“We must always know and remember what it means to be Orthodox: our whole life is to become a Liturgy, and Anaphora; a constant offering up of our talents, our time, our hearts and our world to Christ. Our life can become a prayer, when we continually turn our hearts to Christ and His saints for help For what is prayer, if not the turning of the heart to dialogue with God…”
“Such are the souls of the saints: they love their enemies more than themselves, and in this age and in the age to come they put their neighbor first in all things, even though because of his ill-will he may be their enemy. They do not seek recompense from those whom they love, but because they have themselves received they rejoice in giving to others all that they have, so that they may conform to their Benefactor and imitate His compassion to the best of their ability; ‘for He is bountiful to the thankless and to sinners’ (cf. Luke 6:35).”
How language first developed is a great mystery. What gave rise to the first words signifying the reality of God? Breath launched a meaning from the heart that passed across the vocal chords, like a violin bow. A friend of mine who is a psychiatrist and writer in Greece, Fr. Vasileios Thermos, translated a line from one of his poems. “Every word we speak is a translation from an ancient manuscript that has been lost.”
Words are magic, revelations. They do not belong to us, but pass through us and we pass through them, translating the experiences of our flesh into meaning and returning to us, changing us according to their power. It is said among the Hasidic Jews, “The Spirit seeks a body through speech.” As one of the oldest original languages in existence, there is speculation that the word for God’s name might originally have arisen out of recognition of the sacredness and mystery of the very act of breathing itself, like a whisper, a sigh, a recognition of bearing life with each breath. All living beings breathe. So it may have originally been derived from something like the in breath, (whispered) “Yaaaahhhhh… outbreath, Waaaaayyyyyy” (whispered).
Stephen Muse : Treasure in Earthen Vessels
If we truly appreciate gods blessings upon us and what He has done for us in Christ , we would take up the work of prayer motivated not only by need by above all by love and gratitude.
The Eternal Liturgy: Theodore Stylianopoulos
The relationship between soul and mind is formed over a lifetime by the nature of their interaction while in the body. St. Anthony makes an important and instructive observation. “Just as you treat the soul while it is in the body, so it will treat you on leaving the body.”
Stephen Muse : Treasure in Earthen Vessels
Through the lens of eternity :: this is needfully important
Whoever pursues the prayer as if it were gold and makes use of every minute is able to leap over all obstacles, accepting and enduring everything. Then God, and the Panagia protect this person. He will be careful not to judge, not to be disobedient, or do things without a blessing Humility is needed. When one looks to himself, he will see everything around him with a good eye. When a person has God within his soul, he does not speak ill of anyone, and when he sees someone who is suffering, he feels pain, weeps with him and entreats God to be merciful to him.
Just as we are continually eating in order to maintain the body, so the soul should constantly be fed with prayer. The one who prays ceaselessly feels divine blessedness and has the help of God. If we had something precious and we lost it, we would turn the world over to find it. This is how we must pursue the name of God…
When a person has God in His soul and separates the good from the bad, removing what is bad from the soul, then he thinks that there are flowers everywhere. He says,” there must be violets and hyacinths here. Are there Lillie’s nearby? Oh what frangrant basil.”
… God does not want cleverness. He wants only for you to worship Him and keep Him noetically close by you. God gives spiritual intelligence and discretion to the person who is noetically close to Him.
We have a Father who is all affection, all love. We have guides with so much faith and love. God ha made us worthy to fall into such hands. Therefore, let us struggle! We lead a beautiful angelic life! One must only devote himself to watchfullness. He needs to place his thoughts beautifully in order, in other words, with reason and good sense. He should say, “I must become last of all so that I can be saved.” Whoever goes up to the front, Christ takes to the back, and whoever is in the back, Christ will bring to the front.
♥️Words of the Heart ♥️
There was a man who was deprived of divine grace for thirty years, but he did not despair; he put his hope in Christ and would say, “My Christ, better late than never,” because Christ does not lie. He is not like us. As perfect God, He is all love, all affection, all joy and peace. Seeing us knocking persistently on the door, with much love and forbearance. Christ will open to us. When we go to a house and ring the doorbell, if they do not open to us, then we ring again and again, waiting because they may be somewhere inside. In the end they come and open to us. If we had left, we would have missed out.
Let us persistently knck on the door, and the Lord will open to us, because He loves us. He loves us so much!
♥️ Words of the Heart ♥️
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