grace – Blisswood

Sweet Lights of Hope

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As the candle is pure (pure beeswax), so also should our hearts be pure. As the pure candle is supple, so also should our souls be supple until we make it straight and firm in the Gospel. As the pure candle is derived from the pollen of a flower and has a sweet scent, so also should our souls have the sweet aroma of Divine Grace. As the candle, when it burns, mixes with and feeds the flame, so also we must struggle to achieve theosis. As the burning candle illuminates the darkness, so must the Light of Christ within us shine before all, that God’s name be glorified. As the candle gives its own light to illuminate one in the darkness, so also must the light of the virtues, the light of love and peace, characterize a Christian. The wax that melts symbolizes the flame of our love for our fellow men. ~ St Symeon of Thessaloniki (c. 1381–1429)

May we let the Sweet Lights of Love and Hope in Christ illumine us all!

Whits of Wisdom

Church Mosaic Marble Walkways Strewn with Flower Petals for Funeral Procession

A person is humble when he knows that his very being is on loan to him. ~ St. Maximos the Confessor

Everyone is born at the time best suited for their salvation. ~ St. Ambrose of Optina

Evil walks with small steps. If it were to come all at once, we would not be deceived. – – So in every test, let us say, “Thank you, my God, because this was needed for my salvation.” ~ St. Paisios of Mt. Athos

Don’t expect only sweet things. Expect bitter things, too. When you are given a spiritual state full of grace, expect a temptation soon. Likewise, when you have temptations and grief, be aware that consolation from God is near. ~ Elder Ephraim (My Elder Joseph the Hesychast)

With Harmonious Humility

Prayer is the flower of gentleness and freedom from anger. ~ Evagrios the Solitary

It’s important to quickly resolve conflicts by not letting them fester. If left unchecked, anger breeds bitter resentment – detrimental to our emotional and spiritual well-being.

Anger never remains small. It escalates and grows indignantly into an ugly, oozing, pus-filled, necrotizing, spiritual infection.

In an odd way, anger can also feel pleasurable, as it’s much easier to remain angry than to confront a certain sadness or loss. When we’re angry, our brains secrete an analgesic hormone (norepinephrine) that releases sudden energizing surges of adrenaline. This may sometimes lull us into a default loop of a continual fight or flight mode.

Resentment is a flickering fire, irritation is a burning fuse, and anger is an explosion of dynamite. ~ Priest Valery Dukhanin

St. Dorotheos on Anger and Animosity

Christian Outrage?

With God’s help, reconciling blame and anger is aided with the healing prescription of prayer for the person or situation that caused the hurt. It is only with humility that we can move forward with love, and forgiveness, seeking resolution. The peace of our hearts lie within the grace of self control – acquired through patience and long-suffering.

Lord have mercy! God keep us!

Prayer is the seed of gentleness and the absence of anger. ~ Abba Nilus, Sayings of the Desert Fathers

One must by every means strive to preserve peace of soul and not be disturbed by offences from others; for this one must in every way strive to restrain anger and by means of attentiveness to keep the mind and heart from improper feelings. And therefore we must bear offences from others with equanimity and accustom ourselves to such disposition of spirit that these offences seem to concern not us, but others. Such a practice can give quietness to the human heart and make it as a dwelling for God Himself. ~ St. Seraphim of Sarov, Spiritual Instructions, Little Russian Philokalia

“Since you are God’s dear children you must try to be like Him, your life must be controlled by love…” (Eph. 51-2) Work, vivified by prayer and sacraments, is the way to advance in our likeness in Christ. Only then will we be able to say with Christ, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” (St. Luke 23:34). This is true anger management. ~ Archpriest George Morelli

Divine Beauty of Simplicity

A fistful of garden bluebells and bonnie heather adorn my sunny windowsill.

Orthodoxy is really very simple, although some theologians try to make a complicated system of it. ~ Father George Cheremetieff (Embassy, Emigrants and Englishmen)

If you would be simple-hearted like the Apostles, would not conceal your human shortcomings, would not pretend to be especially pious, if you would walk free from hypocrisy, then that is the path. While it is easy, not everyone can find it or understand it. This path is the shortest way to salvation and attracts the grace of God. Unpretentiousness, guilelessness, frankness of soul – this is what is pleasing to the Lord, Who is lowly of heart. Except ye become like children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of God (Mt. 18:13). ~ Elder Leonid of Optina quoted in Living God’s Word by Fr. Silouan Benedict, Bangalore, India

Orthodoxy is life. One must not talk about it; one must live it. ~ Elder Nektary of Optina

Introduction to the Orthodox Church (short, simple, edifying videos) ~ Frederica Mathewes-Green

Throwing Ourselves

Detail of the Christ Child in the Orans Icon

Let us open our arms and throw ourselves into Christ’s embrace. When Christ comes, we will have gained everything. Christ will alter everything within us. He will bring peace, joy, humility, love, prayer and the uplifting of our soul. The Grace of Christ will renew us. ~ Elder Porphyrios (Wounded By Love)

…Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ~ St. Matthew 18:3

…And, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. ~ St. Matthew 28:20

Pray like a child, in simplicity of heart, concerning all your needs and sorrows, and entrust yourself to God’s Will, for the Lord arranges our salvation. ~ St. Nikon

May we, like trusting children, remember (more often), to run with the outstretched arms of our soul – and hurl ourselves into the warm, comforting Embrace of Christ’s Everlasting Arms!

He’s patiently and lovingly waiting.

For us.

Right now.

Warming Our Frosty Hearts

Shards of ice crystals cover my windshield, hindering clear vision. With a bit of effort, they can be scraped off and kept off… by keeping the car engine warm.

God is a fire that warms and kindles the heart and inward parts. Hence, if we feel in our hearts the cold which comes from the devil – for the devil is cold – let us call on the Lord. He will come to warm our hearts with perfect love, not only for Him but also for our neighbour, and the cold of him who hates the good, will flee before the heat of His countenance. ~ St. Seraphim of Sarov

It is of great significance if there is a person who truly prays in a family. Prayer attracts God’s Grace and all the members of the family feel it, even those whose hearts have grown cold. Pray always. ~ Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica (Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives)

If you find that there is no love in you, but you want to have it, then do deeds of love, even though you do them without love in the beginning. The Lord will see your desire and striving, and will put love in your heart. ~ St. Ambrose of Optina

Petals of Whispered Wisdom

As a perpetual student of flowers, I find their enlightening fragrant grace, simply awe-inspiring!

And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? ~ St. Matthew 6:28-29

As the field is adorned by a multitude of flowers, so should the field of my own soul be adorned by all the flowers of virtue; as the trees bring forth flowers and afterwards fruit, so must my soul bring forth the fruits of faith and good works. ~ St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ

The rose does not speak, but puts forth a strong fragrance. We too, should put forth fragrance, pour forth spiritual fragrance, the fragrance of Christ. The fragrance of our deeds should be heard from far around: good, pure and righteous deeds, full of love. Only thus can the Kingdom of God appear within our hearts, appearing not through words, but with power. ~ St. Luke of Simferopol

Every flower is fragrant through the power of the Holy Spirit, in a delicate flow of aroma and tenderness of colour; the beauty of the Great contained in what is small. ~ Akathist Glory to God for All Things, Kontakion 3

Take delight in all things that surround us. All things teach us and lead us to God. All things around us are droplets of the love of God – both things animate and inanimate, the plants and the animals, the birds and the mountains, the sea and the sunset and the starry sky. They are little loves through which we attain to the great Love that is Christ. Flowers, for example, have their own grace; they teach us with their fragrance and with their magnificence. They speak to us of the love of God. They scatter their fragrance and their beauty on sinners and on the righteous. ~ St. Porphyrios

Whatever in us that truly lives, exuding the fragrance of life like the blossoms in springtime will never know an autumn of decomposition and death. Those alive in Christ experience an everlasting seedtime of continual growth in faith, trust, hope, confidence, understanding, awareness, optimism, love, and joy. For them this world is a mere cocoon destined to release its true self on radiant, pure and glorious wings to a world alive with the fragrance of the Holy Trinity. ~ Fr. Vladimir Berzonsky

Bring to Light

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You are all children of light and children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness… But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:5,8

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: ~ 1 Corinthians 13: 12

Through the Holy Spirit comes our restoration to paradise, our ascension into the kingdom of heaven, our return to the adoption of sons, our liberty to call God our Father, our being made partakers of the grace of Christ, our being called children of light, our sharing in eternal glory, and, in a word, our being brought into a state of all “fullness of blessing,” both in this world and in the world to come, of all the good gifts that are in store for us, by promise hereof, through faith, beholding the reflection of their grace as though they were already present, we await the full enjoyment. ~ St. Basil the Great

Without first experiencing darkness, how would we recognize light?

Reflection of Their Grace

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Our Crowded Hearts

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The heart is but a small vessel; and yet dragons and lions are there, and there likewise are poisonous creatures and all treasures of wickedness; rough, uneven paths are there, and gaping chasms. There also is God, there also are the angels, there – life and the Kingdom, there-light and the apostles, the heavenly cities and the treasures of grace: all things are there. ~ St. Macarius the Great

We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere Incognito. ~ C.S. Lewis