When there is no struggle, there is no virtue.
Featured image: Mother Theodosia. source
Truly sincere and devout souls cannot endure even a slight slackening of their longing for the Lord but, with their attention riveted entirely to His Cross, they seek to grow ever more fully conscious of their spiritual progress. Wounded by their longing and, so to speak, hungering for the righteousness of the virtues and the illumination of the Holy Spirit, they place no reliance on themselves and do not think they are anything even though they have been vouchsafed divine mysteries and partake of celestial felicity and grace.
But the more they are enabled by grace to receive spiritual gifts, the more insatiable and diligent becomes their pursuit of heavenly realities; and the more they are aware of their spiritual progress, the more fervent grows their desire to participate in these realities. Spiritually enriched, they feel themselves to be poor.
– St. Symeon the Metaphrast, “Paraphrase of the Homilies of St. Macarius of Egypt: On Love
Featured image: Russian Orthodox Church in Germany, 1897. Rijksmuseum
God is a fire that burns and warms the heart, our internal parts. If we feel coldness in our hearts, which comes from the enemy because the enemy – the devil – is cold, then we need to call our Lord. He will come and will warm our hearts with our love for Him and our neighbor. This warmth will drive away the coldness of the enemy.
The Desert Fathers used to say: Seek the Lord, but do not ask Him strange things like where he is. Because where God dwells, there is nothing bad and harmful. Everything that comes from God is peaceful and beneficial and guides us to humility and to recognize only our own faults.
God shows us how much He loves us not only when we are doing good things, but when we are also insulting Him and making Him unhappy with our sins. How forbearing He is with our faults! And even when something that we believe is a punishment from Him comes to us, it is not! It has love that we eventually recognize.
Featured image: Great Tit Eating out of the Hand of a Horticulture Student. Photographer Richard Tepe, ca. 1915. Rijksmuseum
Step to the Skies: a documentary about the life of Russian Orthodox monks on the islands of Valaam. “The Valaam Monastery is often referred to as the Athos of the North.” source
Some people tell me that they are scandalized because they see many things wrong in the Church. I tell them that if you ask a fly, Are there any flowers in this area? it will say, I don’t know about flowers, but over there in that heap of rubbish you can find all the filth you want. And it will go on to list all the unclean things it has been to.
Now, if you ask a honeybee, Have you seen any unclean things in this area? it will reply, Unclean things? No, I have not seen any; the place here is full of the most fragrant flowers. And it will go on to name all the flowers of the garden or the meadow.
You see, the fly only knows where the unclean things are, while the honeybee knows where the beautiful iris or hyacinth is.As I have come to understand, some people resemble the honeybee and some resemble the fly. Those who resemble the fly seek to find evil in every circumstance and are preoccupied with it; they see no good anywhere. But those who resemble the honeybee only see the good in everything they see. The stupid person thinks stupidly and takes everything in the wrong way, whereas the person who has good thoughts, no matter what he sees, no matter what you tell him, maintains a positive and good thought.
Featured image: Photographer Elina Sazonova. source
Some people by the word “freedom” understand the ability to do whatever one wants…People who have allowed themselves to come into slavery to sins, passions, and defilements more often than others appear zealots of external freedom, wanting to broaden the laws as much as possible. But such a man uses external freedom only to more severely burden himself with inner slavery. True freedom is the active ability of a man who is not enslaved to sin, who is not pricked by a condemning conscience, to choose the better in the light of God’s truth, and to bring it into actuality with the help of the gracious power of God.
– St. Philaret of Moscow, Sermon on the Birthday of Emperor Nicholas I, 1851
Featured image: Looking west from Main Range Track, Kosciuszko National Park. Photographer Christian Bass. source
(The modern field of) iconology is talking about icons, not painting them. It is a way of deconstructing icons and reducing them to words. In the hands of iconologists, an icon is a semiotic puzzle to be taken apart, reduced to figures, colors, and props. Each component is a symbol, a stand-in for a word, and the icon can be translated into its textual meaning.
Iconology does serve a useful purpose – it is a way of introducing icons to the visually blind. It shows modern people who are not accustomed to meaningful images that there is in fact, meaning in images. Ultimately, it provides an academic framework for studying icons in a way that can be reduced to essay questions on an exam – an absolute requirement in modern universities.It is not surprising then, that seminaries find the idea of ‘reading and writing’ icons appealing. In fact, probably most Americans find it attractive. It particularly appeals to converts from Protestantism. After all, Protestantism has always been rife with a text bias mixed with iconoclasm; if you say it’s written and not painted, then it’s not quite so much like the Catholic paintings that you always feared as a protestant. Of course, some people are attracted to Orthodoxy for more exotic reasons – the mysticism of Eastern religion, for instance. The term will appeal to them as well, because it implies gnostic secrets locked into the icons – an ancient language accessible only to the initiated.
…For Saint Symeon, as for all true Orthodox Christians, theology is life; the true words of God which speak to the Christian heart, raise it from its sloth and negligence, and inspire it to struggle for the eternal Kingdom, which may be tasted in advance even now in the life of grace which God sends down upon His faithful through His sanctifying Holy Spirit.
Featured image: Fr. Seraphim Rose on Pascha