Comments on: 3rd Week of Pascha – Tuesday. The Bread from Heaven, JOHN 6:27-33

By: seraphimholland

seraphimholland — Wed, 06 May 2009 21:58:22 +0000

Dear Kevin:
May God bless you and help you in all things!
CHRIST IS RISEN!

I want to answer your question: “is there an Orthodox teaching on the effecacy of other denomination’s communion practices?”

Yes, there is. We believe the church is one, and there are no “branches” to it. We believe that God’s grace abides in the church, and outside of the church, it leads to the church. We do not believe there is valid baptism or any other mystery outside of the church. We also do NOT know how God will judge those outside the church.

For us, the church is only the ORTHODOX CHURCH. Outside of her, we do not really know what happens.

By: Kevin Geiger

Kevin Geiger — Wed, 06 May 2009 18:42:09 +0000

Father, Bless!
This is my first time posting, but I wanted to comment on the last line in John 6:60 “Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?” I think this is the crutch of the issue with the Eucharist. It is a hard saying and only those who have ears that can hear will understand and be renewed by the body and blood of the Risen Lord. I am not Orthodox, but I have come to understand over the years that Jesus is serious about what he says. All of the sayings to the people that convict them about the true worship of God, especially the Pharises, are warnings to us too. If Jesus says, “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day,” then we should obey, because it says in John 14:12, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing.” Faith is not without action. I think it is a response in obedience to His Grace and His Word. Also, John 14:15, “If you love me, you will obey what I command,” shows us that we need to listen to the Words of Christ and Obey Him. Father, is there an Orthodox teaching on the effecacy of other denomination’s communion practices? Thank you for your blog. I pray that all who call themselves Christians and follow Christ will have ears that hear and obey what the Lord has commanded.

By: Natalia Arzhantseva

Natalia Arzhantseva — Wed, 06 May 2009 07:41:36 +0000

Father, Bless

Actually in our life we often seek spectacular things. To be impressed people need some “effect”. and take things, done for effect, for real, valuable, true. we don’t want to notice the great in the small. the small seems to us meaningless & casual. being casual & plain, we refuse to notice casuality. the higher we become in spirit, the more a person achieves in terms of divine, the more attentive he becomes to “trivial” details – as from these trifles our life is composed, like a house is built from stones. The house of our souls will not be built if it exists only in our imagination. if we do not pay attention to each stone it should be built from, if we do not start our construction works timely, the building will not be built at all, or only partly, and we risk of not managing to finish it in time. we think over finishing works, trimming, decoration – without having the building at all, without having layed the foundation. imaginary house, imaginary world – this is what we can achieve, spending our life looking for big deeds & miracles, losing our salvation. For the small God gives us the great. Our Lord shows us the way of life, that pure heart, humility, a person’s inner inclination determine our Christian life, which, in fact, as you say, simple. and if our casual life, which seems to us so trivial & monotonous, is led with all this, but not with searching for effectiveness & dreams of “hight spiritual achievements” (planned to be started on the forthcoming Monday:-)) it will lead to Christ’s height, and we’ll start noticing the brilliants in the earth, start paying attention to trifles, each of what opens the door to Eternity if we use it for our own salvation, to understanding that it is one of the precious stones which we can use for the construction, and how it should be used.