The Trinity: Scripture and the Greek Fathers

Reblogged from Fr Aidan's post "http://afkimel.wordpress.com/2013/12/31/john-behr-on-the-trinity/"

The Trinity: Scripture and the Greek Fathers

http://afkimel.wordpress.com/2013/12/31/john-behr-on-the-trinity/

by the Very Rev. John Behr

A New Year's Wish

A New Year's Wish
by St Theophan the Recluse

I wished you a Happy New Year in passing, and then it occurred to me to give you a special wish for it. What, specifically? That you become new. New in what way? In the way that a new dress is new: Everything is in its place, there is not the slightest little spot or wrinkle; it billows with freshness. That is what I wish for your soul to be like. You, in body, like the dress that we are talking about, fresh from the needle, will be completely new. Our soul, however, even upon its arrival in the world, brings the old;  if this oldness is not removed from it, then it will remain old, without having tasted the new. Vanity and passions-that is what is old in the soul. Drive these out, and you will become new.

The Seduction of Revolutions

“Every revolution carries within it the seeds of its own destruction” 

+ Frank Herbert, Dune, 1965

"The spirit of revolution is not about a struggle for a glorious future. Revolution is about the destruction of the present and the will to power" 

+Fr Stephen Freeman, http://glory2godforallthings.com/2013/12/30/the-demons-of-our-time/

"Do not let the enemy – the devil – overwhelm us with excessive hope, but alert our minds and awaken our hearts from the sleep of inattention and wasting our lifetime in vain." 

+ Prayers of the Priest's Absolution, Coptic Orthodox Rite, http://sayingsoftheorthodoxfathers.wordpress.com/2013/08/16/a-prayer-for-all-the-absolution-of-the-midnight-prayer-coptic-orthodox-church/

"Take me not away in the midst of my days, nor while my mind is still blind." 

+ Prayer at Daybreak, Archimandrite Sophrony of Essex

We hear about political revolutions and the euphoria behind them can be tempting and filled with the promise of change. This past year we have see the "Arab Spring" marketed as a hallmark of promise, of change and of progress in the Levant and the surrounding region. Yet we have seen these revolutions cost lives as a necessary 'sacrifice' and cycle towards more oppressive movements.

One need to only look at the news...persecutions in Egypt, the condition of Syria, the Westgate mall in Kenya, the conflict in South Sudan, fighting in Mali, bombings in Russia, politics in Lebanon, attacks within China, riots in France, the various Nationalist movements around the globe...

And yet what is the Christian response?

The Incarnation and the Stature of Love

Two stories to inspire you this season of Nativity, which thematically remind us of the gravity and wonder of the Incarnation and the stature of Love. Let us pray for courage to live the Christian life. To live eucharistically, transformed daily in the depths of Christ's kenotic life, victorious death and glorious resurrection. Let us love one another and learn what it means to love...and offer thanksgiving for the life of the world, on behalf of all and for all.

Forgive me a sinner.

+++

"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

"To Love means to look at a person and see in this person a treasure, something infinitely precious, something that's worth giving one's own life. Not giving it grudgingly but rejoicing in the fact that we can give, all our heart, all our intention, all our strength in the service of this person. And also conquer in us everything that is contrary to love which can hurt, which can diminish life of the person we want to love...Let us therefore think of the people who are around us..and ask ourselves...what can we offer them that will enhance their life, make it deep, make it great, bring joy into it...and then we will have fulfilled the law of love. The Lord says to us 'forget yourself, love the other, may your life be his joy, his strength, his inspiration.' Amen." 

+ Metropolitan Anthony Bloom of Sourozh

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 

+ John 3:16

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

+ Philippians 2:5-11

"Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law."

+ Romans 13:8-10

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

Baptism's Knowledge of Christ

"Baptism’s knowledge of Christ is that of the bathhouse. It is not a mannered knowledge, for manners, etiquette, and artifice fall away as one takes off one’s clothes. It is a knowledge of appalling candor, robust and intimate. It is less mental than bodily, as when lovers are said to “know” each other. It is the inspired knowledge of the Song of Songs rather than that of the Epistle to the Romans, for God speaks not only in logic but also in smell and in the feel of oil and warm water on the skin. God says much in Romans about his union with humankind, but he says even more about the same mystery in the soft porn of the Song of Songs. There can be little doubt that more people have been willing to die for a lover than for a doctrine of regeneration.

To Judge or Not To Judge

A very good read...(a similar theme can be found on this page: http://www.antiochian.org/content/what-about-non-orthodox-exclusive-claims-church )

TO JUDGE OR NOT TO JUDGE

by Vladimir Moss on November 1/14, 2007.
Source: http://www.orthodoxchristianbooks.com/articles/209/-judge-or-not-judge/

If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?I Peter 4.18.

     “Judge not, that ye be not judged” (Matthew 7.1) – we all know this very important commandment of the Lord. We know what it means: to express condemnation of a person with hatred or derision. And we know, if we are honest with ourselves, that we very often sin against it… However, the word “judge” has many meanings in the English language; and there is a tendency to use the commandment not to judge in this sense as an excuse for inaction, as a stick with which to suppress dissident opinions, and even, sometimes, as an argument in favour of ecumenism. Let us look at these different meanings.

The Eucharist Is...

A Poetic Compilation by Fr John Finley based on the writings of Fr Alexander Schmemann.
Source: http://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/triumphalhymn/the_eucharist_is_._._

A Prayer for Enemies

This prayer has been posted before and I'm reminded again how truly humbling and difficult prayer it is...

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.

Stand, Bow, Prostrate: The Prayerful Body of Coptic Christianity

by Bishoy Dawood, Ph.D. candidate in Theology at the University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto.

http://www.clarionreview.org/2013/12/stand-bow-prostrate-the-prayerful-body-of-coptic-christianity/

Many in the West tend to look at prayer life as a mental thing: we praise, we thank, we confess to, and we confide in God – with words. And yet, some kind of bodily movement always accompanies our prayers. Indeed, a great body of Christian wisdom has long known that while we think or pronounce our prayers, our bodies, too, are at work expressing and shaping our souls.  In the Coptic tradition it is the Liturgy of the Hours and the Divine Liturgy that become the occasions of formal psycho-physical prayer. Liturgical postures and gestures involve the whole person, for Christian prayer is not merely a mental activity, but rather one that proclaims and seeks to realize the union of body and soul. It recognizes, through the liturgy, that such unity is how God intended to create and save the human person.[1]

The Praises of Kiahk

The Praises of Kiahk

by Hegomen Pishoy Kamel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVQGr-ijDkk

The praise of Kiahk (also called "7 and 4") on the Eve of Sunday is the praise of every eve of Sunday all year, since Sunday is the day of the Resurrection when the Church stays awake until daybreak. Eventually, it contacts the dawn of eternity, whose sun never leaves, because the Lord Jesus, the true Light, the Sun of Righteousness, will be its light. This article explains the parts of the Midnight Praise during Kiahk.