When we enter the place of hope and trust, we see that God is near, and acknowledge Him as our Lord.
+ Elder Aemilianos of Simonopetra
the goal of human life
The goal of human life is not spirituality or religion, liturgical or ascetically regimes, but the living God Himself. It tells us that life is communion with God: personal, direct, immediate, real, painful, peaceful and joyful. It tells us that ceaseless prayer in pursuit of God and communion with Him is not simply life’s meaning or goal, the one thing worth living for, but it is life itself. It tells us that Jesus Christ is this life, and that constant, continual, ceaseless prayer in His name opens the door to Divine reality and puts us in immediate contact with the One who is the source, substance and goal of our life and our very life itself.
Father Thomas Hopko
from The Way of the Pilgrim : Introduction
according to the measure of his love
The Lord wants us to love one another, in this, in love, towards God and our fellow man, lies freedom.
Saint Silouan the Athonite
yesterday gone
That which we ask of You, O Lord, is that our years be bound up together with You, that we live for You. Our days pass. We see that we all fall down and die. We ask nothing than to reach the land that spreads out before us.
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Elder Aemilianos of Simonopetra
come receive the light
When I reject the way of repentance, I reject God.
When I chose to remain in sin, I expel God from my heart.
But as soon as I turn from my sin, God enters my heart.
And when He does, I discover my place in the Church,
which is His body and His bride.
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Elder Aemilianos of Simonopetra
The Sacrament of Confession, is for an Orthodox Christian, the turning from sin and coming to one’s senses. One is conscious of their unworthiness, yet joyfully receives the longed for, heartwarming embrace from the Father.
It is the lost sheep returning to the flock, borne on the shoulders of the Good Shepherd.
The Church Fathers tell us that gift of repentance is the work of divine grace, which we, then, wholeheartedly offer and return to God. Saint John Chrysostom says that “repentance opens up heaven“.
While the Sacrament of Confession is the same for Orthodox world-wide, different localities may offer their own customs.
Over the summer, at a monastery retreat, Confession was available during the Divine Liturgy, in a side nave of the Church. The nave was dark except for a candle stand with one lit candle and a monk priest.
“The light of Christ illumines.” (1)
Only a few partook of Confession, but as each communicant received the prayer of absolution, she lit a new candle from the flame of the Confesson before her, so that with each new flame, the blaze and glow of each Confession literally overcame the darkness of that little chapel.
A powerfully striking impression that says more than words ever could. What a joy to behold – that as each woman left, heart lightened and unburdened – the tiny chapel became lighter and brighter. Repentance overcoming darkness and returning to the light of Christ, which illumines the faithful.
Like the Resurrection service of Pascha, Confession invites us again and again, to “discover our place within the Church” and continue on this journey redeeming the time.
“Come take ye light, that is never overtaken by night, and come glorify Christ, Who is risen from the dead“.(2)
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(1) Orthodox Service of the Presanctified Liturgy
(2) Orthodox Christian service of Pascha
make straight in the desert a highway for a God
It may be the case that we have many highways in our heart.
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But in the end, the goal of our pilgrimage is not a place at all,
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but God Himself.
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Elder Aemilianos of Simonopetra
real paradise on earth
Grace proceeds from brotherly love, and by brotherly love is grace preserved; but if we do not love our brother the grace of God will not come into our souls.
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Saint Silouan the Athonite
He gave us the Holy Spirit
Some there are who spend their whole lives trying to find out about the sun, or the moon, or in seeking like knowledge; yet this is of no profit to the soul.
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The Merciful Lord gave the Holy Spirit on earth, and by the Holy Spirit was the Holy Church established. The Holy Spirit unfolded to us not only the things of the earth, but those too which are of heaven.
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Both in heaven and earth, the Lord is made known only by the Holy Spirit and not through ordinary learning.
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Even children who have no learning at all, come to know the Lord by the Holy Spirit… There are some who spend their whole lives in trying to find out about the sun, or the moon or in seeking like knowledge; yet this is no profit to the soul.
Saint Silouan the Athonite
prepare the heart
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When you love someone, you like to think about what you’re going to do when you see him; how you are going to approach him, and give him the gift that you have brought and wrapped especially for him.
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The same thing is happening here both on the part of the pilgrim and on the part of God. The heart of the pilgrim is not occupied by a single ascent or a single highway, but by the entire country, the whole of the Temple, all of Mount Sion.
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God prepares things for the heart, the heart prepares itself for God.
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Elder Aemilianos of Simonopetra
longing for ascent
For God is always in excess of what we can know and desire.
If our desire is from God, then God Himself will cause it to increase and grow, as He does in the life of the Pilgrim.
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Elder Aemilianos of Simonopetra
gladsomelife.com 