the other person.  Second is what the Fathers call coupling, where we start thinking about what the other person is saying or doing and we begin to interpret it, evaluate it, and judge it.  The third stage consists in forming a strategy to react to the other person’s words or acts, whether externally or internally.  The fourth stage, captivity, is the point at which we throw ourselves into action without looking back.

What will save us from this mess is mindfulness—that is, becoming aware of the process taking place inside us.  With that awareness we can make a decision to respond rather than react.  In other words, we can walk a middle path between external and internal drama and respond—with discernment—to the real-life situation instead of letting our thoughts go wild in that semi-automatic process so characteristic of our fallen situation, and then reacting to our own captivity instead of the real events of real life.

Okay.   So if this works as I expect it to work, it brings me some inner peace.  All well and good.  But I still have this difficult person standing in front of me, insisting on some response from me.  So the situation remains unresolved.  What has my dispassion gained me?

Well, when my thoughts and feelings don’t dominate me, I can respond to the person and the situation rather than react to my own semi-automatic mental and emotional processes.  I can be present to the reality before me instead of getting lost in my own psychic whirl.  When I step back from the mechanism of judging the other person and justifying myself, I can discern what I need to say and do.  After all, no matter how smart I think I am, how clever I think I am, how adept I think I am at accomplishing half a dozen things at the same time with perfect attention to each one, I have to admit—when I am being honest—that I can’t really keep my attention on the situation in front of me if I am preoccupied with my own interpretation, evaluation, and reaction to that situation.

Finally, if I can break free from all this mental and emotional turmoil, from all this it’s all about me stuff, perhaps I can open myself up to allow God’s light to shine into the dark corners of my mind and heart.  If I can do that, God may be able to illumine me so that I can speak and act according to His will rather than my own.

Easier said than done, of course, but it’s worth a try."

+ Monk Cosmas, http://www.theocpm.org

The Good Samaritan

On the Merciful Samaritan
By Metropolitan Anthony Bloom

In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

Today's Gospel in short, contains everything which is the way of the Christian. The first commandment is that we should love our God with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our strength, with all our being, and our neighbour as ourselves. To love means to prefer all that is dear to the beloved person, to what is dear to us. To love God means that we should live, and indeed be such that He could rejoice in what we are, that there should be nothing alien to Him in our lives.

Theology, Poetry and the Liturgical Life of the Church

"Whoever wants to become a Christian must first become a poet."

+ St. Pophyrios Kavsokalyvia

"Poetry is Theology par-excellence"

+ Prof. R. S., An Orthodox Professor in Toronto

++++++++++++