"The enemy knows that prayer is our invisible weapon against him, and so he tries to keep us from praying. He fills us with a desire for secular learning, and encourages us to spend our time on studies that we have already renounced. Let us resist his suggestions; otherwise, if we neglect our own fields and go wandering elsewhere, we shall harvest thorns and thistles instead of figs and grapes. 'For the wisdom of this world is folly in God's sight' (1 Corinthians 3:19)." (St. John of Karpathos, an excerpt from Texts for the Monks in India in The Philolaklia, Volume 1, p. 301.) #StJohnofKarpathos #prayer #Evil #SacredScripture

We are called to union with God and the only way to do this is through silence, stillness, and unceasing prayer. Psalm 50 (51) is a beautiful prayer of repentance and hope that can be recited each day: morning, noon, or night. Psalm 50 (51) was written by the Prophet King David after he acknowledged and confessed his sin before the Prophet Nathan (2 Samuel 12), which involved adultery with Bathsheba and the murdering of her husband Uriah. Thus, it is the prayer of a terribly sinful person...like everyone one of us. And like the Prophet David, when we choose to pray it, we are telling God, 'I know I am not worthy of your love, sacrifice, and mercy, but if I repeatedly give my heart to you, you will make me new again. And I will learn to love you more than anything in this world and grow closer to you everyday.' This is the same type of reason that priests and deacons recite Psalm 50 (51) it in its entirety at Divine Liturgy (first, prior to the start of Divine Liturgy the Deacon says it quietly as he senses the Holy Offering [the bread and wine], the sanctuary, the whole church, and the altar; and second, the priest recites it quietly during the Cherubic Hymn when he censes the altar, the sanctuary, and the people, just before the Great Entrance [when the gifts of bread and wine are shown to the people and brought back onto the altar]) and during the various cycles of prayer each day [Third Hour and Compline in particular]). In addition to being a prayer of profound repentance, it is also a prayer of hope. We are reminded that God loves us, shows us His mercy, and invites us into union with Him in our lives now and for all eternity. So, let us pray for each other today, that each day we have the strength, courage, and pleasure to pray: Psalm 50 (51) [1] Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy steadfast love; according to thy abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. [2] Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! [3] For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. [4] Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in thy sight, so that thou art justified in thy sentence and blameless in thy judgment. [5] Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. [6] Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. [7] Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. [8] Fill me with joy and gladness; let the bones which thou hast broken rejoice. [9] Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. [10] Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. [11] Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. [12] Restore to me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. [13] Then I will teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners will return to thee. [14] Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of thy deliverance. [15] O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. [16] For thou hast no delight in sacrifice; were I to give a burnt offering, thou wouldst not be pleased. [17] The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. [18] Do good to Zion in thy good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, [19] then wilt thou delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on thy altar. #SacredScripture #continualprayer

"If you are disheartened, pray, as the Apostle says (cf. James 5:13). Pray with fear, trembling, effort, with inner watchfulness and vigilance. To pray in this manner is especially necessary because the enemies are so milignant. For it is just when they see us at prayer that they come and stand beside us, ready to attack, suggesting to our intellect the very things we should not think about when praying; in this way they try to take our intellect captive and ot make our prayer and supplication vain and useless. For prayer is truly vain and useless when not performed with fear and trembling, with inner watchfulness and vigilance. When someone approaches an earthly king, he entreats him with fear, trembling and attention; so much the more, then, we should stand and pray in this manner before God the Father, the Master of all, and before Christ the King of Kings. For it is He whom the whole spiritual host and the choir of angels serve with fear and glorify with trembling; and they sing in unceasing praise to Him, together with the Father who has no origin, and with the all-holy and coeternal Spirit, now and ever through all the ages. Amen. (Evagrios the Solitary, an excerpt from On Asceticism and Stillness in the Philokalia, Volume 1, p. 37). #EvagriostheSolitary #prayer #evil

When we think of intercessory prayer, we normally think of it as praying for someone in dire need, which usually means praying for someone who is facing a difficult decision, seriously ill, or someone who has already died. These are good and common reasons to pray a prayer of intercession, but there’s an even more frequent need that often gets overlooked: to help people against the enemies of the Lord and those who stop us from living a life of faith and prayer. Think about it like this. Christ had enemies. From the time He was born, Jesus was hunted by kings, zealots, temple politicians, and one of His own apostles. Demons took their best shot too. In the Synoptic Gospels the devil himself stalked Jesus for forty days. “The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to him” (Mark 1:12-13; cf Matthew 4:1-10 and Luke 4:1-3). The Church has enemies. From its Eucharistic conception at the Last Supper and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to the Holy Fathers who have taught the Church and the mystics who have prayed for it, we have witnessed the work of the eternal enemy breeding contempt for that which is holy and inciting the persecution of millions of Christians through the ages. But it doesn’t stop there. Every single one of us who personally claims Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior of mankind, and believes that the Church is a foretaste of the kingdom that is to come, has enemies too. When we think of enemies of the personal kind, it’s still easy to think about those of the macro type too. We can imagine government suppression of the faith and serious cultural persecution. We can even imagine the millions of modern martyrs. What we don’t think about enough, however, is the idea that there are those around us – even family, friends, and fellow churchgoers – who become our spiritual enemies when they don’t respect or support our need and desire for deeper prayer and a little bit more asceticism. We have an even harder time thinking of ourselves as people who become the enemy of prayer, reflection, study, and a more steadfast commitment to Christ and our Church. Knowing that the evil one is constantly lurking in the shadows, recruiting the next willing Judas who will seek to betray any one of us individually, the Church as a whole, or the very leadership which God has ordained for us, ask yourself this: am I aware of the forces around me keeping me from a life of prayer? Am I aware of those forces that surround the Church, seeking to dismantle it? Am I aware of how I stop others from growing in the Lord? Let us pray together as King David did: “O LORD, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of me, there is no help for him in God. But thou, O Lord, art a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. I cry aloud to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy hill. I lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the Lord sustains me. I am not afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me round about. Arise, O Lord! Deliver me, O my God! For thou dost smite all my enemies on the cheek, thou dost break the teeth of the wicked. Deliverance belongs to the Lord; thy blessing be upon thy people” (Psalm 3). #SacredScripture #persecution #continualprayer #Conversion

Despite her all-too-human experiences of fear, confusion, and unworthiness, Mary gave of herself fully and completely to God; so much so that she is literally the first person in the history of humanity to truly and profoundly receive the Messiah. What makes her “yes” so much more intense is that Mary not only agreed to bear Jesus Christ in her heart in a spiritual sense, but also agreed to physically bear Him in her womb. Imagine that. Meditate on it. Mary so loved God that she willingly faced the scorn of her contemporaries – even her family and fiancé – in order to become the complete servant of God. The first chapter of the Gospel According to St. Luke bears out this truth (emphasis added): "In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, ‘Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you!’ But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered in her mind what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ And Mary said to the angel, ‘How shall this be, since I have no husband?’ And the angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.’ And Mary said, ‘Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.’ And the angel departed from her” (Luke 1:26-38). Think about it this way: have you ever considered the possibility that God may have asked another woman to bear Christ in her womb? While ultimately this question does not matter, it does give us a valuable opportunity to consider whether another woman may have ignored, dismissed, or rejected this particular call of God in her life. Contra positively, this question also gives us an opportunity to consider the enormity of Mary’s “yes.” Without knowing anything about how her family or husband-to-be would respond, without knowing anything about what the future would hold, Mary agreed to be the Mother of God (the word for this in Greek is Theotokos, which is literally “God-bearer”). By offering herself as the handmaid of God in such a deeply profound manner, Mary became, quite simply, the most important purely-human being to walk the face of the earth. That is why she is first among the saints, and why she is the model for every man, woman, and child across the planet. Will you finally believe that nothing is impossible with God? Will you decide to become the handmaid of the Lord? Will you finally decide to let it be done to you according to His word? Let us pray for each other so that we may all decide to live our lives in this way. #Theotokos #love #SacredScripture #meditation

Have you ever thought about what it really means to be converted? When I ask this question I am neither thinking of the complexities of transferring from one religion or denomination to another, nor am I thinking of the specifics of changing your mind about some aspect of faith. My question really is centered on whether you have ever considered what it means to be truly and deeply changed so that you live your life fully and completely for God. And when I say “fully and completely for God” I am thinking about the total transformation of body, mind, heart and spirit. Perhaps the best-known story of conversion appears in the Acts of the Apostles 22:6-11. While it is essential we understand how God revealed Himself to Saul with a great light and a loud voice, it is equally important to understand what Paul did as a result of God’s intervention. "And when I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me, and came into Damascus. And one Anani'as, a devout man according to the law, well-spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, came to me, and standing by me said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight.’ And in that very hour I received my sight and saw him. And he said, ‘The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the Just One and to hear a voice from his mouth; for you will be a witness for him to all men of what you have seen and heard. And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on his name’" (Acts 22:11-16). Notice what is happening here: (1) Paul is blinded by God so that he could see by faith and not by sight, (2) Paul had to rely on others to get where he needed to be, (3) Paul sought spiritual direction (with Anani’as), (4) Paul was physically healed (also by Anani’as), and (5) Paul did not delay, he was baptized and began his life’s work in the name of Jesus Christ. In other words, Paul's allowed himself to be converted by God in body, mind, heart, and spirit. It was a total transformation. So ask yourself: do I watch for God’s light and listen to His voice? Do I pay attention to how God is converting me? Am I willing to give myself over to the changes he asks me to make? Am I willing to risk everything, even my economic and social standing, to live as God intended? Do I help others do the same? Let us pray for each other so that we may all decide to live our lives in this way. #SacredScripture #StPaul #Conversion

In the eleventh chapter of the Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew we not only read where Jesus confirms for John the Baptist that He is the One for whom the way was being prepared, but also we hear Jesus speak of violence being done to the kingdom of heaven. "Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and men of violence take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John; and if you are willing to accept it, he is Eli’jah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear" (Mt 11:11-15). To hear Jesus speaking about the kingdom of heaven suffering violence and how the violent take heaven by force is not merely clouded language, it is a rather significant and (quite frankly) jarring statement about the relationship man should have with God. What does this mean? Through the centuries there are those who claim that the violence committed against heaven refers to the strident opposition to Jesus and the Gospel. Others claim that the violence against heaven refers to how the kingdom of heaven broke into the world with great power and force. There are still others who claim that the reference to the kingdom of heaven is about God Himself, who came into the world during the time of John the Baptist and who will suffer the violence of the cross. These are all excellent explanations, of course, which in and of themselves could cause us to reflect quite deeply on our relationship to God. But there is an even more important aspect of this passage, which is mentioned in a commentary by St. John Chrysostom. The violent in this passage refer to the faithful. In other words, there are those among us who have such a deep and abiding faith that they refuse to allow anything to take them away from not only the call of the Lord, but also the Lord Himself. Think about that. There are those in this world – past, present, and future – who will battle with everyone and everything in order to fix their gaze and all of their activity on God. Contrapositively, these same people are so in love with God that they incessantly pound on the door of heaven so that they can be as close to God in this life as humanly possible. Are you one of those people? Will you decide to take heaven by force? Will you finally decide to become one of the violent pounding on the door of heaven? Are you willing to take on the violence the world has for those who place God’s will above all other things? Let us pray for each other so that we may all decide to live our lives in this way. #SacredScripture #StJohnChrysostom #persecution #prayer

Our world is not too different than the world of the first century. Then, as now, people agonized over the powerful forces impacting their lives. Then, as now, people fretted about work. Then, as now, people worried about money. Then, as now, people fussed over what others thought of them. But then, as now, there were those who broke free from this view of the world in order to hear, to see, to know, and to follow something that was so radically different from anything else around them, that it struck bewilderment, fear, and even anger among their contemporaries. The truth is that the journey of the wise men from The Gospel According to St. Matthew is no different than the journey each of us must make in the world today. Think about it this way: have you ever really considered who these people were who came from the East? Sacred Scripture doesn’t tell us much, but what it does say supports an almost 2,000 year-old tradition that these three wise men or kings or scholars were important in their time and place. They were learned for sure; they were quite probably wealthy, and they were most likely respected. But here’s the thing: that doesn’t seem to have been enough for them. Despite what they had in their possession, they risked everything in their lives to seek the Christ, the Messiah. "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him.’ When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born […] Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star appeared; and he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.’ When they had heard the king they went their way; and lo, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy; and going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way" (Mt 2:1-12). Regardless of the personal cost to each of them individually or to all of them as a group, they willingly gave up every kind of worldly power and comfort to seek the one thing – or the one person – that would give them abiding joy and eternal peace: Jesus Christ. And the truth is: each one of us must face the same decision. That is, once the Holy Spirit has granted the gift of faith, there is no avoiding the question of what it means to give up the world and follow Christ with all of our body, soul, and spirit. The time has come to take seriously, albeit joyfully, the need to slow down, to find a place of silence, to meditate on God, and to reaffirm our desire to forsake the promises of this world in order to follow Christ now and for all eternity. #silence #humility

There is only one question in all of human history that every single person has to answer: “But who do you say that I am?” No matter who you are or where you came from, this is the only question that matters because it defines the universe. It defines the lives of every single human being who has walked in the kingdom of man. And it defines the eternity of every single life that has crossed into the kingdom of heaven. This question posed by Jesus to His disciples in Matthew 16:15 (which is also recorded in Mark 8:29 and Luke 9:20) is now posed to you: Who do you say that He is? And what do you tell others about Him? Do you say that He was one of the prophets? Do you say that He was a moral leader? Or are you able to answer as Peter did: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God” (Matthew 16:16). Now, more than ever, we live in a world of crippling disbelief. We not only live among those who reject God altogether, but those who do not understand what they profess about God. Even for those of us who know and believe in Him, the horror of our sins and the sad state of our all-too-human forgetfulness are before us always. That is why we need a time of authentic renewal; a time filled with deep, quiet prayer; a time saturated with solemn study; a time given to specific works of charity; a time that helps us to focus on what means to say “I believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” #prayer #silence #scripture

We who have faith are stalked by the devil and in constant danger of being devoured by him. Let us make no mistake about this: evil is real and it is personified not only in the great adversary himself, but also in the various people and situations that cause us to doubt our faith and to despair over what it requires of us every day. St. Peter teaches us this in his first epistle: “Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). The image of a lion stalking his prey is not only a strong metaphor for how the devil lusts after our body and spirit, but also a powerful reflection on what it means to be his prey. The fact is: we wake up every day with the devil breathing down our necks and his minions seeking every opportunity to cause us doubt and to weaken our resolve. Thus, it is our job to persevere in seeking union with God. “Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world” (1 Peter 5:9). The good news is that each of us is not alone in this struggle. In fact, we know that all believers face the same attacks that we do on a daily basis. The proof for this can be found the world over. But the matter is even more personal than that. If we truly carry the faith, we will suffer for it in the ‘everyday moments’ of life, even at the hands of those who claim to have faith as well. I realize that it is not popular to talk of the devil, especially in such stark terms. But we must be clear about what we’re dealing with here. After we are given the gift of faith, begin to worship the one God, and recognize that He alone protects and provides against the daily assault of evil, only then will we come to know that Christ alone will restore the image of God to all of us who accept His offer of transfiguration. This is what is meant by St. Peter when he continued: “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish, and strengthen you” (1 Peter 5:8-10). So why is this so important to us? We must live the actions that mark those who have faith: (1) praying, (2) participating in the Holy Mysteries (Sacraments), (3) embracing the gifts of the Holy Spirit who transfigures us in Christ (which includes battling against the devil), and (4) evangelizing. As it is written in Mark 16:14-18 (emphasis mine): “[…] he upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. And he said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover’.” Therefore, in these evil times, let us pray for one another that we may truly live by our faith in the Most Holy Trinity. #SacredScripture #Faith #obedience #continualprayer

With all of the fervent discussion in recent years about the veracity of certain theological movements, the connections between prayer and social action, and the fear of the impact of modern culture on the life of the believer, we seem to have forgotten that our first and most important act of faith is worshipping the One, True God. What does this mean? In the fourth chapter of the Holy Gospel According to St. John, Jesus explains to the Samaritan woman that “the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him” (John 4:23). The story behind this passage is a familiar one to most of us. Jesus had left Judea for Galilee, stopping in Samaria to drink from a well where he met a woman with five ex-husbands who was living with a sixth man. Because Jesus had known this about her, the Samaritan woman said she believed Jesus was a prophet and asked Him about the proper place for worship. What comes next is instructive and interesting. Jesus responds first by telling her that a time is coming when people would not worship on the mountain or in Jerusalem. Instead, He tells her in verse 23, that people will focus on the one who is to be worshipped, which is the true God. He also explains that these people will worship in “spirit and truth,” which means 'in the Holy Spirit' according to Christ’s revelation. This seems straightforward, especially when you consider that most scholars say that the meaning of this passage is that God cannot be confined to a particular location. But those of us who have faith recognize that there’s more to it than that. In verse 23, Jesus says “true worshippers will worship” (ἀληθινοὶ προσκυνηταὶ προσκυνήσουσιν). The Greek word ἀληθινοὶ (true) clearly depicts a “true” worshipper as someone who authentically believes what he says he believes. In other words, the true believer is someone who is organically connecting the exterior act of worship with an interior belief instilled in him by God. Additionally, the Greek words προσκυνηταὶ προσκυνήσουσιν (worshippers will worship) imply that a true “worshipper” is someone who offers proper reverence. In other words, the true worshipper will literally and figuratively fall to his knees to kiss the ground before God. So why is all of this important? As much as it seems that modern commentary on Christianity has lulled the world into a false sense of complacency about God based on the 'Jesus-is-our-friend-and-brother' narrative, we must always be reminded that God is God and is therefore to be worshipped first and foremost. It is also important to be reminded that buried deep within the respect that is offered and received through our various acts of obeisance – there is an even deeper and more profound love that is exchanged between a people and their God. Thus, by actually worshipping God, we are reminded that we were created, redeemed, and sanctified by a God who “so loved the world that he gave his only Son, [and] that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Today is not an untimely day to think about giving God our utmost reverence and our deepest, most truthful commitment to Him and the faith He has instilled in us. #humility #SacredScripture #prayer #Worship

Holiness is not merely faith, it is not merely virtuous behavior, it is not merely serving others, and it is not merely acts of piety. Holiness at its core is the belief that we were made to share in the life of the Holy Trinity coupled with the desire and the determination to act in such a way that draws us ever closer to the God who loves us and desires our full return to Him. This is precisely what Jesus modeled for us in the Garden of Gethsemane. “Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, ‘Sit here while I go and pray over there’. And He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, ‘My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me’. He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, ‘O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will’" (Matthew 26:36-39). Despite the perfect holiness that existed in His divine nature and divine will – meaning that, as the Second Person of the All-Holy Trinity, Jesus was the both the architect and the living reality of the plan that He, God, had set forth for the world – Jesus also experienced the agonizing vicissitudes of a human nature and human will. In other words, even though Jesus was God, He was also a man who felt the crippling weight of the divine plan that had been foisted upon His shoulders. Consider how this unfolds in the passage from Matthew. First, Jesus prayed. His human nature and human will still had to be nourished by His Father in heaven. Second, Jesus asked for the company of His closest friends. Since He was in such a sorrowful state over what awaited Him, He asked for company so as not to be totally alone. Third, Jesus felt the weight of His suffering so deeply that it felt like death. His fear and torment even caused Him to fall on His face. Fourth, Jesus begged His Father to alleviate from Him the suffering that was coming. His words, filled with anxiousness and distress, were a final grasp at the false hope that some other path might be taken. Fifth, and finally, He relented and gave Himself over to the plan of God. When considering this course of events most of us can relate to the need for prayer, to the need for close family and friends in our darkest hours, to the kind of suffering that can form a shroud over our whole life, and to prayers that beg for the alleviation of the weight of sin and pain. But what separates us from Jesus was His absolute and personal commitment to following the will of God…even to the point of death. Remember: this chain of events in the Gospel of Matthew does not arise from Christ as God, but from Jesus as human. This is vitally important because not only do we witness Jesus willingly cross into the tomb of death, but also because it forces us to ask the ultimate question: “Will I follow Him into the grave?” Sadly, it is increasingly difficult to ask such a question of ourselves, let alone anyone else, because it simultaneously forces us to ask what it means to be truly good…what it means to be holy. The impenetrability of doing so, of course, is derived from a modern American culture that is increasingly antagonistic toward belief in God, toward religion, toward Christianity in general and certainly toward Orthodoxy in particular. Making matters worse, are the efforts of an increasingly progressive, increasingly modernist wing of Christianity where holiness-as-union-with-God is being replaced with holiness-as-human-action. That means we must bring to people our desire and work toward holiness – our deepest commitment to following the will of God throughout our lives. Starting with ourselves, our families and friends, our co-workers and then to those strangers who cross our paths, we must show that our very own prayers are transforming our lives. We must show them that we are the transfigured humanity of which Jesus spoke. To do this, our public prayer and our personal prayer must exude long after we have left our Churches, chapels and prayer corners. In other words, before people even view our charity toward others they must encounter a deep sense of worship in us, an attitude of prayer that never subsides and a countenance that transverses the natural and the supernatural. “God wants us to become like the angels. The angels only glorify God. This is their prayer, glorification of God and nothing else. The glorification of God is a very subtle matter; it eludes human criteria. We are very material and earth-bound, and for that reason we pray to God in a self-interested manner. We ask Him to order our affairs, to help our businesses do well, to protect our health and to safeguard our children. But we pray in a human way and with self-interest. Doxology is prayer without self-interest. The angels do not pray in order to receive something; they are selfless. God also gave to us the possibility for our prayer to be an unending doxology, an angelic prayer. This is where the great secret lies. When we enter in this prayer, we will glorify God continually, leaving everything to Him…" (Wounded by Love: The Life and the Wisdom of Elder Porphyrios, p.133). When we glorify God continually and when we leave everything to His will – this, of course, is true holiness – but it is also the nature of the agony that Jesus felt in the Garden. #prayer #ElderPorphyrios #scripture #theosis #meditation