From the "Counsels" of the Elder Amphilochios of Patmos

Source: evagelidis.com

• Consider all people to be greater than yourself, though they may have many weaknesses. Don't act with hardness, but always think that each person has the same destination as we do. Through the grace of God I consider all people to be saintly and greater than myself. 

• I was born to love people. It doesn't concern me if he is a Turk, black, or white. I see in the face of each person the image of God. And for this image of God I am willing to sacrifice everything. 

• When a person partakes of Holy Communion he receives power and is enlightened, his horizons widen and he feels joy. Each person experiences something different, analogous to his disposition and the flame of his soul. One person feels joy and rest, another peace, another a spirit of devotion and another an inexpressible sympathy towards all things. Personally, I have often felt tired, but after Holy Communion I felt myself completely renewed. 

• Love Christ, have humility, prayer and patience. These are the four points of your spiritual compass. May the magnetic needle be your youthful Christian heart. 

• We must love Christ; this is necessary for the life of our soul. We also need to love God's creation: animals, trees, flowers, birds, and above all, the most perfect of God's creation, men and women. 

• Whoever plants a tree, plants hope, peace, and love, and has the blessings of God. 

• When someone opens your heart, I'd like him to find nothing there but Christ. 

• An egotistic person doesn't attract anyone. And if someone is attracted, that person will soon distance himself. The spiritual bond becomes indissoluble only when it meets a child-like spirit of innocence and holiness. 

• He who is without love cannot be called a Christian, lest we mock Christianity. 

• My children, I don't want Paradise without you.

From Precious Vessels of the Holy Spirit, p. 51-61.

Fragments for Friday

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

As you read the rather comprehensive and perhaps idealistic  "job description" below of what it means to be an Orthodox priest in today's world, it is imperative that you know that it was written by a 9 yr. old boy. That boy is one of our parishioners and Church School students, John Settles. John wrote this for his personal journal, and his father Spencer asked him if he would be willing to share it with the parish. John graciously agreed. There is a great deal to live up to in this remarkable personal journal entry. A great opening line!

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I really like Orthodoxy and want to be a priest. It will be an important job. To be a priest, I’ll have to be patient. Priests have to be at every service, do night services, do long services, do baptisms, confessions, house blessings, and holy unctions. You will need to be a helpful person, listen to people, work with the other clergy, help everyone, and give good sermons. You will have to be okay with traveling for your job as you may need to see bishops and serve at churches and/or meet with other priests. You will have to remember all of your parts and work with the deacon, and do extra parts if there is no deacon. You also have to already be married before becoming a priest, if you want to marry. You cannot stop being a priest until you retire, as it is disrespectful. Try not to let your mind wander during the service, as it is disrespectful. You will have to give time to do the liturgy and other services. As Jesus made time for the children, you will need to make time for God. Try to give good lessons and encourage the congregation during your homilies. Beware of Internet Orthodoxy. People post statements on the internet. They may say things about Orthodoxy that are not 100% true or aren’t vital. All of these are examples of vital concepts that help priests and make them good priests.

Fragments for Friday - Dying and Behold We Live

Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Recently, a very prominent Orthodox theologian and spiritual director, Archimandrite Vasileios of Mount Athos, "fell asleep in the Lord." Many may have read his now classic work, The Hymn of Entry, published by SVS Press. Protodeacon John Chryssavgis wrote a deeply-appreciative reflection on Archimandrite Vasileios' life and contributions to the Church. The link provided here will take you to Protodeacon John's article. And below that is a powerful summary of his teaching about the meaning of Christian life and existence, introduced by Metropolitan Kallistos Ware. 

These few paragraphs in their totality are one of the most perfect expressions of Orthodox Christianity in "short form" that I have ever read. Perhaps you will agree. I encourage our inquirers and catechumens especially to read these words carefully, so as to form a genuine understanding of what Orthodoxy offers to the world.

https://publicorthodoxy.org/20...

Dying and Behold We Live

Archimandrite Vasileios of Mount Athos

 [In introducing the Abbot’s talk on monasticism Bishop (now Metropolitan) Kallistos of Diokleia noted that although Father Vasileios is writing about monks, what he has to say in many ways applies to all Orthodox Christians. “Thus, at many points in his address,” Bishop Kallistos writes, “where he speaks of the ‘monk’, readers will find it illuminating to substitute in their minds the word ‘Christian’.” In my paraphrase here of sections of this address (whose title comes from St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians (See 2 Cor 6:1-10), I will simply use the word “Christian”. I update the language a bit for greater ease in reading.]

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The Lord did not come into the world merely to make an improvement in our present conditions of life. Neither did He come to put forward an economic or political system, or to teach a method of arriving at a psychosomatic equilibrium. He came to conquer death and to bring eternal life:  God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to the end that all who believe in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

This eternal life is not a promise of happiness beyond space and time. It is not a mere survival after death or a prolongation of our present life. Eternal life is the grace of God which here and now illumines and gives sense to things present and things to come, to both body and soul, to the human person in his or her entirety.

The appearances of the risen Christ to His disciples had as their purpose to fill them with the certainty that death had been vanquished. The Lord is risen.  Death has no more dominion over Him. (Romans 6:9) He is perfect God who goes in and out, the doors being shut. (John 20:19, 26) He is perfect Man who can be touched, who eats and drinks like any one of His disciples.

What makes persons to be truly human and gives them their specific value, are not their physical or intellectual capacities, but the grace of having a share in the resurrection of Christ, of being able, from now on, to live and to die eternal life.

He who loves his life will lose it, but he who hates his life in this world will keep it unto life eternal. (John 12:25)

True Christians, with the total gift of themselves to God, treasure this one unique truth. They live this one unique joy.  He who loses his life in this world, will save it. The life of a Christian, therefore, is a losing and a finding. 

Orthodox Christians are persons raised up, sharing in the resurrection of Christ. Their mission is not to affect something by their thoughts or to organize something by their own capacities, but by their lives to bear witness to the conquest of death. And they do this only by burying themselves like a grain of wheat in the earth.

Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

(John 12:24)

The true Christian is one who has been raised from the dead, an image of the risen Christ. He or she shows that the immaterial is not necessarily spiritual, and that the body is not necessarily fleshly. By “spiritual” is meant everything that has been sanctified by the mystery of the Cross and Resurrection of Christ, whether material or immaterial; that is, everything which has been transfigured by God’s uncreated divine energies through Christ and the Holy Spirit.

The true Christian reveals the spiritual mission of what is created and bodily. At the same time she or he reveals the tangible, concrete existence of what is uncreated and immaterial. The true Christian is a person who is totally wedded to this mystery. He or she has the sacred task of celebrating, in the midst of the Orthodox Church, the salvation of all created things.

The true Christians’ purpose in life is not to achieve their individual progress or integration. Their purpose is to serve the whole mystery of salvation, by living not for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again for us, and thereby living for all of their brothers and sisters, and the whole of humanity.

This becomes possible because the true Christian does not live according to his or her own will, but according to the universal, catholic will and tradition of Christ’s holy Church.

Christ is risen! Our eternal joy!