Speaker 1: 0:00

So we have to approach theology, and especially Orthodox theology, with the question of what is the practical relevance of what we have learned for our lives? Because you will give to others out of the abundance of what you have. That's normal. So I would ask that question. I think I'm here to help you to make a connection with the tradition of the church, meaning with the saints of the church, because in God's unfathomable mercy, in God's unfathomable mercy, I have grown up near one of the great spiritual personalities of our times. That, I think, is what the Lord wants me to share with you most. And so it's not even on the level of studying this or that, examining this or that question, but it's more of a communion, because it's not that Starrett Sofroni is the only saint, he's the one that I knew best. And what great spiritual figures do for us, whether it's St Gregory Palamas, whether it's St John of the Ladder, a Porphyrios, a Silouan, they give you that connection with the whole, they give you a way in, because no one father can be the tradition it's a contradiction in terms but they are able to bring you into contact with the whole, and that's the wonderful thing about the communion that is seen and experienced through the saints of the Church. So in a sense, we've used references to philosophy, references to other disciplines, tried to present a patristic vision of things inspired by this relationship, by this relationship and that, in a mystical way I've come to realize, makes you, if you want to, you can always reject anything that God offers, but it makes you, if you want to be part of that tradition, be an organic part of that tradition. And one thing I've learned which has humbled me in certain ways, significant ways, is that time and space is certainly not a mitigating factor. You can become more a disciple of, or a communicant of the spirit of a Porphyrios, a Paisios, a Sophrony and so on, than those who are physically and historically closest to them, because the spiritual transcends all of those limitations, because the spiritual transcends all of those limitations. And it's very important for us, I think, to be in that communion, feeding off that communion, if we're going to survive as Christians in the world today, where it's becoming increasingly difficult Not that it was ever easy, but the noose is distracted even more and more by the technological means we have at our disposal.

Speaker 1: 3:54

I've noticed that the concentration span is less. It's how society has evolved. And to listen, and to listen in a concentrated way for sustained periods of time. It's not easy. It requires energy, great effort and I myself, to focus on a lecture, let's say a high intellectual level lecture, for an hour is not as easy as it used to be. I was practiced in that and that's something that I used to do quite comfortably, but it's no longer as easy.

Speaker 1: 4:40

And so, if that's the case remembering, if you recall, I told you once that Father Sofroni used to make a kind of ratio to help people understand the difference between the energy needed for manual labor, the energy needed for intellectual work, and the energy needed for intense prayer. I say intense because that's what he means when he says prayer. He divided it up into seven is to three is to one. So one hour of prayer is equal to three hours of intense, really concentrated intellectual work, which is equal to seven hours of physical labor, hard physical labor, because that's the energy you need to infuse into those different kinds of work. But what I would say is read what you have to read peacefully and closely, and try to capture and this will happen naturally If you read in a prayerful way try to capture what the deeper meaning really is.

Speaker 1: 5:59

What I want is for you to grow in your understanding of an ethos, the patristic mindset, the phronema, the biblical and patristic tradition of the church. What is that really about? Again, what's the practical relevance of this for me? So as, when we read the Bible, just let it flow into you, absorb it. By the grace of God, you will be inspired by Holy Week, pascha, which opens up the heart, opens up the mind, gives us the amazing privilege of reliving the saving work of Christ, and so the light of the resurrection will no doubt inspire you. You know, I remember my mother. God rest her soul.

Speaker 1: 6:58

While I was watching TV, she was reading the Bible. I think she read the Old Testament and the New Testament together three times. She had a Bible that had a commentary. It was a Bible that was produced by Trembelas. He wrote a commentary.

Speaker 1: 7:19

Trembelas is probably known to you for some negative reasons, but he was a phenomenal scholar. Actually, his specialization was liturgics. So she read the commentaries, and then she had a collection of about 200 booklets, each about the life of a saint, about the life of a saint, and she had read all of them. So much so that when we were in Greece once, speaking to an experienced monk. Somebody asked do you know anything, father? Can you tell us anything about the life of so-and-so? And he said that he couldn't. My mum happened to have read the little booklet, so she knew.

Speaker 1: 8:08

You know, you have to be aware of a wider context and not just think academically or non-liturgically. And beyond all of that, our parents and especially I don't know our mothers, grandmothers they were very prayerful people. You know, father John Romanides' mother used to get up at three o'clock in the morning to say her prayers before she went to work. When they were living in the Bronx, when they were living in the Bronx and Synaxarion, a lot of people had the Synaxaristis in their homes Traditionally. I don't know if everybody could afford one. Anyway, I think it shouldn't be pressed too far.

Speaker 1: 9:00

Why not look at it from the other perspective? Why not look at it from the perspective of now? We have this privilege. It's been given to us surely for a reason. Why not look at it providentially and say, perhaps God has given us these books because, as my wife said, when I said, isn't it remarkable that the saints that we've been blessed with in our own times truly stand out? And she said, because we need them. So why not look at it in that sense? Because we need them? Is that a reason to say, oh, we don't need to read the Fathers because they never used to read them as much, in the days when, it's true, perhaps it wasn't easy to get hold of a manuscript, but when they did, they treasured it and they used it and they learned things by heart. Learned things by heart. Why not take a more positive approach and say we need the support and inspiration of our fathers now more than ever, and that's what God is giving us.

Speaker 1: 10:14

And was this not also the case once upon a time with the Bible, the Holy Scriptures and the Bible? The problem, I feel, is that I don't know why. To tell you the truth, I've never been able to understand it. Do we want the freedom to say whatever just comes to our minds? Is that what it's all about? We just want to say I am some kind of sage that if you listen to me, you're going to receive some word of wisdom that you can't even find in the Fathers. I'm going to free myself from the Fathers. I'm going to disconnect myself from the Scriptures. So we have a post-patristic theology and we have what? A post-biblical theology, post-liturgical theology. What we're going to do? Throw the liturgical books out of the wind as well, because, hey, once upon a time we didn't have those either.

Speaker 1: 11:15

You know, the difficulty is that this person here prevents me from saying whatever I want. And you know why. Because he knows what he's talking about. Whatever I want, and you know why? Because he knows what he's talking about. That's why he's lived it, he's done it and he knows from experience. And if I have the right attitude, I will humble my mind and learn from such people so that I may follow in his footsteps in some way. But if I want to say whatever I feel like saying, yeah, take the book away. That's why people don't like St Gregory Palamas. You know, the West, the West is all speculation, so, so they think they've gone beyond the fathers. Let's see where that leads to.

Speaker 1: 12:12

The Libri Carolini, huh, the amazing thing is that, st Gregory Palmas, you know, the Hesychasts were so original. There is an originality, a real, a genuine originality, in the way that they presented Orthodox theology. But their originality came from within the tradition. They expressed the Orthodox tradition and pushed theological expression to its very limits. That was true originality. The originality that the others want is outside of God, outside of the tradition and, in church language, that's heresy, because that originality doesn't lead to the goal.

Speaker 1: 13:03

It's like giving the wrong medicine. This is the medicine. You don't like the medicine. That's the goal. It's like giving the wrong medicine. This is the medicine. You don't like the medicine. That's the medicine. You don't like every medicine that the doctor gives you the steroids I'm on now. They're bitter, they're horrible, but you take it because it's the right medicine that brings therapy, healing and the other stuff. You know it may taste better initially, but what does it bring?

Speaker 1: 13:31

Whether you call it psychology or something else, what you're really talking about is whether you approach the challenges of life in a human way, on a human level, or whether you approach them in a divine way, on the divine level. And the divine way is the way that Christ taught us through his commandments and by his example. And that's the choice we always have human or divine. And you feel. You feel that you know that, because the long-term solution cannot be the human World. History has shown us that. So, if you take the divine way, all the things that God has given us in this world are blessed. So it's not that we're trying to abolish psychology or medicine or whatever the human knowledge may be. It's blessed, it's given to us by God, but you use it and you approach it in a different way.

Speaker 1: 14:45

Everything takes on a different color and, I would say, is bathed in the light of Christ, then things are seen in their proper perspective, and that is what the Fathers sometimes refer to as natural contemplation Contemplation of the world through the eyes of the Holy Spirit. In other words, to see the world as God sees the world, because we were not created for a human life. We were created for His life. And if we learn that before we die, that means we learn to live before we die, which is a great achievement. It's a great blessing that we may learn how to live so that our death is not a death but transports us from death to life.

Speaker 1: 15:48

Again, we sense that we know there's something deeply, deeply wrong with death Whenever we encounter it in any shape or form. We know it's not right, and it's correct to feel that it's not right, because we were not created for death. Because we were not created for death. We were created for life eternal and divine, uncreated life. This is our calling, this is the purpose of the Lord's creation of man, and we see that in a concrete way Many, many instances. One of them is the transfiguration of Christ, graphic representation of what we have been called to become.

Speaker 1: 16:32

This vision will enable you to inspire others. If you have it, you will be able to inspire others by lifting them up and helping them to see something of the great, astounding that God loves and respects each and every one of us to the degree that he does, and his providence is with us every breath we take. What do we know? We don't know anything. Don't know anything, yeah, so thank God, thank God for all things. Well, maybe it's time to wrap things up. Thank you for your, your professors, and support the Mount Tabor Academy, thank you.

Speaker 1: 17:46

We've said before that the worship of the church is very powerful and if we're careful and we're attentive, it's a very powerful tool for conversion and spreading Christianity. I think it's fair to say most people are attracted to the Orthodox Church first through worship. There are those who have taken a more intellectual road to the Orthodox faith, but it's the worship of the Church that really is the most powerful thing that we have. Of the church, that really is the most powerful thing that we have the divine liturgy. We've also said before. You know, the church creates culture, but herself is not culture. Herself is above and beyond culture. So the church has given us great cultures which have become intertwined with Christianity, orthodox Christianity, and that's a wonderful, blessed gift.

Speaker 1: 18:43

But the Church points us in the direction of things eternal, so that we learn to prefer things eternal to things temporal and understand that whatever may be the case where we live in the world today, that will pass and each one of us will be faced with the question of eternity, no matter who he is. You know we have here no continuing city. That's why it's futile and even sad. When you hear about church politics May have the word church in front of it, but it's politics.

Speaker 1: 19:26

You know, there was a lady who had cancer and she was hospitalized and the cancer grew and grew and grew so much she continued to live. She was skin and bones. But the cancer in her this area became so big that you would think there was a basketball inside her. That's how big the tumor was her. That's how big the tumor was. And when the priest went to her and said, are you still able to pray? She was on morphine and she tried very hard to keep prayer and it was good For a long time she was able to do that and she said to the priest Father, it's very difficult for me to keep the prayer now. And the priest said to her if you can say the name Jesus as often as you can, that would be good. How are you managing? He asked her. And instead of saying you know, I'm in such pain, I don't know how something like that, she said. She said am I worthy? Am I worthy to suffer this? She was marveling that God had made her worthy to suffer such an illness, such a monstrosity. You know in a good way. She was wondering and amazed that God had counted her worthy to endure this suffering and have this end. And the priest said that when she died he happened to be celebrating the divine liturgy at the time and, without being told although it was confirmed a bit later he heard in his heart as he was celebrating the divine liturgy she is saved, she is saved. And at the end of the divine liturgy he was told that this person had died.

Speaker 1: 21:55

Our professor of liturgics, professor John Fundulis, used to say to us why do we wish one another many years? Whether we live or whether we die, we are the lords. So why many years? What's the benefit of many years? More years to repent absolutely. Fundulis used to say more years to repent absolutely. Fondoulis used to say more years to be privileged, to go through the liturgical cycle and each time to experience the saving works of Christ just a little more deeply. Each time we're blessed to experience the liturgical cycle, it enriches us. This is our treasure. We become deeper human beings, enriched, enlarged. Our heart is enlarged, our heart is enabled to receive more grace. That's why we wish one another many blessed years. Please subscribe to our channel and share with your friends why we wish one another many blessed years.