Saying thank you to God... ( St. Basil the Great )

“When you sit down to eat, pray. 

When you eat bread, do so thanking Him for being so generous to you. 

If you drink wine, be mindful of Him who has given it to you for your pleasure and as a relief in sickness. 

When you dress, thank Him for His kindness in providing you with clothes. 

When you look at the sky and the beauty of the stars, throw yourself at God’s feet and adore Him who in His wisdom has arranged things in this way. Similarly, when the sun goes down and when it rises, when you are asleep or awake, give thanks to God, who created and arranged all things for your benefit, to have you know, love and praise their Creator.”

St. Basil the Great

Judgment Sunday Teaches us that God is a Just Judge

On the third Sunday of the Triodion, our Church sets before us the  fearsome Second Coming of the Lord. 

During the previous two Sundays, the
parables of "the Publican and the Pharisee" and especially "the Prodigal Son" were used to emphasize God's infinite compassion and goodness. However, realizing that this could possibly prompt people to incorrectly and falsely hope in God's forgiveness alone, while foolishly ignoring His commandments, living with indifference, persisting in sin, and squandering the time that has been given
to them to acquire salvation, the holy Fathers appointed that we commemorate and bring to mind the Second Coming of Christ on this day in order to underline and remind us that God is not only a compassionate Lord, but also a righteous
Judge Who renders to each man according to his works.

Behold how St. Gregory Palamas affirms the above: 

 
Last Sunday through the parable of the prodigal who was saved, the Church commemorated God’s incomparable love for mankind. This Sunday it teaches us about His terrifying Judgment to come, following the right order and in accordance with the prophetic sayings: “I will sing of mercy and of judgment” (Ps. 101:1), and, “God hath spoken once: twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God. Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his works” (Ps.62:11-12).

Mercy and forbearance precede the divine Judgment. God Himself is the first possessor of every virtue and embraces them all. He is both just and merciful. But as mercy does not go with judgment, as it is written, “Thou shalt not be merciful to apoor man at judgment” (cf. Prov. 24:23), God rightly allotted a proper time to each, appointing the present for forbearance, the future for retribution. The grace of the Spirit so ordered the rites of the Holy Church, that when we learn that we receive forgiveness of sins from what happens here and now, we may press on while still in this present life to attain everlasting mercy and make ourselves worthy of thedivine love for mankind. For that Judgment is without mercy for the unmerciful.”

Thus, through the recollection of that frightful day, the holy Fathers desire to wake us up from the sleep of indolence, motivate us to live virtuously, and encourage us to show love and compassion toward our fellow man.A certain hymn (specifically, the kontakion) chanted on this Sunday says:

When You come, O God, to the earth in glory, the entire universe will tremble [with fear]. A river of fire will flow forth from Thy judgment seat. Books will be opened, and the secret [deeds of men] will be publicized. At that time, deliver me from the inextinguishable [eternal] fire, and deem me worthy of standing on Your right, O most-righteous Judge.

God is everywhere. ( St. Joseph the Hesychast )

“God is everywhere. 

There is no place God is not…You cry out to Him, ‘Where art Thou, my God?’ And He answers, “I am present, my child! I am always beside you.’ Both inside and outside, above and below, wherever you turn, everything shouts, ‘God!’ 

In Him we live and move.

We breathe God, we eat God, we clothe ourselves with God. Everything praises and blesses God. All of creation shouts His praise. Everything animate and inanimate speaks wondrously and glorifies the Creator. Let every breath praise the Lord!”

St. Joseph the Hesychast

Seek God daily. ( St. Nektarios of Aegina )

Seek God daily, but seek Him in your heart, not outside it. And when you find Him, stand with fear and trembling, like the Cherubim and the Seraphim, for your heart has become a throne of God. 

But in order to find God, become humble as dust before the Lord, for the Lord abhors the proud, whereas He visits those that are humble in heart, wherefore He says: "To whom will I look, but to him that is meek and humble in heart?"

St. Nektarios of Aegina

Science leads to belief in GOD

“The more I study science, the more I believe in God.”

Albert Einstein 

as quoted in The Wall Street Journal, December 24, 1997, in the article: “Science Resurrects God.”

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“If you study science deep enough and long enough, it will force you to believe in God.”

 Lord William Kelvin

Mathematical physicist best known for his contributions in the development of the second law of thermodynamics.

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“In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God’s existence.”

 Sir Isaac Newton

Mathematician, physicist, astronomer, and author regarded as one of the most influential scientists of all time.

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“Both religion and science require a belief in God. For believers, God is in the beginning, and for physicists He is at the end of all considerations.... To the former He is the foundation, to the latter, the crown of the edifice of every generalized world view.”

Max Planck 

German theoretical physicist who founded the quantum theory (Nobel Prize in Physics 1918).

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“For myself, faith begins with a realization that a supreme intelligence brought the universe into being and created man. It is not difficult for me to have this faith, for it is incontrovertible that where there is a plan there is intelligence. An orderly, unfolding universe testifies to the truth of the most majestic statement ever uttered: ‘In the beginning, God.’”

Arthur Compton 

Physicist who discovered the “Compton Effect” (Nobel Prize in Physics 1927).

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“Those who say that the study of science makes a man an atheist must be rather silly.”

Max Born

Physicist and mathematician (Nobel Prize in Physics 1954).

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“God is a mathematician of a very high order and He used advanced mathematics in constructing the universe.”

Paul Dirac

Theoretical physicist (Nobel Prize in Physics 1933).

https://www.stnektariosmonastery.org

God is everywhere. ( Elder Joseph the Hesychast )

“God is everywhere. There is no place God is not…You cry out to Him, ‘Where art Thou, my God?’ And He answers, “I am present, my child! I am always beside you.’ Both inside and outside, above and below, wherever you turn, everything shouts, ‘God!’ In Him we live and move.

We breathe God, we eat God, we clothe ourselves with God. Everything praises and blesses God. All of creation shouts His praise. Everything animate and inanimate speaks wondrously and glorifies the Creator. Let every breath praise the Lord!”

Elder Joseph the Hesychast

Why do children lose faith in God?

Why is it that some people are able to know God and believe in Him until the end of their days, while others lose their faith while still young ? How does this loss of faith occur and by what means can faith be preserved or renewed ?

Before answering these questions I would like to say a few words to those who say that religious beliefs should not be “foisted upon” children.
Religious faith cannot be foisted upon a person; it is not something which is alien to man, but, on the contrary, it is an essential need of human nature, it constitutes the primary content of man’s inner life.


When we take care to have a child grow up truthful, good, when we develop in him a correct understanding of and a taste for beauty, we do not foist upon him something alien or extraneous to his nature; we only help him to extract this from within himself, we help him recognize within himself those traits and movements which are common to all human souls.

The same should be said concerning knowledge of God.

According to the principle of not foisting anything upon a child’s soul, we would generally have to renounce all assistance to the child in developing and strengthening the talents and capabilities of his soul. We would have to leave him to his own devices until he grew up and decided which principles to adopt and which to reject.

But in this case we would not have guarded the child from external influences, but would have only made these influences chaotic and arbitrary.

Let us return to the question of why some people retain in their hearts a constant and unshakeable faith until the end of their days, while others lose it, sometimes completely and sometimes returning to it with great difficulty and suffering?


What is the reason for such a phenomenon ? It seems to me that it depends on the direction which a person’s inner life takes in his early childhood. If a person, consciously or instinctively, is able to preserve a correct relationship between himself and God, he will not lose faith, but if his ego occupies an unseemly preeminent and dominant place in his soul, then his faith will be superceded. In early childhood a person’s nature does not yet occupy first place, does not yet become an object of worship. For this reason it is said: if you do not become like children, you will not enter the Heavenly Kingdom. As the years advance, our innate egoism grows more and more within us, becomes the center of our attention and the object of our gratification.

And this self-centered egoistic life usually runs along two channels - the channel of sensuality, gratification of the body, and the channel of pride, of strict trust in and worship of reason in general and one’s own in particular.

These two channels do not usually coexist within one and the same person. Some are dominated by the temptations of sensuality, while others by the temptations of reason. With age sensuality sometimes changes into unhealthy sexuality, from which those who are dominated by reason and pride are often free.

Sensuality and pride - two ways of serving one’s nature - are precisely those traits which, as we know, were manifested in the original sin of Adam and Eve, and created a barrier between them and God.

That which happened to our forebears, now happens to us.

The unhealthy direction of our inner life from childhood, which leads to the development within us of either sensuality or pride, pollutes the purity of our internal spiritual sight, deprives us of seeing God. We stray away from God, we remain alone in our egoistic life, with all the consequences of such a condition.

Such is the process of our abandonment of God.

In those, however, who succeed in keeping a correct relationship with God, the development of egoistic, sensual and proud attitudes is impeded by the memory of God; such people preserve their purity of heart and humbleness of mind; both their bodies and their minds are placed within a framework of religious consciousness and duty. They look upon all that springs up within their soul from the height of their religious consciousness, evaluate their feelings and passions properly, and do not allow them to take control. Despite all the temptations that come across their path, they do not lose the basic direction of their lives.

Thus the purpose and the difficulty of religious guidance lies in helping the child, and later the teenager, to preserve the right relationship between himself and God and to not allow the development within himself of the temptations of sensuality and pride, which pollute the clarity of internal spiritual sight.

Remembering my youth, I must admit that it was precisely through such an internal process that I lost my religious faith when I was 13-14 years old. The enticements of sensuality, the excessive trust in reason and the pride of rationality which were developing in me, deadened my soul. And I was not alone, the majority of my friends suffered the same fate.

Had an experienced spiritual instructor happened to be alongside us and peered into our souls, perhaps he would have found something good in them, but primarily he would have found idleness, gluttony, deceit, hypocrisy, self-assurance, inordinate belief in one’s powers and abilities, a critical and skeptical attitude towards the opinions of others, a tendency towards hasty and and rash decisions, stubbornness, and a trusting attitude towards all kinds of negative theories, etc.

The only thing he would not have found in our souls would be the memory of God, and the inner quiet and humbleness which it engenders.

We did not have such an instructor. Our religious teacher, a venerable protopriest, barely had time to check on our lessons in the Law of God and to explain further. And we regarded these lessons with the same boredom and indifference as all the others. Outside of these lessons we had no contact with our teacher. Confession, to which we went once a year, we approached with no understanding whatsoever.

And nothing prevented us from becoming spiritually extinguished.



Protopriest Sergey Chetverikov

Saying thank you to God... ( St. Basil the Great )

“When you sit down to eat, pray. When you eat bread, do so thanking Him for being so generous to you. If you drink wine, be mindful of Him who has given it to you for your pleasure and as a relief in sickness. When you dress, thank Him for His kindness in providing you with clothes. When you look at the sky and the beauty of the stars, throw yourself at God’s feet and adore Him who in His wisdom has arranged things in this way. Similarly, when the sun goes down and when it rises, when you are asleep or awake, give thanks to God, who created and arranged all things for your benefit, to have you know, love and praise their Creator.”

St. Basil the Great

Everything that He does, He does for our benefit... ( Abba Dorotheus )

When we suffer something unpleasant from our best friend, we know that he did not do it intentionally and that he loves us. We must think likewise of God, Who created us, for our sake incarnated, and died for our sake having endured enormous suffering. We must remind ourselves that He does everything from His goodness and from His love for us. 

We may think that while our friend loves us, in not having sufficient good sense in order to do everything correctly, he therefore involuntarily hurt us. This cannot be said of God because He is the highest wisdom. He knows what is good for us and accordingly, directs everything for our benefit, even in the smallest things. It can also be said that although our friend loves us and is sufficiently sensible, he is powerless to help us. But this certainly cannot be said of God, because to Him everything is possible and nothing is difficult for Him. 

Consequently, we know that God loves us and shows clemency toward us, that He is eternally wise and omnipotent. Everything that He does, He does for our benefit, and we should accept it with gratitude as from a Benefactor, even though it may appear to be grievous.

Abba Dorotheus 

The power of God is effective when a person asks for the help from God,... ( St. John Maximovitch )

God’s grace always assists those who struggle, but this does not mean that a struggler is always in the position of a victor. Sometimes in the arena the wild animals did not touch the righteous ones, but by no means were they all preserved untouched.

What is important is not victory or the position of a victor, but rather the labor of striving towards God and devotion to Him.

Though a man may be found in a weak state, that does not at all mean that he has been abandoned by God. On the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ was in trouble, as the world sees things. But when the sinful world considered Him to be completely destroyed, in fact He was victorious over death and hades. The Lord did not promise us positions as victors as a reward for righteousness, but told us, “In the world you will have tribulation — but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world” (Jn. 16:33).

The power of God is effective when a person asks for the help from God, acknowledging his own weakness and sinfulness. This is why humility and the striving towards God are the fundamental virtues of a Christian.

St. John Maximovitch

God the Father ( St. John of Kronstadt )

           
Let us concentrate our attention on how Father John expresses his Christian teaching about God the Father. How often God the Father is presented as distant from the world! In philosophical religious teachings about God the Word, or Logos, it is explained in another sense, that God the Father, as the Absolute, is not equal with the relative world, and therefore cannot have direct contact with it, and consequently, is in need of an intercessor between Himself and the world, and that such an intercessor is God the Word, God the Son (Son of God). Such an outlook, incidentally, was expressed in the philosophical system of Vladimir Soloviev. This view penetrates often also into our common religious ideas: God the Father, living in unapproachable Light, has reserved the right for this same reason to be remote from this earthly world and from us people. In a similar manner, the thought of the remoteness of God the Father from people is felt in the Roman Catholic teaching about atonement (redemption) where the redemption of mankind with the Blood of the Son of God, is explained by the necessity of appeasing and satisfying God the Father for His being insulted through the sin of man.

Father John teaches an entirely different idea:

God, Father of the Word, is also our benevolent and loving Father. When saying "The Lord's Prayer," we must believe and remember that the Father in heaven never forgets and will never forget us, for what earthly father forgets or does not care for his children? Remember that our Heavenly Father constantly surrounds us with love and care, and not in vain is He called our Father - this is not a name without meaning and force, but a name with great significance and power." "Should we not recognize Him as all the more benevolent, because He gave ... the greatest gift of His benevolence, wisdom, and omnipotence - by this is meant freedom.... not being shaken by the ingratitude of those who received the gift, in order that His goodness could shine brighter than the sun before everyone? And has He not shown by His deeds His boundless love and unlimited wisdom by bestowing upon us freedom, when, after our fall into sinfulness, and our withdrawal from Him, and spiritual ruin, He sent into the world His Son, the Only-Begotten One, in the likeness of perishable man, and gave Him to suffer and die for us?"

"Christian! Remember and constantly bear in mind and in your heart the great words of the Lord's Prayer: 'Our Father, Who art in the Heavens.' Remember Who our Father is. God is our Father, our Love: who are we? We are His children, and among ourselves, brothers; in what manner of love ought children to live among themselves, having such a Father? If you were children of Abraham you would have done the deeds of Abraham; what kinds of deeds must we do?" "Our life is that of love - yes, love. And where there is love, there is God, and where there is God, there is all-good... And so with joy feed and delight everyone, please all and depend in all things upon the heavenly Father, the Father of mercies, and God of all consolation. Bring to your neighbor in sacrifice that which is dear to you..." And so, we see Father John converts the fundamental dogmas into immediate moral admonitions; he shows that every truth of Faith contains in itself a moral purpose.

Father John, in his theology about the Father teaches, first of all, about divine thought. "From God's mind, from God's thought, proceeds every thought in the world. In general, everywhere in the world we see the kingdom of thought, as in all the structure of the visible world, so also, in particular, on earth, in the rotation and life of the earthly planet, in the distribution of the elements of the world: air, water, fire, whereas other phenomena are distributed in all animals, in birds, fish, snakes, beasts, and in man, in their wise and purposeful formation, and in their capabilities, morals, habits; in plants, in their adaptation, in nutrition, and so on; everywhere we see the kingdom of thought, even in the inanimate stone and sand."


St. John of Kronstadt 

http://agapienxristou.blogspot.ca/2013/11/god-father-st-john-of-kronstadt.html

Even bee's have respect for God .....

In case you have not seen this yet, I thought I would share with you.


Even the bee's have respect for their Creator and His saints... they build their honey comb around the icons.

God often isolates those whom He chooses ( Father Seraphim Rose )

“Alison was witness to incidents which indicated how Eugene was “going crazy” and trying to “break the bonds” without really knowing how to do so. She recalls the night when Eugene and John’s argument about God came to a head. John, Eugene, Alison, and a few others had gone to the top of Mount Baldy, another local meeting place of the group of friends.

Everyone became drunk with wine, except Alison. “John was crying and ranting about how he had to give up women for God.” Alison recall, “and Eugene became totally disgusted with the whole scene.”

Then something unexpected happened. Eugene stood up and began shouting at John. “There is no God!” he bellowed. “Your God is a fable! If there was a God, He wouldn’t torment his followers. You believe that God is having fun sticking pins in people. Such a God does not exist!”

In his drunken rage, Eugene proceeded to pour win over John’s head, saying, “I’m John the Baptist!” Then, raising a fist to heaven from the top of the mountain, he cursed God and dared Him to damn him to hell. “See! Nothing happened,” he cried, looking at the distraught Alison with wild eyes. The others took this as some kind of joke, but Alison could see in it Eugene’s horrible struggle with God. In his despair, it seemed worth being damned forever by God’s wrath, if only he could empirically know that God existed – rather than remain in a stagnant state of indifference. If God did damn him to hell, at least then he would, for that blissfull instant, feel God’s touch and know for sure that He was reachable.”

In this excerpt, we see Eugene’s (Father Seraphim) passion to find God through his struggle with Him. He is so desperate to feel God that he doesn’t care if he damns him to hell forever, he just wants to feel his touch. Most of us would think that, this is no way to find God, but that is the same passion that later made God reveal himself to Eugene. As Alison once quoted, “God often isolates those whom He chooses, so that we have nowhere to turn except to Him, and then He reveals Himself to us.” Let the same passion that filled Eugene’s heart, fill our hearts too. –

Father Seraphim Rose

http://agapienxristou.blogspot.ca/2013/07/god-often-isolates-those-whom-he-chooses.html

God created woman equal with man ( Saint Kosmas Aitolos )

God created woman equal with man, not inferior. My Christian, you must love your wife as your companion, and not consider her as your slave, for she is a creature of God, just as you are.


God was crucified for her as much as you. You call God ‘Father,’ she calls Him ‘Father’ too.


Both of you have the same Faith, the same Baptism, the same Book of the Gospels, the same Holy Communion, the same Paradise to enjoy.
God does not regard her as inferior to you.

 Saint Kosmas Aitolos

If we repent, God will forgive us ( St. John Chrysostom )

Are you a sinner? Do not despair. Come to church with repentance.
Have you sinned? Say to God: “I have sinned.” You find it so difficult to confess your sin? But if you do not accuse yourself first, the devil will
eventually accuse you. Therefore, before he has a chance to do so, strip him of his power; because, truly, his role is to accuse us. 

Erase your sin before he has a chance to blame you. For you have an accuser who will not remain silent. Have you sinned? I ask nothing else from you except this: enter the church and say to God with repentance, “I have sinned.” Because it is
written: “confess your sins first, so that you may be justified” (Isa. 43:26).
 

Confess your sin so that you may erase it. This does not require any effort, or many words, or large sums of money, or any other such thing. It only takes three words: “I have sinned.”
Have you sinned? Come to Church and erase your sin. Every time you fall while walking you get up. Similarly, every time you sin, repent. Do not despair; do not become indifferent, so that you do not lose hope in the heavenly riches that are in store for us. Even if you sin late in life when you
have grown old, repent and come to Church. 

The Church is a hospital not a court. It bestows forgiveness; it does not demand accountability for the sin. Say to God: “Against Thee only have I sinned and done this evil before Thee” (Ps. 50:6), and He will forgive you. Show Him that you repent, and He will have mercy on you. If we do our part, God will do His part.
 

Since the almighty Lord is so loving and merciful, let us not remain indifferent for our salvation. Waiting for us are the Kingdom of Heaven,
Paradise, and goods that no human eye has seen, that no human ear has heard, and which no human mind can conceive. Shouldn’t we do whatever
we can in order not to lose these things? Shouldn’t we give something trivial in order to acquire these great and invaluable things? 

Therefore, let us repent, let our hands become accustomed to giving to others, let us humble ourselves, let us mourn and cry for our sins. All these things are small. But great and beyond our strength are the things that will be given to us by God; that is, Paradise, and the Kingdom of Heaven. May we all be worthy of entering it, through His grace.
 
St. John Chrysostom

How Should We Spend Sundays?

Sunday is the day set aside to honor God and should be spent differently from all other days. It is a day we raise our minds and hearts to God with deep reverence towards Him and with profound gratitude and prayer. In the Old Testament it was the Sabbath that was such a day but in the New Testament it is Sunday, the Lord's Day.

Moses was told, "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath fo the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work" (Exodus 20:8-10). In the Old Testament the penalty for not keeping it holy was the death of the soul.

What were the reasons for this commandment from God?
a. It was hallowed by God in memory of the creation of the world. In Genesis ti says, "On the sixth day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because in it hHe had rested from all His work which God created and made" (Gen 2:2-3).

b. The other reason is the remembrance of the liberation of the people of Israel from Egyptian bondage as we are instructed in Deut 5:12-15. Similarly the people of the New Testament were delivered from the bondage of sin by the death of Jesus Christ and it is prescribed also for us to consecrate the day of the Old Testament Sabbath on the day of the Resurrection, Sunday.
Metropolitan Gregory of St. Petersburg puts it this way: "The Lord has granted us six days of every week to carry out our business necessary for our earthly life, but the seventh day–only ne day–He appointed for rest under pain of eternal death for violating it..."

Saint John Chrysostom says: "It was the Lord's good will to prescribe that we dedicate one day in the weekly cycle to spiritual matters."

In the book of Acts we see that original Christians gathered on Sunday for the breaking of bread and listened to His teachings (Acts 20:7).

There are several obligation that Sunday imposes on us.
1. We should set aside all the business we need to engage in during the six days of the week to supporrt ourselves.

2. We should turn away from all impious acts that distract our souls from the remembrance of the Lord God, reverence towards Him, gratitude and a prayerful disposition of soul towards Him. This includes all unedifying reading, conversations and games where our soul might lose remembrance of God and potentially be carried away by delights and sin.

3. We are to attend the Divine Liturgy. This service is the ultimate remembrance of God's various blessings. In our attendance we reverence God, give Him thanks, and seek through our prayers that His blessings will continue to be given to us. We join in communion with Him as we partake of His body and Blood.

4. We should reflect on all of God's creation and His All-Powerful nature, His Wisdom, Goodness and unconditional Love for us. We should experience the wonder and awe of His creation in the natural environment. We should reflect on His life and the path He laid out for us through His death and Resurrection.
Metropolitan Gregory says. "You who love God: follow the path unto which the Lord has directed you and fear nothing...only try to please the Lord God, and then, remembering the words of the Holy Apostle, "If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Rom 8:31)... Do not be afraid, just try and avoid all occasions of sin through which our enemy always more easily lures us into his nets and ruins us."

You should contemplate His passion and death, how he suffered for us and think of what is written in the Gospel of John, "Behold how God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16).

5. We should read the Scripture on this day just like the first members of His Church (Acts 20:7). We are all called to live a holy life in His image. "God has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him." (Eph 1:4)

6. Metropolitan Gregory reminds us: "We must examine ourselves every day in relation to our salvation, so much more should it be our obligation on Sundays... Sunday before all other days should be a day on which we make the most attentive and detailed examination of our spiritual state in relation to salvation, and make a new, firm intention to root out from ourselves everything "opposed to God and our salvation."

Reference: How to Live a Spiritual Life, pp 112-137

http://agapienxristou.blogspot.ca/2012/11/how-should-we-spend-sundays.html

How Can God Be Inside Man? ( Saint Nikolai Velimirovich )

You asked somebody, "where is God"? And you got an answer that God is inside you. And you marvel at this answer. How can that be? Kind of like light in a room, or like fire in a stove. When you are able to feel God within you, you will feel and know that He is inside you, but you will not be able to explain it to someone else. But you will look for images in nature and then you will speak to the other person as I speak to you: God is within me like light in a room, or a like fire in a stove, or like air in the lungs, or like life in every creature, or like force and love and thought inside of man. Of course, these are just images and likenesses, and they cannot express what a man feels when God dwells within him in His fullness. God’s apostle, our spiritual father Paul, wishes for the faithful to be filled with all fullness in God [Eph.3: 19]. God works from within a man in two ways - by helping and by governing.


When helping, God works within a man of medium or weak faith, who only occasionally remembers God and only keeps His Commandments partially. God does not abandon him because he also does not completely abandon God. However, God acts through governing in a man of great faith, who has opened wide the doors of his soul to his Creator. And it is written, "He who opens the door I will enter to him" [Rev.3: 20]. Such a man does not rely on himself at all but only on the Almighty. He feels the presence and the working of the Spirit of God within himself and has great love toward his Lord. And Christ has promised to the one who loves God that God will come and dwell within him. "He who loves me will keep my word and my Father will love him. And we will come to him and will make our abode within him". You will not be able to understand this. If you forget that God is a Spirit, who can enter everything and be everywhere, according to his power, and will. He is high above all matter, like the Sun is high above the earth but its light can enter every open thing. As the apostle says: "One God and the Father of all who is above all and through all, and in us all" [Eph. 4: 6]. He writes this about the holy and the faithful.


But when someone rejects God, starts thinking ugly thoughts and speaking against God, God also leads him. It is the same as if somebody would close off the windows of a room and prevent the light from coming in and illuminating everything. For God’s prophet Samuel said to the self-willed King Saul, "You have rejected the word of the Lord and for this the Lord has rejected you... and the spirit of the Lord abandoned Saul". But even one God abandons a soul of a stubborn man, He does not stop working on him from without, the way he works on water and stone and wood. But if a man remains stubborn and resists God until the end and refuses to repent, then God allows an evil spirit to enter in. Like it is written about Saul when the Spirit of the Lord abandoned him, "and an evil spirit disturbed him from the Lord". Or as it is written, even worse, about Judas the betrayer, "Satan entered into him".



Such people, who rise against God, of course, can never feel God within themselves or say, "God is inside of us". And those who love God, and desire Him, and see Him, and entreat Him to come they feel God within themselves and they can say, "God is within us by His Holy Spirit". Blessed are such bright souls, for they will always reign in the kingdom of Christ. As the Lord has promised to those who love Him saying, "I will take you to myself so that you may be where I am".


Saint Nikolai Velimirovich

The Pure In Heart Perceive God and Discover Him ( St. Nektarios )

It is evident that unbelief is an evil offspring of an evil heart; for the guileless and pure heart everywhere discovers God, everywhere discerns Him, and always unhesitatingly believes in His existence.

When the man of pure heart looks at the World of Nature, that is, at the sky, the earth, and the sea and at all things in them, and observes the systems constituting them, the infinite multitude of stars of heaven, the innumerable multitudes of birds and quadrupeds and every kind of animal of the earth, the variety of plants on it, the abundance of fish in the sea, he is immediately amazed and exclaims with the Prophet David: "How great are Thy works, O Lord! In wisdom Thou made them all."

Such a man, impelled by his pure heart, discovers God also in the World of Grace of the Church, from which the evil man is far removed. The man of pure heart believes in the Church, admires her spiritual system, discovers God in the Mysteria, in the heights of the theology, in the light of the Divine revelations, in the truths of the teachings, in the commandments of the Law, in the achievements of the Saints, in every good deed, in every perfect gift, and in general in the whole of the creation. Justly then did the Lord say in His Beatitudes of those possessing purity of the heart: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."


St. Nektarios of Aegina 

http://agapienxristou.blogspot.ca/2013/06/the-pure-in-heart-perceive-god-and.html

When man’s heart does not work for God, he is in no way different from a stone statue ( St. Paisios )

Women enjoy and find rest in reading and are able to be benefited more than men since they are lacking in much logic and have more faith. Unfortunately, however, few are those who are benefited and make progress. Most, when they lay hold of themselves, are in turn seized by the "funeral dirge," and continually wail and complain, conducting microscopic spiritual tests on themselves, without first cutting off their weighty passions and later the minor ones, which, by the Grace of God, gradually vanish by themselves.

Although most women have great prerequisites for the spiritual life, they make little progress. They have less logic, a trait that is not harmful but rather beneficial in regards to faith, whereas men undermine their faith with their logic. While women possess love in their nature and can dedicate themselves wholeheartedly to God, men need work in order to make their hearts beat for God. When man’s heart does not work for God, he is in no way different from a stone statue.


St. Paisios

A God-loving mind is the light of the soul. ( St. Anthony the Great )

The eye sees the visible while the mind comprehends the invisible. A God-loving mind is the light of the soul. A person who has a God-loving mind has an enlightened heart and can perceive God with the mind.



St. Anthony the Great