Comments on: Unshakeable Reality

By: syrian88

syrian88 — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 17:29:37 +0000

This winds up being a good warning about the nature of idolatry, which could be defined as “assigning a solid aspect to created things.” Every materialist essentially believes that “matter” is the most self-existent and real thing we are likely to come across and then he goes on to assign qualities of deity to it rather than seeing it as a transient pointer to something else. Maybe that is the big breakdown between secularism and what used to be a called a “Platonic” way of seeing the world (not that Orthodox theology corresponds to a Platonic cosmology exactly). The world is either pointing to something greater or the world is “all there was, is, or will be.” We order everything in our lives accordingly.

By: Unshakeable Reality | The Expanded Kingdom | Scoop.it

Unshakeable Reality | The Expanded Kingdom | Scoop.it — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 20:13:00 +0000

[...] In his novel, The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis imagines a bus-load of people who travel from “hell” to “heaven.” Their trip takes them from a place described as “gray,… [...]

By: TeresaAngelina

TeresaAngelina — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 02:04:37 +0000

Thank you. I’ve read the links, Father, and it now appears that the work place in which I am in is not the only crazy place…it is within myself. Okay. Good to know. I have been reading this week Archimandrite Sophrony’s “On Prayer” with great puzzlement. No; I have not even begun. Thank you Michael and thank you Fr. Stephen. I have read the links and the other links contained. I will bookmark this page. Much to do. (I am new to your site so please forgive me that I did not know where to look. Thank you for offering directions.)

By: fatherstephen

fatherstephen — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 17:22:25 +0000

TeresaAngelina, In addition to repentance, as Michael Bauman pointed out, you might find the suggestions in these two recent posts helpful. They are here and here.

By: Michael Bauman

Michael Bauman — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 15:49:17 +0000

TeresaAngelina: the movement from the false self to the real self is always through repentance. Which is not just feeling badly for our mistakes (although that is a part of it), it is a constant effort to see the false and give it up in prayer to Jesus Christ. There is both the official sacramental repentance with a priest acting as guide, guardian, intercessor and icon of our Lord, but also the daily effort to become more aware of and reject the falseness in our selves as we go about our daily activities. The Jesus Prayer is a good tool for that.

By: eternallypresentfillingallthings

eternallypresentfillingallthings — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 03:23:27 +0000

Thank you, Fr. Stephen!

I especially liked: “This establishes the path of theology. We speak from the place of the shakeable about a place being revealed that is unshakeable. We speak from the less real, about the more real. What we know and experience is not unreal, but its reality is contingent and relative….The Scriptures grant an unmovable quality to the true self (heart). It is a spiritual creation, established in the Lord’s Pascha, and participates in the uncreated life of God. It is through that participation that we know Christ.”

Like others I wish that I could better remember that true reality is far more transcendent & real that the tiny & limited reality that is my “world”.

By: TeresaAngelina

TeresaAngelina — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 03:16:23 +0000

If I may ask, practically speaking, how is the movement from the false self to the real self begun? I almost said “accomplished” but somehow I do not think that would be real either.

By: Anna

Anna — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 17:45:58 +0000

Father, bless!

I could not leave aside the concreteness and materiality of Byzantine architecture as an image (or icon, if you like) of the solidity and reality of spirituality. We tend to think of the spiritual as lacking substance, but perhaps the truth is that the spiritual is more substantial (or solid, or real) than the mere material. I think Lewis was onto something.

By: Drewster2000

Drewster2000 — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 16:23:11 +0000

The Great Divorce is one of my favorites. Though I don’t take it literally, I think it to be one of the most accurate pictures we have of Heaven and our relationship to the after-world. The whole “solid” business is pure genius as a metaphor.

By: Father Stephen

Father Stephen — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 14:29:59 +0000

Nick,
Yes. The photo, though appropriate to Perelandra, was a little weird. We return to something a bit more uplifting.