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