Prayer gives expression to our striving towards communion with God. This communion is the natural manifestation of our love for God and of God's love for us. Through the channel of prayer we "pour out our hearts before God," which is a Biblical expression meaning that in prayer we express to God our thoughts and feelings of praise, gratitude and worship.
However, prayer is not only a form of worship; it is also a means available to us for overcoming the evil that lodges in our inmost self. In this sense prayer is like a special line that carries man's cry for help to God.
Lord, have mercy! This is the cry for help that is repeated again and again in the service. It is also the individual's cry for help as he keeps watch at the door of his heart and cries out to the Lord to drive away the passions that creep in. This corporate and private cry for help arises from our sense of powerlessness; "Apart from me you can do nothing," the Lord says (Jn 15:5). But it is equally strongly based on our trust that the Lord wants to purify our hearts, if only we ask. We are branches of Christ the Vine, and each branch that strives to bear fruit the Lord "prunes, that it may bear more fruit" (Jn 15:2).
Thus God's help and our own prayers will save us from "the corruption that is in the world because of passion."
Archbishop Paul of Finland
The Faith We Hold, pg. 70
SVS Press 1980
011409
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"A Little Spiritual Help" is a group that is over a year old with over 1,000 members on Facebook. It is also a Yahoo group. This is an archival post.
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one way to support this effort is to buy books - "Neighbors, Strangers, and Everyone Else" is the latest title - check it out at: http://www.lulu.com/transfiguration or Amazon.com
2010-05-28
God's love is always available
Fear arises from the absence of God's love in a person's life. Of course, God's love is always available to anyone who wishes to receive it. But many times, we ignore the hand that God lovingly holds out to comfort, encourage and guide us into his family circle. When we neglect or turn away from his love, worries, anxieties, and finally deep fears may grab hold of us.
Yet, when we open ourselves to God's love and let his compassion and concern for us fill our lives, fear fades and eventually disappears. As St John puts it in his First Epistle "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear..."
Why does a lack of love cause us to be fearful? St John goes on to explain that fear is linked to punishment, while God's love through the sacrifice of his Son has removed the threat of ultimate punishment. Yet many times, we allow the power of God's love to slip away from us, and the dread of punishment to creep back in.
Sometimes, this happens because we disobey God in some way and, as a result, we develop a guilty conscience. There's a very deep sense within us that if we violate God's laws or step outside his will, something bad may happen. Some punishment may strike.
Some might argue that such feelings of guilt are unhealthy, and we should do everything in our power, through psychotherapy or any other means, to get rid of them. But I'm not so sure. I think that feelings of guilt, those prickings of a conscience that has been violated by certain improper or immoral acts, may be a very healthy thing. After all the rules of behavior that God has established in this world are not optional. The universe operates according to certain laws relating to our health, our sexuality, our personal morality, and our relationships. And there are likely to be consequences if we decide we won't follow these laws.
Still, I'm not one of those people who believes that God will routinely reach down from some seat in heaven and smack us if we step out of line. The way he operates is generally much more loving, subtle, and parental than that. More often, when we step outside of God's will and begin trying to live by our own wills, we'll get a sense that something is not quite right. Often, we may first experience anxiety; then, a wave of fear may sweep over us, as we wonder where our lives are going and what traps we may fall into...
God offers his love to us in a direct, warm, caring beam of divine light. His love streams directly from his heart to ours. All we need do is receive, in order to enjoy it fully and bask in its comforting rays. But for us to receive God's love in its fullness, we must have a genuine relationship with him in our innermost beings. It's essential that we in some sense be in union with him as a result of a decision to love, trust and follow his Son. Then, when we've established and developed such a relationship, we find that we, in turn, can become human channels for the great powerful agape love that we've received from God. We can return love to him, and we can also express this same love to others, in much the same way God has expressed it to us.
Archbishop Iakovos
Faith For A Lifetime: A Spiritual Journey, pp. 48,100-101 Doubleday 1988
010909
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"A Little Spiritual Help" is a group that is over a year old with over 1,000 members on Facebook. It is also a Yahoo group. This is an archival post.
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one way to support this effort is to buy books - "Neighbors, Strangers, and Everyone Else" is the latest title - check it out at: http://www.lulu.com/transfiguration or Amazon.com
Yet, when we open ourselves to God's love and let his compassion and concern for us fill our lives, fear fades and eventually disappears. As St John puts it in his First Epistle "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear..."
Why does a lack of love cause us to be fearful? St John goes on to explain that fear is linked to punishment, while God's love through the sacrifice of his Son has removed the threat of ultimate punishment. Yet many times, we allow the power of God's love to slip away from us, and the dread of punishment to creep back in.
Sometimes, this happens because we disobey God in some way and, as a result, we develop a guilty conscience. There's a very deep sense within us that if we violate God's laws or step outside his will, something bad may happen. Some punishment may strike.
Some might argue that such feelings of guilt are unhealthy, and we should do everything in our power, through psychotherapy or any other means, to get rid of them. But I'm not so sure. I think that feelings of guilt, those prickings of a conscience that has been violated by certain improper or immoral acts, may be a very healthy thing. After all the rules of behavior that God has established in this world are not optional. The universe operates according to certain laws relating to our health, our sexuality, our personal morality, and our relationships. And there are likely to be consequences if we decide we won't follow these laws.
Still, I'm not one of those people who believes that God will routinely reach down from some seat in heaven and smack us if we step out of line. The way he operates is generally much more loving, subtle, and parental than that. More often, when we step outside of God's will and begin trying to live by our own wills, we'll get a sense that something is not quite right. Often, we may first experience anxiety; then, a wave of fear may sweep over us, as we wonder where our lives are going and what traps we may fall into...
God offers his love to us in a direct, warm, caring beam of divine light. His love streams directly from his heart to ours. All we need do is receive, in order to enjoy it fully and bask in its comforting rays. But for us to receive God's love in its fullness, we must have a genuine relationship with him in our innermost beings. It's essential that we in some sense be in union with him as a result of a decision to love, trust and follow his Son. Then, when we've established and developed such a relationship, we find that we, in turn, can become human channels for the great powerful agape love that we've received from God. We can return love to him, and we can also express this same love to others, in much the same way God has expressed it to us.
Archbishop Iakovos
Faith For A Lifetime: A Spiritual Journey, pp. 48,100-101 Doubleday 1988
010909
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"A Little Spiritual Help" is a group that is over a year old with over 1,000 members on Facebook. It is also a Yahoo group. This is an archival post.
*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*
one way to support this effort is to buy books - "Neighbors, Strangers, and Everyone Else" is the latest title - check it out at: http://www.lulu.com/transfiguration or Amazon.com
THE TRANSCENDENT
My child, I shall not leave thee in peace. I want to teach thee to transcend.
Take pleasure in all harmonious beauty. It is good. But thou must learn how to tear thyself away from it, so that what is sublime in it can be seen.
Do not blaspheme against intelligence, for I am both the origin and the summit of Thought. But I do not want thee chained for ever to the tedious discipline of reasoning. I wish to give thee vision.
Hold to obedience and to piety, qualities so many people make mock of these days. But I do not want thee to doze off into a comfortable morality or piety. I wish to inspire thee to sacrifice.
Thou dost realize the distance which lies between thy God and thyself. And it is right that thou shouldest. But be careful not to calculate that distance in order to keep to it strictly, adopting the stance that requires least effort.
My child, I wish to reveal to thee, day by day, God become man; thy Lord Love taking flesh, taking thy flesh.
It is assuming human nature, without any confusion, it is in becoming one of us without ever ceasing to be Himself that limitless Love supremely shatters all limits.
Fr. Lev Gillet
(page 39, In Thy Presence, SVS Press 1977)
010209
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"A Little Spiritual Help" is a group that is over a year old with over 1,000 members on Facebook. It is also a Yahoo group. This is an archival post.
*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*
one way to support this effort is to buy books - "Neighbors, Strangers, and Everyone Else" is the latest title - check it out at: http://www.lulu.com/transfiguration or Amazon.com
Take pleasure in all harmonious beauty. It is good. But thou must learn how to tear thyself away from it, so that what is sublime in it can be seen.
Do not blaspheme against intelligence, for I am both the origin and the summit of Thought. But I do not want thee chained for ever to the tedious discipline of reasoning. I wish to give thee vision.
Hold to obedience and to piety, qualities so many people make mock of these days. But I do not want thee to doze off into a comfortable morality or piety. I wish to inspire thee to sacrifice.
Thou dost realize the distance which lies between thy God and thyself. And it is right that thou shouldest. But be careful not to calculate that distance in order to keep to it strictly, adopting the stance that requires least effort.
My child, I wish to reveal to thee, day by day, God become man; thy Lord Love taking flesh, taking thy flesh.
It is assuming human nature, without any confusion, it is in becoming one of us without ever ceasing to be Himself that limitless Love supremely shatters all limits.
Fr. Lev Gillet
(page 39, In Thy Presence, SVS Press 1977)
010209
+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+
"A Little Spiritual Help" is a group that is over a year old with over 1,000 members on Facebook. It is also a Yahoo group. This is an archival post.
*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*
one way to support this effort is to buy books - "Neighbors, Strangers, and Everyone Else" is the latest title - check it out at: http://www.lulu.com/transfiguration or Amazon.com
Love of Goodness
God's dealings with man are not limited to our legalistic ideas about reward and punishment. Salvation, which is the ultimate goal of Christian life, is not a "reward" but a gift freely given by God. We cannot "earn" or "merit" it by anything we do, no matter how pious or self-effacing we think ourselves.
In everyday life we naturally think that good deeds should be rewarded and crimes punished. But our God does not "punish" on the basis of human standards. He corrects and chastises us, just as a loving father corrects his erring children in order to show them the way. But this is not the same thing as being "sentenced" to a "term" of pain and suffering for some misdeed. Our God is not vindictive; He is at all times perfectly loving, and His justice has nothing to do with human legal standards.
He knows that we cannot come to Him without purity of heart, and He also knows that we cannot acquire this purity unless we are free from all things: free from attachments to money and property, free of passion and sin, and even detached from bodily health if that stands in between us and true freedom before God. He instructs us, through both revelation and correction, showing us how we may acquire this freedom, for 'Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free' (John 8:32). As St. John Cassian teaches:
God "leads you on by a still higher step to that love which is free of fear. Through this you begin effortlessly and naturally to observe all those things you originally observed out of fear of God and punishment, but now you do them no longer from fear of punishment, but from love of Goodness itself, and delight in virtue." (Institutes)
Anonymous - The Teaching of the Fathers ON ILLNESS page 6-7,Nikodemos Orthodox Publications Society, 1986
010709
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"A Little Spiritual Help" is a group that is over a year old with over 1,000 members on Facebook. It is also a Yahoo group. This is an archival post.
*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*
one way to support this effort is to buy books - "Neighbors, Strangers, and Everyone Else" is the latest title - check it out at: http://www.lulu.com/transfiguration or Amazon.com
In everyday life we naturally think that good deeds should be rewarded and crimes punished. But our God does not "punish" on the basis of human standards. He corrects and chastises us, just as a loving father corrects his erring children in order to show them the way. But this is not the same thing as being "sentenced" to a "term" of pain and suffering for some misdeed. Our God is not vindictive; He is at all times perfectly loving, and His justice has nothing to do with human legal standards.
He knows that we cannot come to Him without purity of heart, and He also knows that we cannot acquire this purity unless we are free from all things: free from attachments to money and property, free of passion and sin, and even detached from bodily health if that stands in between us and true freedom before God. He instructs us, through both revelation and correction, showing us how we may acquire this freedom, for 'Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free' (John 8:32). As St. John Cassian teaches:
God "leads you on by a still higher step to that love which is free of fear. Through this you begin effortlessly and naturally to observe all those things you originally observed out of fear of God and punishment, but now you do them no longer from fear of punishment, but from love of Goodness itself, and delight in virtue." (Institutes)
Anonymous - The Teaching of the Fathers ON ILLNESS page 6-7,Nikodemos Orthodox Publications Society, 1986
010709
+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+
"A Little Spiritual Help" is a group that is over a year old with over 1,000 members on Facebook. It is also a Yahoo group. This is an archival post.
*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*
one way to support this effort is to buy books - "Neighbors, Strangers, and Everyone Else" is the latest title - check it out at: http://www.lulu.com/transfiguration or Amazon.com
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