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The Mission of the Orthodox Church

Posted in Evangelism, tagged Orthodox Church; Evangelism on December 13, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

What is the mission of the Church? What is the Orthodox Church all about? What would you say? How would you answer this? This past Saturday while doing some work on a project at a local food pantry a person asked “So what is the Orthodox Church?” Great question – and this post provides a very good answer. Our [...]

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Become Prayer

It is not enough to say prayers: we must become, be prayer, prayer incarnate. All of life, each act, each act, every gesture, even the smile of the human face, must become a hymn of adoration, an offering, a prayer. One should offer not what one has but what one is. - Paul Evdokimov
LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER

If you start a good work, do not let the enemy discourage you. Your endurance will defeat the enemy. When sailors encounter unfavorable winds they do not toss their cargo overboard or abandon ship. They struggle against the storm for a while and then reestablish their course. If you run into a headwind, raise a cross as a sail and you will continue your voyage in safety. - Mother Synclectica
“Old” Books

Every age has its own outlook. It is especially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds... by reading old books. -- C.S. Lewis from the Introduction: St. Athanasius’ On the Incarnation
St. Macarius on the Heart

The heart itself is but a small vessel, yet dragons are there, and there are also lions; there are poisonous beasts and all the treasures of evil. But there too is God, the angels, the life and the kingdom, the light and the apostles, the heavenly cities and the treasuries of grace—all things are there. (H.43.7)
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Amusing Ourselves to Death

We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
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Poverty

Joy comes from one’s relationship and union with God. Mankind has been created to be joyful, not sad. When you enjoy the wrong things, you will inevitably pay back for all this pleasure you have had. But God’s joy demands no repayment. I have emptied myself for Christ’s sake. I have nothing but my Lord – and joy. Poverty is beautiful for it sets you free. One should empty himself to make room for Christ to enter his heart. When the Lord is with me, there is my happiness also. In each ascetic cave you will find spiritual joy. from An Athonite Gerotikon (Elder)
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Swimming Lessons.

One hears that, in foreign lands, people are now learning to swim, lying on the floor, with the aid of equipment. In the same way, one can become a Catholic or Protestant without experiencing life at all--by reading books in one's study. But to become Orthodox, it is necessary to immerse oneself all at once in the very element of Orthodoxy, to begin living in an Orthodox way. There is no other way.--Fr. Pavel Florensky
Hearts Ablaze

When someone opens your heart, I’d like him to find nothing there but Christ. I ask you to put this order into practice: as much as you can, try to cultivate your love toward Christ’s own person. You must reach the point that whenever you mention His name, tears run from your eyes. Your hearts must be truly ablaze. Then He will be your Teacher, your Guide, your Brother, your Father, your Elder…. Pay no attention to things earthly and passing. Be concerned about the union of your soul with God. - Elder Amphilochios of Patmos
Prayer

If you store up greivances and nurse all animonsities inside yourself, and then try to pray, you will be like someone going to the well for water with a bucket that is full of holes. - Evagrios of Pontus
TRUE GREATNESS

Set your mind on following the path of saints. Prefer a simple style of life. Wear unremarkable clothes. Eat simple food. Behave in an unaffected manner. Don't strut around as if you were important. Speak from your heart. - Abba Philemon
Listen & Learn

The Lord fills his teachers with grace according to the quality and longing of those who listen. -John Cassian
Scandal

If you say that the history of the Church is a long succession of scandals, you are telling the truth, though if that is all you say, you are distorting the truth. -Gerald Vann
Originality?

Originality means to remain faithful to the original. - Zissimos Lorenzatos
Press on…

Do not be surprised if you fall back into the old ways every day. Do not be disheartened but resolve to do something positive, and without question, that angel who stands guard over you will honor your perseverance. - John Klimakos
Endless Worship

Stillness of spirit is an endless worship of God and a standing in the very Presence. Let the memory of the name of Jesus be present in every breath you take, and then you will know the value of stillness. - John Klimakos
Salvation is…

"...because of the tyrant death, man is unable to live according to his original destiny of selfless love. He now has the instinct of self-preservation firmly rooted within him from birth. Because he lives constantly under the fear of death he continuously seeks bodily and psychological security, and thus becomes individualistically inclined and utilitarian in attitude. Sin is the failure of man to live according to his original destiny of selfless love which seeks not its own and this failure is rooted in the disease of death. Because death in the hands of Satan is the cause of sin, the kingdom of the devil is destroyed by the abolition of death...death and corruption is an abnormal condition which God came to destroy by the incarnation of his son..." (St. Ignatius of Antioch Ephesians 19)
How Men Learn

Why do men learn through pain and suffering, and not through pleasure and happiness? Very simply, because pleasure and happiness accustom one to satisfaction with the things given in this world, whereas pain and suffering drive one to seek a more profound happiness beyond the limitations of this world. +Father Seraphim Rose (20th c.)
catholic – universal

The Orthodox Church is not only for one nation, or one continent or one civilization. It is like God Himself for all and for every place. Patriarch Ignatius IV of Antioch
Orthodoxy is…

"...as the prophets have seen, as the apostles have taught, as the church has received, as the teachers have formulated in doctrine, as the world has understood, as grace has shone, as truth has been received, and as wisdom has freely spoken...so we speak, so we proclaim: This is the faith of the apostles; this is the faith of the fathers; this is the faith of the Orthodox; this is the faith that has established the universe..."
Tradition?

For the Orthodox, loyalty to Tradition means not primarily the acceptance of formulae or customs from past generations, but rather the ever-new, personal and direct experience of the Holy Spirit in the present, here and now.
Yes, but….

The commandments of Christ are not difficult because they are so complex or mystical – they are difficult because they are so clear and we do not want to keep them.
Lent = Action

The disciplines traditionally practiced during the season of Great Lent, prayer, fasting, almsgiving, are given to us not in order to generate a season of introspection. They are given to us as a call to a season of action. Prayer is something we do. It is a struggle, but it is an action (Orthodox prayer is particularly marked by action – even physical action). Fasting is an action as well.
Just do it…

Giving is an action. Give money away. Give sacrificially of your time. Give mercy and kindness to others. Forgive the sins of others as if your own forgiveness depended on it (it does). If we would see our hearts change in the direction of the image of Christ – the “roadmap” is not hidden. Pray, fast, be merciful and give. Fr. Stephen Freeman
She is One

The Church is called One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic because she is one, and holy; because she belongs to the whole world, and not to any particular locality; because by her all mankind and all the earth, and not any particular nation or country, are sanctified; because her very essence consists in the agreement and unity of the spirit and life of all the members who acknowledge her, throughout the world; lastly, because in the writings and doctrines of the Apostles is contained all the fullness of her faith, her hope and her love. - A.S. Khomiakov
My True Self

It is in embracing the cross of Christ, in emptying ourselves towards God and towards others that our true self is to be found and that our minds are renewed. We cannot look within ourselves to find our true selves. “For he who seeks to save his life will lose it.” Rather the true self is found when we turn to the other and pour ourselves out towards them. We find ourselves by losing ourselves in the beloved. This is the love that makes all things possible for us. Fr. Stephen Freeman
Not a ‘System’…

The Church gives us not a system, but a key; not a plan of God's City, but the means of entering it. Perhaps someone will lose His way because he has no plan. But all that he will see, he will see without a mediator, he will see it directly, it will be real for him; while he who has studied only the plan risks remaining outside and not really finding anything. - Fr. Georges Florovsky
On a Journey…

To be a Christian is to be like a traveller. Our situation, say the Greek Fathers, is like that of the Israelite people in the desert of Sinai; we live in tents, not houses, for spiritually we are always on the move. We are on a journey through the inward space of the heart, a journey not measured by the hours of our watch, or the days of the calendar, for it is a journey out of time into eternity. Bishop + KALLISTOS
Keep silent.

You cannot be too gentle, too kind. Shun even to appear harsh in your treatment of each other. Joy, radiant joy, streams from the face of him who gives and kindles joy in the heart of him who receives. All condemnation is from the devil. Never condemn each other… Instead of condemning others, strive to reach inner peace. Keep silent, refrain from judgment. This will raise you above the deadly arrows of slander, insult, and outrage and will shield your glowing hearts against all evil. –St. Seraphim of Sarov
Mark the Monk

Anger, on account of some pathetic and wretched pretext, causes you both to inflict and to suffer pain, and has you storing up reminders of wicked thoughts about your neighbor, shutting you off from pure prayer…It also hands you over for a while to evil spirits to whom you submit yourself for punishment, until the mind…begins again and sets out once more, with great humility taking the first steps on the road to salvation. - Mark the Monk
3 Certain Things

Whatever may happen in the future, I know that I have learned three things which will remain forever convictions of my heart as well as my mind. Life, even the hardest life, is the most beautiful, wonderful, and miraculous treasure in the world. Fulfillment of duty is another marvelous thing making life happy. This is my second conviction. And my third is that cruelty, hatred, violence, and injustice never can and never will be able to create a mental, moral, or material millennium. The only way toward it is the royal road of all-giving creative love, not only preached but consistently practiced.-Pitirim Sorokin

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Anaphora

An Offering Up of All Things – for the Glory of God.

Archive for the ‘Evangelism’ Category

The Mission of the Orthodox Church

Email Subscription

Legacy Icons

Strongest Strong

Top Posts

Relligent Blog

Category Cloud

Monastery Coffee

Baker Books

Christ – The Truth of All Things

Recent Comments

Consensus Patrum

Recent Posts

Become Prayer

LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER

“Old” Books

St. Macarius on the Heart

Pages

Archives

Amusing Ourselves to Death

Categories

Poverty

Blog Stats

Top Clicks

Swimming Lessons.

Hearts Ablaze

Prayer

TRUE GREATNESS

Listen & Learn

Scandal

Originality?

Press on…

Endless Worship

Salvation is…

How Men Learn

catholic – universal

Orthodoxy is…

Tradition?

Yes, but….

Lent = Action

Just do it…

She is One

My True Self

Not a ‘System’…

On a Journey…

Keep silent.

Mark the Monk

3 Certain Things