Freedom
“But Holy Scripture speaks sufficiently simply—it speaks about how man accepted evil…, accepted evil according to his freedom, which God had given to him. God did not limit man’s freedom, but where there is choice there is always freedom, and if there is no choice, there is no freedom. Man according to his own personal freedom, as we see, in violation of the family hierarchy, transgresses God’s commandment, goes outside of God’s commandments…The limits of freedom really were
Bible/Scripture
“You can know life only through life itself. In other words, the practical application of the Scriptures builds up our relationship with God. We learn from the Bible about Christian life and find the basis for deep faith, because, So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Rom. 10:17).” (Priest Anthony Rusakevich) “St. John of Damascus’s remark: Let us draw from the fountain of this garden [the Scriptures] perennial and purest waters springing into life
Passing Judgment
“…we often lightly pronounce sentence and form an idea about someone based upon… not even the knowledge of different facts of his biography, but much more often upon hearsay, conjecture, and our own opinions supported by nothing, yet influencing us so powerfully that we consider our opinions the sole and precise truth about one or another person. But this is not at all correct—not in 99 cases out of 100, but in all 100 cases. Therefore, if we speak about a negative, disagreea
Condemnation
“If we look inside ourselves and try to see our tendencies, we will easily notice that we already have a developed habit of condemning...
Salvation
“…Chrysostom understands original sin not in terms of inherited or personal guilt but in terms of an inherited mortality that causes...
God's Will vs Self Will
“…sin lies in the direction of the will…A person sins when he looks upon his life as if it belonged only to him…It is necessary for...
Anger
“If a man were to see himself in a mirror in a fit of anger, of rage, he’d be horrified and wouldn’t recognize himself with such a...
Repentance
“What were God’s first words, having become man, in His peaching? ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!’ There are no hopeless...
Providence
“All good things come from God providentially, and those who bring them are the servants of what is good.” (St. Mark the Ascetic) “We do...
Love and Worth
“…views modern man as an ‘achievement-subject’ where personal identity and self-worth is not related to relationships, duties, spiritual...