What are the chances of the AOCNA unity wit OCA with +Jonah as head?
]]>AXIOS AXIOS AXIOS!
]]>I am not sure about Greece, but there is a big anti-abortion movement in Serbia and Macedonia bot EU aspirants. Unfortunately, a lot of the Soros-funded NGOs also have strong footholds in these nation and are doing everything to equate pro-abortion and homosexual marriage as a “European Value.” So far these NGOs have been unsuccessful in pressuring Macedonia to change her law of descrimination to include protection for same-sex marriage and there has been some success in both Serbia and Macedonia on lowering abortions.
Greece is a hot mess. I feel for them eventhough they did virtually nothing to help their economic cause over the years.
]]>that’s a very good analogy Michael. I pray that we could all be more enlarged of heart.
]]>The Gurus, the Young Man, and Elder Paisios
]]>The elder once told me. “God would forgive the devil if he would just say one ‘Lord have mercy.’ There’s a dear old monk near here who used to pray for the devil, because he felt compassion for him. After all the devil was one of god’s creatures — in fact, he was an archangel before he fell into such a sorry state. While the elder was praying for him, the evil one appeared in the corner and started to make fun of him. The devil is unrepentant.” He concluded. As I would learn latter, this elder was actually Father Paisios.
George, I don’t think it takes a lot or self-will. Imagine God’s love as an electrical current. The more resistence in the conducting medium, the more heat is generated. Even a little resistence in a small wire exposed to a powerful current produces a lot of heat. Here we are shielded from the full power of God’s love, we have the opportunity to reduce our resistence level by allowing the Holy Spirit to enlarge our heart and/or get rid of impurities.
Even here the purification process sometimes requires that the impurities be smelted out. The Church is a crucible in which the smelting occurs.
]]>Michael, since we believe in freewill, I would imagine the latter. Even in hell God’s love exists (it can’t by definition not exist), therefore it would take a great deal of self-will for somebody to be so rejecting of God’s love and to perceive its warmth as a burning fire.
]]>I wonder, is hell the absence of God’s love or our rejection of God’s love, that is to say, self-will?
]]>The first commandment is: “You shall love the Lord your God with all of your soul, with all of your heart, with all of your might and with all of your mind.” The second commandment “love your neighbor”. Everything springs from within the first commandment and all other commandments are the result of the first and second commandment.
It is not enough to be good people we must always keep God foremost in our minds and our hearts.
Curing the sickness of Pharisaism by Metropolitan Athanasius of Limassol, Cyprus
]]>… the answer to all problems is for man to turn towards loving God, and that when man loves God, then God will cure him, God will resurrect him – even if that person is dead and decomposing – God will restore him, provided man discards from inside him all that is useless and put in his heart a love for God, and build his life around that love for God, and atop that love for God – to build his life, his marriage, his family, his path, his studies, his course. If man does that, then he will truly come to enjoy life and his life will become a paradise, because paradise is nothing more than God’s love, whereas “hell” is nothing more than the absence of God’s love.
RE … if we look at the contents of the metropolitan of Iconium’s letter vis-a-vis Orphangate…
I had a kind of well-what-do-you-know-about-that moment as I read this statement. I realized that I have been learning about Orthodoxy for long enough to understand what this inside baseball remark is actually referring to.
Ha! How about that! 🙂
]]>Forgive me brothers, but I refuse to fall prey to the tempation of cynicism. I do not trust in men, but I do trust in the Holy Spirit.
There is gospel song about the raising of Lazurus and Mary’s complaint that Jesus was late, four days late in coming. “Even though He was four days late, he was still on time…”
Speak our mind, but do not let our peace be shaken.
]]>Truly He is Risen !!!
Noticed that you greet us the proper way …I’ve heard that after repeated a few thousands times one begins to comprehend it…
St. Seraphim of Sarov greeted each person who came to him with the words of the Pascha greeting “Christ is Risen, my joy.”
This reminded them of the saving power of Christ’s Resurrection. Each left full of peace and joy and the desire to lead a life pleasing to God.
So the government of Greece gets to vote …
Elder Paisios of the Holy Mount Athos
]]>In the past our nation lived spiritually, so God blessed her, and the saints helped us in miraculous fashion. And we were victorious against our enemies, who always outnumbered us. Today we continue to call ourselves Orthodox Christians, but we don’t live Orthodox lives.
Christ is Risen!!!
Was just re-reading this incredible report today…and the abject arrogance of this paragraph really struck me:
“Metropolitan Emmanuel, knowing the huge responsibility of the Archbishopric Throne of America, said he didn’t want the job. Rev. Karloutsos, who appears and acts as some type of an “unofficial Archbishop” in America because of his nearness with Patriarch Bartholomew, has taken on the task to convince Metropolitan Emmanuel to accept it. The current government of Greece also reportedly favors Metropolitan Emmanuel’s candidacy. Karloutsos was also instrumental in the election of the former Archbishop Spyridon.”
What struck me was this: Ok, so we know who the archbishop favors (Bp Savas), and we know who the EP, the government of Greece and Fr. Karloutsos favor, (Met. Emmanuel)…they all get votes.
…but not an ounce of consideration is given to the question: Who does the GOA want?
That really hit me today…and the answer is: We really don’t care who the GOA wants…they don’t get to vote in the matter.
Just incredible. Another one of those, “disappointing, but nor surprising” moments.
Best Regards,
Dean
The Ecumenical Patriarchate is one of the founding members of World Council of Churches (from the Enthronement Address of the current Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew). WCC declared mission is the service of christian unity. What is the price for unity? The Orthodox conscience is shaken … When our conscience is shaken we remember the martyrs who shed their blood and did not stray away from the Orthodoxy of the Holy Fathers. We remember those martyred under Communism and commemorate them. Some people are too quick to forget them and started to commemorate rocks and dead corals.
Letter of the Holy Community of Mt. Athos to Oecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew
(Signed: All the Representatives to the common Synaxis and Superiors of the twenty Holy Monasteries of the Holy Mountain of Athos.)
]]>However, in Your address to the papal delegation last November, certain viewpoints were expressed which were quite unanticipated by the body of Orthodox faithful. We were greatly grieved and our conscience shaken.
Our disquiet grows ever more intense on account of the questions posed to us daily by our spiritual children and in general by the pious Christians who visit us and ask if indeed the text of your address expresses the mind-set (phronema) of our Holy Church. The matter takes on tragic proportions however, when we see the most pious of Orthodox faithful deserting for schismatic groups and in this way cause the holy body of the Church to bleed.
You are well aware, Your All-Holiness, that there is nothing more painful for a shepherd than the scattering of these, the sheep of Christ.
How should we answer then? How do we justify something which is not justifiable? How do we convince ourselves and our spiritual children that the words of Your address are consistent with the Orthodox Faith and Tradition, when obviously they cause the Tradition of the Church to be overturned and offend the Orthodox conscience?