I want to go to Heaven even if I am the last one in, after the worst person in the world. May God place me in Paradise even if he’s put Nero and Hitler there, as well, even if it means that I shine their shoes. What do I care who God puts in Paradise? It’s His for Him to do what He wants with. It’s not up to me to say anything. I want to be saved and the rest is up to the Lord.
If you were God and chose to be incarnate for the purpose of redeeming fallen humanity, what method of redemption would you choose? What sort of earthly life would you ordain for yourself? If (you forbid) you are like me, then you would save mankind without incurring any inconvenience to yourself. You would choose to be born into a wealthy family, and discharged from a first-rate hospital (your mother would be assisted by a celebrity doula, of course). You would belong to a free and powerful nation. You would live in the most technologically-sophisticated era so that you can enjoy the greatest comforts that human society can afford. You would destine yourself to inherit or acquire power. Needless to say, ...
Before I read of You In charts of the night, Oh, soliloquy of light, Everything was dark as rye, silent and deaf and dry. I belonged to someone else, To a king of charcoal and eucalyptus, It was as if I had survived in a hole of opaque mists Buried to my soul - But a silent memory of You Told me where to go. Among the cedars and silent pines, Everything within me was dry. We chewed dark breads, the sleeves of our coats Cut out from the night. With lambs, sheep and goats We crossed dunes and ruins Of palaces, and faces Blank as ghosts. But I did not understand, as if walking in my sleep, This message blotted from the land, erased From the minds of men. You see them, Walking to and fro, lost in a confusion Of ...
The vision of God is presented in the Holy Scriptures in two different forms which appear to be mutually exclusive. Some passages characterize the vision of God as an impossibility. In the book of Exodus, for example, God tells Moses: “You cannot see My face; for no man can see My face and live,” while the psalmist notes that God “made darkness His hiding place.” In the New Testament, the Apostle and Evangelist John writes: “No one has ever seen God”, And the Apostle Paul adds that God is He “whom no one has ever seen or can see”. At the same time, however, the Holy Scriptures also detail numerous theophanies. For instance, Jacob says: “For I saw God face to face, ...
b) Sermon, mass and hymns There is a wide-spread impression that Luther gave prominence to the sermon to the detriment of the mass, but in fact he restored the latter, which had been completely marginalized. His aim was to establish a balance between the pulpit and the altar. Scripture was heard only from the readings and the hymns, which were in Latin. He restored it to its rightful position in the services. Apart from this, the sermon had become entirely distorted and its place had been taken by myths, legends and pagan lore. By the same token, the mass gave the message that the faithful would gain the favour of God and their salvation by retiring to monasteries and making donations ...
The great adversary of truth, which today brings people to perdition, is delusion. Because of delusion, dark ignorance reigns in the souls of those who are idle, alienating them from God. They don’t acknowledge Christ as God, Who enlightened us and brought about our rebirth, or they believe in Him and acknowledge Him only in words and not in actual fact. They believe that God revealed Himself to people only in days of old, but not any longer. They think that the testimonies in the Scriptures regarding God don’t concern them, but others or those who wrote them and they blaspheme the teachings concerning God, since they renounce true and conscious reverence.
Post-Apostolic Development Again, it is not the purpose of this essay to provide a detailed narrative of the development of the Orthodox Christian liturgy. Such a task would be, of itself, a very lengthy one. Instead, we shall briefly sketch the development of the liturgy up until the fourth century, highlighting certain common themes constantly present during this development. We will do so by looking at a few representative early Church documents: • The Teaching of the Lord to the Gentiles through the Twelve Apostles, commonly known as The Didache. There are many theories about the origin and purpose of this early work. Paragraphs 9 and 10 are relevant to our discussion. Their primitive character is attested by their lack of ...
Everything benign and good comes from God. There’s no kind thought which isn’t from God, and no evil thought that’s not from the devil. So, whatever good thing you think or say or do, is all courtesy of God. ‘Every good and perfect gift comes down from above’. Everything’s a gift from God; nothing is ours.
Eastern Orthodox mysticism Two great artesian wells of mystical experience, upon which Orthodox Byzantine mysticism drew in its first phase, were Saint Gregory of Nyssa (335/340-394) and the monk Evagrios Pontikos (345-399). The former stressed that the soul can reach Him, Who is beyond any intellectual concept whatsoever, in the “bright darkness” and also defined the mystical experience as union with God in love. Evagrios placed the nous, the organ of direct understanding, at the centre of mysticism. In the 5th century, works attributed to Makarios formed a new source of inspiration for Orthodox Christian mysticism, underlining the concept that the centre of the human person lies in the heart. Under the influence of Neo-Platonic philosophy, Evagrios saw the person as a ...
He was born in the town of Husi in Romania in 1808, of God-fearing parents. Even as a child he was a wonderful chanter, with his profound knowledge and really sweet voice. As a young man, influenced by his brother, Monk Alexander, he donned the monastic habit in the Monastery of Ciolanu, Buzau. Thereafter the two brothers went on a pilgrimage to Mount Athos and Jerusalem. Finally, Nektarios was tonsured a monk at the Monastery of Neamţ in Moldavia. In 1845, the two brothers settled in a kelli belonging to the Great Lavra, in the region of Vigla, there they remained for sixteen years. Nektarios’ asceticism was wonderful. He wouldn’t leave his kelli at all throughout the entire week, the only ...
When the Jews slew St. Stephen by stoning, they left his body for the dogs to consume. However, God’s providence intended otherwise. The martyr’s body lay in an open place at the foothill of the city for one night and two days. The second night Gamaliel, Paul’s teacher and secretly a disciple of Christ, came and removed the body, taking it to Caphargamala, and buried it there in a cave on his own land. Gamaliel later buried his friend Nicodemus, who died weeping over the grave of Stephen, in the same cave. Gamaliel also buried his godson Abibus there; and, according to his own will, he himself was buried there also. Many centuries passed, until no one living knew where ...
You can’t eat or drink or smoke all the time, turning your life into one long bout of food, drink and tobacco. The spirit of the evil one has tried to transform life into smoking. So he’s made the mouth, which ought to be constantly glorifying God, more like a furnace pumping out smoke.
It’s the end of the day and toys strewn all over the floor. No clear path to set my feet upon. Dishes arch high in the sink and I just notice the hint of smoke. And now the dinner’s burned beyond saving. I hear the phone ringing, along with the storm brewing in the back of the house, one that needs my attention. I stop. Stop to shut out the thought of it all, the moment’s demands. Just stop and shut my eyes. Let the burning wave pass over. Breathe deep. With that breath I remember their story. The one about the two women, married to brothers. How they reached spiritual heights unknown to desert dwelling saints. Of course, you don’t hear stories like ...
The second struggle we have to engage in is against the spirit of lust and bodily desire, which begins to bother people at an early age. This is a great and difficult struggle, that’s fought on two fronts. Because, whereas the other failings battle away within the soul, the war of the flesh is conducted in both the soul and the body. This is why we have to fight a double battle. Bodily fasting isn’t enough for us to acquire perfect restraint and true purity, unless it’s followed by a contrite heart, intense prayer to God, continuous study of the Scriptures, labour, and the works of our hands, all of which can repel the unruly impulses of the soul and ...
May sweetest Jesus be ever in your thoughts. May He be a haven to which you return again and again.
