Personal Journey E-mail
Evangelism category
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My Evangelism Theory is that as we individually grow spiritually, so will our parishes. Question is...How?

First, we need to understand what worship is, and that the only really good reason for us to belong to a parish is to worship together.

What is your Personal Relationship with God through the Church - Is God our buddy or friend? Or is God something awesome and very different? Can we know God the way we know people? or is our knowing God limited to what He has revealed?

What is your personal relationship like with the Church? Your priest, and others?

What is Orthodox Worship like? The ACORN radio programs have a complete set on Orthodox Worship.

What is your journey like in comparison to what the Fathers of the Church have taught? The ACORN radio programs have a complete set on Orthodox Spirituality.

Becoming an Orthodox believer is a journey...a process. Below are links to  the Ladder of Divine Ascent. You will quickly understand that there is progress to be made in our spiritual lives.

The Ladder of Divine Ascent
 

The Ladder of Divine Ascent

  • IntroSteps 1 - 6 “Do all the good you can; do not speak evil of anyone; do not steal from anyone; do not lie to anyone; do not be arrogant towards anyone; do not hate anyone; do not be absent from the divine services; be compassionate to the needy; do not offend anyone; do not wreck another man’s domestic happiness, and be content with what your own wives can give you. If you behave in this way, you will not be far from the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Step 7: On Joy-Making Mourning
Greater than baptism itself is the fountain of tears after baptism, even though it is somewhat audacious to say so. For baptism is the washing away of evils that were in us before, but sins committed after baptism are washed away by tears.
 
Step 8: On Freedom From Anger and On Meekness
The beginning of freedom from anger is silence of the lips when the heart is agitated; the middle is silence of the thoughts when there is a mere disturbance of soul; and the end is an imperturbable calm under the breath of unclean winds.
 
Step 9: On Remembrance of Wrongs
The forgetting of wrongs is a sign of true repentance. But he who dwells on them and thinks that he is repenting is like a man who thinks he is running while he is really asleep
 
Step 10: On Slander or Calumny
Do not condemn, even if you see with your eyes, for they are often deceived
 
Step 11: On Talkativeness and Silence
He who has become aware of his sins has controlled his tongue, but a talkative person has not yet come to know himself as he should.
 
Step 12: On Lying
The offspring of flint and steel is fire; and the offspring of chatter and joking is lying.
A lie is the destruction of love, and a false oath is a denial of God.
 

 STEP 13: On Despondency
As we have frequently said, this - we mean despondency - is very often one of the branches of talkativeness, and its first child. And so we have given it its appropriate place in this chain of vices.

STEP 14: On That Clamorous Mistress, the Stomach
Gluttony is hypocrisy of the stomach; for when it is glutted, it complains of scarcity; and when it is loaded and bursting, it cries out that it is hungry.
 
STEP 15: On Incorruptible Purity and Chastity, to Which the Corruptible Attain by Toil and Sweat
Purity means that we put on the angelic nature. Purity is the longed-for house of Christ and the earthly heaven of the heart. Purity is a supernatural denial of nature, which means that a mortal and corruptible body is rivalling the celestial spirits in a truly marvellous way.
 
STEP 16: On Love of Money, or Avarice
The beginning of love of money is the pretext of almsgiving, and the end of it is hatred of the poor. So long as he is collecting he is charitable, but when the money is in hand he tightens his grip.
 
STEP 17: On Non-Permissiveness (that Hastens One Heavenwards)
Non-possessiveness is the resignation of cares, life without anxiety, an unencumbered wayfarer, alienation from sorrow, fidelity to the commandments.
 
STEP 18: On Insensibility, that is, Deadening of the Soul And the Death of the Mind Before the Death of the Body
Insensibility both in the body and in the spirit is deadened feeling, which, from long sickness and negligence, lapses into loss of feeling.
 

STEP 19: On Sleep, Prayer, and Psalmody With the Brotherhood
Just as over-drinking is a matter of habit, so too from habit comes over-sleeping. Therefore we must struggle with the question of sleep, especially in the early days of obedience, becaus4e a long-standing habit is difficult to cure.
 
STEP 20: On Bodily Vigil, and How to Use It to Attain Spiritual Vigil, and How to Practice It
Some stand before earthly kings without weapons and without armour; but others hold staffs of office, or have shields, or swords. The former are vastly superior to the latter, for they are usually personal relations of the king and members of the royal household. So it is with earthly kings.
 
STEP 21: On Unmanly and Puerile Cowardice
Fear is a rehearsing of danger beforehand; or again, fear is a trembling sensation of the heart, alarmed and troubled by unknown misfortunes. Fear is a loss of assurance.

STEP 22: On the Many Forms of Vainglory
When you hear that your neighbor or friend has abused you behind your back or even to your face, then show love and praise him.
 
STEP 23: On Mad Pride, and, in the Same Step, on Unclean Blasphemous Thoughts
God resisteth the proud (James 4:6). Who then can have mercy on them? Every proud-hearted man is unclean before God. Who then can cleanse such a person?
 
STEP 24: On Meekness, Simplicity, and Guilelessness Which Come Not From Nature but From
Conscious Effort, and About Guile
Meekness is a rock overlooking the sea of anger, which breaks all the waves that dash against it, yet remains completely unmoved.
 
 

STEP 25: On the Destroyer of the Passions, Most Sublime Humility, Which is rooted in Spiritual Perception
This subject sets before us as a touchstone, a treasure preserved in earthen vessels, that is to say in our bodies, and it is of a quality that baffles all description. This treasure has an inscription, which is incomprehensible because it comes from above, and those who try to explain it with words give themselves great and endless trouble. And the inscription runs thus: Holy Humility.
 
STEP 26: On Discernment of Thoughts, Passions and Virtue
Discernment in beginners is true knowledge of themselves; in intermediate souls, it is a spiritual sense that faultlessly distinguishes what is truly good from what is of nature and opposed to it; and in the perfect, it is the knowledge which they have within by Divine illumination, and which can enlighten with its lamp what is dark in others. Or perhaps, generally speaking, discernment is, and is recognized as, the certain understanding of the Divine will on all occasions, in every place and in all matters; and it is only found in those who are pure in heart, and in body and in mouth.

 

STEP 27: On Holy Stillness of Body and Soul
Stillness of the body is the knowledge and composure of the habits and feelings. And stillness of soul is the knowledge of one's thoughts and an inviolable mind.
 
STEP 28: On Holy and Blessed Prayer, the Mother of Virtues, and on the Attitude of Mind and Body in Prayer
When you are going to stand before the Lord, let the garment of your soul be woven throughout with the thread of obliviousness to wrongs. Otherwise, prayer will bring you no benefit.
 
STEP 29: Concerning Heaven on Earth, or Godlike Dispassion and Perfection, and the Resurrection of the Soul Before the General Resurrection
That soul has dispassion which is immersed in the virtues as the passionate are in pleasures.
 
STEP 30: Concerning the Linking Together of the Supreme Trinity Among the Virtues
And now, finally, after all that we have said, there remain these three that bind and secure the union of all: faith, hope, love; and the greatest of these is love, for God Himself is so called. (I Corinthians 13:13 and I John 4: 8 and 16)
 
  
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