Thy Nativity O Christ Our God

A cool drink of Nativity Peace

Vincent

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Nothing to Add

Following a long discussion of Orthodoxy with one of my “Holy Roller” friends, he concluded his thought by saying, “Well, I believe God has you there for a reason.”

He was referring to me bringing some of what I had in my previous life to the Ancient & Holy Orthodox Faith, as if Orthodoxy is dead, void of the Holy Spirit!        I told him that I really have nothing to add.  He looked at me as if I had swallowed a low flying bird.  “Of course,” I told him, ” I can help out with church school & whatever good work my hands can find, but I am just the lowliest of learners, and thrilled to be just that.”  I didn’t get to tell him that I had renounced all my past heretical beliefs.  He probably would have spontaneously combusted right there at my dining room table, and besides it was getting late.

To think that I too, was once ignorant of this unspeakable wealth, this pearl of unfathomably great price.  To think that the God of the Universe lets me say with all the Saints, “O come let us bow down to Christ Himself, our King & our God.”

Orthodox Saint, St Nikolai Velimirovic

“Blessed are the meek….”

Step 24: On Meekness and Simplicity

Meekness is an unchangeable state of mind, which remains the same in honor and dishonor.

Meekness consists in praying calmly and sincerely for a neighbor when he causes many turmoils.

Meekness is a rock overlooking the sea of anger, which breaks all the waves that dash against it, yet remains completely unmoved.

Meekness is the buttress of patience, the door, or rather, the mother of love, and the foundation of discernment, for it is said: The Lord will teach the meek His ways. It prepares us for the forgiveness of sins; it is boldness in prayer; an abode of the Holy Spirit, a fellow-worker of obedience, the guide of the brotherhood, a bridle for the enraged, a check to the irritable, a minister of joy, the imitation of Christ, something proper to angels, shackles for demons, a shield against bitterness.

~The Ladder of Divine Ascent
~St John Climacus