“We eat and drink every day, yet on the morrow our bodies need food and drink again. In like manner, the recollection of God’s bounties never wearies that soul, but disposes her still more to think on God.”
Saint Silouan
embrace time
Christ is everything, including the Lord and owner of our time. He is the Way, the how, the format, the prioritizing of our schedule. C. S. Lewis said we usually regard time as our own. We start our day with the curious assumption that we are the lawful possessors of an upcoming twenty-four hours. With that hazardous assumption, we fill the matrix of our day with slots of tasks or restful moments. We might hope that we are somehow planning our time in a way that pleases God. But, when we begin with the assumption that time is ours, then inconveniences, particularly people who appear before us wanting strength and hope, can become intrusions into our afternoon.
Albert Rossi
Becoming a Healing Presence
the Way and the Truth and the Life : in time
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
(John 14:6)
“An Orthodox view of time is cruciform. All events that happened before the Cross, for the Christian, led up to the Cross. All. Subsequently, all events after the Cross are defined by the Cross and look back to the Cross for meaning. So the Cross is the center of time ; it magnifies and gives perspective to time….Time has a depth and profundity for Christians that the philosophers and the secularists can’t grasp, because it is all based in Christ and His saving action for us on the Cross. For Orthodox Christians, time— for example, 2:30 in the afternoon on a Tuesday— is basically a spiritual issue. It’s not about the control of our time but the surrender of it. We begin by saying that time is a gift from God that we are called to accept and use properly. Like all other gifts of health, friendship, and breath, we cherish time as a great gift bestowed on us by a loving God.”
Albert Rossi
Becoming a Healing Presence
kairos . God time
So the meaning of time is found in the risk of love, in relationships, in response and openness to the other. Of course, our basic relationship is with Jesus Christ. We try to use our God-given time to be as aware and connected with Him as we can and then to do what He has put us on the planet to do. Time is a gift to become more of a healing presence.
Rossi, Albert S.
Becoming a Healing Presence
begin with Christ – again and again
WE ALWAYS, ALWAYS begin with Christ and His Word. We find in Ephesians , “See that you walk circumspectly . . . redeeming the time” (Eph. 5: 15– 16). That’s our job, to redeem the time. Christ is our Way and Truth and Life, and in that sense, our Time. He redeems time through us. The Orthodox meaning of time gives us the freedom to love, to take the risk to love . Time and eternity are different; they are not mutually exclusive but complementary. We are not to become timeless but to transfigure time. Some of our common expressions give us a view into how we can misuse time, such as “killing time” or “wasting time” or even “saving time.”
Albert S Rossi
Becoming A Healing Presence
living catechism
Raising children – in the world but not of the world – truly this is a magnificent arduous labor – impossible without God
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Whether your children attend private school, public school or are homeschooled, one of the best ways to give our children an excellent Orthodox education, is to take them to Church – not just on Sunday mornings, but Vespers and any Festal Liturgy or service that you can attend. An Orthodox catechism begins at Baptism and is hands on : young lives fed by the Sacraments and steadfast timeless seasons of the Church : integrated into the fabric of liturgical life.
Life lived through the Church’s seasonal rhythms seeps into the core of a child’s being. This is the perennial unshakable and fortifying foundation of Truth and Love.
In a world where truth is relative, our children are bombarded with the noise of consumerism peddling false messages of self worth, ephemeral instant gratuity and distorted images of what it means to be fully human, joyful and even content. It’s constant drone it can be alluring.
A parent must “walk circumspectly” in the Faith and “redeem the time:”, while they are yet young. None of us knows whether our child will become one who is part of the increasing numbers of youth leaving the Faith…. and so it is no vain labor to let the Lord build the house (Psalm 127:1) and strive as a family to live the Faith sincerely and wholeheartedly.
“In the education of children, the most important thing is that they should see their parents leading an intense spiritual life.” Father Alexander Elchaninov
Faith is transmitted through parents; it is a living gift of nourishment. Children and especially teenagers and young adults crave Truth and authenticity. Parental devotion to the Lord enables children to love and know their Creator – a thirst quenching, life sustaining relationship. It is a noble goal : striving to live the Greatest Commandment, rearing children in the Faith – through word and deed – bringing them to Church regularly and making that a priority.
It is necessary for everyone to know Scriptural teachings, and this is especially true for children. Even at their age they are exposed to all sorts of folly and bad examples from popular entertainment. Our children need remedies for all these things! We are so concerned with our children’s schooling, if only we were equally zealous in bringing them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Saint John Chrysostom
the early years
parenthood is a martyrdom
a constant effort, tending to the soul of another
a hope-filled life
cultivating . instilling . loving . healing . nurturing . encouraging . educating . praying
within the seasons, grace and space
life fashioned of Faith, in the Church
“It will enough if you take care to instruct your children in the fear of God and instill them with an Orthodox understanding, and by teaching them to be faithful, you protect them from any manner of thinking that is foreign to the teachings of the Orthodox Church. The good that you sow in the hearts of your children, while they are young, will blossom forth in their hearts when they come to full maturity after enduring the bitter trials of school and contemporary life which often break off the branches of a good Christian upbringing.”
Saint Ambrose of Optina
walk in love
“After all, love is our true nature , our real self. God, motivated by love, created everything for us and offered Himself as a sacrifice to show His infinite love for us humans . Therefore, love is the deepest motivation of every human being.”
Kyriacos C. Markides
Inner River: A Pilgrimage to the Heart of Christian Spirituality
Greater love has no one than this,
than to lay down one’s life for his friends.
John 15:13
peace . harmony . whole
“A human being is created as a harmonious whole because he is an icon of God. As the Scriptures tell us, peace is the indwelling spirit of God. Peace is an attribute of God and a human being made in the image and likeness of God has the natural capacity to function in the same way.”
Kyriacos C Markides
Inner River : A Pilgrimmage to the Heart of Christian Spirituality
outside air
Television dulls children’s minds. They lose the ability to think on their own, to think critically…
Television has done us great damage.
Saint Paisios the Athonite
gladsomelife.com 