7/21/2021
Igumen Gregory (Zaiens)
Rating: 9.3|Votes: 62
I will introduce this topic with a question: What has Elder Ephraim done for monasticism in our land?
Rating: 4.8|Votes: 31
There is one more issue to consider which is central to the Orthodox concept of salvation, and that is deification. I will relate what I have learned from an Orthodox priest who is a university professor. This father is fluent in Arabic and has studied the Chalcedonian/Non-Chalcedonian positions.
Rating: 3.9|Votes: 30
There are, however, many of both Chalcedonians and Non-Chalcedonians, who believe that all along through history, it was a language problem, a matter of semantics. However, St. John of Damascus knew their language, and he wrote against them. And if it was all along this language problem, then we would have to say that God made a mistake with the miracle He performed through the Great Martyr Euphemia at the Fourth Ecumenical council.
St. Sophrony (Sakharov), Igumen Gregory (Zaiens)
Rating: 7.3|Votes: 3
It is sad to see the growing trust in Psychology in the Church. By virtue of my interactions within the Church it seems quite apparent that among a good number of our clergy, psychology is the prime source of pastoral counseling while the ascetic tradition of the Church is secondary, and by some it may even be overlooked.
Rating: 5.3|Votes: 11
Psychology helps those in the West, but it is a dreadful when the Orthodox learn psychology and substitute it for the neptic tradition of the Church.
Rating: 7.8|Votes: 5
In Orthodoxy salvation is a process of working to cleanse the inner man. In this process there are three stages of grace: the first is that of cleansing, the second enlightenment, and the third perfection, which is rare. We must repent and become cleansed of our wrong thoughts and sins, and then the mind can become enlightened by receiving thoughts of God.
Rating: 10|Votes: 2
I asked the Archbishop how to acquire peace. He first asked me where I lived. When I told him here at the monastery he said, “Fulfill all your obediences with a good conscience.” And he added a few profound words: “Be patient every day in every thing.” It sounds so simple, yet so difficult to attain.
Rating: 6.7|Votes: 3
So we can err by missing the point of our prayers and church services, which is to enter within. As we have seen above in St. Theophan, he who, “has abandoned sin and is zealous for virtue, but has not yet entered within himself, works for the Lord only outwardly”; however, “he who has entered within carries the Lord in himself”.
