The Treatment – The Tao of Holy Orthodoxy

September 29, 2018

90. Learn the Lessons of Creation

Open your eyes to see the whole creation as an icon that points you beyond itself to the Uncreated Creator Himself, the God of Heaven. Give thanks to God for the beauty of all things and for everything He provides you from the creation. Stand in awe of the great majesty of the wonders God has made and also pay attention to the simple lessons of small things. With your five senses, learn from the Creation how to live the Way that transcends the five senses. The same One Who made the heavens and the earth reveals to us all theological knowledge, indwells and guides His Church, and leads us on the Path of Holy Tradition toward a deeper experience of Himself. With the help of the world, learn more about what it means to be a stranger in the world who belongs to the Heavenly Kingdom.

Read: Proverbs 6.1-11; Wisdom of Sirach 18.1-7; 42.15-33; Psalm 9.1-6; Psalm 148; Ecclesiastes 7.13; Song of Songs 1.1-2.17; Wisdom of Solomon 13.5; Romans 1.20-21; Luke 12.22-34

September 12, 2018September 12, 2018

88. The Sacred Canons

September 12, 2018September 12, 2018

87. Is Your Heart Wax or Clay?

Love wax seal

How you experience God’s Grace (Energy) depends upon the disposition of your heart. Since God has created you with the freedom to use your will, you choose whether your heart will be humble, soft, obedient, and open to God’s Grace or, conversely, whether your heart will be prideful, hard, self-willed, and closed to God’s Grace. In other words, you determine whether your heart will be like wax or like clay. When the same sun shines down on both wax and clay, the wax softens, but the clay hardens.

When the Holy Scripture speaks of God hardening someone’s heart, understand that the same Grace that hardened the heart of one person would heal and sanctify the heart of another. Again, you choose whether or not to allow the Divine Grace to work within you.

If your heart is humble like wax, God will impress his seal into your heart so that you may be conformed to His likeness and act according to His will.

Read: Exodus 7-15

August 27, 2018September 24, 2018

86. The Lunar Lamp

moon moonlight

When you see the moon, especially in its full phase as night, remember our ministry as the Church, and your own individual purpose, to serve as light upon a world blinded by darkness.

You cannot reach your potential if you allow yourself to be obscured by the shadows of the world, that is, the sin, ignorance, and distractions around us. Remain full and bright through repentance, prayer, and the full Life of the Church. Reflect the Light of Christ so that your life may provide the much-needed light of Love and Truth to others. When the night is darkest, the eyes need light most to see the Way.

Read: Genesis 1.16; Psalm 8; 148.3-6; Wisdom of Sirach 43.1-10; Matthew 5.14-16

August 20, 2018August 20, 2018

84. Unity of the Body; More than a Colony

800px-Leaf_cutter_ants_arp

Individual ants work together for the benefit of the colony. Together, they accomplish much more than each could do alone. The Church is a community with a mission – a mission to love each other within the Church and, in unity, to extend God’s love out into the society. We are the Church. You are one of us.

Collaborating ants provide an image of how we should work together, but it doesn’t really capture the depth of the unity we share. We are joined with Christ and bound together in the Holy Spirit as one Body, that is, the perfect, pure Body of Christ, in an indescribable spiritual union.

The relationship between the individual Orthodox believers in the Church is analogous to your own physical body. Your body functions as a whole because the particular parts and systems operate in harmony together. With your senses, you see, hear, touch, taste, and smell the world. The hands, arms, legs, and feet work in coordination. Similarly, within the Body of Christ, you have a particular role to fulfill in harmony with all the other parts, your fellow believers. Whether you are an eye or an ear, a hand or a foot, you are a member of the Body of Christ with work to do. Your local parish will be most effective when the believers work together, each offering his or her own particular contribution, to do the work of Christ in the world.

Our lives are interconnected for the good of our salvation and the salvation of the world. Understand that you have a part, in concert with others, in the Church’s work. Strive to personally share more deeply in the inner perfection of the Body of Christ. Also, dedicate your time, your skills, and your resources toward fulfilling your particular contribution to the common work.

Read: John 17.9-23; Romans 12.3-8; 1 Corinthians 12.1-31; Colossians 2.18-19; Ephesians 4.1-16; 5.21-32