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#88023 - 07/02/03 12:41 PM
Hieromonk Elias
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Member
Registered: 11/06/01
Posts: 10158
Loc: Irondale,AL
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from Heirmonk Elias
Perhaps I shouldn't say anything more, ... but forgive me if I will speak out of turn. I remember being in a spot once, where my ministry was unwanted and dispensed with for reasons I have never been able to understand. I felt quite devasted because my priestly ministry was not needed anywhere. Don't get me wrong, it was very painful indeed, one of the most painful things ever to live through, and at the time, too hard to take or accept.
Today I see the hand of God, in what at the time I only ascribed to human folly and spite. But now it means something altogether different to me. Now, I see that it was important for me to come to know that my own relationship with God, and my own prayer, and my own faith, did not at all depend upon what I was doing, whether my ministry was wanted or repected, or whether I was 'useful' to anyone at all. I had defined my relationship to God in terms of my service as a priest, and when I did, that was taken away rudely! But God wanted to love me, and for me to love him, for who I was simply, and not in terms of service and 'role'. I suppose anything, even my vocation, might be an 'idol' if I let it be. In my life, God has always cast down every idol I have ever fashioned. I had made my vocation one, without even knowing it. Funny thing about idols, ...the disguises they wear. They can be like that famous demon, that dresses like an angel of light.
Thanks for such a wonderful testimony about facing the trials in our lives and the fruit that they bear for each one of us. Also, serving as a reminder about how works brought about because of our faith can become idols without our even being aware and cause us to get it out of perspective.
Rose
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#88024 - 07/02/03 01:07 PM
Re: Hieromonk Elias
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Member
Registered: 10/17/02
Posts: 1208
Loc: Philadelphia
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May God grant you, O holy Father Elias, many, many years!
Thank you, Rose.
In Christ,
Andrew
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#88029 - 07/03/03 08:53 AM
Re: Hieromonk Elias
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Member
Registered: 11/03/01
Posts: 1702
Loc: Hollywood, Florida
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May you be blessed, Fr. Elias, for who you are shines from your words and work among us here.
Thank you for your words of true spiritual wisdom.
Long may be be the beneficiaries of your presence here.
Steve
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#88031 - 07/03/03 04:01 PM
Re: Hieromonk Elias
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Member
Registered: 05/16/02
Posts: 2953
Loc: USA
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When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf Heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featur'd like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least:
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee,--and then my state
(Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings'.
WS sonnet 29
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#88032 - 07/03/03 04:08 PM
Re: Hieromonk Elias
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Member
Registered: 11/05/01
Posts: 22291
Loc: Canada
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Dear djs, Do you belong to that movement that wants to canonize Shakespeare?  Alex
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#88033 - 07/03/03 04:14 PM
Re: Hieromonk Elias
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Member
Registered: 05/16/02
Posts: 2953
Loc: USA
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Had he capitalized the Thy and Thee, I would be more inclined.
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#88034 - 07/03/03 04:25 PM
Re: Hieromonk Elias
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Member
Registered: 11/05/01
Posts: 22291
Loc: Canada
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Dear djs, How positively "Kyivan" of you!  Alex
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#88036 - 07/04/03 03:49 AM
Re: Hieromonk Elias
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Member
Registered: 11/03/01
Posts: 6077
Loc: Glasgow, Scotland
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Originally posted by Diak: And what happens if Marlowe really wrote Shakespeare?  Trust you to put the spanner in the works  Ignorance is bliss Anhelyna
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#88037 - 07/06/03 05:18 PM
Re: Hieromonk Elias
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Member
Registered: 08/10/02
Posts: 4636
Loc: Georgia
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Originally posted by Diak:
And what happens if Marlowe really wrote Shakespeare? Well, then it would be an ingenious political move for the Church, judging from today's warped morals. Logos Teen
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