house of blair

From a recent post from Father Stephen:

In the classical Christian understanding of what it means to be human - we do not exist alone - but as participants in a common nature - and though our fall from grace has left us damaged - so that we generally experience ourselves as autonomous individuals - this is not our proper end - salvation restores us to a place of proper communion with God and with other persons. There is an extension, an enlargement of the self, such that our life can no longer be defined simply by reference to the self, but must be seen as it exists in communion with God and others. Thus love becomes the defining act of our existence.

and further on…

But if the human person and his salvation are understood in a proper participatory sense - nothing could be more normal than the intercession of the saints. It is simply a description of what it means to actually share a common life - the life of God. How can those who share in the common life of God not care for and pray for one another? How can they not solicit each other’s concern? Far from distracting from God - it draws us towards a right understanding of God - who is the Lord of Hosts - not the God of the autonomous individual.

Some thoughts on work from St. Theophan the Recluse:

We cannot do without work. Idleness is wrong. It is vitally necessary to work at something - this is your duty, an obligation supported by the terrible threat that everyone who does God’s work carelessly will be cursed. Nor must external relationships be severed - they must be properly kept up. There is a popular misconception that if you take up an occupation, you are moving out of the sphere of things spiritual and pleasing to God.

…But this is not so. The everyday tasks and social activities on which the stability of homes and society depend are tasks appointed by God. By performing them you are not running into the realm of the profane, but going about God’s business. The cares and worries which corrode the heart and destroy its peace are the diseases of fallen man, who tries to arrange his own destiny and goes off at a tangent. They disrupt his thoughts and prevent him from concentrating on the matter at hand.

O heavenly King, Comforter, the
Spirit of truth, everywhere present and
filling all things, the treasury of good
things and the Giver of life, come and
dwell in us, and cleanse us of every
stain, and save our souls, O Good One.

Βασιλεῦ οὐράνιε, Παράκλητε, τὸ
Πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας, ὁ πανταχοῦ
παρὼν καὶ τὰ πάντα πληρῶν, ὁ θη-
σαυρὸς τῶν ἀγαθῶν καὶ ζωῆς χορη-
γός, ἐλθὲ καὶ σκήνωσον ἐν ἡμῖν καὶ
καθάρισον ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ πάσης κηλῖδος
καὶ σῷσον, Ἀγαθέ, τὰς ψυχὰς ἡμῶν.