Reform Islam?

I recently discovered a new blog, "Muslims Against Sharia." This is a group that wants to preserve Islam as a religion of the modern world, and the way they want to do it is to "pull its fangs," that is, to edit out all that is incompatible in it with civilised life. One of the primary ways they are doing it is by editing out those verses in the Koran that they believe "do not come from Allah." I added the 129th comment to a post called Reform Koran, in which they decribe the process of Koran editing. The following is my comment. If you want to read the original blog post and the other 128 comments, click on the hyperlink above.

As a late-comer to this blog and blogpost, and not having been able to read thru all the previous 128 comments (that's a lot!), nevertheless I have this to say:

To edit out the offending verses in the Qur’an is a work for the entire Islamic people, or their representatives. This is, of course, an impossibility, because there is no such thing as an “ecumenical” Islam. There are far too many sectarian divisions.

There is an inherent absolutism in the Qur’an about its contents, that is explicit and cannot even be matched in Judaism or Christianity.

The absolutism in the TaNaKh (Torah-Nevi’im-Ketuvim) of Judaism is implicit, and though the words of the scriptures for them cannot suffer any change, they have a tradition of evolving understanding about them, such that the violent passages in the Torah are modified by the pronouncements of the later prophets, without the necessity of editing them out (G’d forbid!).
The absolutism in the Bible of Christianity is an extension of the same inherited from Judaism, in which it is admittedly a participant. A verse in the final book of the New Testament, the Revelation, is explicit that anyone who adds or subtracts from the words “of this book” will receive all the plagues described in this book. This verse is often erroneously applied to the whole Bible, but it actually only applies to the book of Revelation. The absolutism of the Christian Bible is still just an extension of that applied by Judaism, and the way in which it is moderated is the same as in Judaism, by an appeal to reason and adaptation to culture. For both Jews and Christians, this willingness to modify or reinterpret the actual, unchangeable texts, still elicits problems, controversies and divisions.

The absolutism of the Qur’an can thus be viewed as a fortified version of the absolutism of the other two religions “of the Book.” Yet, this absolutism contains, as has been pointed out in some of the previous comments, unsolvable contradictions derived from the very pages of the Qur’an itself. Analyzed by an impartial logician, the Qur’an contains self-contradictions at a level which cannot be combined with the level of its absolutism, and thereby disproves itself as an infallible and perfect utterance of Allah. Similar contradictions can be found in the TaNaKh of the Jews and the Bible of the Christians, but they do not invalidate these scriptures, because the level of absolutism is simply not as high as that of the Qur’an.

As an example, the Qur’an speaks of Miriam the sister of Moses as also being the mother of Jesus. This is a well known mistake, and by itself demonstrates a logical, historical error that invalidates the whole of the Qur’an, because the Qur’an is to be accepted as absolutely perfect and correct.

Another example, in the Bible Jesus makes reference to the eating of sacred food from the Temple by secular persons who should not have eaten it, as having happened during a particular high-priesthood. In historical fact, the high priest He cited was incorrect. Yet the Christians claim that Jesus is God, and that the Bible is inerrant. How can this single example not invalidate both claims? First, because they believe Jesus assumed the human nature with all its characteristics, including fallibility in knowledge as well as the temptation to sin (the Jews call this “the evil impulse”), it was possible for Him to make an error as being human, though they believe that because He was also God, it was impossible for Him to yield to temptation or to sin. Second, because the Bible is believed to be inerrant does not invalidate it because it is not considered to be the “Word of God” in the sense that the Qur’an is so believed. Instead, like the incarnation (descent into human nature) of the Son of God, the inspiration (descent into human literature) of the Word of God can exhibit the same possibility of error in historical facts and other details.

Now, for the Christian, one more fact or item of belief also strengthens the absolutism of the Bible without turning it into a blatant bibliolatry (idolatry of a book), and that is, the Word of God and the Son of God are both names of the same Being, who is considered to be a person (hypostasis) of the Holy Triad (One Divine nature in three hypostases). Therefore, to call the Bible “the Word of God” is, though universal and unchallenged, still a conventional simplification or application of the absolute belief that Jesus is Himself the Word of God (the Divine Logos of the Father), but that the Bible is His explicit, written "image," and therefore reliable.

The point of my comment is this, that the Qur’an claims to be what Jesus is, that is, the Word of God. Muhammad therefore becomes what the Virgin Mary is, that is, the means by which that Word entered the human world. Is it not obvious that here we have two completely and diametrically opposed ideas?

If you plant a tree, and year after year it yields bad fruit. If you cultivate it, if you graft onto it branches of other trees with good fruit, if you care for it and try to improve it in every way possible, and yet it bears bad fruit no matter what you do, then there is only one thing to do. Chop it down, uproot it, and plant a tree with good fruit.

The tree with bad fruit is the Qur’an.
The tree with good fruit is the Bible.
And what is the good fruit that is hanging on that tree?
It is Jesus.

Taste and see that the Lord is good. (Psalm 34:8)

Run for your life

Psalms for the 24th Day
116 117 118 119:1-32

Reading the psalms this evening, reciting them and breathing them into me, fragrant as my bible is right now with the smell of basil from the feast day of the finding of the holy Cross, there I found some ρηματα (rhémata > living words) that nourished my soul, reminders of my path. (You alone, Lord, know my path.)

I have faith, even when I say,
‘I am completely crushed’.
Psalm 116:10

(Lord, You know what I mean when I recite this verse in prayer. And at times, I do feel completely crushed, yet there is no place I can be, or feel myself to be, where I do not have faith.)

Yahweh, I am Your servant,
Your servant, son of a pious mother,
You undo my fetters.
Psalm 116:15-16

(I can’t undo my fetters. I can’t do anything to free myself from bondage, Father. It is You alone who can free me, because You alone have freed me. “You undo my fetters.”)

I run the way of Your commandments,
since You have set me free.
Psalm 119:32

(In my distress I cried out to You, “Lord, why have You given me yet another day?” Your answer was instant, Your will to me was clear. You said, “I have raised you again to life, so that you can carry out My commandments.” Nothing more, nothing more had to be said. I heard Your voice, Lord, and I am satisfied. “I run the way of Your commandments, since You have set me free.” Glory to You, O God, glory to You!)

Draw me in Your footsteps, let us run.

Song of Solomon 1:4

Not by us, Yahweh

Psalms for the 23rd Day
110 111 112 113 114 115

Psalm 115

The one true God

Not by us, Yahweh, not by us,
by You alone is glory deserved,
by Your love and Your faithfulness!
Do the pagans ask, ‘Where is their God?’

Ours is the God whose will is sovereign
in the heavens and on earth,
whereas their idols, in silver and gold,
products of human skill,

have mouths, but never speak,
eyes, but never see,
ears, but never hear,
noses, but never smell,

hands, but never touch,
feet, but never walk,
and not a sound from their throats.
Their makers will end up like them,
and so will anyone who relies on them.

House of Israel, rely on Yahweh,
on Him, our help and shield!
House of Aaron, rely on Yahweh,
on Him, our help and shield!
You who fear Yahweh, rely on Yahweh,
on Him, our help and shield!

Yahweh remembers us, He will bless,
He will bless the House of Israel,
He will bless the House of Aaron,
He will bless those who fear Yahweh,
without distinction of rank.

May Yahweh add to your numbers,
yours and your children's too!
May you be blessed by Yahweh,
Maker of heaven and earth!
Heaven belongs to Yahweh,
earth He bestows on man.

The dead cannot praise Yahweh,
they have gone down to silence;
but we the living, bless Yahweh
henceforth and forevermore.

Εν Ιορδάνη βαπτιζομένου σου

Psalms for the 23rd Day
110 111 112 113 114 115

Psalm 114

Hymn for the Passover

fulfilled at the Baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan by John the honourable Forerunner

Alleluia!

When Israel came out of Egypt,

the House of Jacob from a foreign nation,

Judah became his sanctuary

and Israel his domain.

The sea fled at the sight,

the Jordan stopped flowing,

the mountains skipped like rams,

and like lambs, the hills.

Sea, what makes you run away?

Jordan, why stop flowing?

Why skip like rams, you mountains,

why like lambs, you hills?

Quake, earth, at the coming of your Master,

at the coming of the God of Jacob,

who turns rock into pool,

flint into fountain.

The Messiah: King and Priest

Psalms for the 23rd Day
110 111 112 113 114 115

Psalm 110

The Messiah: King and Priest

Yahweh's oracle to You, my Lord,

‘Sit at My right hand

and I will make Your enemies

a footstool for You’.

Yahweh will force all Your enemies

under the sway of Your sceptre in Zion.

Royal dignity was Yours

from the day You were born,

on the Holy Mountains,

royal from the womb,

from the dawn of Your earliest days.

Yahweh has sworn an oath

that He will never retract,

‘You are a priest of the order of Melchizedek,

and for ever’.

The Lord is at Your right hand.

When He grows angry He shatters kings,

He gives the nations their deserts,

smashing their skulls,

He heaps the wide world with corpses.

Drinking from the stream as He goes,

He can hold His head high in victory.

A childlike people

Another cool, misty dawn. I wake up in darkness and offer my morning prayer to You, Lord, thanking You beyond what my words can express. You have saved me, and given me another day.
Whatever is Your will for me today, Lord, let it be done.
Help me to follow You.

There is a covering of grey, translucent clouds hanging low over the city as I drive to work. Crossing the Columbia River, I look eastwards down its course and see the silhouette of Mount Hood, sharply defined against a brightening sky in the sliver of clarity between earth and clouds. It arises from its blankets of fog to greet the morning, its crest almost disappearing again in the waters above the firmament. No wonder the native people venerated the peak as a god, Wy’east, and gave him personality. They were a childlike people.

My thoughts drifted between prayer and memory.
Japan, and the dawn, its sun rising as a red disk against an off-white, cloudless sky. There too, a childlike people invest a mountain with personality, Fuji-sama, as he arises in a gentle slope from the sea, but his peak is high and mighty, also a god, a kami, watching over his islands and his people. Encircling him a host of ordinary mountains like attendants. The dreams of a childlike people, to console them with hopes of what they know not, to allay their fears of what they do know—death.

Father, let these childlike people awaken, putting off their coverings of myth, to meet Your Son. The roots of our fears strike deeper than we dream. Lord, uproot these tares that Your hands have not planted, and plant Your true seed in us and in them, so that we can stand up and see You as You are, and know that You are with us, as You promised, even to the end of the ages.

The love of God

Not my words, Lord, but Yours.

Not by us, Yahweh, not by us,
by You alone is glory deserved,
by Your love and Your faithfulness.
Psalm 115:1

Psalms for Day 22: 107, 108, 109.

How do we know that God loves us?
Aren’t we just too small and unimportant to bother with?
Doesn’t He have better things to do?
Or maybe it’s just that we don’t want Him to love us, so we prefer to remain in the dark about it.
That’s easier, because we can be “our own” men, not owing anyone anything, especially not owing Him.
What does the Word of God say about God’s love?
Here are some examples from Psalm 107.

Give thanks to Yahweh for He is good,
His love is everlasting:
Let these be the words of Yahweh’s redeemed,
those He has redeemed from the oppressor’s clutches,
by bringing them home from foreign countries,
from east and west, from north and south.
(Verses 1-3)

These words are for God’s hereditary people Israel, and are prophecy fulfilled in our day, as the return of Israel to the land proves. He addresses His own people first, and proves His love by always bringing them back. If you are a follower of Jesus, the Son of God, then you too are addressed in these words. He has redeemed you also from the oppressor’s clutches. Who or what is the oppressor? Death itself, which oppresses everyone. How has He redeemed you? By the precious blood of the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, that is, Jesus Christ.

Some were living in gloom and darkness,
fettered in misery and irons
for defying the orders of God,
for scorning the advice of the Most High;
who bent them double with hardship,
to breaking point, with no one to help them.
(Verses 10-12)

What is this? Does the loving God fetter those who defy Him and scorn His advice, that is, His Word? Does He really send them hardship, try them to the breaking point, and withhold all help from them? You cannot escape this. It’s here in the scriptures. You can’t make up a god out of your false hopes, and then search for Bible verses to prove your ideas. Why would God do these things to people who reject Him? That doesn’t seem very loving now, does it? Perhaps they’re right to reject Him, if that’s the kind of God He is. What else does it say?

Then they called to Yahweh in their trouble
and He rescued them from their sufferings;
released them from gloom and darkness,
shattering their chains.
Let these thank Yahweh for His love,
for His marvels on behalf of men;
breaking bronze gates open,
He smashes iron bars.
(Verses 13-16)

What? Is that all it takes? If you’re heading down the wrong road, and things are just getting worse and worse, all you have to do is just “call to Yahweh”? That just seems too simple, doesn’t it? Surely, somebody has to pay for the wrongs, if they were wrong to begin with! Yes, and Someone has. It’s He who broke “bronze gates open” and smashed “iron bars,” when He descended into She‘ol, into Hades, into Hell…

Isaiah knew it would be so.
“The world of shadows mourned,” he cried, “when it met You,
mourned at its bringing low, wept at its deluding.”
The shadows seized a body and found it was God;
they reached for earth and what they held was heaven;
they took what they could see: it was what no one sees.
(Chrysostom, Paschal Homily)

The psalm continues with more examples of the love of God.

Some, driven frantic by their sins,
made miserable by their own guilt
and finding all food repugnant,
were nearly at death’s door.
(Verses 17-18)

So here’s a bit more about what’s going on. It’s not just God that punishes man with the penalties of sin, but the sins themselves have an effect on those who commit them. What’s this? Their guilt makes them miserable? How can this be possible? Is there a real right and wrong? Or do people suffer like this because they really do know that there is a God, and that His ways are holy?

Then they called to Yahweh in their trouble
and He rescued them from their sufferings;
sending His Word and curing them,
He snatched them from the pit.
(Verses 19-20)

What does it say that God does when the afflicted call to Him? He sends His Word and cures them! How is this possible? What can it possibly mean that “He sends His Word”? What is this “Word” and how does it cure anyone? Can it possibly be what is called the scriptures? Backtracking to an earlier psalm for a moment, we might find the answer in Psalm 19, where the Law, Torah, is described in a way that makes us think whether it might be what Psalm 107 is calling the Word…

The Law of Yahweh is perfect,
new life for the soul;
the decree of Yahweh is trustworthy,
wisdom for the simple.

The precepts of Yahweh are upright,
joy for the heart;
the commandment of Yahweh is clear,
light for the eyes.

The fear of Yahweh is pure,
lasting for ever;
the judgments of Yahweh are true,
righteous every one,
more desirable than gold,
even than the finest gold;
His words are sweeter than honey,
even than honey that drips from the comb.

Thus Your servant is formed by them,
observance brings great reward.
But who can detect his own failings?
Wash out my hidden faults.
And from pride preserve Your servant,
never let it dominate me.
So shall I be above reproach,
free from grave sin.
(Verses 7-13)

“Thus Your servant is formed by them” and “free from grave sin” seem to be saying that the “words of Yahweh” have the power to shape us and free us from sin. It sounds like this might be the answer to what is meant by God “sending His Word and curing” people who “called to Yahweh in their trouble.” If this was true for them, can’t it be true for us as well?

Psalm 107 reveals to us a lot about how God, the living God of Israel, thinks and acts, showing us that God really does have a distinct personality, and isn’t just a “cosmic process.”

Sometimes He turned rivers to desert,
springs of water into arid ground,
or a fertile country into salt flats,
because the people living there were wicked.

Or again, He turned a desert into sheets of water,
and an arid country into flowing springs,
where He gave the hungry a home
in which to found a habitable town.
(Verses 33-36)

It isn’t just the mindless and purposeless forces of nature that change things on earth after all, but the just judgment of God that He expresses within time. Here’s an interesting verse…

Pouring His contempt upon the nobly born,
He left them to wander in a trackless waste.
But now, He lifts the needy out of their misery,
and gives them a flock of new families;
at the sight of which, upright hearts rejoice
and wickedness must hold its tongue.
(Verses 41-42)

Whatever else we think, we can see as we look around us, especially in these times, how these very things are happening. The “old money” families, despite their wealth and prestige, are coming unglued. Their control of whole nations has brought them nothing but inner decay, moral and spiritual. On the other hand, are we alarmed when we see the prosperity, in our United States, of the new immigrants, the Latinos, the Koreans and other Asians? These latter are by and large “people of the Book,” who take God at His Word and rely on His faithfulness…

Mary declared, “He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble and meek. He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent empty away.”
(Magnificat, Book of Common Prayer; Luke 1:52-53)

Psalm 107 concludes with this thought about the love of God…

If you are wise, study these things
and realise how Yahweh shows His love.
(Verse 43)

The Church fathers are alive and well

What? Do you think I am speaking of the “great ones” like Ignatios of Antioch, the Desert Fathers, Chrysostom, and the Three Hierarchs (Basil and the two Gregories)?

No, though they may be great, and their teachings and acts still resound till our own day, I am speaking of those presently alive in the body, who with hearts on fire for God without knowing it, speak, write and act for Him just as these, their noble, spiritual ancestors, did.

And where do we find such treasures as the church fathers of the present day? Who among the great hierarchs and ecumenical prelates do we find speaking, writing and acting for God, as did those of ancient times?

Well, I’ve heard plenty of praise for men like Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomaios of Constantinople and New Rome, who drags the world behind him in awe and wonder as he pontificates and enlightens us on our duty to be “stewards of the earth.” And I’ve seen the “Christianity” shelves of major bookstores crowded with books by such modern greats as Max Lucado, Josh McDowell, and Bishop T. D. Jakes. But I think that the greatest of church fathers are now, as always, hidden among us, like lilies in a bed of leeks, growing quietly, unnoticed except by chance.

Having heard some speak, I consider myself fortunate. Having seen some act, I have been encouraged to follow. Having read some write, I want to share.

Here are some words I just read, that I want to share. They are from a comment on the text of James 1:9-11. If you would like to read the piece from which they were taken, and I heartily recommend it, click on the author's name at the end of this post.

“We all have a little Pharasee in us. We all have a way of making ourselves feel better by finding someone or some group to whom we feel morally superior.”

“God will re-make the universe and is in the process as we speak. Everything is being perfected. The Spirit is working on us one sin at a time to get us ready for this new Heaven and new Earth. The problem is that I want to decide when and how that perfection takes place. I am trying to put myself in the place of God. This is the core of all of our sin.”

“Take a look at your lot in life. Whatever it may be, be grateful for it. Be grateful but do not cling to the position. God is working to level the playing field as we speak. The sun will wither our pride, and grow the seed of love in the compost of our poverty.”

“Be grateful when you are in a low position because you will be reminded to look up. Be grateful when you realize you are putting your trust in richness. When you find you are putting your faith in richness of money, morality, spirituality, or anything other than God, be grateful because the sun that is the Holy Spirit has just shown you your flower that He will soon wither away.”

Andrew Mills

September 14 ~ Holy Cross

In Paradise of old, the tree stripped me bare, for by the eating thereof, the enemy brought in death. But now, the most holy tree of the Cross that doth clothe all men with the garment of life hath been set up on earth, and all of the world is filled with most boundless joy. Seeing it exalted, ye people, now, let us the faithful all cry out with one accord to God in faith: Thy house is full of glory, O Lord.

Feast of the Elevation of the Holy Cross

Sessional Hymn of the Canon

Psalms for Day 14

The book of Psalms, divided into 30 portions for the days of the month, are my prayer book. This morning, two of the psalms appointed spoke very tenderly and strongly to my soul, and having nothing of my own to say, I simply want to share them.
Brethren, will you pray these psalms with me?
(From the Jerusalem Bible)

Psalm 71

An old man's prayer

In You, Yahweh, I take shelter;

never let me be disgraced.

In Your righteousness rescue me, deliver me,

turn Your ear to me and save me!

Be a sheltering rock for me,

a walled fortress to save me!

For You are my rock, my fortress.

My God, rescue me from the hands of the wicked,

from the clutches of rogue and tyrant!

For You alone are my hope, Lord,

Yahweh, I have trusted You since my youth,

I have relied on You since I was born,

You have been my portion from my mother's womb,

and the constant theme of my praise.

To many I have seemed an enigma,

but You are my firm refuge.

My mouth is full of Your praises,

filled with Your splendour all day long.

Do not reject me, now I am old,

nor desert me, now my strength is failing,

for my enemies are uttering threats,

spies hatching their conspiracy:

‘Hound him down now that God has deserted him,

seize him, there is no one to rescue him!’

God, do not stand aside,

my God, come quickly and help me!

Shame and ruin on those

who attack me;

may insult and disgrace cover those

whose aim is to hurt me!

I promise that, ever hopeful,

I will praise You more and more,

my lips shall proclaim Your righteousness

and power to save, all day long.

I will come in the power of Yahweh

to commemorate Your righteousness, Yours alone.

God, You taught me when I was young,

and I am still proclaiming Your marvels.

Now that I am old and grey,

God, do not desert me;

let me live to tell the rising generation

about Your strength and power,

about Your heavenly righteousness, God.

You have done great things;

who, God, is comparable to You?

You have sent me misery and hardship,

but You will give me life again,

You will pull me up again from the depths of the earth,

prolong my old age, and once more comfort me.

I promise I will thank You on the lyre,

my ever-faithful God,

I will play the harp in Your honour,

Holy One of Israel.

My lips shall sing for joy as I play to You,

and this soul of mine which You have redeemed.

All day long, my tongue

shall be talking of Your righteousness.

Shame and disgrace on those

whose aim is to hurt me!

[Amín!]

Psalm 73

The triumph of justice

God is indeed good to Israel,

the Lord is good to pure hearts.

My feet were on the point of stumbling,

a little further and I should have slipped,

envying the arrogant as I did,

and watching the wicked get rich.

For them, no such thing as pain,

their bodies are healthy and strong,

they do not suffer as other men do,

no human afflictions for them!

So pride is their chain of honour,

violence the garment that covers them;

their spite oozes like fat,

their hearts drip with slyness.

Cynical advocates of evil,

lofty advocates of force,

they think their mouth is heaven

and their tongue can dictate on earth.

This is why my people turn to them

and lap up all they say,

asking ‘How will God find out?

Does the Most High know everything?

Look at them: these are the wicked,

well-off and still getting richer!’

After all, why should I keep my own heart pure,

and wash my hands in innocence,

if You plague me all day long

and discipline me every morning?

Had I said, ‘That talk appeals to me’,

I should have betrayed Your children's race.

Instead, I tried to analyse the problem,

hard though I found it—

until the day I pierced the mystery

and saw the end in store for them:

they are on a slippery slope, You put them there,

You urge them on to ruin,

until they suddenly fall,

done for, terrified to death.

When You wake up, Lord, You shrug them off

like the phantoms of a morning dream.

When my heart had been growing sourer

with pains shooting through my loins,

I had simply failed to understand,

my stupid attitude to You was brutish.

Even so, I stayed in Your presence,

You held my right hand;

now guide me with advice

and in the end receive me into glory.

I look to no one else in heaven,

I delight in nothing else on earth.

My flesh and my heart are pining with love,

my heart's Rock, my own, God for ever!

So then: those who abandon You are doomed,

You destroy the adulterous deserter;

whereas my joy lies in being close to God.

I have taken shelter in the Lord,

continually to proclaim what You have done.

[Amín!]

Another Apostle Peter

I have to share this with people who visit my humble blog, both because it is worth reading and to encourage my fellow Orthodox Christians who also follow our Lord Jesus Christ to see an example of true, living Orthodoxy. This is an article about Coptic priest Zakaria Botros that is posted on the Infidel Bloggers Alliance. Father Botros (I believe his family name is the Coptic form of Peter, hence the title of this post) is an Orthodox evangelist to the Arab, mostly Islamic, world. Without all the theatrics and charismatic shamanism that goes on in televangelistic orgs such as TBN, Fr Botros brings the life-giving message of the gospel of Jesus Christ to millions of Arabs, via television, internet and other media. Without getting commissioned by the hierarchy, he has taken the Lord's "great commission" seriously, and is winning back souls to Christ, out of the slavery of Islam. That's about all I can say about him. I invite you to read the rest, by following this link: Al Qaeda Declares Coptic Priest Zakaria Botros "One of the Most Wanted Infidels in the World"

Pray for the continuing ministry of this man of God, for his protection from adversaries, and for long life. Fr Zakaria, may God grant him many, many years!

Prayer for the Church

Lord, how quickly and easily we get corrupted!

It’s easy to see what should be the form of the church, what should be its ministries, its worship, its lifestyle, from reading the gospels, the acts, and the epistles. Yet, we somehow always drift away from that which spiritual logic indicates and into the paths of our own devices.

In the first generation, we know that the holy apostles were set aside by God and they themselves accepted this, that they should have a ministry based on what was given to them, and that is what they lived for. Their daily needs were taken care of in whatever way each day afforded, whether some of them did manual work for their living as well as preaching, or when the Spirit had them preach or minister so totally that the church, that is, the people to whom they ministered, taught, evangelized and so forth, helped them out with their daily bread and a place to sleep. The same was true of all those whom the Spirit touched: they lived for You and the spreading of Your gospel, for the making of disciples of all nations. They had no private lives or needs, for what could be private to them who had given up everything to follow You?

And so it was through the ages and so it is today. The apostolic life can no more change than You can.

The lifestyle of the flock, the members of the church, also flows logically from the gospels, the acts, and the epistles. If we stayed in the scriptures, our lives and lifestyles would flow out of and be formed by the same spiritual logic. We would all minister to one another from our abilities according to each other’s needs.

The form of the church outwardly in various ages has wavered between what is formed by the spiritual logic of the scriptures, and what we want to make of them to fit our own imagined needs, which are really wants. In most of our history, those who were called or set apart to minister, still supported themselves by the work of their hands, to the extent of their real needs. Married priests had to farm, or do crafts, or teach, to earn their earthly keep and support their families. To the extent that they put themselves out to do the church services they were recompensed out of what their flock had and were willing to offer. Themselves, even when married, remained in actual fact not just in name, servants of the people of God, without private lives or privileges. Only those who gave themselves over completely to the needs of the church, and whose work really took up all their time, were supported out of common funds, and that only according to their needs, not their wants. But how quickly and easily these ways were corrupted, both in West and East. And at the present day, the ways of the church have so far drifted into the ways of man and so distant from Your ways, Lord, that we cannot even recognize, in the light of the logic of your Word, anything of the true in what we see in the church. We have drifted so far, that to even speak as I am now, is considered foolishness or even heresy. But You, Lord, know what You gave us, what Your holy apostles handed over to us, and what we have done with it.

Grant us, Lord, mercy in these last days, and let Your servants find the way of life that You have clearly revealed in Your holy scriptures, and deliver us from ourselves and our selfish plight. In the time that is left to us, help us to live as You live, so we will be ready to meet You without fear at Your second and glorious coming.

Come, Lord Jesus.

Whom do you trust?

Lord, help me always to tell it like it is.

We witness to the Lord Jesus Christ wherever we are, as second nature, without thinking about doing it, without personal intention or expectation, only the unspoken prayer, “Give the increase.”

A co-worker calls to me from over the cubicle wall. “You gotta see this!” I get up immediately, drawn by the hint of incredulity in the speaker’s voice. I round the corner and sit in an empty chair near the PC screen, as my friend reads aloud to me what he’s found on the internet, “Man is willing to pay $50,000 to Jews willing to relocate to Dothan, Alabama!” and then, “Hey man, this is for you!”

Even though he knows I’m a Christian, there’s just something about the label “Orthodox” that makes this friend, and many other people I’ve known over the years, think that I’m some kind of Jew. It doesn’t help that I’m bearded. A short conversation sprang up between us on the subject of the news story that concatenated a whole string of facts and ideas. Jews leaving small town America for the big cities, then, the depopulation of Polish Jewry, leaving hundreds of abandoned synagogues and cemetaries all over Poland, then the instant celebrity of any Polish Jewish boy who actually wants to be bar mitzvah’d. Then, as invariably happens, food comes up. “Yeah, aren’t rubens tasty with kosher corn beef and swiss cheese? Uh, wait a minute, even though the ingredients are kosher, that combination isn’t. Why?”

Then the conversation moves along as to how the rabbis added layers of “kosher” laws to the original single injunction “You must not boil a kid in its mother’s milk,” and how ridiculous this is, in view of what Abraham and Sarah offered to God the Holy Triad at their campsite at Mamre. Maybe God didn’t like the taste of meat and dairy at the same dinner (which is what He was served up), and so the next chance He got, He laid down the law about the “mother’s milk and kid’s meat don’t mix” thing.
Then the talk moved on to what happened to the two angels that visited Lot in Sodom, and then what happened to the city, and how Lot escaped with his two daughters, his wife having looked back and been morphed into a salt pillar. And then how what happened next gave rise to the Orthodox saying, “Do not defile yourself in the wilderness, where in the city you were pure.”

I can’t remember the rest of the conversation, but I have to remark on the faithfulness of God, who does not let His Word go forth and return to Him void. Whether my friend identifies himself as a Christian or not, he could find meaning in, and welcomed the exchange of ideas and stories recounted on a colloquial level, in fact he initiated it. This is how we witness. We just remain willing to defenselessly and joyfully deliver the Message that He wants to send. He appoints the rendezvous, and it’s always, as Sergei Fudel calls it, “a miracle of unexpected joy” (Light in the Darkness).

Did I bring Christ into the conversation? Did I announce the “four spiritual laws?” Did I ask my friend if he is saved? No, not this time, because that’s not what happened. But I am ready to, whenever the Lord ordains it. “Not my will, Lord, but Thine!”
Another co-worker showed up with a question, and as I was actually on my way out the door when this conversation occurred, I just let it go with a “Good night, guys, have a good evening! See you tomorrow!”

On the drive home, I got to thinking. All these folks I work with are very nice people, and at least a couple of them have told me they were or are Christians, and in the past (I’ve known them several years) we’ve sometimes shared a little about our Christian lives, or at least our upbringing. I know what some of them reject. In fact, no one in my office “goes to church” except me. Yet, they’re all nice people. This is the product of religious Christianity. When C. S. Lewis said that Christ came not to make nice people but new men (Mere Christianity), he was writing about this very thing.
So, as I was driving home, I was turning over in my mind, what is the source of my belief, what does my life in Christ grow out of (for this is the only thing Christian life can really mean)?

I thought back to one of my favorite concepts, that though we have five sense organs to give us knowledge of the natural world, we have one sense organ to give us knowledge of God (I should say spiritual world, but that would not be enough). That sense organ is the brain, in which resides the mind. The mind is the eye with which we can see God—everything else we use it for are like “extras” thrown in by the Maker. The problem is that most people use the mind for very opposite purposes, either because they don’t know any better, or because they do, and they don’t want to see God (Romans 1:20-21). When people have asked me why I believe in God, I sometimes say, “Honestly, it’s not really belief per se. I just know He’s there. In fact, He’s here with us right now in this very room, as we’re talking. It’s like I can see Him, not with my eyes, of course, but with my mind. I guess you could say, with the eye of faith.”

Then as I drove along, I started wondering how people must see me, and others whom they know are followers of Jesus, or at least call “religious” folks. They sometimes know that we pray, or say prayers, or talk to God, or whatever. But they, even when they claim “to believe in a God,” simply don’t pray. They don’t really think that there’s Anyone there listening. I can see their point. On the purely natural level, there’s no evidence of anyone or anything that “hears” all our thoughts and words, and “sees” all our actions.

So where do we, where did I, get that notion in the first place?
I can see how people can accept the concept that there is a God, but not know anything about Him, because there’s nowhere to find “more information” except—in the Bible! And that Book has had the most wild history of promotion and defamation of any book known to man, not to mention a whole slough of writers intent on making us believe that though it’s God’s Word, it’s not perfect (implication, not reliable), and that it must be studied in the context of its time and place.

Back to the notion that Someone is there that knows everything about us, hears all we say and think, sees all we do. For me, that has come primarily from the book of Psalms, which is rich with detail on the nature of God, Who He is, what He loves, what He hates, what He does and can do (there’s nothing He can’t do, but there are things He won’t do). I’m sure there are many places in the Bible where God’s nature is revealed simply enough for anyone to understand, but for me the Psalms are that place.
Now this is where “faith” actually does kick in, even for me. It is by faith that I accept and believe that what the Bible says about God is true in the first place.

Yes, faith—this is the stumblingblock for those who may claim to “believe in a God,” but cannot bring themselves any closer, let alone confess Him before men. They may justify their disinterest by their agnosticism, and their agnosticism by their biblical illiteracy, and their illiteracy by the corruption of the institutions representing Christianity. But without taking the personal initiative to seek the Lord where and when He can be found (Isaiah 55:6), that is, in the Word of God, they cannot hope to be justified or become children of the Promise, putting false hope in the “goodness” they attribute to the “God” in whose existence they say they believe, but of whom they have no objective knowledge.

So then, though the mind can “see” God, only faith can tell us of His attributes, and “can guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of realities that at present remain unseen” (Hebrews 11:1). And that faith cannot be arrived at by any amount of human thinking or speculation. That was the heresy of the false gnosis of ancient times. Instead, we have been given (as the Jews say) “the precious Implement by which the world was created,” that is, the Word of God. We have been given it (again, as the Jews say) “not to be made into a spade to dig with,” in other words, not something to serve us, to bolster our opinions and thoughts. Instead, we have been given the precious Implement “through Whom all things were made” (Symbol of Nicæa), and Who alone can remake us, as the Psalms declare.
What is faith then?

Of course, in an everyday sense, it really comes down to trust. Without realising it, everyone lives their life day by day based on trust that “things are as they think they are.” This is like not being afraid to enter the highway and jump into a lane of fast-moving cars, because you trust that the fear of instant chaos, damage or death will keep everyone on the road in their lane. This is like not being afraid to fly to Japan on a jet airliner because you trust what the scientists have discovered about the laws of physics, you trust the pilots to know how to fly the plane, and you trust the entire apparatus of the airport maintenance system to make sure there’s fuel in the plane and so on.

In various other areas of life, we have come to trust, or have faith in the reliability of various human institutions, and so we are able to live our earthly lives and function in relative peace and stability. We know we can trust scientists, as long as they stay scientific. We know we can trust doctors and other professionals, as long as they stay true to their various disciplines. Why then this lack of trust, this absolute disdain of theologians and clergy, and of “organized religion”? Sorry to say, a large proportion of these people have not stayed true to their discipline, wandering where they don’t belong, or bending the Bible to fit their agendas. However, there’s nothing more I need say about it here.
What I want to say is one more thing. Just as we trust a scientist when he stays scientific, we should trust a theologian when he stays theological. What is the discipline of the scientist? To study the natural world, do experiments, get results and publish them, so others can duplicate them. What is the discipline of the theologian? To study the Bible, do experiments (follow Jesus), get results (the life of salvation) and publish them (make disciples of all nations). If a theologian can’t be found where you live, find them among the Church fathers, or become one yourself.

True science requires honesty, study and hard work, but it’s worth it. True theology, the same.

The true scientist trusts the natural world to be true, takes it at face value, tests it, confirms its truth, and himself can be trusted. The true theologian trusts the Bible to be true, takes it at face value, tests it, confirms its truth, and himself can be trusted.

Whom do you trust?

The Disappearance of Holy Orthodoxy

“Father Paul Florensky used to say in the [nineteen] twenties that he admitted the possibility that a local, national church would cease to exist. The promise to remain invincible to the gates of hell was given to the Ecumenical Church, not to the church of a given country. Similar thoughts were expressed by Bishop Theophan the Recluse. In the 1870’s, at a time of seeming prosperity for the Russian Church, he wrote ‘The younger generation is kept within the limits by memories of their childhood, of their parents’ traditions. But what will happen to their children? What will keep them in bounds? I believe that within a generation or two our Orthodox faith will disappear’ (Letters concerning Christian life, 1886, pp. 70-71).”

—Sergei Fudel, Light in the Darkness, pp. 14-15
italics in the text added

Except for the first graphic of the current issue Dynamis cover, all the others come from Dynamis issued during the ministry of Fr. James Retelas. They were not included to illustrate the topic, but rather to provide a visual contrast with what is today being promoted as Orthodox Christianity in one Portland community.
Click the images to ZOOM.

This morning I was having breakfast, and I noticed a copy of Dynamis lying on a chair in the corner of the room. That’s the newsletter of my parish church, now the Cathedral of Holy Trinity. The full-color masthead is eye-catching. I designed it in the days when Fr. James Retelas and I revived the publication perhaps fourteen years ago, and renamed it. We had been talking about a new image and focus for The Voice of Holy Trinity, and then I woke up in the middle of the night with the verse ringing in my ears, “…since the kingdom of God is not just words, it is power,” and the Greek word δυναμις (dýnamis = power) immediately came to mind. I recounted this to Fr. James, and he thought that would give a good focus and establish a sound theme for our newsletter. Then, for many years, I was the general editor and often main writer. I used to put scripture verses at the top of every page, trying to relate them to whatever news or articles were below.
Back to my subject, I saw the Dynamis lying on a chair, and so I picked it up and started reading it instead of the book I had brought to the table. The front page article, as always, was a missive from the current pastor. This time entitled “Gather My People to My Home.” Apparently the theme of this year’s clergy-laity congress, the pastor broke it down into three points (as he seems to do with everything) so we could understand it better. How to gather God's people home? Easy! (1) Come to services ourselves. (2) Create a friendly environment when you get here, so any strangers walking in will feel welcome. (3) Actively invite friends and neighbors to come (or come back) to church. “When you say to someone ‘we miss having you around,’ and do so with sincerity and sensitivity, this can be a profound expression of love.” This is our pastor’s advice, and as always, he signs himself, “With Deep Love in the Lord,” at the end of every message.
The Dynamis (the September issue, out well before the beginning of the month!) was very well organized and full of colorful photos this time, because August had been a very busy month. So much had happened, so much to look forward to, as Fr. Paul had ended his message, praying “may God truly ‘bless the crown of the year of God’s goodness,’ granting us all every spiritual and material blessing.” As I perused the many pages of the issue, I felt like I was looking at a family album or corporation yearbook. Nothing but happy faces, activity after activity. This is what newsletters are for, I guess.
Finally, towards the end, pictures gave way to more serious stuff, articles about the Greek cultural museum that has found a home in the space that Fr. James had called “the Upper Room,” announcements about a Greek film evening, Rebetiko festival, and workshops on Greek textiles. (Too bad I had to sell my collection of ancient Greek coins a few years back to supply missing income during a family emergency—I could have donated them to the museum!) The museum page also tucked in the announcements that aroused me to write what I am about to express. Two things, first the schedule for Saturday “Vespers Education Lecture Series,” and second, “Run For the Congo Women.”
For the non-Orthodox reader, the Orthodox “Sunday” begins at sundown on Saturday with a service called “Great Vespers.” This service lasts a minimum of an hour and can stretch to 90 minutes or more in some churches and seasons. The idea is, to worship together on the Lord’s day three times, evening prayer, morning prayer (orthros = dawn), and then the divine liturgy (main service culminating with Communion). What to do between the evening and morning services? What else? Go home, have a light supper, pray some more (apodeipnon = after dinner prayers), study your bibles together, sleep, and then get ready in the morning for more worship.
Why do I entitle this article, “The Disappearance of Holy Orthodoxy” and preface it with a quote from a modern church father? Well, look at the Saturday evening schedule that I read in Dýnamis…

September 6 — In place of Vespers, we will celebrate the “Akathist in Praise of God’s Creation,” [followed by a lecture] Topic: “The Wonder of Creation”
September 13 — Creation as Sacrament: Finding God in All Things
September 20 — Preserving God’s Creation: Our Human Responsibility
September 27 — Orthodoxy and the Environmental Movement

This is more of what the current pastor is pursuing since “taking over” our community about two years ago. Coming fully equipped with a pacifist, environmental, vegetarian, secular humanist, politically left agenda, fully intentioned to raise our community’s consciousness to a new level, using his specific talents for oratory, the Greek language, and dramatic choreography to gather support from those Orthodox whose “religion” is the performance of ceremonies and the throwing of gala social events, our “pastor” and his helpers are transforming what once was a spiritually focused and free, alive Christian community, into a mechanistic, controlled, modern corporation of working bodies, slaves in fact, not of God, but of the world system and its representatives. A world system that likes to “galvanize” people into action, enrolling them in meaningful and compassionate activities like the one that follows, the second thing that stirred me to write this article.
“Run For the Congo Women” brought to my attention something I had never heard about, that there is a civil war or something going on in what used to be called the French Congo. Apparently about four million people have died and women are abused and killed in large numbers. If this is true, it makes me wonder where the UN is in all this, the EU, or even the US? “Compassionate” people should get their governments to intervene. Instead, we have “Portland’s own local hero, Lisa Shannon” organizing an event on September 14th called “The Portland Run for the Congo Women.” The church’s own Philoptochos is inviting women from our church to run/walk in this event, and is even asking men “to help financially with a small donation.” (Items in quotation marks are exactly reprinted from Dýnamis.) I suppose this is a way to show solidarity with suffering humans whom we will never personally see or get to know, and to feel good about ourselves being compassionate and sympathetic.

What I have just described is where the Portland Holy Trinity community is headed. It truly amazes me how the good work of many generations of priests and pious laypeople can be undone or “transformed” in so short a time and by so few people. Part of this is the reticence on the part of Orthodox Christians to stand up for their faith when it is being challenged, especially by clergy. The result is that the Church can be derailed in a local area from its primary purpose and harnessed to the futile efforts of the world under its blind guides. The human damage can still be enormous, hundreds and even thousands of lives thrown away right here where you and I live, as souls are lost, not just bodies in faraway countries, yet even they are included in the ones that Christ came to save, He who taught us,

All authority in heaven and earth has been given to Me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations; baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.

Matthew 28:18-20

A sense of Welcome

“Anyone who welcomes you welcomes Me…”

Anyone who is part of a family or other closely related group knows this situation. You come home, or you wake up in the morning, or you walk into a room where the others are. It can be husband or wife, it can be children, it can be mother or father, brother or sister that are already there, and suddenly, there you are too. You expect to be greeted with a smile, with words of greeting, comforting words.

In Japan, we say when entering the house after being out, “Tadaima!” And if anyone at all is home, we hear the response, “Okaeri nasai!” and then see the smile of welcome following on the words. This is what we expect in our hearts, because God made us that way, to expect love, to expect welcome. He made us that way because He it is who is waiting for us to return to Him, so that He can drop everything and run to embrace us, to make us feel welcome, to love us face to face.

To continue, you expect to be greeted with a smile, with a welcoming word or gesture. Instead, you hear words of unwelcome, you hear words of criticism or judgment, you may not hear a greeting at all, and the face that you see is not what you expected. As in a dream, you pursue someone whom you know, and when you catch up to them, they turn around, and they are a stranger, and you back away, confused. Only this is happening now, in the “real” world. You are awake. The words you hear cut into your heart, the face you see flashes unwelcome eyes. You know you are not wanted, and there is nothing you can do about that.

It is not with the one who comes, but with the one who receives, that the power of welcome lies. This is one of the most painful of experiences.

Jesus has much to say about this situation in the gospels.

“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—your enemies will be the members of your own household. Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves a son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes someone known to be a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and whoever welcomes someone known to be righteous will receive a righteous person's reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is known to be my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly be rewarded.” (Matthew 10:34-42)

Everyone, without qualification, that comes to us deserves our welcome, and if we follow Jesus, and if we do what we see Him doing, we will welcome them. If this is true of any human creature, how much more is it true for members of our own household, for our own family members, for those who “have a right” to hope for a welcome from us. Yet often this is not what we give, or what we receive. Still, we need that sense of welcome more than anything else, even more than food, more than life itself.

Following Jesus separates us from people. A brother and more-than-friend of mine asked me yesterday, “I’ve heard people say that to follow Jesus is a very lonely road. Is this true?” Those of us sharing a meal together tried to answer, as best we could. Yes, to follow Jesus is in a sense a lonely road, because you find that you are no longer welcome to many people, to your neighbors, to your erstwhile friends, and even to your own family members. Jesus Himself tells us this. Yet there, at that table, was the proof of the love of Christ, the incarnate gospel, that although we might be outcasts from the world, maybe unwelcome by those to whom we should be welcome, at that table, where He was present with us, we were more than welcome, to Him and to one another.

So there is a sweetness to the bitter edge of martyrdom. With Jesus, who draws us together around Himself like a belt, we are welcome, and of that welcome we can be the ambassadors, passing on to those around us the good news that God has reconciled all of us to Himself through the sacrifice of His Only-Begotten Son. We can offer to others the welcome that has been denied us. We can do this because we are now really free to choose.

And so we choose to follow Jesus.

“… and anyone who welcomes Me welcomes the One who sent Me.”

Orthodox evangelism

There seems to be no standard method of evangelism in the Orthodox Church, especially now in these modern times. Unfortunately, Orthodoxy in America is very lazy, waiting for converts to come to the church on their own. Some of the clergy that I know seem to be strangely proud of this fact, as if a fisherman should be proud that fish somehow find their way into his net without the net being cast. This is not an apostolic attitude.

Until recently most converts came through marriage to an Orthodox man or woman, as in the film My Big Fat Greek Wedding. This film was embarassingly accurate in many details, uncovering some of the less laudable realities of Greek Orthodoxy in America.

The last twenty years or so has seen Orthodoxy capitalizing on the frustrations of Roman Catholics (against contemporary worship) and Protestants (against modern worship and deconstruction of scriptural faith). In Northern Ireland, Orthodoxy capitalizes on the frustrations of both groups with the endless cycle of animosity between them. Protestant clergy often visit the Antiochian priest secretly for help that they cannot get elsewhere.

In general, the Orthodox Church doesn't evangelize as an institution. It simply maintains order in doctrine and practice, and disseminates information about itself as a faith community, focusing in on what makes it distinctive. This makes it appear to buy into the ecumenical world view that "all paths lead to God," which is of course the fundamental heresy of our times.

Real evangelism takes place almost exclusively through the unsupported efforts of ordinary Christians, like myself. The style varies, but I would say that what we've done, reading the Bible aloud publicly and the rest of it, is very much in the Orthodox tradition.

Orthodoxy is the faith of the martyroi, the witnesses, and that's what we do, wherever we are. No frills, no strings attached, leaving God to do the work of converting men's hearts. All we do is follow along behind Jesus. He does it all.

"All we do is catch the fish with the Word of God. He cleans ‘em and sorts ‘em out."

"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." (Matthew 4:19 NIV)

With the net of the Word

"Come, follow Me", not so much by following Me exteriorly but by loving Me, imitating Me, and I will make you fishers of men, that is, teachers of mankind. In fact, it is with the net of the Word of God that men must be drawn.

— St. John Chrysostom

The peace of Christ

Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin?
The Blood of Jesus whispers peace within.
—Edward Henry Bickersteth

Hymn writer

Peace, that which comes from above and is granted by God alone through Christ is not easy to define, but it definitely does NOT mean something like "all's well" or "peace and quiet" in the usual sense. Peace from God does not necessarily mean that there is no trouble anywhere in our life, nor that we are not faced with problems to which we cannot find a solution.

It's easier to talk about this peace that comes from God through Christ and is bestowed on us in prayer than it is to actually have it. Why? Because we usually talk about it when we are NOT in any great distress, emergency or need, but after we have been delivered from it. We look back in retrospect and thank God for the deliverance and find words of testimony to give about God's faithfulness.

What is the best definition of and the most convincing testimony to the "peace from above"?

When we are presently in distress, in danger, at risk, beset with problems we see no end of, when we are suffering persecutions, slander, unjust accusations, when no one believes us, when no one cares about us, and we are not sad, not unhappy, not anxious, not disturbed, not reproachful, uncomplaining, unmoved to anger or revenge, still hopeful, still forgiving, still loving our enemies, still seeking God’s Kingdom first and His righteousness, never giving in to despair or abandonment. When we are in THIS place, and can define "the peace of God which passeth all understanding" not only by the word of our confession, but also by our passionlessness, then we have understood and accepted what that peace is. It's the same peace that Jesus knew when He was crucified and when He uttered with His last breath, "It is finished. Into your hands I commend my spirit (for You have redeemed me, God of Truth)." It is the same peace which Jesus gave to His disciples when He said, "My peace I give you, a peace the world cannot give."

This is the peace of Christ.

Do whatever falls into your hands

Two quotes, the first sent me by my sister in Christ, Presvytera Candace Schefe, who has been faithfully sending such things to me for several years. This one is a gem from Theophan the Recluse. (Theophan the reckless might just as well describe him, a saint like I want to be.) The second is one I've heard before, because it comes with the "signature" in business emails sent me by an acquaintance, Fritz Krahl, who I've never met in person, but who seems like someone I'd like to meet. Anyway, both of these quotes eloquently convey some of the truths by which I've tried to live my life, and I wanted to share them with you, my friends…

Do whatever falls into your hands, in your circle and in your situation, and believe that this is and will be your true work; nothing more from you is required.

It is a great error to think that you must undertake important and great labors, whether for heaven, or, as the progressives think, in order to make one’s contribution to humanity. That is not necessary at all.

It is necessary only to do everything in accordance with the Lord’s commandments.

Just exactly what is to be done?

Nothing in particular, just that which presents itself to each one according to the circumstances of his life, and which is demanded by the individual events with which each of us meets. That is all.

If you set about to act in this way in every instance, so that your works will be pleasing to God, having carried them out according to the commandments without any deviation, then all the problems of your life will be solved completely and satisfactorily.

Theophan the Recluse

And now, from Fritz (but I don't know if this is a saying of his, or if he's quoting someone else)…

"Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle."