http://orthodox.net/redeemingthetime/2009/06/06/lovest-thou-me/ McKinney TX Homilies, scripture commentary, spiritual reflections Tue, 21 May 2013 19:41:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://orthodox.net/redeemingthetime/2009/06/06/lovest-thou-me/comment-page-1/#comment-1932 Natalia Arzhantseva Sun, 07 Jun 2009 14:28:47 +0000 http://orthodox.net/redeemingthetime/?p=926#comment-1932 "meekness is that a Christian accepts everything in that happened to him as the will of God, with thankfulness and hope". Father, such a nice conception! I also admire how the holy people regard the notion "humility". The Holy Hierarch Ignaty (Brianchaninov) descrobes it is when a person admits himself worthy of the circumstances where he is at present, and takes them as God's will about him. Of course, with gratitute & no grudging & complaining. This state of mind is possible when a person's will corresponds (at least in majority of cases & situations) with God's will, which is totally impossible until the person abolishes his own will. As the contradiction of these 2 wills creates problems, frustration, despair in us. When a person achieves humility a bundle of problems & unhappiness go away automatically. When I came to the church & read about the Angels, I always admired the way they exist: on the one hand they are servant spirits, and what they do is only accomplishing God's will, going here & there, but they always do it willingly, it never occurs to them that it all can be differently. This is what I, sincerely, envied much...and this is love for God, and it reveals their readiness to fulfill His commandments, as they know for sure - they are all just, lead to good & directed for salvation. This is absolute & true faith, where only God's will & His Truth (the single one which is true) are happening. The more glory people deserve, like the holy fathers, as for them the process is much more complicated - they need to fight theit human corrupted nature first to be able to join the holiness & obtain wisdom to comprehend & accomplish God's will. In reality we have an enormously wide choice of cases to reveal our readiness to realize what God wants from us, i.e.these circumstances we are placed & what they contain, but we are reluctant. It seems to us boring, routine & uninteresting. As our surroundings & people who are near to us are not "effective" enough for us. We often look for some other tasks & fields to have a hand in, something more remarkable & grandiose, averting from the very simple but so boring things which actually our God gave us as a wide field of our Christian activity, to each one according to his spiritual measure. And we, not having done the obligatory, dare for the supplementary, extraordinary, effective. And usually suffer the defeat, as these tendencies have the routes in our pride & selfishness. It often occurs in our practical life that it is much more difficult to go somewhere unwillingly, even in simple situations, which do not require enormous effort from us, than do extremely brave or ascetic things - as they are done according to our will, not by God's or spiritual father's blessing. I personally can remember a great number of such situations in my life. “meekness is that a Christian accepts everything in that happened to him as the will of God, with thankfulness and hope”. Father, such a nice conception! I also admire how the holy people regard the notion “humility”. The Holy Hierarch Ignaty (Brianchaninov) descrobes it is when a person admits himself worthy of the circumstances where he is at present, and takes them as God’s will about him. Of course, with gratitute & no grudging & complaining. This state of mind is possible when a person’s will corresponds (at least in majority of cases & situations) with God’s will, which is totally impossible until the person abolishes his own will. As the contradiction of these 2 wills creates problems, frustration, despair in us. When a person achieves humility a bundle of problems & unhappiness go away automatically. When I came to the church & read about the Angels, I always admired the way they exist: on the one hand they are servant spirits, and what they do is only accomplishing God’s will, going here & there, but they always do it willingly, it never occurs to them that it all can be differently. This is what I, sincerely, envied much…and this is love for God, and it reveals their readiness to fulfill His commandments, as they know for sure – they are all just, lead to good & directed for salvation. This is absolute & true faith, where only God’s will & His Truth (the single one which is true) are happening. The more glory people deserve, like the holy fathers, as for them the process is much more complicated – they need to fight theit human corrupted nature first to be able to join the holiness & obtain wisdom to comprehend & accomplish God’s will. In reality we have an enormously wide choice of cases to reveal our readiness to realize what God wants from us, i.e.these circumstances we are placed & what they contain, but we are reluctant. It seems to us boring, routine & uninteresting. As our surroundings & people who are near to us are not “effective” enough for us. We often look for some other tasks & fields to have a hand in, something more remarkable & grandiose, averting from the very simple but so boring things which actually our God gave us as a wide field of our Christian activity, to each one according to his spiritual measure. And we, not having done the obligatory, dare for the supplementary, extraordinary, effective. And usually suffer the defeat, as these tendencies have the routes in our pride & selfishness. It often occurs in our practical life that it is much more difficult to go somewhere unwillingly, even in simple situations, which do not require enormous effort from us, than do extremely brave or ascetic things – as they are done according to our will, not by God’s or spiritual father’s blessing. I personally can remember a great number of such situations in my life.

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