Convert-itis

Anjali, I can\'t speak for everyone, but it seems to me that \\"convert-itis\\" is simply \\"zeal without knowledge.\\" While that is obviously not something that only the newly-illumined are vulnerable to, in practice one sees \\"zeal without knowledge\\" more frequently among them (mostly, I think, because those of us who have been doing this for awhile all too often succumb to the opposite end of the spectrum and become lukewarm). Zeal isn\'t a bad thing (it\'s good and we need more of it, in fact!), and all these warnings about \\"convert-itis\\" are, I think, a reminder that our zeal must be tempered by sobriety and, most importantly, love. However, it often takes us quite a bit of time to acquire these two virtues for ourselves. For example, when my parents became Orthodox they were very excited and filled with zeal. They had been on a meandering spiritual journey and wanted *everyone* to know that they had finally found Christ\'s Church. But since their zeal was not tempered by sobriety and they possessed an as yet imperfect love, their efforts to share Orthodoxy with their friends and family all too often came across as \\"We\'re in the right church and you\'re in the wrong one.\\" Instead of piquing the interest of their loved ones they upset them and made them feel hurt and angry. Now, almost 30 years later, my parents have learned to temper their zeal, but this lesson came at a high price. We don\'t talk about religion at family reunions and such because too much damage has already been done... Even though sincere apologies were made, my family believes that Orthodoxy is about condemning others, and they don\'t want to know any more about it. Obviously that isn\'t the message my parents wanted to give to their loved ones, but in their abundant zeal they couldn\'t see that the way they were introducing Orthodoxy to everyone was only pushing people away from the Church and from them personally. They were so excited to get the word out, they didn\'t give any though to how they were communicating the word. That\'s only one example of \\"zeal without knowledge,\\" forgive me it\'s length! There is an even better explanation at [url=http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/inquirers/fsr_88.aspx]http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/inquirers/fsr_88.aspx[/url] I absolutely agree with the second part of your message. We need joy and zeal, we need to hold on to, as you put it, the \\"heady love phase\\" because it can make us better Christians. May God grant us zeal, and may He also grant us the wisdom to correctly use that zeal! Fr. John Moses recently had an excellent article in the \\"Return Magazine\\" section of this site called \\"In The Tumbler, or How I Attain Salvation,\\" and I think that it actually speaks to this subject. When people get \\"annoyed\\" with the zeal of the newly-illumned, or when the newly-illumined become disheartened over the \\"lukewarmness\\" of the \\"cradle orthodox,\\" we should go back and re-read this article because it\'s exactly what Fr. John is talking about. This is just one example illustrating that we\'ve all got rough-edges that need to be worked away, and we\'re all here to help each other to do that. That\'s how we\'ll be saved. Forgive me... Brevity is one more virtue I haven\'t yet acquired. Alexis