www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West God be with you (Goodbye)

It has been wonderful, if tense at times, discussing these many topics with the people here. While I started out on this board with what I felt was a good purpose, I have realized that purpose is better served if I simply focus on my own salvation. I have pondered this for some time, in fact, St. John Chrysostom says one shows his spouse the way to salvation by finding his own.

Please read:
http://users.magnet.gr/stjohn/ark24.htm

So I have decided that with what little time I have these days I will spend with family, spiritual growth, and creating several more Greek/English service books.

Rum - I am taking your advice; I have your e-mail, dinner soon, you buy, I'm bringing my whole family.

Alex - I could never convert you (yes, I am a troll) unless I had buy-off from your wife, so I'll now leave it to the Holy Spirit like I should have.

StuartK - You are obviously a highly educated individual and I am afraid to say anything because I certainly do not know you. But I will say, since you are fundementally wrong (ie. not Orthodox), you have allowed your intellect to be shaped by plausable scenarios creating some kind of middle-ground that completley ignores the essense of each faith. Take it as a constructive note, I certainly hope nothing but the best for you.

Administrators - If your check doesn't clear I'll be back.

Everyone else, God bless!


From the Philokalia...

-- It is a Great Victory to Overcome Ourselves:

Do not think for a moment that this victory is small and insignificant. In fact it is a greater victory to overcome one of your passions and a pleasure of your senses than to overcome one hundred of your enemies. It is a more glorious trophy of victory to shed willingly a few drops of perspiration and one drop of blood, for the love of God, in order to overcome one of your evil wills and to spite the devil, than to shed rivers of blood to subdue entire armies. Again it is a greater triumph to subdue your senses and your entire body to your hegemonious mind than to subdue large kingdoms. Once, when King Alexander was praised for having conquered the whole ecumene, he responded with the prudent remark: "All of my victories will prove to be vain, if I do not succeed to conquer myself." Many who have subdued their enemies, cities, and countries have later been subdued miserably by their own improper passions and have shamefully become slaves of their own passions. A certain Father was very correct when he said that "the first victory is the victory of self." St. Isidore Pelousiotes also said: "The true victor is not he who subdues the foreign barbarians, but he who wages spiritual warfare against the evil passions. Many who have conquered barbarians have in turn been shamefully subdued by their own passions."

May the East someday in God's providence convert the West. Ironic, isn't it, that these wishes come from Pope John Paul II?

Dan Lauffer

I agree that we each need to seek our own salvation, but I believe that the Lord has work for each of us to do here. We do have the necessity of overcoming our own passions - sloth, greed, lust, envy, etc.

But as a Priest once told me when I visited, seeking some counsel as to my path in life, you don't know what good you are doing for others simply by doing your job, by fulfilling your duties in the family, by small acts of kindness.

The Lord has uses for all of us. "Wisdom! Be Attentive!" is not just for Divine Liturgy. God needs you for something, perhaps you have helped a soul or two here.

As for the story of Dr. Kalomiris, it sounds like a type of Orthodox Protestantism. All the Bishops are heretics, pagans, worldly. ONLY WE ARE RITELY RIGHT, right? A Personally Papist Parish?

A far cry from the lives of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, Metropolitan Andrew Sheptytsky, and the Martyrs and Confessors of the Gulag, who sought to bring pagans to Jesus and Christian unity to the world.

Many blessings on your journey in faith!

John
Pilgrim and Odd Duck

Dear OOD,

And all this time I thought it was I who was trying to convert you!

At best, Big Guy, you might have stood a chance of turning me into a Ukrainian Orthodox.

But since they aren't with your Old Calendarist jurisdiction and therefore outside your view of the One, Holy etc., that wouldn't have worked with you either!

Although you consider me to be outside the Church, I don't so consider you.

I'll leave it to God to judge which one of us is more "correct!"

God bless you and your family!

Alex

OoD,
Is that your immediate family or all of Greece? lol. You know we Greeks and Arabs have big families!
I look forward to going to dinner. Don't worry I'll pay. Patiently I await your e-mail as to the date and time.

OOD, take care and may God bless you. Daj Bozhe shchastya. It has been both entertaining and enlightening to hear your unique Orthodox perspective. We will miss you around here, sometimes the pot needs to be stirred up a little!