Christmas…

I discovered this essay at the blog Infidel Bloggers Alliance. I would provide a link to it, but for the fact that this blog contains images which some of my visitors would find objectionable. (A fellow blogger, Christian, and counter-terrorist whose blog Right Truth was the original publication of this essay by Godlewski, has kindly provided me with the link, here.) I am reproducing here the original image and text as it appears at IBA. I don't know who R. J. Godlewski is, but he writes the way I want to write, and it gratifies me to see that he is a fellow Polak. Wesołych Świąt Bożego Narodzenia, bracie!

Christmas: The Insurrection of God

By R.J. Godlewski

© December 23, 2010, all rights reserved.

“But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God.”

John 1:12-13 NEW AMERICAN BIBLE

Humans like to adorn themselves with the majesty and pageantry of greed. Politicians speak from podiums, academics line their offices with framed parchments, athletes and entertainments hawk merchandise they often fail to use. Museums proudly display oil paintings of Napoleon on horseback and nightmares envision the “latest” fuehrer to champion in front of ecstatic crowds of wide-eyed believers. Indian prince Siddhartha wandered his kingdom of wealth before he became “the Buddha” and Muhammad cast away his mere “five camels, a flock of goats, a house, and a slave” in order to take Arabia by sword. Only God came as a homeless infant, born in a manger unfit for animals.

No human could conceive of such a conception, but God chose to come into his earthly world unhindered by human expectations. Had he arrived with all the power and glory he is capable of rendering unto our minuscule existence, his human subjects would have run and cowered behind every rock and tree they could find. Instead, he chose, in his infinite wisdom, to arrive amongst his flock in the most unthreatening way imaginable – as an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes. Only absolute evil remains threatened by a baby.

Herod the Great valued his kingdom more than his God, so he had the Holy Innocents butchered by the dozens if not the hundreds. Their sole crime being that they were near enough to Christ’s age that Herod could not afford their existence. To survive, Christ had to trust that Mary and Joseph would spirit him away into Egypt to await the death of ‘the Great’ – a human so vile that he could not let a mere child live. And what of today? How many tens of millions of infants are destroyed through abortion simply because their parents’ “kingdom” cannot afford these children? How many people deny the very existence of Christ because “how can God have a mother?” As soon as we question the infinite power of God, we elevate ourselves onto the pantheon of human sacrifice. That is, our souls die because we cannot fathom that God can have whatever God desires, including a human body and mother.

Yet, God so loved the world that he did not question our ability to accept whether he could create his own mother if he so chose. He of infinite power did not want to terrify us into belief, as the “Allah” of Islam seems so destined to do. His first gift unto the human world was to grant us free will, an ability to close our hearts and minds to him who created us and everything that we can comprehend – and much that we cannot. God’s magnificent Kingdom remains so hospitable that he delivered the key to us personally, as an infant who even worried his parents for three whole days as he wandered away. All that we need to do to unlock the entrance to his mansion is simply to believe in him and heed his words and deeds.

Distancing ourselves from Christ is but a distraction. We can manufacture other deities, even involving ourselves if we so choose. We can glorify our actors and athletes, our politicians and our prophets, our ministers and our militants, and still not match the unblemished life of Jesus. In all of the Gospels, there remains not one instance of Christ endangering his detractors or punishing those who did not believe in him. In fact, his greatest ‘threat’ to the Establishment was to forgive everyone including those who nailed him to a cross and pierced his side with a lance all while mocking him and casting dice for his clothes.

For those of us who cannot wait in line at the register or endure being patted down at the airport, Christ’s example shines forth as the perfect example to emulate. He bore a crown of thorns, long needles of which undoubtedly pierced his skull so that we may not experience an infinitely greater inconvenience than waiting for a cashier to ring up an elderly customer who cannot find her money quickly enough for our tastes. He endured skin-shredding lashes so that our infinite punishment would not exceed that of enduring a mere earthly existence amongst people we did not choose to associate with. He endured forty days of fasting so that he would understand our comparatively little hunger. He even permitted his closest friend to deny him three times and another to betray him to death for profit so that our complaints of infidelity and debt would pale in comparison.

Today, thousands of atheists fear the mere sight of a Christmas tree and millions of Muslims and others fear the thought that God could be so powerful as to visit every one of us in person. Like the farmer who wished that he could change into a bird in order to lead a flock of sparrows into the warmth of his barn during a blizzard, God understood that he had to persuade – not force – us into following him into the protective warmth of His Kingdom. Neither a politician wearing tailored suits nor a “prophet” bearing armor and a sword could walk on water or change that water into wine. Nevertheless, Christ did. No entertainer or athlete could calm a storm or give sight to the blind. Nevertheless, Christ did. Buddha, Mao, and Muhammad inspired billions, but they could not raise the dead. Yet Christ did. And to think that he loved us so very much that his greatest gift was to come to us as a mere child, thrust into an inhumane human world, without home or friend, and ultimately suffer an unimaginably horrible death for our sins just so that we could have eternal life – if we so choose to believe in him. As they say, only a child could conceive of such a story…

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND PEACE BE WITH YOU ALL!

— R.J. Godlewski

I did a little research on line and found this short biography of R. J. Godlewski.

Του δε Ιησου Χριστου η γένεσις ουτως ην…

This is how Jesus Christ came to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph; but before they came to live together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)

Her husband Joseph, being a man of honor and wanting to spare her publicity, decided to divorce her informally. He had made up his mind to do this when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:19-21)

Some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east. "Where is the infant king of the Jews?" they asked. "We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage."
(Matthew 2:1b-2)

And there in front of them was the star they had seen rising; it went forward and halted over the place where the child was. (Matthew 2:9b)

Joseph set out from the town of Nazareth in Galilee and traveled up to Judaea, to the town of David called Bethlehem, since he was of David's house and line, in order to be registered together with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to a son, her first-born. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger. (Luke 2:4-7)

In the countryside close by there were shepherds who lived in the fields and took it in turns to watch their flocks during the night. (Luke 2:8)

The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shown around them. They were terrified, but the angel said, "Do not be afraid! Listen! I bring you news of great joy, a joy to be shared by the whole people. Today in the town of David a savior has been born to you: he is Christ the Lord. And here is a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger." And suddenly with the angel there was a great throng of the heavenly host, praising God and singing, "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace to men who enjoy his favor." (Luke 2:9-14)

Listen, you heavens; earth attend for Yahweh is speaking, "I reared sons, I brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner and the ass its master's crib, Israel knows nothing, my people understands nothing."
(Isaiah 1:2-3)

A shoot springs from the stock of Jesse, a scion thrusts from his roots: on him the spirit of Yahweh rests, a spirit of wisdom and insight, a spirit of counsel and power, a spirit of knowledge and the fear of Yahweh. (Isaiah 11:1-2)

His state was divine, yet he did not cling
to his equality with God but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave,
and became as all men are.
(Philippians 2:6-7)

The Word was made flesh, he lived among us, and we saw his glory, the glory that is his as the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

No one has ever seen God; it is the only Son, who is nearest to the Father's heart, who has made him known. (John 1:18)

All truth, all beauty

The following is an excellent reflection by brother Pandelis on the feast we are about to celebrate, the Birth of Jesus Christ, joined by a few considerations of my own. The original post can be read by linking here.

In a couple of days we celebrate the greatest event in all history: the Incarnation of Christ, God the Word becoming flesh, the Son of God becoming the Son of Man. It is simply an unbelievable event, even for the angels who worship Him unceasingly. It is truly a great, miraculous paradox, as the Psalmody of our Church describes it. In the Kathismata of Christmas Day we hear: “Your [the Theotokos’] timeless Son is born in time...” and again, “...Being without a man, how can I [the Theotokos] conceive a son?” “You Who are boundless, how are You bound in the Womb? You Who are in the bosom of the Father, how have You come into the embrace of Your mother? For being fleshless, You became flesh. And He Who Is came among us.”

We receive the answer in the 2nd Kathisma chanted on Christmas Day: “Whenever God wills, He can overcome the natural order (nikatai physeos taxis) as it is written.”

St Irenaeus writes something very interesting about the Incarnation: “Since He Who saves already existed, it was necessary that he who would be saved should come into existence, that the One Who saves should not exist in vain.” This seems very odd, but its consequences are profound. Tertullian also writes, “As Adam was a figure of Christ, Adam's sleep shadowed out the death of Christ, who was to sleep a mortal slumber, that from the wound inflicted on His side might be figured the true Mother of the living, the Church.”

What do we learn from these short phrases?

Firstly, Adam was made in the Image of Christ, not the other way round, which is mind-boggling but theologically significant.

Secondly, the sleep of Adam foreshadows the death of Christ.

Thirdly, Christ’s speared side was foreshadowed by the creation of Eve.

Fourthly, Eve is a symbol of the Church, from the ‘side’ of Christ, who foreshadows the Virgin Mary, the Theotokos.

The Theotokos was and is always a symbol of the Church. In the Gospel according to St John—and significantly only in that Gospel—when Christ was on the cross He speaks to the Theotokos and the Beloved Disciple. Historically the Beloved Disciple is understood to be St John himself, but there is another interpretation. The Beloved Disciple is he who follows Christ, irrespective of when and where he lived or lives, it is each one of us who listens to Christ when He calls to us, “Follow Me.” And He puts His Beloved Disciple in the care of His Mother, the Theotokos, the Church.

Our Salvation didn’t start at the Passion of Christ, it was effected at His birth. God’s Divine Plan, His economy (oikonomía), slowly unraveled through the Prophets and when the right time had come, the ‘fullness of time’, He sent His Son to save us. St Maximus writes, “Christ eternally wills to be born mystically, becoming incarnate through those who are saved and making the soul which begets Him to be a virgin mother.”

There is so much to say about this event, but I leave the last word for St John of Damascus about the Theotokos: “It is proper and true that we call the holy Mary the Theotokos (God-bearer), for this name expresses the entire mystery of the economy.”

May you all have a blessed Nativity!

This brought to my mind some additional thoughts…

Thanks for posting these wonderful truths, brother! They have been the central truths of my witness for Christ ever since I first heard them at the beginning of my life as an Orthodox Christian, when my catechist, Fr Michael Courey, taught them to me, but until now I did not know that they are found in the writings of St Irenaeus and in Tertullian. I have studied many of the writings of these and other Church fathers, but I don't remember encountering them there. (Maybe I've just forgotten.)

This is what makes Orthodoxy so astonishing, to me and to others who really do want more of Christ in their lives: That the full tradition and life of the Church is available here, not just a thinly disguised humanism or self-centered and contentious triumphalism. All truth, all beauty, are found in Christ and become available to us in our encounter with the single Reality of His coming to us, a single Event which we experience as several, though they are One: His conception, His birth, His life, His teachings and miracles, His passion, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, His sending to us of the Holy Spirit—All these, to us several events, but in truth one Reality, one Event, which we celebrate now and throughout the years of time.

Εικον

Everything that exists in our world is fashioned in some way after the image of the Divine Logos, ‘through Whom all things were made,’
δι ου τά πάντα εγένετο is how it is expressed in the ancient Christian statement of faith we call the Symbol of Nicæa. Who or what is this Divine Logos? In college I first read about this Logos in the writings of Philo of Alexandria, a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher, and my vague notions of ‘the Word’ that I had read in the first verse of John’s gospel began to flesh out.

Slowly, as I exposed myself to the Bible, usually called ‘the Word of God’, I began to see and understand what is meant in the Symbol when it says in its own words what John wrote, ‘all that came to be had its being through Him, and without Him nothing came to be.’ Studying Church history, the controversies leading up to the first worldwide council of Nicæa, I became aware of the subtle difference between what the Arian faction believed about Christ and what the Orthodox believed.

To both groups, Christ is the Divine Logos. That answers the question posed earlier, ‘Who or what is this Divine Logos?’ Leaving gender but not personhood aside for the moment, it is the One who incarnated as a human being in the Jewish Mashiach, that is, Christ. To both groups, the Divine Logos is the agent of creation. To both, it is uniquely related to God the Father, but for both, in a different manner. The Arians in proclaiming the unity of God, divided; the Orthodox in affirming the trinity of God, united.

To the Arians, only God the Father is God, the Unbegotten, and the Logos, the Only-Begotten, read ‘first and only created’, is the only Creation of the Father, His single utterance, His sole expression of Himself. There are many verses in the scriptures, taken together in a certain way, that can support this notion. Hence, the intellectual foundation of all forms of Unitarianism from Arius till today. The rest of the Arian belief conforms to Orthodoxy: The Divine Logos, not God the Father, created everything else.

To the Orthodox, this definition introduced a fissure into the Godhead that could not be allowed, and they would not yield on the point made in John’s gospel, that ‘God was the Word,’ θεός ην ο λόγος, not just merely ‘divine,’ θείος, a word found nowhere in the gospel passage, nor anywhere else in the New Testament except in the second letter of Peter. Agreeing with the Arians, or actually the other way round, Orthodoxy attributes the origin of the created universe to the Divine Logos alone.

The Divine Logos imparts His inner structure to what would otherwise be chaotic and unformed in the material universe, everything passing through His hands, now speaking of Him as the Divine Man. When the Bible speaks of man being created ‘in Our image’ what is inferred is that humanity is an ‘image,’ εικον, of the Divine Logos, who Himself is One of the Holy Triad. As His special creation, humanity is His pre-eminent and most complete image or ikon. What Arius believed of the Logos is true of humanity.

The Word of God creates mankind, and mankind creates the human world. Of course, the Divine Word (for now we can simply use the English equivalent of ‘Logos’) created all that exists, and therefore everything partakes of His nature as a more or less complete ikon, but in humanity we have and are the most complete and perfect ikon. Hence, the envy of other rational (or once rational) beings, those life forms known as the bodiless powers, of whom a faction opposed God to His face.

How can beings that are immortal, sexless, and capable of keeping the cosmos moving in its myriad orbits not be more complete, more perfect, than mankind, that small and weak creation of the Divine Word? Yet the One ‘begotten of the Father before all ages,’ τόν εκ του Πατρός γεννηθέντα πρό πάντων τών αιώνων, created a rational race that in some respects was less glorious than the angels, but who in the purpose of His eternal Mind are more than mere messengers, more than mechanical servants.

The scriptures teach, ‘Yet God did make man imperishable, He made Him in the image of His own nature; it was the devil’s envy that brought death into the world, as those who are his partners will discover’ (Wisdom of Solomon 2:23-24 Jerusalem Bible). This ‘imperishability’ is eternity scaled down to the proportions of our human nature: Immortality for the human race is part of our nature as created by the Divine Logos, who became one of us to restore, to recreate His image, His ikon, in us.

‘It is all ikon,’ as the saying goes. We are all ikon. Everything and everyone points to a reality beyond what can be perceived by the senses, yet that does not negate those perceptions. ‘And the unseen is proved by the seen, till that becomes unseen and receives proof in its turn’ (Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass). Not only we, but all of creation, are books partaking of the nature of the Book, of that Divine Word ‘through Whom all things were made.’

Glory to You, O God! Glory to You!

Written too large, or too small

Everyone has had the experience of time seeming to fly by too quickly, or drag on too slowly. Why that happens might have something to do with the observer’s volume of activity or level of expectation. When we are very busy, time seems to fly by, but if our work is slow moving or monotonous, time drags. Ask any production worker or office clerk. A similar thing seems to happen when we want something or someone to arrive—time seems to slow down—but if we are afraid of some future task or event, we are often fast forwarded at incredible speed. Two examples drawn from the present moment: Who has enough time to get all those Christmas gifts for everyone, wrap them, mail them, and do all the other preparations that make the day special? That’s the grownups. Who can wait for a Christmas that seems never to come, while being cruelly tantalized by the growing pile of presents under the tree? That’s the kids (and the kids at heart).

They say that time is a fourth dimension, added to the three of height, width and depth. Sometimes it seems to me that there is a fifth dimension that somehow encompasses these other four, and if I can put my finger on its name, I would call it ‘size.’ They say that space is curved, and that if you traveled a very, very long time in a straight line, you would return to your starting point without ever having to turn around. We know this is true in a two dimensional context, like the surface of a globe. Satellites orbit endlessly around the earth in what would seem straight lines if the observer were small enough. Small enough? Well, yes, just the size of a man, really, and one who is not looking at a scale model of the orbit, but at the object actually moving, like watching the space station pass overhead from my back yard at dusk. It seems to be traveling in a straight line.

It seems that there is a limit to everything created, but it’s not always the limit we expect. So, space itself is curved, according to science, but who could have guessed? Time also, according to Indian cosmology, is curved. It has no beginning or end, but keeps going round and round, filled with a definite number of life entities that enter and leave incarnation within its cycles. To think this provides a fertile soil for the imagination, and India’s wealth of epic poetry and mysticism attests to this. But what of size, my fifth dimension?
What is the limit imposed on size? Or is there one? I have pondered this question all my life and have never found the answer. I have this odd feeling that the vast distances of space and the infinite number of objects that fill it might somehow be related to the likewise infinite number of particles in the vast sub-atomic world. At the extremes of great and small we meet the same bewildering infinity.

And then there’s God, uncreated Creator, unmoved Mover. They say the test of greatness is passed in the ability to become small, and small He became in becoming a human being, He whom the whole world cannot contain enclosing Himself in the womb of a woman of our species. He lived among us. The Greek of the gospel written by holy apostle John says, ‘He pitched His tent among us,’ He who stretched out the heavens like a tent over us. Speaking again of size, it’s not just the three dimensions, it’s the fourth as well. The God we know is larger than the universe we see, Himself containing it, longer than time is long, they say He is outside of it, but what this means we can’t grasp. But we say He is fully present even in the smallest space and the shortest time, without abandoning His greatness at the other end of that ‘limited’ dimension of size. Infinitely great, He is infinitely small.

Read Immanence by Evelyn Underhill.

‘Where is this God of yours? Why can’t we see Him?’ the perennial challenge is tossed, but we have no answer that anyone will receive, because every man must see it for himself. Try as we must, we cannot see for others with our eyes or feel for them with our hearts. Yet we know the God who is, because somehow, in spite of our size, we can read His message to us. Perhaps some of us are positioned at just the right distance to read the writing on His wall, but for others, it seems the message is written too large, or too small.
They don’t see it as writing, but as disruptions, as obstacles to climb over, while they look for comfort, whatever form it takes. It doesn’t help that they are very tired, very cold and hungry, or that they have been told a warm welcome awaits them at a giant’s castle. There it is again—size! And I keep wondering, what else have I missed that is written too large, or too small?

The way of innocence

This seems a cheerful world, Donatus, when I view it from this fair garden, under the shadow of these vines. But if I climbed some great mountain and looked out over the wide lands, you know very well what I would see—brigands on the high roads, pirates on the seas; in the amphitheaters men murdered to please applauding crowds; under all roofs misery and selfishness. It is really a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world. Yet in the midst of it I have found a quiet and holy people. They have discovered a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasures of this sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are the Christians—and I am one of them.
…

If you keep the way of innocence, the way of righteousness,
if you walk with a firm and steady step,
if, depending on God with your whole strength
and with your whole heart,
you only ‘be’ what you have begun to be,
then liberty and power to do is given you
in proportion to the increase of your spiritual grace.

For there is not, as in the case with earthly benefits,
any measure of stint in the dispensing of the heavenly gift.

The Spirit freely flowing forth is restrained by no limits,
is checked by no closed barriers within certain bounded spaces,
He flows perpetually, He is exuberant in His affluence.

Let our hearts only be athirst, and be ready to receive:
in the degree in which we bring to Him a capacious faith,
in that measure we draw from Him an overflowing grace.

— Cyprian of Carthage (AD 208~258)

Together

εις μίαν, αγίαν, καθολικην και αποστολικην εκκλησίαν…

in one, holy, catholic and apostolic church…

Symbol of Nicæa

God can show Himself as He really is only to real men. And that means not simply to men who are individually good, but to men who are united together in a body, loving one another, helping one another, showing Him to one another. For that is what God meant humanity to be like; like players in one band, or organs in one body.

Consequently, the only really adequate instrument for learning about God is the whole Christian community, waiting for Him together. Christian brotherhood is, so to speak, the technical equipment for this science—the laboratory outfit. That is why all these people who turn up every few years with some patent simplified religion of their own as a substitute for the Christian tradition are really wasting time. Like a man who has no instrument but an old pair of field glasses setting out to put all the real astronomers right. He may be a clever chap—he may be cleverer than some of the real astronomers, but he is not giving himself a chance. And two years later everyone has forgotten all about him, but the real science is still going on.

If Christianity was something we were making up, of course we could make it easier. But it is not. We cannot compete, in simplicity, with people who are inventing religions. How could we? We are dealing with Fact. Of course, everyone can be simple if he has no facts to bother about.

— C. S. Lewis,

Mere Christianity, Book IV, Ch. 2

Remember who your teachers were.

2 Timothy 3:14

A sign of the Mind of Christ

Three men are standing on a street corner. Before their eyes, a child is run over and killed by a car. The first man curses and bitterly complains, “How could a just God allow such a thing to happen? There is no God!” This man possesses the lowest kind of knowledge: he measures all things according to his own limited understanding and emotions, outside of which he accepts no authority.

The second man, less anguished perhaps, grumbles, “I don't understand how God can allow such things to happen; it makes no sense. It's not fair!” This man's reasoning already shows signs of change in that he can at least admit that he does not understand God's ways. He accepts that God somehow allowed this to happen, but he still judges what he has seen by his own values.

The third man crosses himself and, while experiencing a natural human sorrow, he is at peace within himself. His faith allows him to accept the providence of God as did the Righteous Job when he confessed, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the Name of the Lord.” This man expresses a “believing thought,” for his understanding has ascended to the level where it is possible to see that all things happen according to God's will, even though we do not understand His will.

This third man will be thought stupid and insensitive, full of “blind faith.” The other two will not understand him and will taunt him. However, he can understand them and why they react to him negatively. This is one of the signs of an Orthodox philosophy: the greater understanding can contain that which is lower, but the lesser knowledge is incapable of comprehending the greater. The first two men will not have compassion on the third for his supposed insensitivity, but he will have compassion on them because he realizes that they are locked into a world of limited understanding. He can also see how much their blindness causes them to suffer.

— Fr Ambrose Young,

A Man Is His Faith: Ivan Kireyevsky and Orthodox Christianity

Friendship

A kindly turn of speech multiplies a man's friends,

and a courteous way of speaking invites many a friendly reply.

Let your acquaintances be many,

but your advisors one in a thousand.

If you want to make a friend, take him on trial,

and be in no hurry to trust him;

for one kind of friend is only so when it suits him

but will not stand by you in your day of trouble.

Another kind of friend will fall out with you

and to your dismay will make your quarrel public,

and a third kind of friend will share your table,

but not stand by you in your day of trouble:

when you are doing well he will be your second self,

ordering your servants about;

but if ever you are brought low he will turn against you

and will hide himself from you.

Keep well clear of your enemies,

and be wary of your friends.

A faithful friend is a sure shelter,

whoever finds one has found a rare treasure.

A faithful friend is something beyond price,

there is no measuring his worth.

A faithful friend is the elixir of life,

and those who fear the Lord will find one.

Whoever fears the Lord makes true friends,

for as a man is, so is his friend.

Ecclesiasticus 6:5-17 Jerusalem Bible

Prick an eye and you will draw a tear,

prick a heart and you will bring its feelings to light.

Throw stones at birds and you scare them away,

revile a friend and you break up friendship.

If you have drawn your sword on a friend,

do not despair; there is a way back.

If you have opened your mouth against your friend,

do not worry; there is hope for reconciliation;

but insult, arrogance, betrayal of secrets, and the stab in the back—

in these cases, any friend will run away.

Ecclesiasticus 22:19-22 Jerusalem Bible

Not I, but Christ living in me

The following is a post written by Yudi Kristanto at his blog Heartbeat about one year ago. I was just reading his blog and rediscovered it. It is worth posting again, and I want to share the words of this young Orthodox Christian brother in Indonesia with the readers of this blog…

I have been realizing how easy it is for me to get distracted away from my focus to follow the greatest Master of all ‘who lovest mankind.’ It doesn't need great storm to make me disturbed but only the simple thing may made me helpless when I am trapped in self-pity and if I trust in my own strength (which is always insufficient) to deal with even the slightest thing during the day or even to make a spiritual labor as the ego thinks, “well I'll try my best to do it or that in my way.” And this results in the tendency of displeasure, impatience or anger if an obstacle intervenes, that is when anything doesn't go as ‘I’ want.

And I found that it is very tricky, and the subtle line of self-satisfaction can lead to the self-righteousness, as the temptation comes to think that we're ‘good enough’ or in feeling right. Just like when we think that we're humble but actually not, or when we think we're not, yet actually yes, by His grace. Only One is Good!

Only Jesus who lives in us can do all these things for us. Rest completely in Him, beloved, and let His life be your only joy. Then all other things and people will be sent to you, as He sends them.
Glory to Thee O God!

Once again this beautiful reminder clinging in my heart,

“Brother, do not worry too much about humility. It isn't something we can ‘grow’ through our own efforts or will power. By all means, always take the humble and lowest place, but not to gain humility or even to demonstrate it. Seek Christ always first, and do what you see Him doing in your spirit, and accept everything that happens to you, good and bad, with the same cheerfulness (not resignation), the same satisfaction with God's plan for your life.”

and these words touch my heart so poignantly,

To truly believe you are nothing, you forget yourself completely, and think only of the other. We reach this state of belief only rarely, and then lose it as quickly as we see ourselves reflected in something else again, or in someone. Then, without realizing it, we remember ourselves again, and abandon forgetfulness, and we again can say, “I am nothing.”

Lord, have mercy on me a sinner! Truly O Lord, Let Thy Life be my only joy, may Thou live in me and I in Thee, now and ever and unto the ages of ages! Amen!

Remembering

O Lord and Master of my life,
take away from me the will to be lazy and to be sad,
the desire to get ahead of other people and to boast and brag.
Give me instead a pure and humble spirit,
the will to be patient with other people, and to love them.
Let me realize my own mistakes,
and keep me from judging the things other people do,
for You are blessed now and forevermore.
Amen.

— ‘The Prayer of Saint Ephraim’

This prayer is more usually associated with the time of Great Lent, the forty-plus days of fasting before the feast of the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Pascha, the ‘Passover of God’, the Lamb without spot, slain before the foundation of the world.
Yet here we are in the ‘lesser lent’ of forty days before Christmas, the feast of the Lord's Nativity, and we are in no less need of praying these words to our Savior. ‘Lesser lent’ is right; who is it among us that keeps this fast faithfully? Yet, the fast is not a program of ascetic discipline designed for our pride. As the fathers teach,
‘Eat what you please, anything, but not the flesh of your brothers.’ To remember this prayer and say it faithfully and with all our heart, even if only once in this fast, with prostrations or without, it doesn't matter. God knows our hearts. He knows our lives. All we have to do is bring our burdens to Him, and lay them down before His Cross, and receive from Him what we do not deserve but what He longs to grant us, great mercy.

Prayer. Speaking to God. He speaks to us, we speak to Him. In our own words, or in words that we make our own, partaking of the mind of the Church, when we read aloud or inwardly what we find in our prayer books. Do you think it is really any different, whether we speak to Him out of our private treasury, or out of the treasury that the saints have bequeathed us? Maybe to some of us, but not to Him. Again, He is listening to our hearts, and our hearts are listening to Him. ‘Remembering our most-holy, most blessed…’ and praying with her and all the saints, as we join them in the heavenlies, ‘a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb… wearing white robes… holding palm branches in their hands,’ there we are, together, one in faith, one in hope, one in charity: there is the Church, and there is no other. Prayer is the language of welcome between heaven and earth.

I offer you again, brethren, all of the treasure that has been given to me, but piece by piece, it is too heavy to be handed over all at once, and we have crossed the threshold of time, we have been dead but now, with Him, we are alive forever, and so we have more than mere time to share these things. I offer this book of prayers that are the saints' but are also ours, as we are one household with them, the bride of one Husband, the Lord. Praying these words mingled with our own, we feel the cool droplets of sweet myrrh falling upon us as from the feast-day hyssop rod, and we are surrounded by the great cloud of witnesses, having found our true Home with them, and forever. Let us stand, brethren, let us sit, let us lie down, falling on our faces, facing East whence the Lord shall come with a mighty shout and the voice of the archangel, and the trumpet, as lightning flashing thence to the uttermost West, to gather us all into His Kingdom. He is waiting for us as much as we are waiting for Him. Remembering this, let us pray with one heart, one mind, one voice as He does before the Father, before whom He stands, our great High-Priest, interceding for us sinners. Remembering...

This prayer book is very short. It's a PDF file formatted to be printed as a 5½" x 8½" booklet, but you can print it out on any size paper. This is the prayer book of my family, which I want to share with you. It starts out by remembering what the Lord tells us about prayer, and it's good to read these passages as we go into our place of prayer, to prepare our faith and reset our minds into the right perspective, to ‘cast away all earthly care, that we may receive the King of all.’ just click on the link to download and print. Daily Prayer — A simple pamphlet of basic Orthodox prayers for morning and evening, with emphasis on praying the Psalms.

Christ is born! Glorify Him!

I was in that room

A lot of things have gone through my head, both before and after I met Jesus son of Joseph. Sitting in the synagogue and hearing the Torah read, commented upon, for years, and then comparing what was said with what they did, those betters of mine, made me sense a cleavage in my mind, a breach impossible to mend, a wound that could not be stitched together and healed.

With the others, those of us who now understand what no rabbi or teacher of the Torah could ever know, I was attracted to this man whose words seemed to have an authority, a power and grasp of reality, that we had never encountered before. Not only that, but as we came to walk with him more often, we noticed it wasn’t just his words. What he did—sometimes incredible things—shook the very foundations we thought our faith was built on.

We were an odd bunch, those we began to call ‘the brothers’ as if we had the same mother. Before we met Jesus, our hearts hungered for something but we didn’t know what. Other tradesmen thought about their work all day, but we, even before we knew him and one another, were always preoccupied with thinking through questions that seemed to have no answers.

Some of us found ourselves thinking so much, we were bound to become insane, so we thought. All of us felt so close to the solution, yet infinitely unable to grasp it. When he appeared, as he was first pointed out by the baptizer John, a few of that righteous man’s followers began to follow him around, and then very soon they were telling us, ‘We have found the one Moses wrote about.’

‘A likely story,’ I thought to myself and laughed out loud. I always laugh when I don’t understand, and why not? It’s better than weeping. It seemed to me then, after all my thinking, I had never gotten any closer to the answer to my question. In fact, I hardly even knew what my question was, but my mind never ceased its revolutions, sifting, straining, funneling, and soaking up what I could.

But I started following him, Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth, with the others. He told us things we’d never heard before, opened our minds to fill them with what we never knew existed. In my bright moments, I believed him wholeheartedly, and with the others followed this peculiar rabbi, and went along with whatever he told us. His ideas at least made sense. I felt I was finally making progress.

In my dark moments, ah, well, what can I say? His teachings, even his doings, incredible and miraculous as they were, seemed somehow just talking and tricks. Maybe he was just a charlatan after all, a magician and smooth talker, all in one. As dark as I sometimes felt in those moments of doubt, though, even my doubt turned upon itself, and taunted me like the demon who says, ‘I never tell the truth.’

Towards the end, we all felt we were being dragged along behind him on a journey we’d hoped we’d never have to make, one which we couldn’t believe was happening. After all we had experienced with him, our hopes were held captive in the thought that everything would turn out victorious in the end. Instead, after ignoring his many warnings, we found ourselves driven with him at our head towards, not the kingdom of our people restored, but to the enactment of a hideous crime.

Impossible when it happened, and so quickly that we barely understood what was going on, he was arrested after our mystical passover together as we rested afterwards in an olive grove.

I was already descending from bright to dark in my mind and heart, one part of me believing, ‘He won’t let this happen,’ and the other part despairing, ‘It’s all over. It was never real. What a fool I’ve been.’ Neither my belief nor my doubt was right, as it turned out.

What happened that night launched all of us into isolation, fear and self-pity, even though it was Jesus that was captured, beaten, mocked, stripped, and nailed to a stake. We didn’t really give him a thought at all, though we wouldn’t admit it to ourselves. All we thought about was how our hopes and dreams had been dashed to pieces. We didn’t want to even be around each other at first and, except for the young one John, and his mother and a couple of the women, we didn’t want to watch him die either.

After his body was taken down from that scaffold, I didn’t want to live. I felt so ashamed, of myself, of him, of my dashed hopes, of my foolishness in loving him like I did. Yes, loving him, though when he was alive I didn’t let anyone know. I kept up my reputation of doubting and questioning, right up to my last moments with him and the others.

Later, when I heard that Judas had hanged himself, I couldn’t believe that either. Was that really Judas who led the guards to Jesus with a kiss? Or was it someone that just looked like him? It was so dark. In the even greater darkness that was my mind I thought, ‘It might as well have been me that led the guards to him. Did I ever really believe what he said or did?’

Still oppressed in a dark moment that I thought would never end, I hid myself from the brothers for days. Finally—I don’t know what possessed me—I got up the courage to look for them, going back to that room where we had all had our last supper with him. I almost couldn’t say his name. They told me some fool story about him being alive. I was overcome with doubt. I said words I now wish I’d never spoken.

I opposed Cephas and the others to their faces, my doubt flashing like sharp shards of broken glass to cut their hopes to slivers, as mine had been shredded. ‘You say he’s alive? How’s that? Can I see him too and poke my finger through the holes in his hands and feet and jab my hand into that spear cut slash?’ Little did I know that my scathing words, meant to hurt, would in the end heal.

They let me go, saying nothing, nor defending themselves. I hated them for that. I’d wanted them to oppose me, to counter my barbed accusations so I could feel justified in making them. ‘Hah! So they have faith, and I don’t!’ roared inside my head where no one but I could hear. Why did things always have to end this way? Why can’t anything good ever last? What is the point of it all?

Days passed. I hated the brothers because they seemed to have something that I would not permit myself to have. I hated myself more, I hated how I was, I hated my doubt, I hated my hateful words and the dark thoughts that produced them. That’s what drove me back to where they were hiding out. Hiding, yes, but at least, together. I was envious too of their company, where their first fears seemed to have yielded to a gentle, abiding love.

‘Why are they like that?’ I asked myself. ‘How can they still love one another and seem so peaceful and happy, when everything we lived and hoped for is finished, when it was crucified between thieves? Are they pretending? He can’t really be alive. We all saw his body, limp and dead, being moved somewhere by that rich man, what’s his name.’ Such were my thoughts as I approached the door and knocked.

Cephas let me in. He could tell, he said, that it was me by my knock. ‘What’s so special about it?’ I thought but didn’t ask. I barely had time to walk into the room as I heard the door slam behind me and the thud of the bolt falling. Then I heard my name pronounced from somewhere behind my back. I turned around quickly, almost running into Cephas who was right behind me.

We all turned to face the one who spoke my name. It was Jesus.

‘No! This can’t be happening!’ the words died on my lips as I felt every muscle in my body liquefy. I fell to my knees as though the weight of the world were crushing me down to the floor. Jesus looked at me and was softly asking me something, but my eyes and ears were both overwhelmed by what is beyond sight and hearing. I was blind and deaf for a moment.

‘My Lord and my God! My Lord and my God! My Lord and my God!’

I couldn’t stop babbling these words that didn’t even come close to what my spirit groaned inwardly. He came close to me, laying one arm across my shoulders and lifting me gently with the other. At His touch I felt weightless. I rose effortlessly and my mind was suddenly clear. I could see with my eyes, hear with my ears as He said to me, ‘You believe because you can see Me. Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.’

Now, no matter what thoughts assail me inside or out, no matter what wars of words between men sunder the world’s peace for vainglory, I am no longer safe in what I know or merely believe or doubt, for beyond all this is the peace that only He can give, because I was in that room.

If there are any wise…

…or learned men among you, let them show it by their good lives, with humility and wisdom in their actions. But if at heart you have the bitterness of jealousy, or a self-seeking ambition, never make any claims for yourself to cover up the truth with lies—principles of this kind are not the wisdom that comes down from above: they are only earthly, animal and devilish. Wherever you find jealousy and ambition, you will find disharmony, and wicked things of every kind being done; whereas the wisdom that comes down from above is essentially something pure; it also makes for peace, and is kindly and considerate; it is full of compassion and shows itself by doing good; nor is there any trace of partiality or hypocrisy in it. Peacemakers, when they work for peace, sow the seeds which will bear fruit in holiness.

Where do these wars and battles between yourselves first start? Isn't it precisely in the desires fighting inside your own selves? You want something and you haven't got it; so you are prepared to kill. You have an ambition that you cannot satisfy; so you fight to get your way by force. Why you don't have what you want is because you don't pray for it; when you do pray and don't get it, it is because you have not prayed properly, you have prayed for something to indulge your own desires.

You are as unfaithful as adulterous wives; don't you realize that making the world your friend is making God your enemy? Anyone who chooses the world for his friend turns himself into God's enemy. Surely you don't think scripture is wrong when it says: the Spirit which He sent to live in us wants us for Himself alone? But He has been even more generous to us, as scripture says: God opposes the proud but He gives generously to the humble. Give in to God, then; resist the devil, and he will run away from you. The nearer you go to God, the nearer He will come to you. Clean your hands, you sinners, and clear your minds, you waverers. Look at your wretched condition, and weep for it in misery; be miserable instead of laughing, gloomy instead of happy. Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will lift you up.

Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who slanders a brother, or condemns him, is speaking against the Law and condemning the Law. But if you condemn the Law, you have stopped keeping it and become a judge over it. There is only one Lawgiver and He is the only Judge and has the power to acquit or to sentence. Who are you to give a verdict on your neighbor?

James 3:13-4:12 Jerusalem Bible

As for me…

As for me, my spirit is all humble devotion to the Cross: the Cross which so greatly offends the unbelievers, but is salvation and eternal life to us. Where is your wise man now, or your subtle debater? Where are the fine words of our so-called intellectuals? Under the Divine dispensation, Jesus Christ our God was conceived by Mary of the seed of David and the Spirit of God; He was born, and He submitted to baptism, so that by His Passion He might sanctify water.

Mary's virginity was hidden from the prince of this world; so was her child-bearing, and so was the death of the Lord. All these three trumpet-tongued secrets were brought to pass in the deep silence of God.

How then were they made known to the world?
Up in the heavens a star gleamed out, more brilliant than all the rest; no words could describe its lustre, and the strangeness of it left men bewildered. The other stars and the sun and moon gathered round it in chorus, but this star outshone them all. Great was the ensuing perplexity; where could this newcomer have come from, so unlike its fellows?

Everywhere magic crumbled away before it; the spells of sorcery were all broken, and superstition received its death-blow. The age-old empire of evil was overthrown, for God was now appearing in human form to bring in a new order, even life without end. Now that which had been perfected in the Divine counsels began its work; and all creation was thrown into a ferment over this plan for the utter destruction of death.

— Ignatios of Antioch, Letter to the Ephesians

Reasons to weep or be glad

The following reading from The Prologue of Ochrid was sent me by Presbytera Candace, and it is very appropriate for the time we are in. Many of us are facing great trials as we head into the time of the Nativity of Christ.

If the whole of your life has passed smoothly and without care, weep for yourself. For both the Gospel and human experience assert with one voice that no one has, without great sufferings and trials, left behind him any great work on earth or been glorified in heaven. If your earthly road has been bathed in sweat and tears for the attaining of righteousness and truth, rejoice and be glad, for your reward will indeed be great in heaven. Never entertain the foolish thought that God has forsaken you. God knows exactly how much you can bear, and measures your sufferings and trials accordingly.

'When men know,' says St. Nil Sorsky, 'how much weight a horse can carry, or a donkey or a camel, and load them according to their strength; when a potter knows how long to leave the clay in the kiln for it to be neither shattered nor under-cooked, how could God not know how much temptation a soul can bear to make it ready and fitted for the Kingdom of Heaven?'

— Prologue from Ochrid, July 4

I also want to append to this quote some words of encouragement that I wrote to a young Christian brother who is suffering the pain of family problems that are outside his control. After I wrote him these words, I received the quote from Presbytera, and I thought, “How faithful God is, how merciful to us in our afflictions, taking such pains to reach us from every angle.” The quote with which I end my words to my young friend is another one sent me by Presbytera Candace. Little does she know how God uses her email ministry to reach His people.

Just when you think it can't get any worse… it does!

God must really want you hard, young brother, to be leading you at so youthful a chronological age to the very mouth of She‘ol.

When you follow Jesus, He can walk anywhere, and often He does.

Places you'd never dream of going, places you didn't even think existed.

Thinking inside the box, as we're trained to do, even by our churchly mentors, we don't suspect that even the jargon in which we've been taught to think will be so ruthlessly inadequate to help us through our earthly struggle.

Beyond thinking about them (because we can't always trust our thoughts), beyond the feelings that bombard us (we already know they can't be trusted), we still must live amidst the unbelievable chaos of our family members and others around us.

The necessity to live when everything around us speaks, promises, even desires death.

The necessity to die when we've been taught that ‘everything is going to work out,’ that ‘all will be well.’

We who follow Jesus are called to live in a way that only He could live, yet He does live in us that same life.

Finally, I want to share something that a modern Orthodox church father wrote…

If we abandon our own desires and opinions, and endeavor to fulfill God's wishes and understanding, we will save ourselves, no matter what our position, no matter what our circumstance. But, if we cling to our own desires and opinions, neither position nor circumstance will be of help. Even in Paradise, Eve transgressed God's commandment, and life with the Savior Himself brought the unfortunate Judas no good. As we read in the Holy Gospels, we require patience and an inclination to pious living.

— Fr Ambrose of Optina monastery, Russia

End Times

When I was just a young man in my early twenties, working as an apprentice in furniture making in Edmonton, Alberta and still living in the New Age commune that drew me to Canada, I met a lonely young man at work. When I say lonely, I mean he was a loner. He had no friends, and he was quite private and untalkative.

Even back then, I was no different than I am now. Though I wasn’t a Christian yet, I was still always interested in other people, especially when they seemed to be spiritually minded. That’s what I suspected of this boy, and so I befriended him. He was a skinny boy with a very serious look on his face at all times, and fiery red hair. As we got to know each other, and he learned that I was also ‘on the spiritual path’ and involved in a group that believed that ‘the end is near,’ he opened up to me his great secret.

Through his study of the Bible and working through its numerology, he had determined that not only were we in the Last Days, but that the Lord Jesus Christ was about to return, and it would not be too far ahead. In fact, it was going to be the very next year. This was in 1972.

I didn’t criticize him in any way, but let him talk about it more and more to gain his confidence, and finally one day, he invited me to his room. He rented a single room in a house—that was what young people did in those days in Canada, that is if they didn’t pool their resources and get an apartment to share—and he had a hotplate in there, was able to use a shared washroom, but other than a small bed and a tiny dresser and writing table with lamp and a chair, he had nothing else in the room. I felt sorry for him, as my commune was in a large house on the edge of the University of Alberta campus. It had five or six bedrooms, four (gas) fireplaces, a great room, a fully finished one room attic with dormers, and several bathrooms and all the other rooms one expects in a very large house. Our rent was $285 a month. This young man was certainly poor as well as lonely. I wish I could remember his name, but I can’t, so I will call him Colin.

When Colin invited me to come over, so he could show me the fruits of his labors, I was excited, because he really interested me. There was something about him, so solemn even at that young age, and so confident of his beliefs. On the other hand, I was still being tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, and almost drowning in the New Age sea. I hadn’t made it to the ark in time. Would the flood finally drown me? I wondered.

Finally, the day came and after work I drove him home (he didn’t have a car either; I had a brand new Ford Pinto), and we ascended the stairs to his room. When the door opened, his one lamp was already burning. It was dark outside already, being the beginning of winter. There was nowhere for me to sit but on his bed, and he took the chair and pulled out of somewhere a pile of oversized, thick paper with what looked like geometry diagrams and tiny writing all over the pages. He pulled one out of the pile and laid it out on the bed where I could see it, though the lamp didn’t give much light.

The page had what looked like intersecting circles and lines, and lots of tiny writing and dates and bible verses. He began explaining to me all kinds of things about what the Bible said, that I had never heard of in my life. He had figured out from all the prophecies in the bible exactly when everything was going to happen, events that I had never even heard of before. I had been brought up as a Catholic, and so there wasn’t any concept of prophecy being fulfilled before our very eyes. I was impressed but overwhelmed. There was suddenly something emanating from his eyes, voice and face that I hadn’t seen in him before. It scared me a little bit. It was almost as if he were possessed.

Yes, possessed. Possessed by ideas, for sure. Possessed by certainty, but what was the source? Things that I thought about fuzzily and not even in biblical terms, only in the New Age way—you know, Age of Aquarius—this Colin seemed to know with rock hard certainty. The complexity of his drawings and timelines, as he showed me the other papers, astounded me. To this day, I have never seen anything so rigorously organized and complex on a piece of paper. As he told me about his revelations, he spoke almost as if I weren’t there, almost as though he didn’t care whether I believed him or not. When he was done, he looked at me point blank and said, “In just a couple of months, I will disappear. Do you want to come with me?”

That was too much for my New Age head to wrap around, and after an embarrassing moment and a stutter, I told him, I needed time to think about it. Disappear where? I was afraid to ask him. I had a sickening feeling that he might kill himself. I knew in my gut, something was not right here.

Colin only worked with us for maybe another week and a few days more, and then he really did disappear. I didn’t retrace my way to his doorstep to look him up either, even though I wanted to very badly. There was just a strange emotion of attraction and fear in me going on, and the fear won. I never forgot him, though, and I wonder to this day what happened to him. He is not the only person in my life who has just disappeared, but certainly one of the most enigmatic.
What brought this all to mind was looking at a webpage an old friend of mine brought to my attention this morning. It is from a religious group that claims that Jesus Christ will return on May 21, 2011. Looking at their webpage, I was reminded of my friend Colin. Here it was, the same spirit, still claiming to know what only God knows, only on a much larger scale. If only it were that easy. If only we could expect God to unfold His plans like clockwork and give some of His servants the privilege to know His timeline.

History has shown every one of these claimants to hidden prophetic knowledge to be imposters and deceived, and yet that doesn’t stop them appearing with predictable regularity. In fact, that’s the only predictable thing about their whole enterprise. We know that Christ will return, but not when. He tells us this is how it must be. And we also know that these false prophets and deluded brethren will appear with dependable regularity. Lucky will be the last, who come proclaiming and prophesying the day before He really does return. But how will He regard them?

Oh, happy day!

Pffft!! The disciples were all scardy-fied and hiding behind closed doors for fear and sorrow and bewilderment, and Jesus didn't even knock. The original Die Hard, He just strolled right on in.

Yeah, that's the kind of Hero I'm looking for; the kind of God worth finding is the One who is looking for me even when I'm stupid and scared and in a state of betrayal to save my own skin and don't even realize that He's alive. One who calls my unbelieving bluff and gently trumps, showing His wounded hand.

If merely correct thinking will count us among the saved, then we are all lost. I've walked that path of control and called it faith. Better to ask for knowledge than assume one knows anything.

I only know one thing.
And even that was given to me, so undeservedly.
Oh, happy day!

— Joan of Argghh! (not her real name)

This post may disappear suddenly, as I am posting this quote pending the author's permission to publish it here. This is just so true and right on, that I couldn't wait.

My first blog post

This was my first blog post, back in March of 2006. I wanted to share these sayings of a Greek elder, and I guess I want to share them again. They’re worth remembering.

This is the way we should see Christ—

He is our friend, our brother.
He is whatever is good and beautiful.
He is everything.
Yet, He is still a friend and He shouts it out, “You’re my friends, don’t you understand that? We’re brothers. I’m not threatening you. I don’t hold hell in my hands. I love you. I want you to enjoy life together with me.”

Christ is Everything.
He is joy, He is life, He is light.
He is the true light who makes man joyful,
makes him soar with happiness;
makes him see everything, everybody;
makes him feel for everyone,
to want everyone with him, everyone with Christ.

Love Christ and put nothing before His Love.
Christ is Everything.
He is the source of life, the ultimate desire,
He is everything.
Everything beautiful is in Christ.

Somebody who is Christ’s must love Christ, and when he loves Christ he is delivered from the devil, from hell and from death.

— Elder Porphyrios

So, who was Elder Porphyrios?

Elder Porphyrios was a Greek spiritual father, born February 7, 1906 and named Evangelos Bairaktaris. At the age of 15 he emigrated to Mount Athos and was accepted as the ‘nephew’ of Elder Panteleimon, his mentor. He was ordained a presbyter on July 27, 1927 by Archbishop Porphyrios III of Mount Sinai, and received his name.

Elder Porphyrios lived and worked in Greece from that time until he returned in 1984 to Mount Athos. The elder’s life and teachings reflect his great love for Christ.

He reposed on December 2, 1991.

Elder Porphyrios would not want our attention to be focused on him, but rather on Jesus Christ, who was the Love of his life, as anyone can see from this brief portion of the Elder’s sayings.

“And eternal life is this: To know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” John 17:3