love Archives - Page 13 of 22

Trinity: The Power of Love

02/05/2018

I think it’s foolish to presume we can understand Jesus if we don’t first of all understand Trinity. We will continually misinterpret and misuse Jesus if we don’t first participate in the circle dance of mutuality and communion within which he participated. We instead make Jesus into “Christ the King,” a title he rejected in his lifetime (John 18:37), and we operate as if God’s interest in creation or humanity only began 2000 years ago.

Society: Charity and Good Works (Part II)

01/23/2018

Charity, then, is the natural outgrowth of a soul pursuing love over and against anger. When we are committed to love, we do good. Yet, charity is about more than the one giving it. The exercise of charity and good works is one of the most important means by which we take responsibility for the anger and brokenness of other people, and seek to guide them, and not just ourselves, toward genuine love in accordance

Trinity: Let the Flow Happen

01/22/2018

Think of your own experience: how many people do you know, including yourself, who are really in this divine dance with an appropriate and balanced degree of self-love and self-giving? It is the very definition of psychological maturity. Even so, we all make a lot of missteps as we learn the dance. Insofar as an appropriate degree of self-love is received, held, enjoyed, trusted, and participated in, this is the same degree to which love

Society: Charity and Good Works (Part I)

01/16/2018

Perhaps the most obvious spiritual opportunity offered to us by society is that of performing good works. This opportunity is, in fact, so obvious that we will only devote a very short section to it here, and thus the length of this section is in inverse proportion to the significance of charity and good works in the Christian life. As for the subject, we will pay particular attention to acts of charity, taken as a

The Goal of Life in Society: Cultivating Love, Assuaging Anger (Part IV)

01/09/2018

All of Abba Joseph’s teachings so far probably make pretty good sense to most readers. As much as we may not live up to the ideal of mutual purity of heart, which defines real love, it is pretty easy to see its value, and it is equally easy to see the direct opposition to this ideal that anger presents within us. Yet, one of the most provocative aspects of Abba Joseph’s teaching on relationships is

The Goal of Life in Society: Cultivating Love, Assuaging Anger (Part III)

11/07/2017

Abba Joseph teaches that a Christian’s first priority is to prevent anger from arising in a relationship. By this teaching, Abba Joseph does not mean simply that we should avoid open conflict with other people, which is to say, avoid anger ‘s most obvious outward symptoms. Indeed, pretending one has ceased to be angry by doing things like isolating oneself, stewing in silence, or being what we moderns might describe as “passive aggressive” and trying

The Goal of Life in Society: Cultivating Love, Assuaging Anger (Part II)

11/01/2017

Abba Joseph now expands on his teaching by identifying six key foundations for this kind of true friendship. I) Detachment with regard to all earthly possessions and wealth. 2) Not considering oneself wise, but deferring to the point of view of the other. 3) Seeking love and peace above all. 4) Refraining from anger at all times. 5) Calming the anger of the friend should it arise. 6) Constant reflection on the coming of death.3

The Goal of Life in Society: Cultivating Love, Assuaging Anger (Part I)

10/24/2017

Because we are exploring life in society as a web of relationships, it is important to establish from the outset a picture of what the fathers of the Conferences thought relationships should be like for Christians. No matter how deep into the desert they went, none of the fathers was under any illusion that a human being can live free from relationships with others. What is more, the fathers did not consider a life of

Society

10/17/2017

Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgement; because as he is, so are we in this world. I John 4.17 In many ways the word “society” serves to summarize most or all of that which a non-monastic Christian encounters on a daily basis, but which a desert monk seeks to avoid as a general rule. This includes constant interaction with other human beings, as

Reach out to the Good in the Freedom of Love. Choosing Life.

10/03/2017

Reach out to the Good in the Freedom of Love Evil as a thing in itself does not exist. It has no being, if we think of it as completely separated from the highest Good. Nothing exists that does not participate in the Good. Evil is only a lack of Goodness, and nothing exists that is completely lacking in Goodness. Divine Providence affects every being; there is no being that is outside its influence. When

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Trinity: The Power of Love

Society: Charity and Good Works (Part II)

Trinity: Let the Flow Happen

Society: Charity and Good Works (Part I)

The Goal of Life in Society: Cultivating Love, Assuaging Anger (Part IV)

The Goal of Life in Society: Cultivating Love, Assuaging Anger (Part III)

The Goal of Life in Society: Cultivating Love, Assuaging Anger (Part II)

The Goal of Life in Society: Cultivating Love, Assuaging Anger (Part I)

Society

Reach out to the Good in the Freedom of Love. Choosing Life.

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