What is Orthodoxy and How Should We Approach it?
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
- Fr. Peter Heers speaks to ROCOR Youth in Australia (December 2023).
QUESTION & ANSWER SESSION:
(52:39): How can we find a balance between wanting to excel in school, career, wanting to start a business, wanting to go out with friends, or watching a TV show, and doing all these things in life that take up so much of our time, versus praying, reading spiritual texts, going to additional Church services? I find myself trapped in past times and events that make me question “Am I really growing closer to God right now?” Sometimes I think what’s the point of putting all my effort and time into doing these activities when it has nothing to do with any spiritual progress?
(58:50): If you were to have an extremely vivid spiritual dream, should you tell someone about it, or be concerned about it, or just brush it off?
(1:02:58): My question has to do with your point of our things mostly coming down to pride. Is it a temptation for us, from the devil to say “Are we actually doing it as a religion, not actually doing it for the sense of being in the likeness of God”? I almost feel like it’s pride in my sense, but I want to just, in the end, like achieve salvation, I want to do it but it feels like I’m doing it wrong or am I doing it right?
(1:09:59): I’m curious following your successes on social media and RUclips if you find that young Christians rely solely on social media for information about theology, without looking for a spiritual father and a real-life community?
(1:13:02): I have recently left traditional Catholicism for Orthodoxy this year. I was wondering… I still got family members and even friends that are close to me and still Roman Catholic and even in other religions (they might be in Islam, they might practice yoga). If they tell me it is all the same that Orthodoxy is all the same to them, like Perennialism, should I admonish them, should I argue with them or should I do something else?
(1:17:21): Going back to the dream question, multiple priests say if the sign of the cross is in the dream, that means that it’s a message from God because because the demons can’t do the sign of the cross.
(1:18:04): I have found that there are people who are trying to provoke you and they are quite defensive about their religion, whether it’s Catholicism or being Mormon, or Islam. Sometimes I get mentally stuck and I don’t know how to answer and I go blank, even though you have read the Scripture and you read the Bible, and read x, y, z. What do you do when you feel like they’re giving a question you can’t give an answer to? How do you respond in a way that is Orthodox instead of just giving up? Because I feel I sometimes don’t have the answer. I don’t know how to respond because I’m being put on the stand.
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QUESTION & ANSWER SESSION:
(52:39): How can we find a balance between wanting to excel in school, career, wanting to start a business, wanting to go out with friends, or watching a TV show, and doing all these things in life that take up so much of our time, versus praying, reading spiritual texts, going to additional Church services? I find myself trapped in past times and events that make me question “Am I really growing closer to God right now?” Sometimes I think what’s the point of putting all my effort and time into doing these activities when it has nothing to do with any spiritual progress?
(58:50): If you were to have an extremely vivid spiritual dream, should you tell someone about it, or be concerned about it, or just brush it off?
(1:02:58): My question has to do with your point of our things mostly coming down to pride. Is it a temptation for us, from the devil to say “Are we actually doing it as a religion, not actually doing it for the sense of being in the likeness of God”? I almost feel like it’s pride in my sense, but I want to just, in the end, like achieve salvation, I want to do it but it feels like I’m doing it wrong or am I doing it right?
(1:09:59): I’m curious following your successes on social media and RUclips if you find that young Christians rely solely on social media for information about theology, without looking for a spiritual father and a real-life community?
(1:13:02): I have recently left traditional Catholicism for Orthodoxy this year. I was wondering… I still got family members and even friends that are close to me and still Roman Catholic and even in other religions (they might be in Islam, they might practice yoga). If they tell me it is all the same that Orthodoxy is all the same to them, like Perennialism, should I admonish them, should I argue with them or should I do something else?
(1:17:21): Going back to the dream question, multiple priests say if the sign of the cross is in the dream, that means that it’s a message from God because because the demons can’t do the sign of the cross.
(1:18:04): I have found that there are people who are trying to provoke you and they are quite defensive about their religion, whether it’s Catholicism or being Mormon, or Islam. Sometimes I get mentally stuck and I don’t know how to answer and I go blank, even though you have read the Scripture and you read the Bible, and read x, y, z. What do you do when you feel like they’re giving a question you can’t give an answer to? How do you respond in a way that is Orthodox instead of just giving up? Because I feel I sometimes don’t have the answer. I don’t know how to respond because I’m being put on the stand.
Την ευχη σας Πατερ.
My wife's Catholic sister didn't even know about the Orthodox Church. She asked my wife if it was a cult. I wish more in America knew the history.
Yes, it's the cult of Yeshua (she's not gonna know who that is)
You are how we found the Church. Annnd we were baptized this past Saturday. Thank you father for all you do.
(not baptized yet)...but also how we found The Church! Congratulations on your baptism!
Welcome home, my family! Myself and my family of 7 were also baptised a year ago.
God bless you!
welcome home
@@areyoutheregoditsmedave it feels great. Thank you. We have been long time believers and was starting to think everyone was in a cult and there was no place of worship until we found Father Peter. I grew up in Pittsburgh but I thought orthodoxy meant Jews. We watched intro to orthodox and did everything Father said immediately. We even found a parish and spiritual father/priest that has a lot of respect for Father Peter.
@@MajorMustang1117 thank you. Glad you also got your whole family in.
Between you and Fr. Josiah Trenham’s reviews and teachings, my family and I found the church and learned enough to help us see things more clearly. We would listen to what you were saying and then go look things over. Through it all, we left the Baptist church that we had been attending and are now catechumen at an Orthodox Church in Lakeland, FL. Thank you and Fr. Trenham for your many lessons. Thank the Lord for Holy Orthodoxy. Glory to Jesus Christ! ☦️
@30:05 I found this very fruitful and impactful message. I often suffer from remorse and this is just what I needed to hear. Glory to God in all things.
Thank you, Fr. Peter
GLORY TO GOD, Dr. Michael!
Thanks be to Him for all things.
- Fr. Peter
Simply awesome...life saving...the right medicine for me.
So thankful for this and this moment
Thank you for the Lecture Father Peter. Glory to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit ☦️🙏
28:49 I love that analogy. I don’t think most of us are thinking in that way, yet the Apostle Paul talks about training (both spiritually and physically).
Just starting the video. Anytime anybody asks about learning about Orthodoxy, I ALWAYS recommend Fr. Peter's Orthodox Ethos if they want deep learning. He's the best!!! I recommend Patristix for bite sized interesting Orthodox Education.
Thanking God that Orthodoxy has found expression in the realm of open discussion! Let us each find our way in Christ to the sanctified Christian life God desires for us, in thought, in word, and in deed, fleeing all forms of religion which deny its power to save. In Jesus' name! Amen
Glory to God ☦️
What he's saying is simple. The objective of playing basketball is winning the game. The objective is not doing dribbles and fancy moves and breaking records. If you focus on the latter things that are external you will lose the game.
This analogy isn't arbitrary either, they are nested in each other. A passionate person is going to focus on externals in every aspect of his life, even basketball.
TRUE!
St John Chrysostom:
"Abstain from all sin take to thyself no food of sin, enjoy not the indulgence of thy passions, drink not the wine of thy desires. Refrain from evil deeds and words, and from stil more evil thoughts. Seek not the bread of false doctrine, and thirst not after a deceitful philosophy which is far from the truth"
This lecture is lit. 🔥☦
Thank you Father Peter.
there are places in the world where it's not possible to openly convert and seek the guide of the church and benefit from having a spiritual father, is there a solution for these people that church teaches about?
@OrthodoxEthos called it (3 months before) the latest pope’s heresy (about all religions being same) around minute 45:00 😢
THANK YOU
So precious!
This was a very powerful and clear exposition of the orthodox doctrine, although from the pedagogical perspective I think that one should also mention the gradual approach in order to attain the theosis, in the line of St. John of the Ladder.
Maybe listen to the answer at the 103 mark, in when he talks about salvation being a process.
Thank you Fr. Heers for this concise exposition.
So vital to make the distinction between Orthodoxy and the ''religions''. I've been sharing it with inquirers and seasoned parishioners alike.
Much love to you from HolyTrinityRussianOrthodoxChurch in Vancouver
I had a dream of a dark and slow place. Very dreary and negative. I decided to get out of there by making the light get brighter and a high pitched tone, and I found myself ascending to a garden, verdant and immaculate. There were various peoples conversing, strolling. I thought, “I’d like to talk to Jesus.” This was before any religious conversion; as an agnostic. The instant I had this thought, I was blasted with a white, brilliant energy like a thunderclap. I sat bolt upright in a cold sweat, awake and panting. It was the most intense experience I’ve ever had while asleep, and I am a regular lucid dreamer and fully appreciate the discussion on dreams giving way to the passions. It was the very moment I ever considered Jesus to be a legitimate force. It was years before I allowed myself to embrace Him, whereupon I had another powerful vision, only while awake. Just wanted to share. Hope this does not make me arrogant.
36:53 another great insight. Christ didn’t change at the transfiguration, the Apostles’ ability to see Him as He really is did.
Hello. Where can I find the intro song/music?
This is really good. Thank you, Father.
the pope just stated that all religions are a path to God
I need healing for my soul. 😞
Father, I understood about being restored in the likeness of God, which means that we have to become like God, by grace. But I don't understand the meaning of 'we are made in the image of God'. Can you please explain it to me in a simple way ?
The Scripture teaches us that God created man in His image: “in the image of God He created him” (Genesis 1:27).
In his exposition of Orthodoxy, Saint John Damascene wrote: “The phrase “after His image” refers to the side of his nature which consists of mind (nous) and free will” (St. John Damascene. An Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book II, Chapter XII).
“Some have come to equate man’s creation in the image of God with reason and free will, and others as supremacy and ultimate power, as God’s creation may reflect the image of His creator in both” (St. Photius of Constantinople. Amphilochia, Treatise 36)
Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, a second-century Holy Martyr, wrote: “the perfect man consists in the comingling and union of the soul receiving the spirit of the Father, and the admixture of that fleshly nature which was moulded after the image of God.” (“Against Heresies”, book 5, chapter 6, Paragraph 1).
Saint Epiphanius: the image of God is the whole human person.
The incarnation of Christ and His deification opens a new perspective on the human body.
St. Irenaeus wrote that Adam was created in the image of Christ by the foreknowledge of God (Proof of the Apostolic Sermon, 2). Likewise, St. Theodore of Studion wrote: “While on earth, He presented himself in the mind of Adam, whom the blessed Paul called the messenger of the future” (“Against Iconoclasts” chapter 3). Finally, St. Nicholas Cabasilas called Christ the first image of God-created people. (“Seven discourses on life in Christ, 6). Therefore, even though God is a spirit (John 4:24), it was still possible for the human body to have been created in the image of the Divine Body.
Lossky wrote: “The image is unknowable, because, as a reflection of the fullness of the Original person, it must also possess His unknowability. Therefore it is undeterminable what constitutes the image of God in man.”
the people who strive to live in piety and righteousness in the likeness of God show the world His glorious image.
What a great lecture. ☦️
Father, just a question, how can we distinguish the good and bad term for religion/religious, and how will we know whether it could be used negatively or positively?
Context.
Usage with regard to the true meaning of the church.
When religion is seen as a common experience of all humanity and then Orthodoxy seen as *a part of* that, this is erroneous.
@@OrthodoxEthos Thank you for the enlightenment, God bless!
@@OrthodoxEthos, would James 1:27 come into play here?
5 times? What is this? Does every church not have communion every Sunday?
Some don't even have Priests to serve the Liturgy so no.
some may also not commune if they feel they need to confess. or perhaps they didn’t properly fast or missed their prayers. could be many reasons one doesn’t commune.
5 times a year, you mean, that some think that they should commune?
This is a mistaken perception and not the practice and teaching of the Saints.
@@areyoutheregoditsmedave yeah I chalk that up to fake piety crap. Communion is medicine for all of us who recognize we are unworthy. Confess and get your but to the hospital. I mean think about what you just said. “Oh well they just keep sinning so they stayed at home.”oh well Jim’s fever got worse and he hasn’t eaten for two days. It’s best he stays away from the hospital.”
@@acekoala457 wow! That’s sad. We have to figure that out.
Theosis is the calling of every person and is not limited to those who are baptized within the Orthodox Church. The Holy Spirit is truly everywhere present and fullest all things. The Body of Christ is All That Is. Nothing is separate from God.
Theosis is indeed the calling of every purpose, as it is the end or purpose of the Incarnation: that all would be one in Christ Jesus, that all would " come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ," would be gods by Grace, "partakers of divine nature."
HOWEVER: H O W is that possible outside of the Body of Christ, of the Mysteries, of Orthodox Faith and Life?
It is very instructive that both Catholicism and Non-Chalcedonians have either been shown to be ignorant of, or rejected, the patristic teaching on Theosis. The very concept of 'created grace' is impossible to reconcile with the orthodox doctrine of Theosis. That Pope Shenouda himself rejects the teaching of the Fathers on Theosis -- this is very instructive for us all. It is indicative of the fact that ONLY within Orthodoxy is THEOSIS lived and experienced and taught.
@@OrthodoxEthos Indeed. Orthodoxy is the only Christian tradition that maintains the teaching and practice of theosis. However, theosis is not bound by institutional teaching. Theosis is the lived reality of any person who is being transformed from image to likeness, whether an official member of the Orthodox Church or not.
@@Aaron-xb4rq What do you have in mind when you "institutional" teaching? The Church is not a human institution, is it? No. It is the Body of Christ and it is, like our Lord, when He walked upon the earth, in time and space, identifiable by His human nature. Theosis apart from the Mysteries of this Body is impossible in this life.
@@OrthodoxEthos Theosis is the actualization in likeness of the potential image in which all are created. Theosis doesn’t depend upon any teaching, but upon consciously living in communion with God by the energies of the Holy Spirit. This is something which doesn’t come about solely by participation in the mysteries of the Church but through the activity of the Holy Spirit, which is not bound to the Orthodox Church but is everywhere present and available to all, regardless of whether one is a baptized an Orthodox Christian or not. The Church is indeed not a human institution, but truly the Body of Christ, which is comprised of All That Is and is not simply the baptized members of the Orthodox Church.
@Aaron-xb4rq the church is the Ark of salvation. We believe theosis is achieved through the church, its not to say people outside of the church cannot reach it, that's up to God's wisdom, but the teaching and tradition we understand is that it is achieved within Christ.
Remember, many are called but few are chosen. The whole world has been called, with not many responding.