How fitting are these words of a great saint and father of the Church, and how they seem to reflect the situation of what is happening today. It almost is worthwhile to break it down line by line and carefully examine it. For each could produce a contemporary reflection on its own merit as to the situations that dare to rob of us our patrimony and faith in the Church today.

Saint Basil the Great if you notice does not address society for that is of the world, but rather is addressing the church. He addresses a sickness that seems to infect the church periodically and has to be cured. He gives us all the warning signs, signs that we have been seeing and having pointed out more and more in recent days. If you are unaware then you must be hiding your head in the sand, for it is all around us. Men who tell us tradition and faith that have been handed down to us no longer counts. Innovation that usurps the role of the Church and its proper teachings, introduction of things that diminish God and His role in our lives. All of this in the name of pride, for that is what it is when the connive and plot on how to exalt themselves as to knowing more than the fathers of the Church and all that has been handed down to us. Intellectual wisdom does not bring us salvation but true spiritual wisdom that can be imparted only from the Christ and His Holy Church inviolate.

We constantly hear and read the lamentations of what was and how it used to be, and yet we are constantly told to leave that behind and instead look forward. As we do so our numbers diminish as those that are behind us fall away because we ignore the need to feed them with the bread of Life that we leave behind in our vision to go forward no matter what the cost, yet we too will be one of those soon enough falling behind and being lost and spiritually starved. Yet we seem to be blinded by this pride and spiritual ignorance. We think we know better and are better than God, and that pride and deceit will be our destruction yet.

Our Lord gives us some simple descriptions of Himself and His role in our salvation. In Saint John’s gospel (6:35) our Lord gives us these simple words, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.” Words that we seemingly ignore in regards to where our sustenance is to be found spiritually. He also tells us in the same gospel (14:6-7), “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also; henceforth you know him and have seen him.” Amazing words and directions, words that we should be asking of those that want us to turn and look only forward. Are we being truly fed by Christ or are we being starved into spiritual oblivion? Are we being taught the way, the truth and that which will bring us life or are we being slowly blinded by leaving the tradition and all we have inherited behind? These are very direct questions, but ones that are essential and fitting with the words of Saint Basil the Great.

The time is now to reclaim what is rightfully ours, our faith, our traditions and our patrimony. Many wolves are out there that seek to destroy us and spread their pernicious lies. Many lament and know exactly why we have lost many of our faithful, and yet are blinded by their own pride and deceit. The time is to wake up and demand what has been stolen from us. If we do that, they will cower and submit. Their pride will be wounded but eventually their eyes will be opened.

Saint Basil the Great’s words are one of warning, but also words of rallying. We can both accept the words of warning and do nothing to our own condemnation, or we can rally around the Church and all of its fullness that will lead us to the way, and the truth, and the life in Christ. The choice is yours, but I know which way I will try to lead to that which Saint Basil wants us calls us to, the Church of Christ in its fullness and tradition.

Just my humble reflection on the words of this great saint.

In IC XC,
Father Anthony+

Father Anthony:

Asking your blessing during this holy season.

I can't agree with you more. In fact, I didn't look to see who the author was until I had read the piece. At first I thought it might be something contemporary and out of place here.

Guess the more things change, the more they stay the same.

BTW, how are you doing?

Keeping your recovery in my prayers,

BOB

First of all it must be understood that it is the duty of all
Christians - especially of those whose calling dedicates them to
the spiritual life - to strive always and in every way to be
united with God, their creator, lover, benefactor, and their
supreme good, by Whom and for Whom they were created. This is
because the center and the final purpose of the soul, which God
created, must be God Himself alone, and nothing else - God whom
Whom the soul has received its life and its nature, and for Whom
it must eternally live.

St. Dimitry of Rostov

Therefore let us leave untouched the senseless speculations of the masses and the false doctrines, and turn to the teaching delivered to us in the beginning, let us be temperate and ready for our prayers, persevere in fasting, and fervently implore the All-seeing God not to expose us to temptations, since the Lord has said: 'The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.'

St. Polycarp, Epistle to the Philippians.

According to the text, `We are the body of Christ and each of us is one of its members' (cf. 1 Cor. 12:27), we are said to be the body of Christ. We do not become this body through the loss of our own bodies; nor again because Christ's Body passes into us hypostatically or is divided into members; but rather because we conform to the likeness of the Lord's flesh by shaking off the corruption of sin. For just as Christ in His manhood was sinless by nature both in flesh and in soul, so we too who believe in Him, and have clothed ourselves in Him through the Spirit, can be without sin to Him if we so choose.

St. Maximus the Confessor, Second Century on Theology, Philokalia, V. 2

Charity, it is said, `rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth.' It often happens to us to see the unrighteous, sinful doings of men, or to hear of them, and we have a sinful habit of rejoicing at such doings, and of shamelessly expressing our joy by foolish laughter. This is wrong, unchristian, uncharitable and impious. It shows that we have not Christian love for our neighbor in our hearts: for charity `rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth .' Let us therefore, cease doing this so that we may not be condemned with the workers of iniquity.


St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ.

[Charity] rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. (1 Corinthians 13:6 KJV)

These selections from the Church Fathers are wonderful.

Thank you, Alexandr!

...we ought to learn the virtues through practicing them, not merely through talking about them, so that by acquiring the habit of them we do not forget what is of benefit to us. 'The kingdom of God', St. Paul says, 'resides not in words but in power' (I Cor. 4:20). For he who tries to discover things through actual practice will come to understand what gain or loss lies in any activity that he pursues..."

St. Peter of Damaskos (Book 1:A Treasury of Divine Knowledge, The Philokalia Vol. 3 pg. 183)

Alexandr

Adam, before the fall ... participated in ... divine illumination and resplendence, and because he was truly clothed in a garment of glory he was not naked, nor was he unseemly by reason of his nakedness. He was far more richly adorned than those who now deck themselves out with diadems of gold and brightly sparkling jewels.
St. Paul calls this divine illumination and grace our celestial dwelling when he says, 'For this we sigh, yearning to be clothed in our heavenly habitation, since clothed we will not be found naked' (2 Cor. 5:2).

St. Gregory Palamas (Topics of Natural and Theological Science no. 67, The Philokalia Vol. 4 edited by Palmer, Sherrard and Ware; Faber and Faber pg. 377)

Is there a quote of the day that you're getting these from Alexandr, or do you just find ones that you like and post them?

I reach over and pick up a book at random, let it fall open, and type whatever my eyes come to rest on. I have yet to not have something jump out at me that has a correlation to whatever is occuring in my life. Or else I'll be researching something else on the web, and a patristic quote will jump out at me. There really is no rationale on my part. I leave it in God's hands.

Alexandr

The perfection of the Christian life -- and I mean that life which is the only one the name of Christ is used to designate -- is that in which we participate not only by our mind and soul but in all the actions of our lives, so that our holiness may be complete, in accordance with the blessing pronounced by Paul, in our 'whole body and soul and spirit' (I Thess. 5:23), constantly guarded from all admixture with evil.

St. Gregory of Nyssa, From Glory to Glory

Virtues and vices are the food of the soul and it can feed on either one, turning to whichever one it wants. If it is bent toward moral excellence, it will be fed by virtue - by righteousness, temperance, meekness, endurance. In other words, it is just as St. Paul says, 'being nourished by the word of truth' (1 Tim. 4:6).


St. Ignatius of Antioch

[to a sick monk] Concerning fasting, do not grieve, as I have said to you before: God does not demand of anyone labors beyond his strength. And indeed, what is fasting if not a punishment of the body in order to humble a healthy body and make it infirm for passions, according to the word of the Apostle: "When I am weak, then am I strong" (II Corinthians 12:10).

"Saints Barsanuphius and John: Guidance Toward Spiritual Life," trans. by Fr. Seraphim Rose, (Platina, California: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1990)

Alexandr:

On meditating with these gems of the spiritual life, it strikes me that one of the Desert Fathers was right when he looked at himself on his deathbed and wondered if he had even begun to live the Christian life. It isn't a despairing look. It's a terrifically humbling experience to see how the Holy Spirit has perfected our Fathers and to understand how far we have to go. But knowing that the Lord loves us and gives us these spiritually nourishing words is encouragement since it shows us that we, too, can attain to levels that we cannot on our own imagine--yet with His help and His grace none of these levels of holiness is impossible.

Glory be to Jesus Christ!! Glory to Him forever and ever!!!

May your efforts to edify us, your brothers and sisters, be rewarded in the Kingdom and may you have a blessing for your efforts now, too.

In Christ,

BOB