Misha Sarov
#0
from my experience the best way to help people finding the way to the One,Holy,Apostolic and Catholic(catholic means for everyone) Church of Jesus Christ is to live honestly the orthodox life.
st Seraphim of Sarov says\"Acquire the spirit of peace and thousands around you will be saved.\"
st Gregory the Theologian says : \"We must begin by purifying ourselves before purifying others; we must be instructed to be able to instruct, become light to illuminate, draw close to God to bring him close to others, be sanctified to sanctify, lead by the hand and counsel prudently.
there is a severe temptation for everyone of us :it\'s the so called \"missionary zeal\".Its this inner need to tell others about the new situation we have discovered.
an english orthodox priest writes about the zeal:
Therefore,
when we speak of the need to channel zeal, we are in fact talking about
the need to \'internalize\' zeal. To make zeal internal, we are talking
about doing something far harder than condemning others, because they
do not conform to our own self-invented external standards. To internalize
zeal is to stand through all the services praying, discreetly, preferably
at the back of the church. It is to say our prayers at home, making prostrations
to use up our physical energy. It is to keep the fasts secretly, without
talking about them. It is not to talk about ourselves, but to listen and
to observe. It is to read the daily Gospel and Epistle quietly at home.
It is to go to confession discreetly and regularly, with sincere repentance
and self-reproach. It is simply to keep the commandments.\"
Be the first person to like this.
Rev Fr Athanasios Haros
#3
Thank God the early Christians didn\'t focus only on their own life. If they had, I would (I\'m Greek) still worship Zeus I suppose.
To BE an authentic Orthodox Christian and to LIVE an authentic Orthodox Christian IS to be outward in our expression of love for others. That love MUST include sharing the Good News that they can be saved tool
Be the first person to like this.
Marie Moffitt
#5
The success of Russian missionaries came from their practice of going into a new area - this was especially true of the time of the taming of Russia\'s \"wild East\" - and simply living there and treating the indigenous peoples and their beliefs with respect. This is how they worked in Alaska, too. Eventually, people came to respect them and wanted to learn more about their beliefs.
A long-time convert priest I know once said that no-one should be allowed to publish anything about Orthodoxy until he/she has been Orthodox at least ten years. I wonder if ten years is enough. I see a lot of examples of recent converts who get hung up on externals and these people scare the living daylights out of me. Sometimes I feel we accept them into the Church too soon in their spiritual journey, and that instead of adopting an Orthodox worldview, they are actually corrupting the Church with their legalistic western mindset. They need more immersion time in real Orthodoxy or we\'ll end up with the blind leading the blind.
I agree that we need to do both, but I think we need to set a living example first, before we start talking and writing.
Be the first person to like this.
John Chan
#4
Hmmm...
I think the balance is found by being yourself - and letting the Church live through you, while simultaneously realizing that you bring nothing to the Church except your availability.
Remember Balaam\'s *ahem* donkey, after all.
Be the first person to like this.
Misha Sarov
#2
Saint Anthony the Great is considered the founder of Christian monasticism. He was born near Memphis in central Egypt about the year 251 to a well-to-do Christian family. He was left an orphan at an early age. In church one Sunday, when he was about twenty years old, he heard the words of the Gospel, \"If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me\" (Matthew 19: 21). Without hesitation Saint Anthony literally obeyed the words he had heard and disposed of all his possessions. He went out into the desert to live a life of prayer, fasting, and manual labor. At first he was plagued by many temptations, but by the grace of Christ he overcame them. He returned to civilization only twice, to aid suffering fellow Christians during the persecutions instigated by the Emperor Diocletian and to support Orthodoxy against the Arian heresy, which denied that Christ was God.
As Saint Anthony\'s reputation for holiness spread, others went out to share his way of life and to learn from him. So many gathered around that he began to miss the solitude of the early years..Hymns of his feat say that he has transformed the desert to a town! He withdrew deeper into the desert, to a cave in a remote area near the shore of the Red Sea, where he spent the rest of his life. Saint Anthony\'s biography was written by Saint Athanasius, the great archbishop of Alexandria, who knew him personally and relied on him for support and advice. Saint Anthony died in the year 356.
Holy Apostles have also follow the narrow path of Christian therapeutics which is to lead man to purification, illumination and deification (theosis).
for example st Paul has started a missionary work only after seeing Jesus in Damascus and after been personally healed .the same happened with all the others.
Be the first person to like this.
MN
#1
This is my first time back (as an observer-newbie) at a Forum in a long time. The topic is certainly \'hot\'! I\'ve been Orthodox for only 10 years and when I was newly crismated had a Zeal that hurt many relationships.
I still feel strongly about mission work, but my focus has changed (slow learner that I am) to \"internalizing my Zeal\"
May we not grow weary in well doing (in a Loving way)
I now realize that for me to be Loving (in a fundamentalist or evangelical way) is Most Important and maybe it\'s just as important to be missionaries to our own born into Orthodoxy as well as others who are searching.
Be the first person to like this.