Triodion

The Publican and the Pharisee

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

+

TRIODION

The three weeks that commence on the Fourth Sunday prior to Holy and Great Lent constitute the weeks of spiritual preparation. Each has its own distinct theme which is expressed in the Gospels readings appointed for the Divine Liturgies on these days:

1. Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee (Luke 18:9-14)

The Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee is the first Sunday of a three-week period prior to the commencement of Holy and Great Lent. It marks the beginning of a time of preparation for the spiritual journey of Holy Lent, a time of Orthodox Christians to draw closer to God through worship, prayer, fasting, and acts of mercy (charity). It also on this day that the Triodion is introduced, a liturgical book that contains the divine services from this Sunday, the tenth before Pascha (Easter), to Holy and Great Saturday.

On this and the following two Sundays, the theme is repentance. Repentance (metanoia) is the door through which we enter Lent, the starting-point of our journey to Pascha. And to repent signifies far more than self-pity or futile regret over things done in the past. The Greek term metanoia means 'change of mind': to repent is to be renewed, to be transformed in our inward viewpoint, to attain a fresh way of looking at our relationship to God and to others. The fault of the Pharisee is that he has no desire to change his outlook, he is complacent, self-satisfied, and so he allows no place for God to act within him. The Publican, on the other hand, truly longs for a 'change of mind': he is self-dissatisfied, 'poor in spirit', and where there is this saving self-dissatisfaction there is room for God to act. Unless we learn the secret of the Publican's inward poverty, we shall not share in the Lenten springtime. The theme of the day can be summed up in a saying of the Desert Fathers: "Beware a man who has sinned, if he knows that he has sinned and repents, than a man who has not sinned and thinks of himself as righteous."

2. Sunday of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32)

The Sunday of the Prodigal Son is the second Sunday of a three-week period prior to the commencement of Holy and Great Lent. The Parable of the Prodigal forms an exact icon of repentance in its different stages. Sin is exile, enslavement to strangers, hunger. Repentance is the return from exile to our true home; it is to receive back our inheritance and freedom in the Father's house. But repentance implies action: "I will rise up and go..." (verse 18). To repent is not just to feel dissatisfied, but to make a decision and to act upon it.

On this and the next two Sundays, after the solemn and joyful words of the Polyeleos at Orthros (Matins), we add the sorrowful verses of Psalm 136, 'By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept...". This Psalm of exile, sung by the children of Israel in their Babylonian captivity, has a special appropriateness on the Sunday of the Prodigal when we call to mind our present exile in sin and make the resolve to return home.

3. The Sunday of the Judgment (Matthew 25: 31-46)

The two past Sundays spoke to us of God's patience and limitless compassion, of His readiness to accept every sinner who returns to Him. On this third Sunday, we are powerfully reminded of a complementary truth: no one is so patient and so merciful as God, but even He does not forgive those who do not repent. The God of love is also a God of righteousness, and when Christ comes again in glory, He will come as our judge. 'Behold the goodness and severity of God" (Romans 11:22). Such is the message of Holy Lent to each of us: turn back while there is still time, repent before the end comes.

This Sunday sets before us the 'eschatological' dimension of Holy Lent: the Great Fast is a preparation for the Second Coming of the Savior for the eternal Passover in the Age to Come. (This is the theme that will be taken up in the first three days of Holy and Great Week.) Nor is the judgment merely in the future. Here and now, each day and each hour, in hardening our hearts towards others and in failing to respond to the opportunities we are given of helping them, we are already passing judgment on ourselves.

The Sunday Before Lent: The last of the preparatory Sundays has two themes: It commemorates Adam's expulsion from Paradise, and it is also the Sunday of Forgiveness. There are obvious reasons why these two things should be brought to our attention as we stand on the threshold of the Great and Holy Lent. One of the primary images in the Triodion is that of the return to Paradise. Lent is a time when we weep with Adam and Eve before the closed gate of Eden, repenting with them for the sins that have deprives us of our free communion with God. But Lent is also a time when we are preparing to celebrate the saving event of Christ's death and rising, which has reopened Paradise to us once more (Luke 23:43). So sorrow for our exile in sin is tempered by hope of our re-entry into Paradise.

The second theme, that of forgiveness is emphasized in the Gospel reading for this Sunday (Matthew 6: 14-21) and in the special ceremony of mutual forgiveness at the end of Vespers on Sunday evening. Before we enter the Lenten fast, we are reminded that there can be no true fast, no genuine repentance, no reconciliation with God, unless we are at the same time reconciled with one another. A fast without mutual love is the fast of demons. As the commemoration of the ascetic Saints on the previous Saturday has just made clear to us, we do not travel the road of Lent as isolated individuals but as members of a family. Our asceticism and fasting should not separate us from our fellow men but link us to them with ever stronger bonds. The Lenten ascetic is called to be a man for others. (Lenten Triodion)

__________________________

"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!"- Saint John Chrysostomos

+++

With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George

Spirituality: The Meaning of Theosis as the Goal of Christian Life (Part II)

Venerable Luke of Hellas

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

+

SPIRITUALITY: THE MEANING OF THEOSIS AS THE GOAL OF CHRISTIAN LIFE (PART II)

The Holy Spirit

The Ever-deepening union of each Christian with God is not a magical or automatic process. While Christ has destroyed the powers of sin, death, and evil once and for all, this victory must be appropriated by each person in cooperation with the Holy Spirit. Each person is called to join with the Life-Giving and Liberating Spirit in realizing the fullness of human life in communion with the Father. The Holy Spirit is the agent of Theosis (Deification) whose task it is to incorporate us into the life of the Holy Trinity. However, the Spirit always recognizes our human freedom and invites our active cooperation in perfecting the "image and likeness of God" in which each of us is created.

Our participation in the Life of the Holy Trinity, which we know as Theosis (Deification), takes place within the Church. For the Orthodox, the Church is the meeting place between God and His people. The Holy Spirit and the Church are organically linked. In the 2nd century, Saint Irenaeus reminded us of this by saying: "Where the Church is there is the Spirit, and where the Spirit is there is the Church." The Holy Spirit moves through the life of the Church to reveal our common humanity in Christ and to unite us with the Father. We acquire the Holy Spirit through our celebration of the Divine Eucharist and the reception of Holy Communion, through our participation in the Sacraments, through our discipline of daily prayer, and through the practice of fasting, all of which result in a Christ-like life.

The Holy Spirit, Who is honored as the Lord and Giver of Life, is manifest in the life of the Church in order to bring our lives to perfection and to make us responsible and loving human beings. The fruit of worship is the gifts of the Spirit. In his letter to the Galatians, Saint Paul identified these as: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness, and self-control." Certainly, these are the virtues of a Christ-like life. They testify to the fact that the love of God and the love of neighbor are inseparable.

The Individual and the Church

The reality of Theosis (Deification) not only bears witness to the love of God Who wishes to share Himself with us but also expresses a very positive view of the human person. Orthodoxy believes that each person has an intrinsic value and importance in virtue of his or her unique relationship to God. The human person is never seen as being totally depraved. The "image of God" which can be distorted by sin, can never be eradicated. Through the life of the Church, there is always offered to the individual by name. This action not only reminds us of the dignity of each person but also emphasized the responsibility each person has for his or her relationship to God.

While Orthodoxy recognizes the value of the person, it does not believe that we are meant to be isolated or self-sufficient. Each person is called to be an important member of the Church. Orthodoxy believes that one cannot be a Christian without being a part of the Church. The process of Theosis (Deification) takes place with the context of a believing community.

To be united with God within the midst of the Church does not mean that our unique personalities are destroyed. We are not engulfed by an impersonal force or power. As with all love which is true and valuable. God's love for each of us respects our personhood. His love is not one which destroys. God's love is one which reveals, elevates, and perfects our true selves. By entering into the life of God, we become the persons are meant to be. (Source: Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America)

_______________

"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" - Saint John Chrysostomos

+++

With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George

Spirituality: The Meaning of Theosis as the Goal of Christian Life

St. Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

+

SPIRITUALITY: THE MEANING OF THEOSIS AS THE GOAL OF CHRISTIAN LIFE

The Orthodox Church proclaims the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the Greek language, the word for Gospel is Evangelion which means literally "the good news." The good news of Orthodox Christianity is a proclamation of God's unbounded and sacrificial love for mankind, as well as the revelation of the true destiny of the human person. Reflecting on the joyous message of the Gospel, Saint Gregory of Nyssa wrote in the 4th century: The good news is that man is no longer an outcast nor expelled from God's Kingdom; but that he is again a son, again God's subject.

Orthodoxy believes that the supreme treasure which God wishes to share with us is His own life. Our faith begins with the affirmation that God has acted in history to permit us to participate in His love and His goodness, to be citizens of His Kingdom. This conviction is expressed so beautifully in the prayer of the Divine Liturgy which says: "You have not ceased to do all things until You brought us to heaven and granted us the Kingdom to come."

The initiation of love of God the Father is perfectly expressed and embodied in the Person and Ministry of Jesus Christ. The whole purpose of the Incarnation of the Son of God was to restore humanity to fellowship with God. The great teachers and Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church constantly reaffirmed this conviction by proclaiming that God had become what we are in order that we could become what He is.

Christ is exalted as our Light and our Life. In His Person, there is a unity of humanity and Divinity which each of us is called to share. In His way of life, there is the model of authentic human life which we are invited to follow. In His victorious Resurrection, there is liberation for us from all powers which can keep us from the kingdom. Through Christ, then, God the Father has repossessed us and has called us to be His sons and daughters.

Theosis

The fundamental vocation and goal of each and every person is to share in the life of God. We have been created by God to lie in fellowship with Him. The descent of God in the Person of Jesus Christ has made possible the human ascent to the Father through the work of the Holy Spirit. Orthodoxy believes that each Christian is involved in a movement toward God which is known as theosis or deification.

Theosis describes the spiritual pilgrimage in which each person becomes ever more perfect, ever more holy, ever more united with God. It is not a static relationship, nor does it take place only after death. On the contrary, theosis is a movement of love toward God which begins for each Christian with the rites of Baptism and which continues throughout this life, as well as the life which is to come. Salvation means liberation from sin, death, and evil. Redemption means our repossession by God. In Orthodoxy, both salvation and redemption are within the context of theosis (deification). This rich vision of Christian life was expressed well by Saint Peter when he wrote in the early pages of his Second Epistle that we are called "to become partakers of the Divine nature." It was also affirmed by Saint Basil the Great when he described man as the creature who has received the order to become a god.

These are certainly bold affirmations that must be properly understood. The Orthodox Church understands theosis as a union with the energies of God and not with the essence of God which always remains hidden and unknown. However, the experience of the Church testifies that this is a true union with God. It is also one which is not pantheistic because in this union the Divine and the human retain their unique characteristics. In this sense, Orthodox Christianity believes that human life reaches its fulfillment only when it becomes divine. (Source: Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco)

(To be continued)

_____________________

"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" - Saint John Chrysostomos

+++

With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George

Resentment and Forgiveness

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

+

RESENTMENT AND FORGIVENESS (Part II)
By Hieromonk Damascene

Playing God

Often anger is evoked in us because of pride. This again is a function of our fallen nature: that part of us that wants to be God. As would-be gods, we want to be in control, we want things to go our way. When things don't go our way, when other people don't follow our lead and go along with our program, we get angry. This leads us to judge others. Judging others is one way of playing God.

God is King, and He is Judge. Of course, it's best to be a King. Therefore, in trying to play God, our ego, first of all, tries to get above others and above life itself by playing King. We can try to be King in many ways. It may be by trying to run the show and get out own way. It may be by seeking acceptance, approval, praise, respect, popularity, earthly security, or an important position. It may be through our achievements and abilities, which are used toward ultimately selfish ends. It may be through vanity over our looks, our intellect, and so on.

Even if we were to have the world at our feet all the time, and thus confirm our King-status in our own mind, we would eventually feel conflict - for we're not mean to be King. You can see this vividly in the lives of celebrities, many of whom, having risen to the "top" in the eyes of the world, are filled with inward conflict.

Most of us, however, find it impossible to play King all the time. The world is not at our feet. We try so hard to get our own way and make things work out exactly as we want, but it just doesn't happen that way. People don't want to cooperate with our own way of doing things. We don't get enough of the respect and admiration we need in order to keep up the illusion of our Kingship. On the contrary, we often express the exact opposite: rudeness, disrespect, neglect, abandonment, injustice.

What is the ego--our fallen nature--to do in this case? How can it still play God? How else than by judgment? As we said, God is King and He is Judge. When we can't be King, we take the loser's way of playing God: we become the judge. For a time it feels great! Other people and the circumstances of our life made us feel less like a god; they have hurt and humiliated us. But we can still be a god in our own mind by judging!

Judgment brings with it an exhilaration of false power. Its energy comes from the wrong, prideful use of our incensive power. But, like playing King, playing Judge eventually leads to inward conflict. If we are setting ourselves in God's place, our soul cannot fulfill its original purpose of worshiping, serving and loving God. Thus, each time we judge, we're placing a barrier between ourselves and God. A wall immediately goes up.

Judgment brings with it an exhilaration of false power. Its energy comes from the wrong, prideful use of our incensive power. But, like playing King, playing Judge eventually leads to the inward conflict. If we are setting ourselves up in God's place, our soul cannot fulfill its original purpose of worshipping, serving and loving God. Thus, each time we judge, we are placing a barrier between ourselves and God. A wall immediately goes up.

Resentment

If left unchecked, anger and judgment will pass into what the Holy Fathers call "secret anger," "remembrance of wrongs," or "resentment."

Resentment-prolonged anger--is deadly to the soul. Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk says: "Just as fire, if it is not extinguished quickly, will swallow many houses, so anger if it is not stopped right away will do great harm and will cause many troubles." The Holy Apostle Paul tells us: do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil" (Ephesians 4:26-7). "If we take Saint Paul's saying literally, writes Saint John Cassian, "it does not permit us to keep our anger even until sunset." What then shall we say about those who, because of the harshness and fury of their impassionate state, not only maintain their anger until the setting of this day's sun but prolonged it for many days? Or about others who do not express their anger, but keep silent and increase the poison of their anger to their own destruction? They are unaware that we must avoid anger not only in what we do but also in our thoughts; otherwise, our mind will be darkened by our anger, cut off from the light of spiritual knowledge and discrimination, and deprived of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Why is resentment such a deadly sin? The Holy Scripture tells us that God is love. Therefore, explains the Russian Holy Father Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov, "resentment or rejection of love is rejection of God. God withdraws from a resentful person, deprives him of His Grace, and gives him up to spiritual death unless the person repents in good time so as to be healed of that deadly moral poison, resentment."

If for whatever reason we do not forgive someone and hold on our anger, it will truly be to our own destruction. It can poison our entire lives, make us the captives of the devil, and eventually it will prevent us from entering the Kingdom of Heaven. To help us not to lose our salvation due to resentment, God allows us to feel inward conflict. This inward conflict helps us to become aware of the fatal danger of the malady of resentment.

The inward conflict may take different forms. We may feel weighed down, unable to breathe lightly or freely, as if we are captives. We may experience irrational fear, commonly known as anxiety. We may become susceptible to physical ailments. In most cases, we will feel an inward emptiness. That emptiness comes from the fact that by holding onto our anger and judgment, we have separated ourselves from God. We no longer have His Grace. His Life, inside of us, and without that we are just hollow vessels.

Our spiritual emptiness may express itself in a generally dissatisfied and cynical attitude, in which we are always attracted to negative thoughts and words about others. We may try to fill the void with drugs or the excessive use of alcohol. Interestingly, Alcoholics Anonymous "Big Book," says: "Resentment is the 'number one' offender. It destroys more alcoholics than anything else. From it stems all forms of spiritual disease, for we have been not only mentally ill, but we have also been spiritually sick. When the spiritual malady is overcome, we straighten out mentally and physically.

Sometimes our resentment hurts the person we are resenting, sometimes it does not. However, in either case we gain nothing, we only lose, for in either case we are the ones who are hurt the most. Let us say someone has actually wronged us. If that person repents, he will be forgiven by God. But if we hold onto our anger, we will not be forgiven and will suffer the consequences." (Source: Orthodox Christian Information Center)

(To be continued)

___________________________

"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" - Saint John Chrysostomos

+++

With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George

"Love Your Enemies..."(St. Matthew 5:44)

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

+

"LOVE YOUR ENEMIES..." (Saint Matthew 5:44)

"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." (St. Matthew 5:43-48).

Our Lord Jesus Christ commands to "love" our "enemies" as a genuine expression of the life of the Kingdom. Having freed us from hate, sadness, and anger, He offers the greatest possession of all--perfect agape. That is a gift which can only be possessed by the one who, by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, manifests God's agape for all. Such agape call us to bless, do good and pray--even for enemies. Love of neighbor is the sign of having become a true child of God. Love is not merely an emotion. it is Divine Grace--an uncreated Divine Energy--which inflames the soul and unites it to God and to other people (See 1 John 4:7-21).

RESENTMENT AND FORGIVENESS
By Hieromonk Damascene

Anger, judgment, remembrance of wrongs, grudges, resentment: these are passions with which all of us struggle in one way or another. Why are we prone to them? According to the Holy Fathers of the Church, the power that causes anger was part of man's original nature, which was created "good" by God (cf. Genesis 1:31). The Holy Fathers say that man's soul was originally created with three powers: the intellective or "knowing" power, the appetitive or "desiring" power, and the incensive or "fervent" power. Man was supposed to use his intellective power to know God, his appetitive power to yearn for God, and his incensive power to courageously repel temptation--beginning with the temptation of the serpent in the Garden.

Instead of using their incensive power to repel temptation, however, Adam and Eve succumbed to their first temptation: they ate of the forbidden fruit. According to the Holy Fathers, the essence of the serpent's temptation lies in these words: "Eat of this fruit and you shall be as gods" (cf. Genesis 3:5). Saint John Chrysostom says that "expected to become himself a god, and conceived thoughts above his proper dignity." This is a key point which we'll keep coming back to.

When the primordial Fall occurred, man's original nature, created in the image of God, became corrupted. He acquired what the Holy Fathers call a fallen nature. He still had the image of God in him, but the image was tarnished: "buried," as it were, under the corruption of his nature. Now he had an inclination toward sin, born of his desire to be God without God's blessing. All of us share that fallen nature; there is a part of each one of us that wants to be God. In popular modern terms, that part of us is called "ego."

When man fell, the three powers of his soul became subject to corruption, along with his body, which became subject to death and decay. Now man used his intellective power to puff up with knowledge and be superior to others; now he used his appetitive power to lust after other people, after the things of this world, after sinful pleasures, wealth, and power; and he used his incensive power, not against temptation, but against other people, against things, and sometimes against life and God Himself. The incensive power expressed itself as sinful anger and wrath. The first man born of woman, Cain, got so angry and jealous that he murdered his own brother, Abel.

So, here we are, all members of the family of Adam and Eve, possessing a fallen nature that wants to be God, and a corrupt incensive power that gets angry at the wrong things.

Very clear teachings on anger and the incensive power can be found in the first volume of The Philokalia, in the teachings of Saint John Cassian, a Holy Father of the 5th century. According to Saint John Cassian, all anger directed at other people--all such wrong use of our incensive power--blinds the soul. He writes: We must, with God's help, eradicate the deadly poison of anger from the depths of our souls. So long as the demon of anger dwells in our hearts--we can neither discriminate what is good, nor achieve spiritual knowledge, nor fulfill our good intentions, nor participate in true life...Nor will we share in divine wisdom even though we are deemed wise by all men, for it is written: anger lodges in the bosom of fools (Ecclesiastes 7:9). Nor can we discriminate in decisions affecting our salvation even though we are thought by our fellow man to have good sense, for it is written: 'anger destroys even men of good sense' (Proverbs 15:1). Nor will we be able to keep our lives in righteousness with a watchful heart, for it is written: "Man's anger does not bring about the righteousness of God" (St. James 1:20). (Source: Orthodox Christian Information Center)

(To be continued)

__________________

"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostom

+++

With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George

On Love and Unity

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

+

ON LOVE AND UNITY
By Saint Anthony the Great

"I want you to know this, that Jesus Christ our Lord Himself the True Mind of the Father. By Him, all the fullness of every rational nature is made in the image of His Image is the head of all creation, and of His body the Church (Colossians 1:15-18). Therefore we are all members one of another, and the body of Christ and the head cannot say to the feet, I have no need of you; and if one; member suffers, the whole body is moved and suffers with it (Ephesians 4:25). But if a member is estranged from the body, and has no communication with the head, but is delighted by the passions of his own body, this means that its wound is incurable, and it has forgotten its beginning and its end. And therefore the Father of creatures moved with compassion towards this our wound, which could not be healed by any of the creatures, but only by the goodness of the Father, sent forth to us His Only-begotten, who because of our bondage took upon Himself the form of a bondservant, and gave Himself up for our sins; for our iniquities humbled Him, and by His wound, we are all healed; and He gathered us out of all regions, till He should make resurrection of our hearts from the earth, and teach us that we are all of one substance, and members one of another. Therefore we ought greatly to love one another. For he who loves his neighbor, loves God: and he who loves God, loves his own soul."

The Meaning of Love

The meaning of love is the meaning of life, because love, in spite of what we very often think or imagine, is not a simple feeling. When we speak of God, and we say that God is love, we do not mean that he is infinite feeling. We mean something deeper than this; that God is a plenitude of life and of being. And this applies also to our human love. Someone who is possessed by love is a man who has a plenitude of life in himself, in whom the sense of life, the power o life is so full, so great, that life is sure of itself. And this generates joy, courage, enthusiasm, and it goes so deep that it is beyond death itself. Holy Scripture says that love is stronger than death, indeed it is stronger than death because it has placed itself by its fullness, its power in intensity in the realm of the resurrection, in the realm of Eternal life. And this is why love is capable of final sacrifice, not only of giving and of receiving but of laying down one's life, because this life, if it is given, is also possessed in its fullness. It is the plenitude of life which finds expression in final sacrifice. You may remember the words of Christ: "No one is taking my life from Me, I give it freely myself." In that respect love, the fullness of life which it expresses is invulnerable. People may take our lives, people may put us to any test, and yet one remains invulnerable because no one in reality; the person who loves is giving.

I would like to give an example of this. During the Russian Revolution, a mother with two children was hiding in a small town. One evening a woman came, as young as she was, in her late twenties, and told her that she had been discovered, betrayed and that she was to be arrested in the night in order to be shot. The mother looked at the children, and her new friend said, 'Don't worry, you go, and you hide.' And the mother said, 'How could I with these two children. I would be found within a few hours.' 'No,' said her unknown friend, 'I will stay behind, call myself with your name and be shot perhaps, but you will escape.' And so she did.

This was an act of love, which proceeded from such fullness of life, from such certainty that life was not ending, and that it was only in the fulfillment that she would find in her death that she could do this.

No one has greater love than he who lays down his life for his friends. Who does it himself, freely, and who is doing so, attains to the fulfillment of life because life is worth only what one lives for, and life attains this fulfillment when all is done that can humanely be done beyond fear, in joy, in certainty.

This is the meaning of love to me. Such fullness of life, that will allow me to accept, to become totally vulnerable, never recoil, never resist, give myself to the last, without discrimination to anyone and for anyone with a certainty that love shall never be defeated, that love is stronger than death; because to love means that we already have renounced a limited self and grown into communion, that is community of life with God, who is love itself. (Source: Pravmir.com Metropolitan of Sourazh)

_______________________

"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostomos

+++

With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry)
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George