On Stewardship and the Orthodox Life - Part 105: DO YOU BELIEVE? (7/31/16)
07/05/2016
It seems a simple question that Jesus asked of Martha. So I ask you the same question, "Do you believe?"
I ask this same question at the beginning of all my Bible study classes. It sounds like a trivial question to ask of Christians, but it is critical. Why ask the question? Because it stimulates the thinking process of most people who hear it; some become indignant that I would ask such a question of them.
I then ask if they believe that God created all things, that Mary - the Theotokos - is a virgin, Christ is God, and finally that the bread and wine used in communion are the body and blood of Christ. When they respond in the affirmative to these questions, I then ask, “Why do you then not do what Christ has asked you to do?”
On Stewardship and the Orthodox Life - Part 104: Spiritual Hospital (7/24/16)
07/05/2016
The Church is a spiritual hospital. Within the church, we find the "medicine" that will heal our spiritual diseases, our sins and passions. However, the purpose of the "treatment" we receive in the church is not to make us better adjusted to society. On the contrary, Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos in his book, Orthodox Psychotherapy states that “the aim of therapeutic treatment is not to make people sociable and to be an anthropocentric (man-centered/self-centered) exercise, but to guide them to communion with God, and for this vision of God not to be a fire which will consume them but a light which will illuminate them.”
Therefore, the basic aim of Orthodox therapeutic treatment is to attain communion with God.
What does "walking by the Spirit" mean?
On Stewardship and the Orthodox Life - Part 103: Self Love (7/17/16)
07/05/2016
The past two blogs were forums to discuss Theosis, Illumination, nous, and the passions. The previous terms, embedded in Orthodox Spirituality, are seldom discussed in homilies. However, Orthodox Spirituality is an essential part of our Church life. And an understanding of Orthodox Spirituality brings our worship into perspective.
We must appreciate the fact that when our nous becomes darkened by our desires, sin, and passions, we no longer worship in a proper manner. In this darkness, we are filled with self-love and the desire to please ourselves instead of seeking constant communion with God.
Self-love creeps into our lives in a very subtle manner, so subtle that we do not recognize it.
On Stewardship and the Orthodox Life - Part 102: Passions prevent Stewardship (7/10/16)
07/05/2016
We were all born in the image of Christ, as were Adam and Eve. As they were spiritual children, not fully matured into the likeness of Christ, so too are we. Along that journey to attaining the image AND likeness of Christ – Theosis – there are pitfalls, as Adam and Eve discovered. These pitfalls are the desires of the material world (fleshly desires), which we ALLOW to capture our soul, our nous, and turn the pure passions that God placed into us into something dark and vile.
Once your nous is darkened, according to Metropolitan Hierotheos (Vlachos) of Nafpaktos in his book, Orthodox Psychotherapy, you cannot be in communion with God. If we live for the world and not for God then we become self-love, the root of all sin. When we love ourselves, our personal comforts and our desires become the priority.
On Stewardship and the Orthodox Life - Part 101. Theosis Without Stewardship (7/3/16)
06/30/2016
Theosis, the continuous communion with God, comes to us by the grace of God. As Orthodox Christians, it should be what we all strive for – with all our heart, soul, and might. It is the reason God gave us life, to pursue Theosis.
If we believe the preceding, what price would you pay to be illumined and in communion with God?
The Saints serve as living proof that when you love God with all your heart, keep His commandments and pray unceasingly, God blesses all with a pure heart, an illumined nous, and continuous communion with Him. The Saints lived their lives for God and only for Him, giving all – not only their hearts, but their time, talents and wealth. We can read of Saints that exhibited the attainment of Illumination and Theosis; from these Saints a light was emitted from their faces – a light so bright that their faces were no longer visible,