Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed? Is it not to be set on a lampstand? This account is for posterity.
Joined January 2023
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Public debates require a good memory, quick thinking, and the ability to express oneself clearly. These are gifts God has given to some. I know I’m not gifted in these areas, so I’m content to express my thoughts through writing, where I have more time to think and reflect.
When an atheist challenges me to prove God's existence, I point them to Jesus. This is often met with silence. Further questions opens the way for me to speak about Christ, His teachings, His miracles, His death and Resurrection.
A parish priest once advised a layman struggling with lustful thoughts to turn his attention to an icon of the Theotokos holding the young Christ. He was to fix his mind on this holy image, redirecting his thoughts toward Christ and His most pure Mother. 🧵
The icon gives the mind something holy to contemplate in place of the images that tempt it to sin. This is not magic, but an aid to watchfulness, prayer, and the purification of the mind.
The Orthodox Church does not develop divine revelation as though its content were progressively evolving throughout history. Rather, the fullness of revelation has been given in Jesus Christ and transmitted through the Apostles.
The terminology may become more precise, theological distinctions more explicit, and conciliar definitions more developed, but the truth confessed remains the same.
A warning for us all.
What St. Paisios said about television is even truer of the content forced into our feeds.
“Not interested” and mute still work. For now. Use them.
If even an 84-year-old can still be stirred by passion, how much more for us?
The Influence of Television
From the book: Lives and Teachings of Contemporary Elders Spiritual Pearls - St. Paisios the Athonite, Guard Your Soul! Conversations with Elder Paisios of Mount Athos on Salvation in the Modern World, 3rd Serbian edition, edited by Jovan Srbulj (Belgrade, 2006). Online edition: Svetosavlje.org (2009).
Intellectual agreement with dogmatic formulas is merely the threshold of the spiritual life; true growth requires the long, painful work of purifying the heart (nous).
By replacing the quiet discipline with the relentless noise of the digital public square, the contemporary convert risks mistaking an obsession with the culture of Orthodoxy for the living experience of Christ, ultimately stunting the very transformation they sought.