When we have a relationship of absolute trust with Christ, we are happy and joyful. We possess the joy of Paradise. This is the secret. Then we can exclaim with Saint Paul, “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain and “it is no longer I who live, Christ lives in me.” Such marvelous words! Delightful! All things must be done simply and gently.
We must go on our own to God in simplicity and artlessness of heart. What does wise Solomon have to say? He says that we need simplicity. “Be mindful of the Lord in goodness and seek Him in simplicity of heart, for He is found with those who do not tempt Him.”
Simplicity is holy humility, that is absolute trust in Christ, when we give our whole life to Christ. In the Divine Liturgy we say, “we commend our whole life to Christ our God,” and at another point, ” To You, O Loving Master, we commend our whole life and hope, and we entreat you and pray and supplicate.”
Saint Porphyrios
Wounded by Love: The Life and Wisdom of Saint Porphyrios
Prayer is the transcendence of time and thus an enty into the timelessness, eternity, perfection and splendor of God. Prayer is our inclusion in the life of God, our perichoresis in God, and – if I may put it this way, our obliteration in God, so that we might become one with Him. This is what happens in prayer; this is what prayer is. And this is why love and prayer are so closely aligned that each can signify the other.
Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra
of blessed memory
The Mystical Marriage : The Spiritual Life According to Saint Maximos the Confessor
“I cant give you an example of what real obedience is. It’s not that we have a discussion about the virtue of obedience and then I say to you, : go and do a somersault” and you obey. That’s not obedience. You need to be entirely carefree and not thinking at all about the matter of obedience, and then suddenly you are asked to do something and you are ready to do it joyfully. If you are busy at work, and not at all in a state of vigilance, and readiness and someone humiliates your, then by your reaction you will show whether or not you have obedience.”
“My obedience was the outcome of love, not coercion. This blessed obedience benefitted me greatly. It changed me. I became sharp-witted, quick and stronger in body and soul. It made me know everyting. I must glorify God day and night for granting me the possibility of living in this way, in this life. Obedience is something I have poured over and studied minutely. The other things that God has given me in my life came on their own. The gift of clear sight was also given me by God on account of obedience. Obedience shows love for Christ. And Christ especially loves the obedient. That is why He says, I love those who love Me, and those who seek me will find grace. Everything is written in Holy Scripture but in a concealed manner.
Saint Porphyrios
Wounded by Love : The Life and Wisdom of Saint Porphyrios
Christ is the summit of desire, there is nothing higher. All sensible things lead to satiety, but with God there is no satiation. He is everything. God is the summit of desire. No other joy, no other beauty, nothing else can rival Him. What is higher than the highest?
Saint Porphyrios
Wounded by Love : the Life and Wisdom of Saint Porphyrios
But the centre of gravity I wanted to place on the “University of the Church” By that I mean the hymns, canons, midnight offices, mid-hour offices, the Psalter, Paraklitiki, Mention, Theotokarion, Tridion, Pentacostarion — all the service books of the Church. I wanted us, if possible, to read everything that is prescribed in the Book of Liturgical Order, the so-called Typicon. I thought of reading the sections from the Psalter before mid-day so we wont read them during the night, and make the sisters tired.
garden olive tree :: my homage to Greece
Devotion to and occupation with the hymns and readings is a great thing in my view — a very great thing — because in that way, a person is sanctified without realizing it. He acquires love and humility, and everything as he hears the words of the saints in the various liturgical books. We need to dwell on this. This needs to be our daily occupation and delight in the Church.
Wounded by Love: The Life and Wisdom of Saint Porphyrios
The 15th Antiphon is sung in every single Orthodox Church the world round on Great and Holy Friday,…. and it is the chant lament of all eternity. That night we read the twelve Gospels of His passion. We lament Christ’s Crucifixion – along with all of creation – with every blade of grass, the rocks and with the very rays of the sun which hide in mourning.
Yet if you listen to the hymn – you’ll find in the midst of the darkness of the worlds groaning eison lies an undergirding of the glorious hope of the Gladsome light of Christ’s Resurrection.
It is a hymn that finds its expression most beautifully in a byzantine setting. So, no matter where we worship, it is this very hymn that we always listen to on the way home from Church.
May we together have enough oil in the vessels of our souls, so that, not wasting the time of rewards in buying more, we may sing, “Bless the Lord, O works of the Lord.”
Holy Monday Bridegroom Service
Next week is Holy Week for Orthodox Christians. During the first three days of Holy Week – beginning with Monday (Sunday_, we hear one of the most solemn sober mystical moving and beautiful hymns of the Church year…. “Behold the Bridegroom comes at midnight and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching“. It is a hymn based on the parable of the wise virgins in Matthew 25:1-13. Our Mother the Church always draws our hearts and minds to the timeless steadfast wisdom truth of what is needful. Monastics always remind us that to live in the present moment and to live in remembrance of our death is a great gift… not a sorrowful morose outlook, but rather a sober yet joy filled Heavenly Kingdom centered focus.
According to the Orthodox Study Bible, the parable of the wise virgins is about the virtue of preparedness and charity and almsgiving. It is also about the Second Coming, and “the impossibility of changing one’s state of virtue after death” (Orthodox Study Bible Footnotes). Being watchful and ready. Behold the Bridegroom comes in the middle of the night, and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching.
The wise virgins are those who practice charity and mercy in this life, while the foolish are those who squander God’s gifts on themselves…
Footnotes: Orthodox Study BIble
The oil of our lamps is the oil of Faith and the vessel of the lamp is our very soul. It is the oil of faith, of virtue, of gladness, of mercy, of forgiveness, of love, of repentance of prayer and thanksgiving – devotion to God the Father through Christ and the Holy Spirit. Holy fuel… ever lighting the wicks of the hearts of Orthodox Christians – the Paschal flame dispelling darkness. “Come receive the Light that is never overtaken by night... ” like the Paschal candle, Christians are called to walk in the world not of the world, with the Paschal flame not hidden under a lamp but visible and touchable – like the Paschal candles we soon light and spread illumining and spreading through our Churches – we are not saved alone, because we are the members of the Body of Christ.
Come glorify Christ Who is risen from the dead!” As we walk the arduous coming journey with Christ through Holy Week,waving palm crosses and singing Hosanna in the Highest at His humble Entry into Jerusalem; pouring fragrant mhyrr upon him and kissing His soon to be bruised feet, sitting with Him at His “take eat this is my body and blood which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins” Last Supper; the betrayal of one who did not repent, His passion, beating and bent crown of thorns placed upon His head scourging; His voluntary death on the Cross, to His glorious “death trampling down death” Resurrection. May our walk be Lenten and blessed. May we be lentenly blessed and rejoice in His glorious resurrection. Kalo Pascha. Καλό Πάσχα! Blessed Pascha.
Think about the toil that God undertakes on your behalf. Think of His concern and anxiety for you, along with His patience, and long-suffering. Consider His wisdom, and His great strength. He has become everything entwined with all things, interwoven with all things, in the clouds, in the pillars of fire, on the mountain tops, in the low places, in our sins, in our cries, in everything. He is everywhere. And since I know that I can’t live without Him, I will never forget Him, or live apart from Him.
One example of God stooping down to our level is given to us in the Psalms. Do you remember the wonderful image of Christ stooping down in order to drink from a running stream? He shall drink of the brook in the way, it says, therefore shall He lift up His head. (Psalm 109.7). What does this mean? That “although you forget me, I, the heavenly God, stoop down just as you do. I share in your life, so that you can share in Mine. I move and act like you do to show you that I’ve become like you, so that you can become like Me.
Do you grow weary on your journey? So do I. (John 4.6) Do you thirst? (John 4.7, 19, 28) So do I. Do you stoop down to drink water? I do the same. I humble Myself. I empty Myself. (Phil 2.7). I drink and refresh Myself. What more can I do? What do you do that I don’t?
And since I am so close to you stooping down alongside of you, can’t you catch hold of Me?
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