{"id":676,"date":"2014-03-16T10:00:37","date_gmt":"2014-03-16T15:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=676"},"modified":"2014-03-15T14:03:05","modified_gmt":"2014-03-15T19:03:05","slug":"the-spirituality-of-the-christian-east-20140316","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=676","title":{"rendered":"The Spirituality of the Christian East \u2013 20140316"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Saint_Theophan_the_Recluse_1\"<\/a>I recently came across a wonderfully little book entitled Turning the Heart to God. <\/i>It was written by Theophan the Recluse. I\u2019d like to share part of this book with you and also add my own commentary.<\/p>\n

Theophan begins by asserting that the main task on our journey to the heavenly Father – on the way to salvation – is to live in the spirit of Christ\u201d. He succinctly asserts that the final goal of life\u2019s journey is \u201ccommunion with God.\u201d This is the main purpose of life with all of its challenges. These challenges are but opportunities for us to progress in our personal transformation, which is the main requirement for our \u201ccommunion with God\u201d.<\/p>\n

Theophan writes that \u201cthe way to this goal lies through faith in Christ\u201d, together with constantly observing and keeping His primary commandment to: Love God and to love your neighbor as yourself.<\/p>\n

While this way seems simple, it is difficult for most of us to just embrace it. Our souls, says Theophan, are \u201cpulled by one passion or another\u201d and is easily distracted from this task.<\/p>\n

Think about it. It is so easy to make excuses why we are not going to love or forgive that person who hurt us or who doesn\u2019t embrace the same morality that we do. Also, there are the exigencies of life that keep us from giving our entire attention to our spiritual growth.<\/p>\n

Theophan maintains that we humans, by nature, are not necessarily disposed to automatically embrace the way of Jesus. He attempts, in his book, to first address this primary question: \u201cHow does one reach the point where the desire is born to move towards God by way of Christ?\u201d<\/p>\n

It must be pointed out that in addition to a \u201cdesire\u201d to live as Jesus lived, it is \u201cnecessary\u201d, says Theophan, to have the strength and the ability to act – that is, active wisdom\u201d.<\/p>\n

It is my hope that Theophan\u2019s ideas and mine will help on your journey. <\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently came across a wonderfully little book entitled Turning the Heart to God. It was written by Theophan the Recluse. I\u2019d like to share part of this book with you and also add my own commentary. Theophan begins by … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[39],"class_list":["post-676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eastern-christian-spirituality-and-prayer","tag-theophan-the-recluse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":677,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676\/revisions\/677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}