BACK TO ARCHIVE

The Spiritual Life

1. What is the Spiritual Life?

a.) A Spiritual World verses the Physical World
An ordinary Christian life lived in depth, sensitivity and fullness. A life lived in Christ and radiating faith, love and joy.

“3 In as much as His divine power has freely given to us all the things for life and piety, through the full knowledge of Him Who called us to glory and virtue, 4 by which He has freely given to us the very great and precious promises, that through these you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world by desire. (2 Peter 1:3-4)” Orthodox New Testament, Holy Apostles Convent

- “Fellowship with the Holy Spirit. (Origin)”
- “When Christ’s body and blood become the tissue of our members, we become Christ-bearers and partakers of divine nature. (Cyril of Jerusalem)”
- “He (God) granted us a relationship with Himself, and we have a rational nature which makes us able to seek what is divine, which is not far from each one of us, in whom we live and are and move. (Ambrose of Milan)”

On Essence and Energies
· God is unknowable in His essence
· God is present and revealed in His energies

Theosis = Being one with God/ Deification/Sanctification/Holiness/Partakers of Divine Nature.

Image & Likeness
Image denotes our potential for being Christ like
Likeness denotes the degree to which we have realized that potential

“5 But also for this very thing, besides having brought in all diligence, supply virtue in your faith, and knowledge in virtue, 6 and self-control in knowledge, and patience in self-control, and piety in patience, 7 and brotherly affection in piety, and love in brotherly affection. (2 Peter 1:5-8)” Orthodox New Testament, Holy Apostles Convent

2. Stages in the Spiritual Life
A.) Faith- conviction not belief. Foundation and source of all good works
B.) Virtue – putting faith into action
C.) Knowledge -
D.) Self-Control- (temperance, abstinence) controls pride
E.) Patience- needed for mastering sin
F.) Piety- to be Christ like: prayer and good workd
G.) Brotherly Affection- love of neighbor & enemies
H.) Love- the greatest of all virtues – to truly love God.
3. How is the Spiritual Life given birth?

A. Renewal of Batismal Vows
“3 Or are you ignorant that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him by the Baptism into the death, that even as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, thus also we should walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:3-4) Orthodox New Testament, Holy Apostles Convent

“What the Cross and burial is to Christ, the Baptism has become to us… For in the flesh He died and was buried, but we have done both to sin. (Chrysostom)”

“The newness effected by baptism consists in transmitting to the baptized the moral attributes of god, namely holiness, after being forgiven and cleansed from sin. Baptism offers all the necessary resources and potentialities so that further growth and development might be attained. Holiness, of course does not refer to a single gift of isolated grace which is offered all at once, but one which is to be appropriated gradually, step by step, ascending and progression through life’s struggles, sustained by God’s Spirit. (Metropolitan Emilianos, Priest, Parish & Renewal, HC Press, 1994.)”

· The example of St. Anthony

B. Enlisting as a Soldier in Christ’s Army: Spiritual Warfare
· Early Catechumens Screening Process
· Reasons for approaching the Faith
· An Examination of moral conduct
· Didache & Study of Scriptures – Moral Guidelines
· Examination of conduct while as a Catechumen
· Great Lent – the finals – dogmas introduced
· Worship Life – Public Confession

C. Establishing a Rule of Prayer

BACK TO ARCHIVE