Written by Greg Pantelidis BSc(Hons)
gregpantelidis@gmail.com
When a person kicks when you speak to them a word of salvation you must in humility fall down, to defuse the disturbance.
The Orthodox Christian life is fasting and prayer, charity, truth-speaking and blessing, humility and non-glory, and chastity. We are called to this life.
Do everything with moderation: Eat with moderation, possess with moderation, study with moderation, practice asceticism with moderation, work with moderation.
Observe how the secular church overeats, steals and overpossesses, lies and reviles and mocks and judges, has vanity and pride, and practices lust. Observe how the Orthodox Christian Church fasts, gives charity, truth-speaks and blesses and does not mock and does not judge, has non-glory and humility, and practices chastity.
Remember that the secular church is enslaved to the noetic Pharaoh. When a deliverer appears the noetic Pharaoh tries to increase the burden, so that the deliverer will not deliver the slaves of Pharaoh.
The Lord presents hurdles in our life. With endurance and courage and the help of God, we pass over the hurdles.
The story of Pharaoh, Moses, and the Israelites in the Old Testament, is a type of a noetic reality. The noetic Pharaoh is the dragon. The noetic Moses is Lord Jesus. The Israelites are every person. Lord Jesus came to deliver every person from the noetic Pharaoh.
The Lord sends us a cross for our salvation. This cross may be material loss, dishonor, physical illness, psychological illness, physical hardship, or persecution.
Choose moderate eating, choose canonical possessing, choose humility and non-glory, choose truth-speaking and blessing and non-mocking and non-judging, choose chastity. (See Deut. 30:19). The secular church chooses overeating, stealing and overpossessing, pride and vanity, lying and reviling and mocking and judging, and also practicing lust.
Do not cling to things that pass: wealth, glory, pleasure. Cling to things that do not pass: charity, humility, continence.
The secular church is an enemy of God, choosing overeating, greed, vanity, pride, lying, reviling, and lust, to fasting, charity, non-glory, humility, truth-speaking, blessing, and chastity.
The enemies of God are those who live a life of overeating, greed, vanity, pride, and lust.
The happy life is charity, humility, and continence. The unhappy life is greed, vanity, pride, gluttony, and lust.
Remember the Golden Rule: justice for justice, injustice for injustice, neutrality for neutrality. (See Gal. 6:7).
The secular church clings to things that pass: wealth, glory, and pleasure. The Orthodox Christian Church clings to the Lord. The Orthodox Christian Church values charity, humility, and continence.
Do not expect the enemies of Lord Jesus to believe in Him and love Him.
How can the friends of overeating be friends of fasting? How can the friends of greed be friends of charity? How can the friends of vanity be friends of non-glory? How can the friends of pride be friends of humility? How can the friends of lust be friends of chastity? How can the friends of darkness be friends of light? No one can be friend of both. (See Matt. 6:24).
Serve your neighbor as you serve yourself. Treat your neighbor as you treat yourself. Help your neighbor as you help yourself. Love your neighbor as you love yourself.
We are not here to just eat and drink, gather possessions (including knowledge), seek glory, and seek romance. We are here to fast, to practice charity, to practice humility, and to practice chastity.
What greater charity is there than to speak or write the word of salvation, the word of eternal life? What is greater than delivering from death and leading to eternal life?
Do not give rights to the dragon. Repent, confess, and correct yourself of every wrong thought, wrong feeling, wrong word, and wrong work.
Beware of pride, vanity, lust, greed, gluttony, sorrow, lethargy, wrath, and envy.
(Ps. 11:7): “For the Lord is just and He loves justice.”
Observe the rights of an Orthodox Christian. Every Orthodox Christian has the right to believe in Lord Jesus and to obey His will. Observe secular rights. Every citizen has secular rights.
Be always just in food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance.
Be always just and God will be with you. Repent, confess, and correct every injustice you practice.
Do not be devoted to the passions. Be devoted to the virtues.
What are you devoted to? Fasting or overeating? Charity or overpossessing? Humility or pride? Non-glory or vanity? Truth-speaking or lying? Blessing or reviling? Chastity or lust?
Respect your neighbor as yourself. Love your neighbor as yourself.
Study precepts and doctrines not only to learn, but also to practice.
You cannot be devoted to both the virtues and the vices, for the virtues and the vices are mutually exclusive.
Remember the five primary vices: gluttony, love of possessions, vanity, disobedience, and lust. Remember the five secondary vices: pride, wrath, sorrow, lethargy, envy, (despair and suicide).
Repent of your overeating and overdrinking. Repent of your stealing and overpossessing. Repent of you vanity and pride. Repent of your lying, reviling, mocking, and judging. Repent of your disobedience. Repent of your practicing of lust.
Virtue, wisdom, and spiritual gifts are all gifts of God. We receive these gifts when we devote ourselves to God and obey His will.
Devote your mind to God. Devote your heart to God. Devote your body to God. Devote your speech to God. These four devotions make us good, wise, and filled with spiritual gifts.
Be devoted to goodness. Think goodness, speak goodness, and practice goodness. Be completely separated from thinking non-goodness, speaking non-goodness, and practicing non-goodness.
Show respect and love to every person, be they good or bad.
Lord God of my goodness. Lord God of my wisdom. Lord God of my spiritual gifts. Lord God of my salvation.
Keep the opinion of the Orthodox Christian Church. Keep the will of the Orthodox Christian Church.
Test your opinion. Test your will. Never act from an opinion and will untested.
(Ps. 17:28 LXX): “For you will save a people that are humble.”
We must seek therapy of the illnesses of the soul. This therapy is the main pursuit of our life.
Are you a food maniac? Are you a possessions (including knowledge) maniac? Are you a glory maniac? Are you a lust maniac?
Devote your life to virtue, not to wealth, glory, and pleasure.
Be guided by your elders in Christ. (See 1 Peter 5:5).
Wage war against your enemies the fallen angels. It is these enemies that try to create in you every wrong thought, wrong feeling, wrong word, and wrong work.
Think always good thoughts, reject wrong thoughts. Accept always good feelings, reject wrong feelings. Speak always good words, reject wrong words. Practice always good works, reject wrong works.
Guard your mind, reject every wrong thought. Guard your heart, reject every wrong feeling. Guard your speech, reject every wrong word. Guard your eyes, reject every wrong sight. Guard your ears, reject every wrong hearing. Guard your body, reject every wrong work.
Persons devoted to the passions are held in a psychological slavery. Only Lord Jesus, through His apostles the spiritual fathers, can deliver from this psychological slavery. (See John 8:36).
Our whole struggle is against the fallen angels. Their warfare against us is to make us fall into pride and sin, and to separate us from our Creator. We must guard against pride and sin, and seek to return through repentance to our Creator.
We need the help of God in all of our endeavors. (See John 15:5).
Seek to be resurrected from sin. Seek to live a life of gospel virtue. Seek to be cured of the passions. Seek to be delivered from the cunning one and from death.
What sacrifice of atonement will you offer for your sins? The sacrifices are two: the Cross of Lord Jesus and the contrite and humble heart. (See Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Discourse 31).
You must atone for your sins in this life. There is no atonement after death. (See Ps. 6:6).
Everything needs to have canonical measure in its practice. If you do not eat with canonical measure you harm your soul and body. If you do not work with canonical measure you harm your soul and body. Any practice you do without canonical measure, harms your soul and body.
You must eat with canonical measure. Sleep with canonical measure. Possess (material things and knowledge) with canonical measure. Study with canonical measure. Work with canonical measure. Every practice requires canonical measure.
Think good thoughts. Feel good feelings. Speak good words. Practice good works.
Eat with measure. Possess with measure. Read with measure. Work with measure. Practice all things with measure.
Fast, give charity, truth-speak, practice humility, practice chastity, all for your salvation.
Goodness, wisdom, lawfulness, are of God. Evil, folly, unlawfulness, are of the enemy.
The passions of the soul are divided into three types, according to which part of the soul they affect: the thinking part, the desiring part, or the excitable part. The passions of the thinking part are called the blasphemous passions. The passions of the desiring part are called the shameful passions. The passions of the excitable part are called the evil passions. These passions give rise to the corresponding thoughts: blasphemous thoughts, shameful thoughts, or evil thoughts.
Lord Jesus is the Spiritual Moses (See Deut. 18:15), who delivers New Israel from the spiritual Pharaoh, that is, the dragon.
Reject love of pleasure with fasting and continence. Reject love of possessions with charity and logic. Reject love of glory with humility and non-glory.
All leaders of the Orthodox Christian Church must be exemplars of humility, meekness, mercy, and love. All teachers of the Orthodox Christian Church must be practitioners of humility, meekness, mercy, and love.
Prudence rules the excitable part of the soul. Justice rules the desiring part of the soul. Wisdom rules the thinking part of the soul. Courage rules the five senses of the body. (See St. Hesychius, Text 34, Philokalia, Vol. 1).
Consider the three modes of life on earth: the carnal life, the psychical life, and the spiritual life. The carnal life is love of pleasure, love of possessions, and love of glory. The psychical life is love of the body, love of possessions, and love of glory. The spiritual life is continence, charity, and humility.
There are three types of wrong thoughts. Blasphemous or alternatively vain thoughts, shameful thoughts, and evil thoughts. The blasphemous or vain thoughts attack the thinking part of the soul. Shameful thoughts attack the desiring part of the soul. And evil thoughts attack the excitable part of the soul.
We must practice everything according to the measure of our strength and leave the rest to God. God will complete our work by sending us help. Have perfect hope in God.
Be always occupied: pray, meditate, study, work. When you are occupied you have no time to think of wrong thoughts or practice wrong works.
The true life is the life of gospel commandments. The life of light is the life of gospel commandments.
To be a theoretical Christian is easy. To be a practical Christian is not easy. A true Orthodox Christian is he who is a practitioner of the gospel teaching.
Beware of practicing injustice in food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, or romance. Be just always.
We must atone for our every single sin. The atonement is through the mystery of Repentance and Confession. If we do not atone for our sins we must face the judgment of them. Therefore repent, confess, restitute, give charity, correct yourself, practice virtue. All these things and all other penances atone for our sins.
Faith in Lord Jesus and obedience to Lord Jesus lead to deification.
With the grace of Lord Jesus you can be freed from evil, and can practice every virtue. (See Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Discourse 18).
How do you expect to reap when you have not sown? Sow greetings, giving, serving, and loving, and you will reap greetings, giving, serving, and loving. (See Gal. 6:7).
Seek to be free from love of pleasure, love of wealth, and love of glory. Lord Jesus will make you free of these.
Are you a lover of pleasure and pretending to be continent? Are you a lover of wealth and pretending to be charitable? Are you a lover of glory and pretending to be humble?
Observe the economy of your thoughts and feelings. Remember that you will be judged for every single thought and feeling. Remember that you will be judged for every single word and work born of them. Be a useful steward of the economy of your thoughts and feelings. Test your thoughts, test your feelings, and accept only good thoughts and good feelings. (See 1 Thess. 5:21).
The dispassionate live a life of non-wealth, non-glory, and non-pleasure.
The dispassionate are detached from wealth, glory, and pleasure.
The dispassionate are unshaken by material loss, dishonor, or bodily suffering.
Do not cling to evil, for it separates you from God. Renounce evil and return to God. (See Mal. 3:7).
The secular life is the life of love of wealth, love of glory, and love of pleasure. The Orthodox Christian life is the life of frugality, humility, and continence.
Remember the four major pursuits of life: food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance. Be just in these pursuits. Be charitable in these pursuits. Be forgiving in these pursuits. Be holy in these pursuits.
Seek to be useful to the Orthodox Christian Church. Seek to be useful to the secular church. To be useful is necessary. To be useful is the practice of our talents.
The soldiers of the enemy practice love of wealth, love of glory, and love of pleasure. The soldiers of Lord Jesus practice charity, humility, and continence.
There are three ways. Either we believe in Lord Jesus and follow Him, or we do not believe in Lord Jesus and do not follow Him, or we are neutral to Lord Jesus and do not follow Him.
There are three ways: accepting the gospel, rejecting the gospel, and being neutral to the gospel.
Charity cures the love of wealth. Humility cures the love of glory. Continence cures the love of pleasure.
Be honorable. Practice charity. Practice humility. Speak truth, and bless. Practice continence.
True repentance is to cease from the particular sin and to practice henceforth the virtue opposite to it.
The Cross of Lord Jesus is the sacrifice of atonement that abolished all falsehood: Unbelief, false Gods, pride, lawlessness, despair, death, and Hades.
We are called to become married eternally to Lord Jesus. (See Rev. 19:17).
Did you think you could sow falsehood and reap blessing? No. If you sow injustice you reap injustice. (See Gal. 6:7).
Keep the Law of Lord Jesus for your salvation. The Law of Lord Jesus will guide you, and will be what will judge you. (See John 12:48).
(Luke 6:35): “Do good and lend, hoping for nothing in return.”
Practice brothers and sisters, practice!
Let your practice of gospel virtue be a continuous liturgy.
