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May 7, 2021

Reflection for Bright Friday (St. Theophan the Recluse)


By St. Theophan the Recluse
 
There are certain individuals whom the holy fathers praise for their Christian lives, for they rose from the dead before the general resurrection. What is the secret of such a life? They mastered the characteristic features of a life according to the resurrection as they are shown in the word of God, and made them their own inner properties. The future life is devoid of all that is fleshly: there men neither marry, nor are women given in marriage, there they will not eat dead food, and they will receive a spiritual body. Thus, whoever lives estranged from all fleshly things receives in himself, or returns to himself, elements of the future life according to the resurrection. Reach the point that all fleshly things within you die, and you will be resurrected before the future resurrection. The apostle indicates the path to this when he says: "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16). And he attests that through this path it is surely possible to attain what is awaited: "He that soweth to the Spirit," he says, "shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting" (Gal. 6:8).