Imageless

Just before the onset of the Portland Greek Festival, where I was to serve as a sanctuary guide for three days, I came across a wonderful exposition written by a local Orthodox priest on prayer, and how we are not to go into our 'prayer closet' with images of any kind. This may come as a shock to many who are familiar with the Orthodox faith, even to some of its people, because if Orthodoxy is known for anything, it is known for its ikons. During my time as a guide, I found myself expressing what I had learned to many of the visitors, who asked me about prayer and ikons in the Greek 'tradition.'

Today, I returned to the internet site where I first read Fr Sergei's writing, and I thought to myself, "This is so good! I should post it on my blog, to share with others." The subject is, or should be, of interest to all Christians, and the reason I was so impressed by it is, because what it tells of, I have personally experienced.

Many Christians have mistaken notions and practices that prevent them from making progress in the life of sanctification. Why? Because they are not aware of what is fantasy and what is real, when it comes to spiritual things. In my own family, when I was growing up, some of the women were addicted to "dreams and visions" and superstitious reliance on what they thought were 'favors' from God.

The teaching that Fr Sergei shares with us is, unfortunately, too long to put up as a post on Cost of Discipleship. What I did instead is, I created a special blog just for it, dividing his teaching into ten short posts. I invite you, brethren, to take a look at this new blog which I have called… Imageless.