“And here is the crucial point: we begin with God as Being, Truth, Goodness, Beauty. The words and concepts only have meaning when grounded in such a way. We do not take our own minds to be the center of all things – we are relative and contingent. It is why atheism seemed so perverse to the ancients. To deny the existence of God was to deny these things as well. The identity of God could be debated (“by what name shall we call Him”). However, the notion of a self-existing universe was beyond consideration. There was enough logical consistency to hold such an idea at bay.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“The mind feeds the soul, and whatever good or bad thing it sees or hears it passes on to the heart, which is the center of the spiritual and physical powers of man…the heart is the center of our true self. It is the center of good or vanity, affection and coldness, mercy and hardness, wisdom and folly, reason and confusion.” (Elder Joseph the Hesychast, Orthodox Study Bible, Ecclesiastes 2:1-3)
“Our Savior guards us against the false idea that we can locate the kingdom of God here or there. It is in the depths of the heart, implanted in the center of our being. Until the Lord returns to earth and His kingdom is revealed like “lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part” (Luke 17:24), we do not look anywhere else, expect anything else, or go to a specific place or location. The truth our Lord reveals lies within every one of us. We need only listen to Him.” (Dynamis 11/23/2020)
“...prayer ought to be the center of our lives – be we clergy or laity in our search for spirituality – union with God…We need to pray continuously. It isn’t enough to pray from time to time, only when we need something from God; we should be always praying morning, evening, and over the course of the day and our entire life. And at the center of our prayer shouldn’t be anything specific that we’re asking for from God, but God Himself, because the main content of prayer is always our encounter with God, the possibility of discovering Him for ourselves.” (Bishop John of Amorion, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev)
“Sin wreaks disorder within our hearts and souls (Romans 1:28). Our thinking becomes futile, our spirit darkened (vs. 21) in the center of our being (the nous). We become debased deep within ourselves, instead of enjoying communion with God as He intends (vs. 28). We thus “[exchange] the truth of God for the lie” (vs. 25) and serve the creature rather than the Creator (vss. 23, 25). Idolatry – an obsession with things – and perversion follow in our hearts (vss. 22-27)… “When we stop worrying about smartphones just in terms of content (what we’re looking at) and start to consider the rituals that tether us to them throughout the day, we’ll notice that the very form of the practice comes loaded with an egocentric vision that makes me the center of the universe…“…to choose the living word of the Lord is the ‘best part,’ because in so doing He remains the highest priority. He continues to be the center of life, and the One we do best always to serve - in every task at hand.” (Dynamis 6/23/2021, 8/15/2020, James Smith)
“All the power possessed by the Lord is bestowed upon the apostles! [Matthew 10:5-8]. Those who were prefigured in the image and likeness of God in Adam have now received the perfect image and likeness of Christ. They have been given powers in no way different from those of the Lord. Those once earthbound now become heaven-centered.” (St. Hilary of Poitiers)
“…the degenerative power of pride, or egocentrism, blinds us to the goodness, truth, and beauty of the cosmos of which we are a part. Our vision is blurred by our taking things for granted. We don’t see the beauty of the tree, or the beauty of the flower, or the beauty of the sunset, because our vision is too centered upon ourselves…The healthy Christian lifestyle is the one where we choose to “die” to sinful life habits on a daily basis and to live with Christ at the center. The more we die materially, and the more we die to our own sense of self (ego), the more we are alive spiritually!” (Joseph Pearce, Fr. Stavros N. Akrotirianakis)
“Every Christian undergoes a lifelong series of surrenders which wean us away from the material-centered life into which we were born and reshape us into persons wholly submitted to Christ our God. Surrender to Him is a commitment that supersedes all other loyalties. This way of life forms an unshakable bond between ourselves and Christ as Master.” (Dynamis 5/5/2020)
“Communion with God and communion with others are realizations of the same Center. And this Center, according to the ancient definition, is everywhere. “God is that reality whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere…The center of all joy is Jesus Christ—the word-speaking prophet, the sacrifice-offering priest, and the peace-bringing king. For those who live in the joyful expectation of his return, the offices of Christ set the pattern for our present service to his kingdom.” (Martin Laird, Blaise Pascal, Philip Ryken)
“Every fact we discover about the world is seen in the light of the fundamental conviction that the world is a purposefully created place made by a personal and infinite God who has made us in His image and communicated His existence to us in nature, in history, through the prophets and apostles (spokesmen who speak to us intelligibly about these truths), and ultimately through Christ, who is the Source, the Center, and the Key of all.” (Donald Williams)