“When we as Christians hear the hymns and read about the dread judgment seat of Christ, we sometimes view it more like children who see the rubber ball coming out of the closet, on its way to punish us for the sickness that we have brought on ourselves through our own sins. But from the Father’s perspective, just like that rubber ball, the knowledge of the judgment that is to come is unbelievably necessary for us if we are to remain healthy, pure, and in the image of our Creator.”
“Make haste to open to Me O Lord, Your arms in Fatherly Embrace. I have wasted all of my life in sin like the prodigal son. As I now behold O my Savior, the unfailing riches of Thy Great Loving Kindness, do not despise my feeble heart…For unto You, I cry with tears of repentance: “Father, forgive me…I have sinned against Heaven and Before Thee.””
Let me recall a wise custom of the ancient Holy Fathers: when greeting each other, they did not ask about health or anything else, but rather about prayer, saying "How is your prayer?" The activity of prayer was considered by them to a be a sign of the spiritual life, and they called it the breath of the spirit. If the body has breath, it lives; if breathing stops, life comes to an end. So it is with the spirit. If there is prayer, the soul lives; without prayer, there is no spiritual life.”
This past year, how many times have we either experienced or heard stories of those who have been driven to the brink of despair, shrouded in darkness, and seemingly absent of hope. As difficult as things have been for us Orthodox Christians, imagine how much more difficult it must be to those who do not have the light of Christ in their lives…who have been bumping into the proverbial “coffee tables” and searching for the “matches of meaning” where they can’t be found. It is our calling as bearers of Christ’s Light to illuminate not just our own lives, but all of those who are searching for that gentle presence of Christ in the midst of chaos.
