Orthodoxy

About ethos..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpA3T2xFabw

"(An issue today is) we only depend on Western Theology mixing it with Orthodoxy. Believe me, the most dangerous problem is that Protestantism wears black turbans to work in the Orthodox Church.

If it's a Protestant brother dressed in a handsome suit you may reject his talk but if wearing a black turban he's considered a father.

This is the worst problem we're facing nowadays. People spread Western (ie. Non-Orthodox) ideas in the Church.

You would find such principles crawling in the Church. What would happen then? When one organizes a meeting all protestants attend it and keep shouting, but if he preached other words (ie. Orthodox Theology) they would leave and his meeting would vanish. So (they say) it's better to do so to win people's favour (ie. Seeker-focused, reductionism to keep people attending).

Orthodoxy is Orthodoxy."

+ HH Pope Shenouda III from a talk "Communion with God" April 24, 1991

*Emphasis and context in Italics added

Metropolitan Anthony Bloom on Good and Evil

From: http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/63396.htm?fb_action_ids=10201343108567265&fb_action_types=og.recommends

"GOODNESS IS TESTED BY ITS ENCOUNTER WITH EVIL"

 In 1972, Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom) of Surouzh participated in a discussion aired on British radio. His opponent was the British journalist Anatoly Goldberg (1910-1982), an agnostic who was born in Riga, Latvia and later emigrated to Great Britain. The following discussion became a chapter in a book entitled, God: Yes or No? Discussions between believers and unbelievers, published by Nikea publishers (Moscow), who granted Pravoslavie.ru permission to publish it. We present an English translation of that discussion here.

Theosis in St Silouan and Elder Sophrony of Essex

Wonderful article originally posted on "Monks and Mermaids" blog:  http://fatherdavidbirdosb.blogspot.com/2010/02/theosis-in-saint-silouan-athonite-and.html

"THEOSIS" IN SAINT SILOUAN THE ATHONITE AND STARETS SOPHRONY OF ESSEX
By Christopher Veniamin (Delivered at the St. Tikhon's Annual Lecture series, September 30, 1997)

Source: Veniamin, Christopher. "Theosis" in Saint Silouan the Athonite and Starets Sophrony of Essex // Alive in Christ: The Magazine of the Diocese of Eastern Pennsylvania, Orthodox Church in America. 1997. Vol. XIII. N 3. P. 22-27. http://fatherdavidbirdosb.blogspot.com/2010/02/theosis-in-saint-silouan-athonite-and.html

On Patristic Consensus

It is worthy to note that according to our Orthodox Church not any one of the Fathers alone can comprehend the Truth in  its fullness as the whole Church does. Some of them had at times fallen into error and at times contradicted one another.

For this reason our Church has never canonized patristic theology in its every word and has not even established a compulsory list of the Fathers and their writings

To acknowledge the true Church tradition we must not simply know and quote the Fathers. but we must penetrate their spirit and attain “the patristic mind”

+ Fr. Tadros Malaty, Traditon and Orthodoxy, 50 - 51

In other words, one should not bring a sola scriptura methodology to the study of the Fathers. The readings of the Fathers, the Saints and the contemporary witness of the Church are to be read by the Church and within Tradition, and ultimately for participation in the Divine Life of Christ. 

Theotokos and Theosis

"From eternity, God provided for a communion with His creation that would remain forever. In that communion mankind would attain to the eternal theosis for which it was made. The communion, of course, is the Incarnation through the Ever-Virgin. Mankind’s existence and, therefore, that of all creation is inexorably tied to Mary because she was always to be the Mother of the Incarnate Word. The fathers say that neither the course of human events nor necessity of any kind forced the Uncreated One to join to Himself a creaturely mode of existence. God did not become flesh because some actions of the devil or of man made it necessary, but because it was the divine plan and mystery from before the ages. Despite the works of Satan and the coming of sin into the world, the eternal will of God was undeterred, and it moved forward.

History and the course of human events were the occasion and not the cause of the Incarnation. The Incarnation did not take place for the Crucifixion; the Crucifixion took place so the Incarnation and the eternal communion of God and man could be fulfilled despite Satan, sin, and death. Explaining that there was no necessity in God the Father that required the death of His Son, St. Gregory the Theologian says the Father “neither asked for Him nor demanded Him, but accepts [His death] on account of the economy [of the Incarnation] and because mankind must be sanctified by the humanity of God.” 

St. Gregory is telling us that, from before the ages, it was the divine will for mankind to be sanctified and made immortal by communion with the humanity of the Incarnate God, but corruptibility and death came and stood in the way.  By His Passion and Resurrection, Jesus Christ destroyed these obstacles and saved, that is, preserved, mankind for the Incarnation’s eternal communion of the God-Man and immortal men. St. John of Damascus repeats the same idea that the Incarnation is a prior and indeed ontological purpose in itself, and that redemption is the means to that end. Thus, he says the Holy Virgin “came to serve in the salvation of the world so that the ancient will of God for the Incarnation of the Word and our own theosis may be fulfilled through her.”

+ Dr George Gabriel

The Sacrament

Below is a fascinating article by Philip Sherrard referenced in a recent talk by Fr. Peter Galadza entitled "Liturgy: Where the Holy One Seeks Us":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRUVyhsdI9s

The Sacrament
by Philip Sherrard (Published in The Orthodox Ethos: Studies in Orthodoxy vol. I, ed A.J . Philippou , Holywell Press, Oxford 1964, p. 133- 139)

http://www.apostoliki-diakonia.gr/en_main/catehism/theologia_zoi/themata.asp?cat=leit&NF=1&contents=contents.asp&main=texts&file=2.htm

On Marriage, Family Life and Monasticism

"Discussions comparing marriage and monasticism are rarely profitable. Each person must find his own path of salvation by asking God to show him which path is best for him — and ‘work out his salvation’(Phil. 2:12) in the circumstances." + Sister Magdalen of Essex

"The Beloved" by Fr Matthew the Poor

The Beloved
by Fr Matthew the Poor (Fr. Matta el-Meskeen)

[Love carries in it all the mysteries

of divinity, creation, salvation

and the promised inheritance.]

“He destined us to be his sons

through Jesus Christ, according

to the purpose of his will, to the

praise of his glorious grace which

he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.”

(Eph. 1:5-6)

A Faith That Cannot Be Argued

From http://orthodoxruminations.wordpress.com/2013/08/17/overshadowed/

"Someone who has actually tasted truth is not contentious for truth. Someone who is considered among men to be zealous for truth as not yet learned what truth is really like: once he has truly learnt it, he will cease from zealousness on its behalf."

"The gift of God and of the knowledge of Him is not a cause of turmoil and clamor; rather this gift is entirely filled with a peace in which the Spirit, love and humility reside. The following is a sign of the coming of the Spirit: the person whom the Spirit has overshadowed is made perfect in these very virtues."

"God is reality. The person whose mind has become aware of God does not even possess a tongue with which to speak, but God resides in his heart in great serenity. He experiences no stirring of zeal or argumentativeness, nor is he stirred by anger. He can not even be aroused concerning the faith.”

St. Isaac of Syria

"I have said before that Orthodoxy is not a Faith one can be argued into. It needs be experienced. As always, come and see what it’s all about." + Orthodox Ruminations

The Delight of Love

"The man who knows the delight of the love of God-when the soul, warmed by grace, loves both God and her brother-knows in part that 'the kingdom of God is within us'.Blessed is the soul that loves her brother, for our brother is our life." + St Silouan the Athonite