Ethan D Good > Recent Status Updates

"Instead of striving to understand the meaning of life, we resist it and send out wicked thoughts to our fellow men. In this manner we ourselves become evil. For as soon as such a thought is conceived in our minds, we have accepted the devil, for he is a noetic power and can enter our body. As soon as we have consented to such thoughts, he is here!"

This adds a new meaning to "resist the devil!" Be kind to all.

"Life on earth is manifested in our thoughts. Whatever our thoughts are occupied with, that reflects the kind of life we lead. If our thoughts are quiet and peaceful, kind and loving, there’s peace for us; and if they are negative, there’s disquiet and restlessness. [...] For God is peace; God is comfort and joy to all people."

"And so, we must always fall down before the Lord and His Most Holy Mother. We must pray to Him to make us worthy of loving Him as His Most Holy Mother, the angels, and the saints love Him. The Almighty Lord can certainly help us in this. He desires us to be like this, so that we can be with Him for all ages and throughout eternity in His love and His embrace."

"For this reason we must always be in contact with the Source of life, with God--always without ceasing. As soon as our inner peace is troubled, we must immediatelv ask for His help [...] The soul knows that it must pass through the fire and water of this world in order to rise above the little things of this world that torment us. What torments us most are our thoughts. Thoughts make us do all kinds of things. "

"When one uses one’s discernment, then one is also vigilant. Vigilance is also needed in prayer. Our attention must precede our prayer. We must know what we are asking for in prayer. You see, when we ask a favor of someone, we say, “I know you can help me if you apply yourself to it.” That means our attention is on the words we are saying when asking for help."

I struggle with this a lot. Pray for me to be vigilant.

"We are called to do good deeds, but it is not through good deeds that we are saved. If we were to be saved by our deeds, then it would not have been necessary for the Lord to come down and save us. We are saved only by the mercy of God. It is the Grace of God that saves. The Lord saves. We can get a reward for our good deeds, but salvation is from God."

"QUESTION: What is the most important thing in one’s spiritual life?
ANSWER: To guard the peace in our hearts. Do not let this peace be disturbed at any cost."

"The Holy Fathers say that obedience is greater even than fasting or prayer. This is something I did not understand very well when I was younger. If we have no obedience, then our fasting is in vain."

"Therefore, let us be thankful to God for everything. He knows why He has put us in the position where we find ourselves, and we will get the most out of it when we learn to be humble."

"As soon as we break the law of God, our conscience begins to bother us. It does not give us rest. And so, we must beseech the Lord in prayer that He may teach us to cleave to Him with all our heart and soul."

"The Principle or Accommodation" chapter caught me by surprise. It explains clearly how the Primitive Church was almost immediately structured around the regional structure of the Roman Empire, as major cities were major social hubs. Thus bishops in a "metropolis" were also given the titles "Metropolitan" as head of the city, and "Patriarch" as head of the diocese/province. Hence, elevating Constantinople later...

"The differences that become clear both in Byzantium and the West in the conception of the Church and its earthly aspect, the differences which stand out also in the evolution of the organization of the two Churches, are due to the fact that the two portions of Christendom have developed under different political and social conditions."

This assessment of Eastern religions like Hinduism, with all of their meditative practices, available to all to partake in regardless of anyone's personal religious views or lack there of, poses a legitimate theological question for Christians: with the proven effects of these practices, along with the testimonies of many to its effectiveness, what is behind this spiritual practice?
This book's clear answer: Demons.

"The 'dialogue with non-Christian religions' has become part of the intellectual fashion of the day; it represents the present stage of ecumenism in its progress towards a universal religious syncretism."

There is no good reason to "dialogue" with non-Christian religions, as if there were some middle ground between our faiths. The only result of this kind of dialogue is a compromise of the truth of Christianity.

"Our holy God has molded us for Theosis, so if we are not deified, our whole life is failure."

The holy Fathers certainly say that within the Church we can attain Theosis. But at the same time they say Theosis is a gift from God, it is not something we can attain on our own. Of course, we must desire, struggle, and prepare ourselves so that we are worthy, capable, and receptive enough to accept and guard this great gift from God,[...] but at the same time, Theosis is a gift of God.

God is not only essence, as the West thinks: He is also energy. If God was only essence, we could not unite with Him, as was written: Never will man see My face and live (Exodus 33:20).

If we grasp a bare electric wire, we will die. However, if we connect a lamp to the same wire, we are illuminated. We see, enjoy, and are assisted by, the energy of electric current, but we are not able to grasp its essence.

"Everything in the Church leads to Theosis [...] Only within the Church can man become a god, and nowhere else: not in universities; not in social services; not in any of the fine and good things that the world has. None of these are able to offer what the Church offers, however good they may be."

With the incarnation of the Logos, a second communion between God and humanity is realised. The first communion was in Paradise. This was broken. Man was separated from God. The all-good God then provided for another, a second communion which can no longer be severed, a union of God and men. This second communion of God and men happens in the person of Christ

Having been endowed "in His image," man is called upon to be completed "in His likeness." This is Theosis. The Creator, God by nature, calls man to become a god by Grace.

"Our life's purpose is declared in the first chapter of the loly Bible, when the Holy author tells us that God created man "in His image and likeness." From this we discover the reat love the Triune God has for man: He does not wish hin simply to be a being with certain gifts, certain qualities, a certain superiority over the rest of creation, He wishes him to
be a god [as in becoming completely like God] by Grace."

This chapter was very fascinating, as the author clearly admits that modern Orthodox ecclesiology is, along with Catholic ecclesiology, inconsistent with the ecclesiology of the early Church.
Where Catholics have a single, universal leader, the Orthodox have a group of national leaders of the universal Church, which is refuted as a nationalistic heresy and merely a different form of universal ecclesiology.

This chapter didn't end how I expected it to, as it actually acknowledges the very glaring flaws I was seeing in the modern Orthodox practice of governance, compared to the perfect pre-Schism model.
The issue isn't that Orthodox have a Eucharistic, priority-based ecclesiology, and the Catholics have a Universal, primacy-based one, it's that both have failed to embody the Eucharistic former ecclesiology properly today

Continued...

Why does the Pentarchy even exist if "priority" is given to the church which best witnesses to Faith in love?

Furthermore, why was Constantinople elevated to 2nd place in the Pentarchy? The answer to all of this is because of the Roman Emperor. The fact that the State and the Church were intertwined so early makes things confusing...

Also, Peter was placed at the head of the first church, Jerusalem.

So Jerusalem had "priority" over the whole Church because of her witness to the Faith, but after 70AD, Jerusalem fell. Afterwards, Rome clearly and decisively earned priority because of her undeniable witness across the empire, and her roots in Peter and Paul. However, if "priority" is granted based on witness, not authority, why did Constantinople inherit Rome's authority instead of a more charitable church?

...Continued

I'd argue it doesn't, as having one bishop at the head of the Universal Church, in the same way you have a bishop at the head of the local body, is a natural/logical development. Also, I doubt any catholic would claim that the local catholic parish is lacking in it's fullness because it has the fullness of Christ in the Eucharist, which is the same Eucharistic Ecclesiology that's supposed to contradict.

These pages draw a clear line: Universal Ecclesiology and Eucharistic Ecclesiology are contradictory. However, I fail to see why. The latter suggests that the "Universal Church" is found in every local church, with the entire body of local churches representing the Universal Church, not by empirical sum, but by oneness.
How then, does that in any way contradict the (obviously Catholic) Universal Ecclesiology?

Continuing...

This chapter so far is clear that universal ecclesiology, taken to its logical extreme leads to one bishop over the Universal Church, just as you might have one bishop over the local church.
The issue is that, while logical, the early Church was conciliar, and a universal bishop naturally has universal primacy which negates the conciliar principle, reducing all other councilmen to advisory positions.