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I understand what you mean about "tangents."
I have often tried to make the point, in a round-about way, that too many Christians are off on tangents. The forum often seems to attract those who want to live in the past, argue over centuries-old territorial disputes, or which Patriarch passed through Ukraine on the way to somewhere else - giving him ruling rights over the territory, of course. If the Patriarchs were less interested in their privileges and jurisdictions, and more interested in getting their flocks to live holy and gospel centered lives, wouldn't the world be a much better place and all of us be better off? I think we are too often concerned about all the wrong things.

byzanTN:

I believe that many of the things discussed here are very important, but that we lose sight of the most important thing: Jesus tells us plainly that the commandment He gives us is to love one another. That seems to me to mean to care deeply to the point of defending, supporting, nourishing as we can--both physically and spiritually--to be willing to lay down one's life for one's brother or sister. It's a tall order, but if we call ourselves followers of Christ we have to be willing to be the same way as our Teacher.

It seems to me that even though we may disagree on many points of theology and practice, the one thing that we are all bound to is this commandment whereby each of us is called to care about his brother with the same intensity that we care for ourselves. It seems to me that it goes one step farther to the point where we see Christ in our brother or sister and develop a relationship with the other on that basis. Theology or any other part of our Holy Faith, it seems to me, can become an idol that replaces Christ as the center and entire focus of our lives of faith and in the Faith, if we become fixated on it as an end in itself. We can become Christian Pharisees if we're not careful.

I suggested to a group that I used to meet that we ought to try a little spiritual exercise for a week and see what it would do. For one week, look at each face you meet and see Jesus Christ beckoning to you. He will ask you for something that only you can give in that moment: perhaps a smile, a kind word, a greeting to someone you don't like. And then see how that week has changed the way you look at others and how you live your life. Each one came back and said that this little exercise had profoundly changed their lives and that they intended to keep doing it because it had so changed the way they looked at others and situations.

In Christ,

BOB

Good point Greigo,

There's also our beloved St. Gregory of Narek similarily mentioned on par. 2678
He's way post-schism. He fell asleep in the Lord in the year A.D. 1004 whereas his Armenian Church was seperated from the Latins and Greeks in the late 5th or early 6th century. Yet low and behold, the Latin Catechism and Pope John Paul II have lauded him as a saint on the level of St. Ephrem of Syria.

For a site on St. Gregory:
http://www.stgregoryofnarek.am/index.php

Bob:

I like the spiritual exercise you suggested. I think I will try it for a week and see what happens. It is definitely something worth doing.

Charles

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Dear Bob, that is indeed a beautiful exercise. Completely Christocentric, which is where we should always be, and in glorifying Christ we always equally glorify all of the Three Persons.

If you ever want to be a spiritual father, let me know (I'll sign up post haste).

St. Seraphim of Sarov, Dmitri Rostovski and Sergius of Radonezh have been especially important to me spiritually and I have seen and felt their intercession.

I am now re-reading St. Seraphim's works in the "Little Philokalia" and they are impacting and inspiring me in ways I have never been from other writings of saints.

Diak:

I call this exercise "The Holy Face" after gazing at the Face of Christ Not Made by Hands icon. The Fathers of the Desert translation by Helen Waddell that quotes one of the Fathers as saying that "in our neighbor is life and death; for if we do good to our neighbor, we do good to Christ and if we scandalize our brother we sin against Christ" is part of my starting point. It's a high bar but it seems to me to be the one that we spiritual athletes ought to be straining for.

Look at it this way: when one finishes one's course and all the arguments, stuggles, etc. are over, what will be the important things one takes to the Lord? Will it be the baggage of fighting over who has jurisdiction over whom? Will it be fights over minute points of theology? Will it be baggage resulting from so many other things?

Or will it be a takeoff on "I was hungry and you gave Me to eat . . .": "you nourished Me when I asked you a question about the Faith," "you encouraged me to study Scripture," "you told me to go to confession and to cling to my spiritual father and it put me back on the right track."

I guess I've moved in my own journey from the fights to a view that God has placed others in opposition to me as well as placed me where I am. And all of us are placed where He willed for His glory. Then I have added the idea that I am not responsible for everything that comes to me or to fight with those who oppose me but I am responsbile for how I deal with situations and persons. I must, certainly, speak the truth as I have received it and not compromise it, but I must wrap all of it with the love of Christ that is so much broader than I can imagine that I must be careful not to limit that overriding factor in dealings with persons and situations. That's also why I can advise people to "walk away" from situations that could jeopardize the faith relationship that person has with Christ when they speak of fights that are driving them crazy.

So when I meet the Lord, I hope that I can say

1. I have kept the Faith as You have seen fit to present it to me through the Church You placed me in,
2. I have endeavored to live Your commandment of love, though in human weakness I have so often failed,
3. In all, I claim nothing because if You can find anything good in my life, that I ascribe to You and to the Holy Spirit; and if You find something small, mean, and nasty, that alone is of me.

I have done nothing except that which, I as Your servant, am commanded to do. Have mercy on me.

For me, the shining examples of holiness found in the Apostolic Churches are examples for us all. Holiness--that way of life in which one is "whole" and in a living relationship with Christ that bears fruit for others--knows no separation, just as the Trinity knows no separation or schisms within His life of community.

So, Edward, my brother, (and all of you, my brethren, here) walk away from the "Feenyite" in good conscience and say at least one prayer for those who are so cramped in their spiritual lives that they cannot see beyond their own little closet.

In Christ,

BOB

Diak:

As for being a spiritual father, that is something that the Lord will lead me to if it be His Will. If anything that I have written in this forum brings you closer to Christ, thank Him for it and ask Him to have mercy on me a sinner.

BOB