There is reality, and then there is perception of reality. On Judgement Day, people who are alive in the year 2007 A.D. will look to their left and right, and see people who were alive in 1007 A.D. also rise, and face Judgement. At that moment, the typical excuses we hear in the year 2007 - about why liturgies have to be truncated, why we spend more time watching TV than praying, why we make sure we install comforts such as air conditioning before we open the doors of a Church for service, why Orthros is at 9 a.m. when the word Orthros itself implies \"pre-dawn\", etc - won\'t really matter because everyone is going to be judged equally for what they did and how much they suffered for Christ. Why did the guy living in 1007 have to suffer more than me, and why should I dare to ask for equal treatment, when I was a glutton in the year 2007?
We are living in good times, with plenty to eat and drink, and our gluttonous demands have spilled over to our spiritual demands as well, creating a skewed perception of spiritual reality in the year 2007... let us each examine our spiritual efforts in comparison with what the Desert Fathers, or even our grandparents endured, and only then can we figure out who is \"conservative\" or \"liberal\"...my opinion though is that it is dangerous to seek religious conservatism and asceticism from the comfort of a temperature controled room, in front of a PC screen.
Wanna be a conservative? Look at the experiences mentioned in \"The Ladder\" (or other Desert Father writings, or the lives of the saints), since those experiences were derived from the application of Biblical teaching in real life, and see how conservative you are compared to those writings.... it would be cool if all the hierarchs and clergy do this self-comparison, too.
Giannhs
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