Thank you!

Thank you for this interview. I began my Christian walk as a teenager among the open brethren. I’ve been close to converting to Orthodoxy three times in my life, but each time concluded I’m too ecumenical to be Orthodox. I’ve settled into a dual affiliation, with an independent catholic jurisdiction (United Ecumenical Catholic Church) and the Quakers.

Thanks for giving us the gift of this exciting information on Icons and Orthodoxy !

This is total fantasy what you say

This is distortion of the figure of speech there is no bread that becomes Christ he would have to appear everywhere every Orthodox service the verb for is means represents no one is being taught to eat his flesh and drink his blood its spiritual communion with him and later on in the verse it says so in St Paul and 1st Corinthians never gives the information he says this is not the Lord's supper when you come together

Diddy is going to sing! Jay, bey, drake, birdman, john legend, tiegan, lebron, curry, kevin hart and many of the white party boule’ society memebers are going down soon too

At the 28 minute mark: "When you read the Scripture you should read it on your knees (figuratively) because you are connecting with something more real than you. As Jesus said, 'Heaven and earth shall pass away but My Word will not pass away." This is the type of insight that makes Fr Lawrence the best Bible teacher ever! Thank you for these excellent conversations about Fr. Lawrence's Mystical Psalter. I appreciate your interview style Max. You allow Fr. Lawrence to speak and express complete thoughts without cutting him off yet you engage with him very intelligently on the points he is making. It makes for a very enjoyable and enlightening podcast.

Orhodox Churches were definitiely defined by nationality in New Zealand in the past. I hope it is not their future. Very much like Canada another Commonwealth English speaking country

When God created Man he said it was good. Was it his act of creating which was good or was Man his creation good, or both? Man seems to have lost his intrinsic goodness. Keeping the Commandments doesn't seem to make Man intrinsically good again. The rich man kept the Commandments, yet his selfishness kept him from becoming perfect. He didn't want to give up his selfishness. Giving up selfishness won't necessarily make one perfect. Jesus told him not only to give his riches to the poor, but to also follow him. Then in following him, he would be lacking nothing. The treasures in heaven are of more value than the treasures of earth. We may theoretically believe this, but do we practically live it? The rich man didn't want to let go of the bird in hand for the two in the mustard seed bush. It takes faith to give up a sure lesser thing for a yet unseen greater good. Jesus told him he was lacking something. It was probably faith. Do the rich place faith in earthly riches instead of in God who is intrinsically good? Man is selfish. His appetites and desires make him so. Some appetites are in response to true needs like for air, water, food, clothing and shelter from the elements, and one another (everyone's life came into being by a mother and was sustained by a caregiver). Those things are needed for life. Most things Man desires aren't needed for life, but they enhance life or add comfort or pleasantness or pleasure to life. Martha concerned herself with many things when only a few things were needed. Jesus said he came to give life, not just subsistent living, but abundant life. What are the needed things for eternal life, if obtained, God will add more abundantly? Do earthly riches prevent or make it difficult to obtain them? Or is there really only One needed? Does selfishness prevent or make it difficult to obtain him? Jesus had human appetites. Is this why he said only God was good? Appetites lead to desires which lead to the will. Jesus subjected his human appetites to his divine or Father's will. I suppose one should make a distinction between being selfish in the sense of being self-interested vs being selfish in the sense of being unjust or unfair or uncharitable or uncompassionate or ungracious, ie, sin. Well ordered self-interest without inordinate, inappropriate or exaggerated desires wouldn't be considered sinful. Such a self-interest wouldn't violate the Commandments. Such self- interest still seems to lack self-sacrifice. It's not in self-interest to self-sacrifice unless you expect to be paid back for it, in which case it wouldn't be self-sacrifice. Jesus taught self-sacrifice or self-denial is needed. It must do something good for the soul. Maybe when it is done willingly, it restores the goodness lacking in Man which God declared after creating Man before Man's fall. So it's puzzling that Jesus deflected the rich man's praise calling him good, since Jesus subjected his human appetites to his Father's will even unto death, death on a cross as his sacrifice. He deflected or deferred back the praise of goodness to his Father from whom goodness comes. The Son comes from the Father. The Son is his first Goodness through whom all other goodness flows, as all was created through him. All will return to the Son to be subjected to him who will in turn subject it to his Father. The Son defers even well deserved praise back to his Father.

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Oh my... I'm only 12 min. into this video but it's Great.. Father James .. so humble. I'll have to watch this later. Thank you

Dr. Jennie is absolutely brilliant. Part of what I appreciate is that she uses common sense language.

I am very open to changing my mind (metanoia) on this topic but I've yet to hear a convincing argument from either Roman Catholic or Orthodox apologists. Our Lord was clearly speaking symbolically at the Passover meal when He offered himself as bread and drink. If Jesus had been speaking literally, the disciples would have murdered and cannibalized Him, which didn't happen. The task before the Eucharistic advocate is to explain how something that was first instituted as symbol is now a physical reality.

It's very nice to listen to the testimony of another former Anabaptist (in the broader sense of that name). Though I havn't yet fully converted, I can relate to Fr. Justin because of the strange similarity of our lifes. May this video also be a part of God's work on my heart.

I'm not Orthodox (capital O) but with a background in philosophy and a love of the Scriptures, my desire is to rightly read and understand what has been passed down to us. Unfortunately, scholarship in the contemporary American evangelical church is in short supply. So here I am.

Love Fr. Michael and have thoroughly enjoyed his "Praying in the Rain" podcast. Lovely to hear more of his personal story.

I remember the days when Fr. Yuri was at Holy Cross Mission in Winnipeg lol

That's true that Christ doesn't save the faithful from physical death and from the harms or ills which proceed death. Even those he healed grew old, became ill, and died. Their physical healings weren't permanent. Perhaps the healing in their souls were. We are all subject to the physical laws of nature. Supernatural miracles are rare. There is natural cause and effect. Some detrimental things are transient. Some have long lasting consequences, but need they be permanent or eternal? There is acute pain and suffering and there is chronic pain and suffering which effect well-being. Unless you are an enlightened, transcendent mystic, these detrimental things effect the psyche or soul, your sense of well-being, your emotions and thoughts, and even your beliefs regarding life in general and your own life in particular. The ills in this world can effect both body and soul. Need they cause a loss of faith? Because of this, some believe life is unsafe. They feel insecure. They fear. They might develop anxiety. They anticipate more bad things to come. 'Once bitten, twice shy.' Some feel oppressed. They feel under judgement. They become hypersensitive to criticism. They become defensive. They lash out. They themselves become hypercritical of others and/or of themselves. Failing to improve their situations, some become dejected or depressed. They despair. 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' Those still fighting to improve their situations, some become angry which might fester in themselves or act out towards others. They might hate themselves and/or others. They might become bitter. Their will might turn ill. The evil done to them might beget evil in them, manifesting as self-hatred and self-destruction and/or as hatred and destruction towards others. In order to better secure their own lives and well-being, they might become overcompetitive. They might covet. They might steal. They might take what they can get and take more than they give. They might horde, building new barns to store surplus grain not realizing their lives will be taken before then. They might hold the belief 'eat or be eaten', or 'survival of the fittest', or 'take or be taken', or 'do unto others as you were done unto', or 'by any means necessary', or 'dominate or be dominated', or 'deceive or be deceived', etc. The detriment done to them begets evil of sorts in them and propagates like weed seeds sown in a wheat field grow into tares. Christians aren't spared detrimental things in life. The faithful are not exempt from the physical laws of nature. The sun shines on both the good and bad. The rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous. Death comes to all. So what advantage do Christians or those of good will or the faithful have over the unbelieving or those with ill will or those who act in bad faith? John the Baptist wasn't exempt from hardship, ill will, prison, or death. Anticipating his own death while in prison, he sent disciples to ask Jesus if he was the one to come or whether they should look for another. You can almost sense his inquiring plea, "Will you rescue me from this prison before it's too late?" Jesus told them the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed. He didn't say anything about freeing the captive John from prison. John understood his fate. Jesus didn't exempt himself either from hardships, pain, suffering, and death. He could have. He said he had the power to either lay down his life or save it. He didn't let the ill will and bad faith of others effect his good will and good faith. He didn't return insult for insult, reviling for reviling, evil for evil. Most of us can't say that. Most of us can't do that. Our souls become sick by the sicknesses in the world, especially at the hands of others. Some of us are more vulnerable than others to this sickness. Some have fragile psyches and are more easily harmed, or more readily take things personally or to heart. Children are more vulnerable. As Jesus said it's better for those who corrupt children to have a millstone tied around their necks and be cast into the sea. A damaged psyche in childhood could last a lifetime. Who does the hurting also matters on whether things are taken to heart. Betrayal by intimate friends or spouses or lovers or family members is taken to heart more easily than the hurt caused by a stranger. The kiss of Judas hurt more than the centurion's lance. There should be more good faith between family and friends than between foes. Bad faith turns friends into enemies. 'With a friend like you, who needs enemies?' Lastly, the degree of harm done also factors into how deeply one takes things to heart. Little harm penetrates a little. Great harm penetrates more deeply. A pin pricks the skin. It's only skin deep. A Roman lance which pierces the side goes heart deep. Dust dirties the feet, but not the soul. It is easily shaken off. If not shaken off, it can be washed off. But how does one wash a heart soiled with the hate and indifference in life, soiled by the ill will and bad faith of others, especially by those intimate to us? Was John's baptism of repentance enough to wash clean the sin sick soul? Jesus healed yet John didn't. What is this baptism by fire Jesus went through? Is it true he baptizes not with water, but with the Holy Spirit? Besides his disciples in the upper room, has anyone else experienced this? The experiences of the mystics in their inner rooms are relatively rare. Should we expect the Holy Spirit here and now, or should we look for him in the next life after our soulful trials by fire and death in this life? How do we have faith in Christ knowing he won't save us from the pains and sorrows and death in this life? How did John the Baptist while in prison maintain faith after he received that message from Jesus? Unfortunately his disciples didn't record his reaction. Fortunately Jesus' disciples recorded his resurrection. That which harms the body need not harm the soul. If it does, there is healing. Evil done to the body need not seed evil deeply into the soul. It could remain skin deep, not heart felt deep. When someone slaps your cheek, can it remain there only skin deep, or does it penetrate into the heart? Ill will of others need not turn your good will ill. Bad faith of others need not turn your good faith bad. If it does, there's metanoia. Sometimes that's death of the ill heart with its ill will and bad faith. A dead heart doesn't need to remain dead, only long enough to kill its ill will. There's faith. There's renewal. There's resurrection. What I still can't feel in the heart (where conviction of faith is formed) is faith in God in the midst (tavek ➕) of the heart-felt trials when it feels like he has forsaken me. I can't seem to understand gnoetically (meta-noia) that this is my heart's crucifixion, without which it cannot be renewed and resurrected. Lacking the experiential understanding, there is faith, as in walking by faith not by sight, yet I also lack this faith. I believe, help my unbelief. It's as if I won't believe without seeing, yet I won't see without believing. It's not necessarily that I 'can't' but 'won't'. My resistance in the will or 'will not' is part of my ill heart. Can't it be healed by Christ first, then become willing to be crucified with Christ, then die to itself, then be resurrected and renewed? Or does it only become healed for good after its death and resurrection? Can't it be temporarily healed to get the ball rolling to then become permanently healed? I'm caught in a conundrum. I'm stuck. I don't know how to go any further on my journey. My work or labor has brought me only so far. I wish I could rest. My intellect can climb only so high. A mountain is a mere footstool to God whose throne is heaven. When a child who hasn't yet learned to walk and still crawls, who barely knows how to talk, wants to be picked up into his father's secure arms, sitting on his butt in the dust he reaches up and cries, "Abba!" (Romans 8)

I use to go to Vineyard related things in my 20’s. Now I’m going to an Orthodox Church and finally discovering Church history and many other things..👍🏽❤️‍🩹

A seriously great book!

Hello, I'm a member of the Antiochian Orthodox Church who was recently blessed to found a Western Rite fellowship in Montreal, Canada, with aspirations for it to become a mission-parish; I would be interested to get in contact with Fr. Yuri (or Max) and to discuss this subject of cultural expression with him, I am passionate about this topic and I feel very blessed to have stumbled upon this video and to hear my fellow Orthodox brethren speak about an issue that I feel is often neglected. Great video!

Isaiah 6:9-10 implies God doesn't want some people to understand and be saved. What happens when you truthfully and directly, or plainly without mincing words, tell others their faults or sins? They will likely turn on you. If they were not hard hearted, they would not be defensive, take offense, and attack you. The light of the truth about them might be too bright and thus exposing to them. Their eyes are dim and sore. They can't take bright light. You could veil the glaring light of the truth. Parables are veils over the glaring or exposing truth. The prophet Nathaniel told King David a parable about a rich man stealing and slaughtering a poor man's only ewe sheep. He let David pass judgement on the rich man, and then he told David, "You are the man!". Ecce Homo! When the prophets exposed the masses and rulers of the people, the prophets were beaten and killed as Jesus mentioned in his parable of the king who sent his servants to claim some of the fruit of his vineyard from those he lent it. The accusations of prophets are too shrill for the dull ears on which they fall. Telling parables gives prophets some time. The masses and rulers don't stone or kill them right away. Had Jesus told the masses directly at the start that he was the Logos incarnate, the Son of God, they would not have listened to him any further. The rulers would have killed him at the beginning of his ministry out of season, instead of at the end of his ministry in season. There's a time and season for everything under heaven. The fleshly minded hear a parable literally. The spiritually minded hear the veiled truth behind a parable. The eyes of the dim sighted can become more blinded by a parable. The ears of the dull hearing can become more deaf by a parable. The hearts of the hard can become harder by a parable. They already have demonstrated they are not receptive to plain, direct truth about themselves. The alternative is a veiled parable which they often disregard since they are too blind to see or too deaf to hear. In contrast, the eyes of spiritually minded see more clearly into their own veiled souls by use of parables. For them the parables illuminate instead of exposing. The ears of the spiritually minded hear more clearly the conscience of the soul by use of parables. They are like sheep hearing the voice of the good shepherd who guides them. The hearts of spiritually minded become more receptive to the Word whether speaking truth in parables or directly and plainly. There is depth of perception of the Word as there is depth of soil for seed. There are troubles and cares effecting the growth and maturation of the Word in the soul as there are scorching sun and weeds effecting the seeds growth and maturation. Edifying information can get into us directly by didactic instruction. It gets into our minds consciously by the front door so to speak. Some unreceptive minds barre their front doors or don't want to know or listen. Edifying information can still get into them by the back door of imagery in parables. Images like seed, soil, scorching sun, weeds, fruit, bread, wine, vineyard, garden, pasture land, sheep, good shepherd, restful waters, fishing boats, nets, fish, wind, waves, calming of storms can get into their minds and hopefully into their hearts even when they try to be unreceptive by not answering to the knock on their front doors. The lessons of the parables can still get into them by the back door of the subconscious. I would rather call it the pre-conscious or para-conscious. It is the veiled consciousness in the heart. Just as seed germinates, sprouts, and grows while the farmer sleeps and is unaware, so Christ's words can do the same in the pre or para consciousness of the soul. God does want us to understand deeply in the depths of soil of our souls or our hearts to be saved. He does know how unreceptive we or some of us can be. Sometimes he speaks directly and plainly, but that light can be too bright and exposing for us. Sometimes he veils the glaring truth about ourselves we can't bear to see. His parables can work on and in us while we are asleep so to speak or unaware. Our dim vision, dull ears, and unreceptive hearts make it more difficult for him. He has the ability, but it is our receptive faith which provides the facility for his ability to work on and in and through us. Even the faith the size of a mustard seed can move his mountain size ability. Faith the size of a mustard seed can grow into a large shrub which shelters the wing creatures of heaven (angelic virtues) giving them rest in the soul. Without any faith in the heart, direct and plain didactic truth or veiled poetic truth in parables go unseen by the blind in heart, and go unheard by the deaf in heart, and go unpenetrating into the hard of heart.

Would love to interview him also on our Cuppa Joe show on Josephology please

Sin's effect on the soul makes it ill or lame. Like the man with the withered hand, the sin sick soul has difficulty grasping the spiritual. You wonder how the other ailments Christ healed correspond to the soul sick with sin. What is lameness of the soul? What is blindness of the soul? What are deafness and muteness of the soul? What is leprosy of the soul? Some sicknesses of the soul pain and burden only the one ill. But some sicknesses make the heart ill willed, and those ill hearts in turn act out their ill will onto others making them ill also. Evil can beget or generate more evil. Ironically, degeneration can generate more degeneration. Those Jesus healed had ill souls. I like to think each physical healing he did a corresponding healing in the heart occurred. The pharisees and rulers opposing Jesus were ill willed or sick in that sense. Having withered souls, they failed to grasp his good will or grace. They resorted to physically grasping him or imprisoning him before handing him over to be tortured and killed. Ironically they managed not to do that evil work on the Sabbath, but on the day prior to the Sabbath. Despite their evil, no one could accuse them of breaking the Sabbath. They refused to do good on the Sabbath, but they willfully did evil on any other day of the week and on that preparation day for the Sabbath. They strained gnats, yet swallowed camels. Jesus was right to ask them whether it was right to save and heal on the Sabbath. In contrast to the man with the withered hand, they failed to grasp his grace and their souls remained withered and unhealed. It reminds me of the story of the man born blind Jesus healed. The pharisees threw him out of the synagogue and thus they remained blind themselves, whereas he was healed. You wonder why some souls burdened with illness don't become ill willed themselves while others do become ill willed? Does it have something to do with their disposition. Is the difference that they are poor in spirit as opposed to rich or proud or arrogant in spirit? When bad things happen to us, we are quick to ask, "Why me? Why did this have to happen to me? What did I do to deserve this?" We might not deserve it, but then again we do not necessarily not deserve it either. What I mean is that we might not be so bad that we deserve the bad things which happen to us, but we are not so good that bad things can't ever happen to us. As it is, the sun shines on both the good and the bad, and the rain falls on both the righteous and the unrighteous. As Jesus said those on whom the tower in Jerusalem fell were no worse than any others. Those who Pilate slew were no worse than any others. When bad things happen to others, it isn't an opportunity to judge them as bad, but to reflect on whether we are any better. That's humility. It's an opportunity to help, not judge them. Jesus didn't judge whether those he healed deserved their illnesses or his healings. Good (fortunate) things happen to both the good and the bad, and bad (unfortunate) things happen to the bad and the good. In general what you sow is what you reap, but not always. I don't believe in mystical karma. Those who believe in karma underestimate God's forgiveness and grace. A person arrogant in spirit thinks nothing bad should ever happen to them. They are indignant that troubles and obstacles get in their way of getting what they want. To fail is unthinkable and a fall of their pride. They feel like dying when they feel humiliated. It's an affront to their pride when people get in their way. They become manipulative. At first they might ask for what they want, then they order, then they demand, then they threaten, then they take or force or punish those in their way. They want to dominate anything or anybody in their way. If they are confronted with opposition, they hate that or those who oppose or don't cooperate with them. It's one thing to dominate and hate difficult circumstances or those unjustly in your way, but to hate and dominate those not cooperating with you is a worse thing all together. Why the pharisees and rulers believed Jesus was an oppositional threat to them, I don't understand. Perhaps being dominated by the Roman gentiles hurt their pride. They were desperate to grasp what control they had. Like you said they used the Law like a club. They grasped the Law like a weapon. In contrast Jesus used the Law to heal souls. He was gaining popularity while they were losing it. They didn't have the grasp on the people like they had. Had they grasped Jesus like the woman with the hemorrhage, their withered hearts could have been healed and become poor in spirit instead. Then they would have been blessed like Jesus blessed the people he freed from illness and sin whom they wanted to control and keep in bondage as they were.

I see the Scriptures portraying the fallen soul as a wilderness, a solitary, wild, uncultivated place where we labor to bear fruit, where thorns and thistles easily grow. In contrast to the ordered garden of life God cultivated which represents the healthy, flourishing, protected, saved soul, the wilderness was the place the fallen Adam was driven into to labor. Jesus was 'immediately' driven by the Spirit into the wilderness after his baptism in the Jordan. His well ordered soul was like a walled cultivated garden of life with a river of life in the midst of the wilderness, resisting the temptations of satan which Adam failed to do. God drove Moses and the children of Israel out into the wilderness from the cultivated land of Goshen. They could have 'immediately' entered the Promised Land with cultivated fields and gardens had they had faith. Lacking faith, they wandered the wilderness. Christ can lead us out of our inner wilderness into the inner promised land if we have faith in him. He is the soul's Moses. He can cultivate our souls, turning them from wildernesses into gardens if we allow him to plant his Tree of Life in the 'midst' (tavek or X or ➕) or heart. I also see in the Scriptures that the soul is portrayed as water, whether waters below like seas and rivers, or waters above like the air, wind, breath, clouds, or rain. Some things in the soul can be concretely grasped like the earth or land is solid or firm. Some things can be more easily captured, like land animals are more easily held than slippery fish or birds in flight. Water can be held in the cup of the hand only so long. Air can't be held at all except for a time in the chest when holding the breath. There are concrete/graspable, watery/slippery, and airy/ungraspable things in the soul, some concrete, others abstract, and still others unimaginable. Some can't be grasped any more than fire can be held in the hand. There you have it, the four elements of the ancient world of fire, wind, water, and earth or energy, gas, liquid, and solid. These elements are represented in the creation story as light, waters above, waters below, and earth, all of which were separated from one another to fill and bring order to the formless void into what we know as the cosmos. The word cosmos means ordered. The soul was ordered by God to have concrete, watery, airy, and fiery elements to it as well. The creation story is the story of the soul. An ordered wilderness is a cultivated field or garden. Ordered water is rain falling from the heavens, watering the fields or gardens, gathering into rivers, flowing to the seas, and evaporating into the heavens. As it says in Isaiah 55, God's word will not return to him void without accomplishing its purpose or telos. This cycle need not be vain in the soul as it says in Ecclesiastes. Chaotic water is like the stormy waves on the Sea of Galilee stirred by the winds which Christ calmed. We have difficulty grasping the waters or thoughts tossing and turning, and the emotions blowing in our souls, but Christ doesn't. The winds and the waves obey him. Our thoughts and emotions can come to do the same, obey and become well ordered. We have enough trouble cultivating the solid lands of our souls, that which we consciously can control. Yet even here Christ can cultivate (didactically twach) our souls. He can break our fallow hard ground with his plow or cutting words and deeds. He can sow his seeds of wheat into the depths of our souls. He can send the seeds of rain from heaven to water. Can we at least do the weeding? He can even help us with the labor. The Sea of Galilee is like a field of water with crops of fish beneath. As his disciples labored against the wind and waves with their oars, he walked on the waters to them, and when he got into their boat (heart), the sea calmed and they 'immediately' reached dry land. When they labored all night and harvested no fish, he told them to cast their nets to the right. As the Word filled and brought order to the cosmos, so the Word incarnate does for the soul. Without him, the soul is a formless void. With him it is a promised land of milk and honey. Or it can be like a well watered cultivated garden with the Tree of Life, or a calm living sea teaming with life, or a renewed spirit or fresh breath soaring with the birds of the air, or a born again heart enlightened by the fire of his Holy Spirit (again, the four elements). He has the ability. Faith in him provides the facility for his ability to work on and in and through the soul. He told those he healed that their faith saved them. We know he had the ability they lacked to heal (sózó) and save (sózó) their own souls. Their faith provided the facility for his ability to work. Those in Nazareth who lacked faith in him didn't see him perform many great works except for a few healings because they lacked faith in him. A small mustard seed size of faith can move him with compassion and his mountain size ability. You mentioned two types of healing he did. The healing of those with ailments and healing of those with demons. The heart is ill. The heart can become ill due to the harm or hurt it suffers from an indifferent world or at the hands of evil people. This is the illness of sorrow, humiliation, dejection, deprecation, a broken spirit. But the heart can be considered ill in another more serious sense as in generating ill will or evil itself. Those ill in the former sense don't necessarily return evil for the evil they received. Though they struggle, they don't let there hearts become ill willed by the ill or evil they received. None the less, their hearts need healing. Those with ill hearts in the latter sense have ill wills. Their hearts generate more of the ills they have. Evil comes from their hearts. They are morally ill besides spiritually ill or broken. They are demon possessed. Sadly, we tend to have a mixture of both, don't t we? Fortunately Christ, whose own heart is meek and humble, loving and compassionate, just and gracious, faithful and true, can heal both types of ill hearts, the sick and the evil possessed. He is the spiritual cardiologist or good physician. He has the cardiognosis. Wouldn't it be good and big hearted of us if we could maintain a healthy heart with good will even when those with evil hearts of ill will inflict our hearts with sorrows. Imagine not returning evil for evil, not even generating evil imaginations in the heart for the concrete evil done. 1 Peter 3:9. Christ managed this. 1 Peter 2 21-24. His heart was blessed, poor in spirit, meek, gentle, and light and easy even though he bore difficult yokes and heavy burdens. A sorrowful heart inflicted by indifference, ill will, or injustice need not turn ill, dejected, depressed, hard, and ill willed itself. Though it hungers and thirsts for justice, it can instead become poor in spirit, meek, pure in heart, blessed. Yet in my own watery, tempestuous, tossing and turning soul this lesson hasn't become solid ground or concrete, remaining difficult to grasp and hold in hand like a slippery fish without the Fisherman's net. In other words, if not the aid himself, he gives us aids to grasp the difficult to grasp. Christ's is the seed, Christ's is the crop, Into the storehouse of God may we be brought. Christ's is the sea, Christ's is the fish, Into the nets of God may we be caught. -Ag Críost an Síol

The book is worth reading!

There are both right hand and left handed screws. Most screws tighten clockwise because the majority of people are right handed and prefer it that way. Why procession in the liturgy is in a given direction has some other reason for it. Counter clockwise is not intrinsically a spiral upward to heaven. Perhaps the screw pumps of the yearly first centuries which were used to raise water up to a higher level were standard counter clockwise motion. This error in reason demonstrates that we, subjective creatures, are prone to reading meaning into things which really are not intrinsically there. A Jewish Chinese convert would disagree that the Cross of Christ is at the heart of the 10 Commandments, and would disagree the cross symbol for 10 has any Christ significance. Some Christians would argue that the 10 Commandments have to do with the Law whereas the Cross is grace centered. So, some people subjectively give certain meaning or attribute more meaning to things, and some other people give other meaning or attribute less meaning to the same things. Context matters. Within the context of Judeo-Christian thought, one could say the 10 silver coins, one of which the woman had lost, in the parable Jesus told had something to do with the 10 Commandments, but the number 10 in ancient Chinese culture might not have anything to do with principles or rules guiding one's relationship with God and one's neighbors. This idea that all the world is enchanted bothers me. It's our emotional reactions to things which enchant us or charm us and even sometimes chain us to them. You can't break the chains of sin without breaking the charm sin has on you. The charm or magical spell isn't intrinsically in the thing drawing you to sin. It's in the heart of the sinner. Jesus said that where your treasure lies, there you will find your heart. Adultery, theft, and murder begin in the heart as Jesus taught. It's what comes out of the heart which defiles a man, not the food which goes into the stomach as Jesus said. Pork and shellfish are not intrinsically unclean if cooked properly. The sinner over treasures, exaggeratingly desires, inappropriately wants, inordinately wills. This same sin prone heart gets enchanted and charmed easily by things and inappropriately finds meaning in things which don't have that intrinsic meaning. So, pagans believed certain beautiful or awesome mountains or high places had special significance and called them holy. They erect Asherah poles on them. And some pagans saw power and virility in a bull, made a graven calf out of gold, and worshiped their god of fertility. When the Israelites burned incense to Moses' bronze serpent on the pole, the king of Jerusalem melted it down. High places, bulls, and shiny metals don't have intrinsic power or beauty or awe. They are not enchanted. They are not charmed. They are not intrinsically holy. All this magical thinking and these awe inspired emotions are in the eye of the unenlightened beholder and in the heart of the fallen soul. Plato in his book Charmides addressed the problem that charms have over the soul or psyche. Socrates and others in the book tried to define sophrosyne which was the virtue to see soberly, not unduly influenced by charms. They had difficulty defining it, however Socrates demonstrated it. It is sober, sound mindedness guided by reason, not intoxicated by inordinate emotions. Paul actually uses the word in some of his epistles. The Latin word is temperance which doesn't do it justice. Christ demonstrated it in the wilderness when tested by satan. He had control over his appetites which enter the heart through the flesh. He had every right to turn a stone into bread after fasting 40 days. Yet he didn't use his Spiritual power to satisfy his flesh, or for comfort, or for pleasure. There was something better or more good than that which made it worth forgoing pleasure. Eternal life doesn't come from bread. It comes from the true Manna from Heaven. He also had control over the desire for social standing and political power by declining the kingdoms of the world he saw from the mountain or high place he was taken to. There are many tempting and charming things in the palaces of kings. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world yet lose his soul? In order to be placed high on an earthly or worldly throne, he knew he would have had to bow down to satan who would have then owned his soul. Lastly he was taken to the spiritual high place of the Temple. To be presumptuous that God his Father would keep him from harm and bear him up on angels would be spiritual pride or arrogance, the very sin which brought the fallen satan low. Pride goes before destruction and a lofty spirit before a fall. You could say Jesus embodied the virtue of sophrosyne. It's ironic that many on the spiritual path desire spiritual heights. They chasten their bodies, learn humility having so little, route out fleshly pride, yet they fall for spiritual pride. Instead of becoming moral, they become moralistic. Instead of becoming righteous, they become self-righteous. Instead of becoming holy, they become sanctimonious. Instead of becoming temperate, they become scrupulously austere. They secretly take pride in being humble. They gain wisdom to become intellectually arrogant. Many pharisees were guilty of these things. That is why Jesus called them children of their father satan. Satan knows how to charm. Satan knows how to enchant. The children of satan know how to cast spells. The fallen heart is prone to intoxicating things. The fallen heart isn't sound. It needs healing to become sound minded. It needs sobering. It needs to be discipled by the Logos to learn how to disenchant the pagan world. Then it will not confuse created things with the Creator as Paul addressed in Romans. The disoriented pagan minded need to orient away from the charms of created things to be then reoriented to their Creator. Created things don't have intrinsic beauty and power or awe apart from the Creator who is intrinsically beautiful, powerful, and awesome. The spiral upward to God isn't intrinsically counter clockwise or clockwise. It's Christ-wise. It's Christ's temperate wisdom. His temperate wisdom or sophrosyne is a combination of both wisdom and humbleness or poor in spiritedness. The humble or poor in spirited heart is free of passionate or prideful spirits and is easily guided by the reason or logos of the soul which in turn is guided by the Logos who incarnated as Christ who was gentle and meek of heart. It's difficult for wisdom or reason alone to control the passionate driven heart. Willingness to Christ's wisdom guides the heart whose willfulness was crucified with him. Willingness power is stronger than will power.

Thoroughly enjoyed Dr. Porcu's book and this conversation. Excited to hear he's working on a sequel of sorts.

Nice to hear from Canada. a viewer from New Zealand. Orthodoxy in the Commonwealth would be an interesting investigation.

'Which Hebrew and which Greek'is a phrase which I take to heart when reading and listening to bible commentaries. The differences in interpretation from different texts need to be taken into account . Thankyou Fr Lawrence!

Your guest mentioned that what is learned from Scripture in the head needs to move twelve inches lower into the heart to have its good effect on us. Have you wondered why we don't always change in heart when we change our minds? New lessons are learned in the intellect, but old habits are formed in the heart. Can an old dog learn new tricks? Can the old Adam die with Christ and the new Adam resurrect with him? It's as if the mind or intellect has a will and the heart has another will. They don't always agree in us. Intellectually we can know what's the right thing to do, yet we don't do it. Intellectually we know what we ought not do, yet we do it. Paul spoke of this. The will of the heart isn't always under the control of the intellectual will even when the latter is of better or sounder judgement. Metanoia isn't so much a change of mind or intellect as it is a change of gnosis or nous. The will of the heart is often subject to the appetites which we need to survive. The appetites for air, water, food, temperature regulation, freedom from harm (from pain and thus for comfort), and social companionship/protection are needed for our survival. Sexual appetite is needed for the survival of our species. These are strong drives which cause the heart to strongly will and override any other wills coming from the intellect. This propensity of the heart to be willful or wanton or desperate to get what it needs gets inordinately carried over to what the heart wants, not only what it needs. So, an inordinately willful heart willfully wants what it wants, how it wants, when it wants, not only what it needs. There are innumerable things we might want, but only a relatively few things are needed to live like air, water, food, shelter from the elements, parental nurturing, social aid/protection. To live well requires a few more things like clean air, clean water, nutritious food, comfortable shelter, love. We tend to want even more to live even better more more comfortably. Paradoxically, acquiring much more can actually be detrimental to living well. The business and stress in getting the many more things can take away from our sense of well-being and strain social or nurturing relationships. Industriousness can pollute air and water. It can lead to the consumption of unnutritious, processed, and fast food. Relationships can break up due to stress, mental health problems, drugs, alcohol, infidelity. Good will and good faith can get undermined. Jesus told Martha she was busy and overly concerned about many things when only a few things were needed. This inordinate drive from the heart can be detrimental to actual physical well-being and to our spiritual sense of well-being. We can become physically ill and emotionally and mentally ill. Not everything pleasurable is good, some is detrimental, yet the inordinately willful heart insists on having its way, even when the intellect which knows better wants or wills otherwise. Children lacking intellect, who are emotionally or pleasure driven, are especially subject to this. They need parental guidance and control. As Paul said, when I was a child I thought as a child and when I became a man I thought as a man. Unfortunately, we don't totally morally or spiritually mature as we leave childhood. We remain morally incontinent to some extent, some of us more or less. Jesus told Martha that her sister chose the better part of what is needed. I think the better part she chose was to learn from him how to enlighten and heal the inordinate, willful heart to change for the better, to gain well-being in the heart. A heart of well-being wills well or has good will. A heart with ill-being wills poorly or has ill will. The emotional disposition of the heart matters. It is the inner climate or atmosphere or spirit of the soul. A calm sunny disposition is better than a dark stormy disposition. Equanimity is better than depression or anxiety. A full heart is better than a needy heart. The one is generous and gives, the other grabs and takes. An ill heart is more needy, desperate, wanton, willful than a well heart. Even when a person has what they need to live relatively well, if his heart is ill or has an ill sense of being, he still feels needy, desperate, wanton, willful. Ecclesiastes called that a grievous thing for a man to have all he wants yet be unable to enjoy it. His heart is not at rest which wills his intellect to do its bidding like pharaoh's taskmaster. His restless mind doesn't find peace of mind or sabbath rest. His attention is distracted by this, that and another thing, wandering away in a wilderness, searching for a promised land that can't be found without but within. How does Christ change the heart (metanoia) of Mary, Martha's sister? Instruction or education helps. But we already know that the emotional heart doesn't always listen to the intellect. Often the intellect does the willful heart's bidding instead. Still, with enough instruction to give insight into the soul or psyche, didactic learning helps. I read that Aristotle in his Nicomachean Ethics thought it not worth while to instruct the uneducated masses since they were too ignorant of subtle teachings. He thought they would better respond to reward and punishment like a stubborn donkey to a carrot on a stick or a dumb ox to the cattle prod from behind. (That's my paraphrasing.) I'm glad Jesus didn't think so and taught the uneducated people he shepherded like his sheep with imaginative stories and parables or with short pearls of wisdom easily remembered. We are to consume his words like grass, chew on them, let them digest, revisit them, chew on them some more, let them digest some more like ruminating sheep. Sometimes stories with good lessons with a little drama and emotion can get to the heart to change it when intellect alone cannot. Another approach to get to the heart is by calming the heart. Once calm, free of emotional drive distracting the intellect, the heart can learn better. Come to me all who are burdened and heavy laden, for I am meek and gentle of heart. My yoke is easy, my burden is light, he cried out. Jesus taught by example, not only by words. Those who can, do; those who cannot, teach. He was a doer, not just a teacher. He can calm the stormy soul within us with its emotionally driving winds and thought tossing waves like he did the Sea of Galilee. It takes practice to pull in our sails and put up our oars and lie still next to him on a cushion in the hull of the ship. A ship rocks more at the top of a mast than it does at the bottom in its hull. In other words, don't give the windy emotions force by catching them in the sails of our soaring imaginations when they are blowing from the heart. And don't fight against the tossing thoughts that rise and fall like waves with more oars of thoughts, but lie inwardly still next to him until the inner storm passes. Like I said it takes practice, and it takes faith to do this. It's best to practice this when things aren't already stormy yet. Faith is another approach to change the willful heart. Faith is conviction. The willful heart is convinced it knows best. It is often more convinced than the intellect. The willful heart has more faith in itself than in its intellect. It doesn't want to listen to the intellect. It's when the heart becomes convinced of Christ that he knows best that it, instead of being willful, becomes willing to him. A willing heart is a humble heart towards him. A willing heart is a gentle and meek heart towards him. A willing heart is a poor in spirit heart towards him. A willing heart is a patient heart. Better are those who are patient in spirit than those rich or proud in spirit as Ecclesiastes says. A heart convinced of Christ, convicted in Christ, with faith in Christ, calmed by him, humble with him is a heart more easily instructed by him in words and by example. His actions speak louder than his words. His life was full of faith, instructions, pearls of wisdom, good emotions, and even heart stirring drama caused by others to change the faithful souls' hearts and minds and wills for the better, ie, metanoia. The children of Israel could have straight way entered the promised land, yet due to lack of faith in God's will they wandered afar in the wilderness.The distance between the head and the heart isn't far, yet the mind wanders afar in the wilderness of the uncultivated soul. The Sign of the Cross spans the distance from head to heart in the name of the Father and of the Son. The Father wills. The Son straight way carries out his will by the power from shoulder to shoulder of the Holy Spirit. From head to heart to shoulders to arms and hands the will should move. Their will is one unlike our divided wills. What strength of faith Christ had to become willing even unto death, death on a cross. How did he do it? In the cultivated garden of Gethsemane, he surrendered his last human will to become willing to the divine will. And all we are asked is to help carry his cross like Simon of Cyrene, not hang on it. Yet like Simon, we do it unwillingly. His cross is his yoke he invites us to share with him. The more willful and unwilling the heart, the heavier it (the heart) feels. The more willing and less willful the heart, the lighter and easier it (the cross) will be. Don't you see? Our heavy hearts are the cross he bore and bears on his shoulders. Can't we lighten his load? He takes our cross upon his shoulders and gives us wings of the Spirit upon ours. The old Adam bears burdens and a yoke to cultivate the wilderness for his many wants besides needs. The new Adam need only bear wings.

The Scriptures reflect the soul, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful. Christ reflects the best of the beauty of the soul. He fulfills Scripture, thus he fulfills the soul. He completes the soul, thus he completes Scripture. He is found throughout the Scriptures making the bad good, the good better, the ugly beautiful, and the beautiful more beautiful. He can do the same for the soul. It makes sense to interpret Scripture in light of him who brings light to the soul.

Psalm 22 was set to the melody of the 'Doe of the Dawn'. We have the words to the Psalms but not the original music to them. Words denote but they also can have connotation. You can find additional spiritual meaning in the words of Scripture in their connotation which expresses an underlying spirit. I imagine the music with its melody, rhythm, and tempo added meaning to the words of the Psalms. Music conveys emotion to the lyrics. Together the music and the words or lyrics communicate an emotional disposition or spirit from the artist to listeners. What comes to my mind with 'Doe of the Dawn' is a excited hunter seeing a doe at first light in the cross hairs of his bow. It's bitter sweet. On the one hand he sees the beauty of the deer, but knows he must kill it to sustain his family. A poet once penned, 'Yet each man kills the thing he loves, By each let this be heard, Some do it with a bitter look, Some with a flattering word, The coward does it with a kiss, The brave man with a sword!' Jesus recited Psalm 22 on the cross. He poured out his Spirit which he commended back to his Father. The Word and the Spirit together made and still make beautiful music together which they communicate to their listeners, to those who have the ears to hear and hearts to comprehend and appreciate. Words without breath are not expressed in voiceful verse. In the beginning, together the Word of God and the Spirit of God expressed the universe into being. The universe is their poetic verse, their beatific song. The Logos is the divine poet. The Spirit adds divine melody. Time is their tempo as the universe, their verse, unfolds. Space is their song sheet. Stars are notes falling into their stanzas or galaxies. We too can become a part of their song. We can harmonize with their music when our wills harmonize with the Father's will. We can become concordant notes. We need not be discordant. Yet, even sharps and flats have their place in music. Nothing need go to waste. Yes, on the Cross the Word incarnate sang a psalm, a continuation of the song he began in the beginning. Before commending his Spirit back to his Father, he cried out, "It is finished!" (telos). Some songs convey a joyful spirit. Some songs, dirges, convey a sorrowful spirit. Sung to God, whether a carol or a dirge, they are songs of praise and worship. No, our sorrow need not go to waste. It too can make beautiful music when we be brave. Psalm 22 starts as a dirge, but ends as a song of praise. Christ allows us to enter into his song. Good Friday is bitter sweet isn't it? By his stripes we are healed. By the sacrificial Lamb of God we are sustained for eternity. Some kill the one they love cowardly with a kiss. Some bravely approach placing their hand in his side pierced by their sword. The Roman soldier lanced his side to make sure he was dead. Faith is surety he rose from the dead.

There is a lot of drama (happy and sad) and some comedy (humor) in Scripture because there is a lot of drama and the like in the human soul. There is the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful in both. The soul and Scripture reflect one another. The truth of Scripture can transform the soul from bad to good and from ugly to beautiful when the soul has the eyes to see, the ears to hear, and the heart to comprehend, ie, insightful faith. Scripture can be like a light penetrating the soul. Contemplation can be like a light penetrating the soul. Scripture is like the oil lamp. Christ (Anointed) is like the oil. The Spirit is like the fire. The three together penetrate into the depth of the soul, ie, the heart. "Let there be light." "Quiet on the set. Lights, camera, action." In quiet prayer or contemplation with the Lamp, the Oil, and the Light, the nous or spirit of the soul sees the drama in the soul. The veil over the heart tears like Christ's side. What once was hidden or in secret or veiled is seen. What was once spoken in a whisper is shouted from the rooftops. What was once obscure in the heart is comprehended. The Father sees what is in secret in the heart because His Spirit or omnipresent awareness is already there waiting for the soul discipled and prepared by the Word to receive him. The truth of the Word transforms the bad to the good and the ugly to the beautiful. The soul's drama has a happy (beatitude) ending. Beatific vision is better than our carnal sensory vision. The latter is like watching an old black and white film noir B movie on your phone alone. In comparison, the former is like watching 'Gone with the Wind' in Technicolor in panavision sitting next to your friends. If we learn from the drama in our lives and in Scripture, our lives don't have to end vainly like the weeping Scarlett O'Hara, but fulfilled like the weeping Mary Magdalene after she saw the risen Christ. Tears of sorrow cloud the vision. Tears of joy cleanse the eyes to the soul.

Yes, many Protestants are preoccupied with salvation. It's the pivotal point in their faith experience. It's the climax of their faith experience. It often occurs at the beginning of their faith experience. They have a conversion, altar call, profession of faith and baptism all in a matter of moments. It's intense. But what happens after this for the next 40 years of their lives? That intensity won't last. Then the true test of faith occurs, living out the faith in the daily grind of life. Faith is more than an intellectual assent to the truth. It is more than the emotional intensity of conversion. It is living faithfully or being faithful, internally, expressed externally. Faith to the end is fidelity. Fidelity = faith + love. Fidelity requires good effort. Faith is acting in good faith. Love is having good will and acting on it. A profession of faith is the beginning of salvation. It isn't the end of salvation. Fidelity is. In the middle in the daily grind of life is faithfulness. It is in this middle where the soul continues to be discipled by Christ, grows and transforms, like a seed into wheat to bear more seed, in preparation for the end or harvest where the fulfillment or telos of faith with Christ's Spirit occurs. In many respects it's more intense than the initial conversation experience, but its intensity is spread out over chronological time instead of at one moment. The real pivotal moment or climax in the faith occurs at the end. Unless you are the suffering repentant thief on the cross right next to Christ on his Cross which is the Tree of Life, salvation isn't necessarily a one time chronological event at the beginning. It's a series of moments in chronological time. The Ancients distinguished between two types of time. There is chronological time or kronos time, and there is kairos time or opportune time. There is an opportune time and chronological season for everything under heaven. In his mercy, God put Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden of kairos time into kronos time. Had they eaten of the Tree of Life in their fallen unfaithful state, they would have remained that way for eternity. Such is hell, not heaven. Their 'no' to God could have been an eternal 'no'. He gave them kronos time to repent and grow in faithfuness. By the sweat of his brow would Adam till the ground, plant seed, and weed. In labor would Eve bear her seed. However, God gave them the promise of hope (faith is the assurance of hope as Paul pointed out) of their Seed to come at the right opportune kairos time to redeem them, to redeem their seed, and to redeem the time wasted. St. Paul mentions about redeeming the time. At one time he was the enemy of the Christ's Church, kicking against the goad. Eve's Seed came at the right kairos time when Mary gave her eternal 'yes' or fiat to God in kairos time, in contrast to Eve's 'no' which God mercifully placed in kronos time. Mary's Seed came at the right time in the right place on the Cross, the Tree of Eternal Life. There truely is an opportune time and season for everything under heaven. Kronos time met kairos time when Mary gave her eternal 'yes' to God, and when Christ gave his eternal 'yes' to his Father. They reversed the curse. They redeemed the lost time besides the too many lost souls. Our faith journey is in kronos time because unfortunately we too often say 'no' to God. He mercifully gives us kronos time to finally give our eternal 'yes' to him through Christ when we enter into Christ's kairos time planted here as his Cross and in heaven as the Tree of Eternal Life. He is the Fruit filled with seed on that Tree who saves, but not only saves, but nourishes, grows, and sustains us to the end of kronos time, bringing the faithful soul into his eternal kairos time. When I gaze into the beauty of Scripture and into the beauty of the soul, which both reflect one another as infinity mirrors placed in front of one another, the intensity of it all, the intensity of the light of it all, makes my eyes tear. Christ clears and dries the tears from Adam's and Eve's eyes. It's all so poetic but true. I don't know know which is more beautiful, the poetry or the truth. Then again in Christ they both are one and the same.

A hidden gem of a video. So helpful!

Sweden is cool when they’re pagan or Atheist etc. with their metalheads Orthodox Christianity is meh 😅

Great interview. I'm a descendant of Swedes (though we've been in the US for 5 generations now), so it's lovely to see the Faith growing in the homeland.

At first it seems strange to think of the secular or Lutheran Swedes as Orthodox, but then again Finland and Russia aren't far away. If Christ can span the distance between heaven and earth or the distance between God and man, then he can span the distances between the East and the West or between the secular material and the spiritual religious. I think that if we could read and understand the Scriptures and Tradition with a contemplative phromena or spirit or mind of Christ, the distances would be much closer. Also, I would like to add that if there was a common ancient language like Greek for the Orthodox liturgy mixed with Swedish, then the individual Greek, Slavic, Russian, Antiochian Churches in Sweden would all be essentially one. Small churches wouldn't be struggling. Native Swedes would be more receptive without the ethnic name in front of Orthodox Church.

Q: "How many Orthodox does it take to change a light bulb?" A: "CHANGE?!" I've always been in an ER parish since becoming Orthodox (10+ years), but I'm intrigued by the WR. Unfortunately, the nearest WR parish is about 300 miles away. There's a WR monastic community in Colorado that I've been thinking about visiting. I'm no theologian, but it seems to me that having a strong WR presence would create a great landing place for so many of the disaffected Catholics out there seeking a refuge. *edit: I think there is potentially an argument to be made that it's exactly the 'otherness' of the ER that has drawn so many people in.

There are many vices. You wonder why these eight were emphasized. Perhaps they relate more to the ascetic life and are an impediment to the practice of contemplation. Perhaps they readily arise in the psyche or soul when an ascetic deprives himself of the sensual. When you deprive yourself of the stimulating senses, you attend more to the imaginative coming from the memory. For example, when you fast, tastey food enters the imagination. You recall tastey food from your memory and you anticipate eating it again. As you try to discipline a passion, it initially stimulates the passion all the more. The same goes with depriving yourself of sex and money or material goods and physical comfort, ie, gratification. Depriving yourself of pleasures and even of the pleasures of fanciful vain thoughts leads to lack of stimulation of body and mind. Listlessness, sadness, despondency, apathy, indifference, luke-warmness can set in. You could then overreact by becoming willful in getting what you want when you want how you want. Willfulness is connected with anger or excessive zeal. It's connected to pride. Pride is self-gratification. When you zealously work to get what you want and get it, you feel proud of yourself. You dominated and conquered instead of being dominated and conquered. If you fail, then you feel dejected or poorly of yourself. You were conquered and dominated. Your pride is hurt. Mentally you vain gloriously fantasize or imagine yourself in situations where you succeed and conquer with others watching, applauding, and congratulating you. It's a desire for relatively high social ranking. Of course these vices occur in us who are not ascetically living, but perhaps they arise more acutely in the ascetic who tries to quiet his senses and imagination during the process of contemplation. When the ascetic succeeds at quieting the senses and goes into sensory deprivation, the imagination then kicks in to preoccupy the mind stealing the attention away from the resting awareness. Instead of internal peace, the imagination becomes restless to disturb that inner peace. There's an added drive behind difficult to control desires. Desire with its promise of pleasure is itself a strong or driving motive. There's another added driving or strong motive. It's willfulness, getting what you want when you want how you want, the pleasure of conquering or dominating pride, and the fear of hurt pride or dejection in being conquered or dominated by circumstances or others. It's as if there are two difficult to control, spirited, driving horses pulling our chariots off to war. We lose control of the reigns. Our psyches and behaviors are driven by willfulness. I like the pastoral analogy Christ gave about being yoked with him. I read somewhere that an undisciplined, high spirited, young, inexperienced ox was yoked with a mature, experienced, mellow, stronger ox in order to teach the former to plow a straight furrow. In contrast to warring, farming is peaceful and productive. When our souls or psyches are yoked with Jesus who is gentle and humble of heart, they find rest and peace. His yoke is easy and his burden is light because he bears most of it. He is the wisdom that drives the oxen and plants the seed. Our hearts are the fallow ground which were once fields of battle.The ascetic life is beating swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. There is internal war no more. The laborious practice of contemplation rests and becomes a free flowing art.

Nice perspective from a longtime Orthodox

A timely conversation as we round out the first week of Great Lent. Fasting has been such an important addition to my life since becoming Orthodox (not to say I always do it well!). I increasingly see a connection, at least for me, between eating too much and too many rich/delicious foods, and an increase in other temptations, particularly lust, anger and laziness.

Hey Max, I like when your show has represented the testimonials of everyday Orthodox and has generally kept to the golden mean on dogmatic theology. In the representation of your more credentialed guests however there has been a very clear bent towards a very liberal and modern view not normatively and historically held in the church. Dr. Ladouceur for instance is an advocate for Fr. Florovsky and Fr. Sergei Bulgakov, both champions of universalism and ecumenism. If you would like to balance out your show and represent the historically Orthodox view, please consider bringing on Fr. John Whiteford, Fr. Josiah Trenham, Fr. Stephen De Young, or any clergy that are vocally condemning of universalism, and ecumenism (which is the standard Orthodox position). It may just be that most clergy in Canada are on the more liberal and modern side, in which case it is an unfortunate Canadian norm, not an accurate representation of Orthodoxy...

After explaining his teachings on the parables of the seeds, Jesus told his disciples that a properly discipled scribe on matters of the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a household who brings forth to display both old and new treasures from his storehouse. Sound traditions are like fundamental principles which span the ages, yet sometimes they need new applications. There are principles behind the application of rules. Good rules need good foundational principles which span the ages, and they also need prudent application pertinent to the new times at hand, ie, economia. Your episodes are showing continuity from one to the next. The principle traditions provide continuity from one age to the next. Thus, there are principle traditions and there are traditions of application. The former are more fundamental or foundational than the latter. With respect to Christian tradition, first is Christ and his teachings, then his scribes (apostles) and their teachings, then their disciples (the apostolic fathers) and their teachings, etc. It's like sowing seed. Unless a grain dies and falls to the ground it will not bear fruit a hundred fold. Sometimes the enemy sows tares with the wheat. No worry, at the end of the growing season, the master of the harvest will separate the good and the bad. Christ is the foundation of foundations. Others will add to it as they build. All will be tested by fire. Like precious metals, principle traditions will survive and be refined. Unprincipled traditions will perish, yet the faithful will not perish but be saved. Principle tradition is like fine wine from a living vine with healthy branches. It ages well into vintage wine. Wine needs wineskins in which to be stored safely and age well. The wineskins can change from age to age as they age. They don't age as well as their wine. The Church's applicable rules are like wineskins. They are there to preserve the wine. Sometimes they wear out. At Eucharist, vintage wine is offered. I wouldn't say the liturgy is old wineskins. When done well, it's more like gold or silver chalices brought forth from the scribe's treasure house.

Grown men talking about magical beliefs. I'll never understand.

High standards are better than low standards. Those with high standards might fail to reach their mark more often than those with such low standards that they rarely miss their mark. A high hurdle runner is a better hurdler than a low hurdle runner even if he tips over more hurdles. What matters is finishing the race in a timely manner. For most, the race of life is a marathon not a sprint. Marathons in ancient Greece had natural hurdles or obstacles along the long path to the finish. You won't finish the race of life straying from the path. If you are not able to run the high hurdles, run the low hurdles, or if you are not able to run the marathon, walk the marathon, but finish the race. The crucial word is 'able'. Acting with good will in good faith with good effort matters. If you fail despite good will, good faith, and good effort, you can't be blamed. Though technically you missed the mark, in spirit you hit the mark. The servant who was given 5 talents wasn't expected to make 10 more talents. His master was happy with 5 more talents. The servant who was given 1 talent wasn't expected to make 5 more talents. His master would have accepted interest. The servants given the 10 talents and 5 talents had good will, acted in good faith and put good effort into their investments. They were praised and rewarded. The servant who buried his talent didn't have good will nor did he act in good faith, and he put poor effort into it. His lip-service deceptive excuse was exposed. The servant given the 10 talents had high standards he met. The servant given the 1 talent had low standards he couldn't even meet. The servant given the 5 talents represents economia.

Hey ! Good to see this

Not to suggest reading, research, questions and debate don't have their place, but they'll only take you so far. I've found this quote from Fr. Pavel Florensky to be the inescapable truth in my own experience of becoming Orthodox. “The life of the Church is assimilated and known only through life-not in the abstract, not in a rational way. If one must nevertheless apply concepts of the life of the Church, the most appropriate concepts would be not juridical and archeological ones but biological and aesthetic ones. . . . The Orthodox taste, the Orthodox temper is felt but is not subject to arithmetical calculation. Orthodoxy is shown, not proved. This is why there is only one way to understand Orthodoxy: through direct Orthodox experience. . . . To become Orthodox it is necessary to immerse oneself all at once in the very element of Orthodoxy, to begin living in an Orthodox way. There is no other way.”

Since your question came from an Anglican, it might be useful for them to look into the early Celtic Christian history of Britain and Rome's aggressive role in that. The Desert Fathers brought Christianity to the British shores (not Rome). They were Orthodox in faith and it thrived for several centuries. The mission sent from Rome in AD 597 was the oppressive 'civil service' model of the Roman Empire, essentially Bully Boys. Roman regulations and Papal authority engulfed the land and was finally enforced in 664 in England, 696 in Northern Ireland, 716 in Scotland and 755 in Wales. Understanding this reality as an Anglican, who later in life converted to Catholicism (because they told me they were the one true Church) but who always had doubts - led me finally to the Orthodox Church. It's been an exhausting journey (I'm now 70) but I've found peace at last. One book I can recommend on this topic is 'Celtic Christianity' by Ray Simpson.