Overcoming Slavery to the Passions as Typified in the Prophet Elijah (St. Maximus the Confessor)

By St. Maximus the Confessor

(On the Lord's Prayer)

It is our aim to make the nous stand alone, stripped through the virtues of its affection for the body; for this affection, even when totally dispassionate, is still natural. The spirit, completely triumphing over nature, has to persuade the nous to desist from moral philosophy in order to commune with the supra-essential Logos through direct and undivided contemplation, in spite of the fact that moral philosophy helps the nous to cut itself off from, and to go beyond, things pertaining to the flux of time. For when the nous has become free from its attachment to sensible objects, it should not be burdened any longer with preoccupations about morality as with a shaggy cloak.

Who Is A Saint? (Fr. John Romanides)

By Protopresbyter Fr. John Romanides

The distinction between Saints and Fathers does not exist in the Fathers. For the Fathers of the Church, the Saints are Fathers and the Fathers are Saints.

Are those who have arrived at glorification and become saints a reality or are they not a reality? That is the fundamental issue.

The current perception is that if someone is a good human being, law-abiding and so on, then he is a good Christian and a prospective saint. In that case, all our grandmothers and grandfathers are prospective saints, according to the criteria of the moralists. Someone with a moralistic perception of sanctity might see things this way.

Purification, Illumination and Glorification Are EVERYTHING in Orthodoxy (2 of 3)

...continued from part one.

By Protopresbyter Fr. John Romanides

Definition of Illumination

What is illumination? Essentially, illumination is not illumination of the rational faculty. Of course there is illumination of the rational faculty: one prays, goes to church, fasts. One orientates the rational faculty towards doing the right thing: liberating slaves, helping the poor, going voluntarily to give blood, all those sorts of things.

To the Fathers, illumination is not the enlightenment of the rational faculty, but of the heart. There is the purification of the heart, then the illumination of the heart, which is not a rational enlightenment but a spiritual enlightenment - this is illumination. This is the cure. The illness is when the nous is darkened and the cure is when the nous is illumined.

Purification, Illumination and Glorification Are EVERYTHING in Orthodoxy (1 of 3)

By Protopresbyter Fr. John Romanides

The basis of Orthodoxy is the same as the methodology used in the positive sciences, and this fact needs to be properly evaluated and accurately identified. It should become a focus of interest for Orthodox Christians, as it deserves to be.

Why do we have our liturgical tradition? The liturgical tradition is an expression of none other than the tradition of purification, illumination and glorification. Take all the services: Vespers, Matins, the Divine Liturgy, the services of Baptism and Chrismation, the service for blessing of the Chrism performed by the bishops on Holy Thursday, monastic profession, marriage - all are about purification, illumination and glorification.

Religion and Life

By Professor Panagiotis Asimakopoulos

In school we learned that the word "and" connects similar things. Wrong!

Usually people use it to reveal dichotomies which they strive to balance.

"You and I," "body and soul," "God and man."

As a child I remember people asking to choose between two things: Religion or life? They would "help" make the choice as follows:

"Do you laugh? Do you go out? Do you wear make-up? Do you listen to music? Do you dress this way? Do you depart from what is acceptable? Then you are not a good Christian. God does not love you. You sadden God. God is angry. Therefore, choose."