In the Beginning there was LoveParticipation in the Divine Life

Youth Conference October 2014

Points covered in this talk1) Introduction

2) Mysticism and Theology

3) Perichoresis ( One Essence and Three Hypostasises)

4) The Trinitarian life experience

5) Baptism is the Door

6) More applications

1. Why repentance is needed?

But for the searching and right understanding of the Scriptures there is need of a good life and a pure soul, and for Christian virtue to guide the mind to grasp, so far as human nature can, the truth concerning God the Word. One cannot possibly understand the teaching of the saints unless one has a pure mind and is trying to imitate their life. ... Similarly, anyone who wishes to understand the mind of the sacred writers must first cleanse his own life, and approach the saints by copying their deeds. Thus united to them in the fellowship of life, he will both understand the things revealed to them by God and, thenceforth escaping the peril that threatens sinners in the judgment, will receive that which is laid up for the saints in the kingdom of heaven.

On the Incarnation Ch. 57

The Ontological Trinity & The Economy of the Trinity

The Ontological (Immanent) Trinity (ontology – the being and essence). 

The Economy of the Trinity deals with how the three persons in the One Godhead relate to each other and the world through the divine revelation.

(Ignatius of Antioch,110 AD)Letter to the Philadelphians, 2)

"Wherefore also the Lord, when He sent forth the apostles to make disciples of all nations, commanded them to "baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," not unto one [person] having three names, nor into three [persons] who became incarnate,

but into three possessed of equal honour."

Mysticism and TheologyGreat Divorce or Best

marriage?

Vladimir Lossky

One is impossible without the other. If the mystical experience is a personal working out of the content of

the common faith, theology is an expression, for the profit of all, of that

which can be experienced by everyone.

Outside the Truth kept by the Whole Church personal experience would be deprived of all certainty, of all objectivity. It would be a mingling of Truth and falsehood, of reality and of illusion: mysticism in the the sense of

the word

Vladimir LosskyThere is, therefore, no

Christian mysticism without Theology;

but, above all,

There is no theology without mysticism

Perichoresis and The Holy Trinity

One Essence and three Hypostasises

For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the

Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three

are one.

1 Jn 5:7

Father Persnophious

The Individual is growing in a perverted way . He moves toward

himself in a selfish progress which is dominated by the self

love above anything else, which leads to death. For he takes of

himself and gives to himself, and he does not allow any fellowship except when it enriches his

selfishness only.

Three persons in One Essence

Each of the three is fully and completely God. None is more or less God than the others. Each possesses, not one third of the

Godhead, but the entire Godhead in its totality; yet each lives and is

this one Godhead in his own distinctive and personal way. St Gregory of Nyssa call it strange and paradoxical diversity-in-unity and unity-in-diversity

(The Orthodox way p 31)

Personal Characteristics1) The Father is the Fountain of the Godhead, the

source, cause, or principal of origin for the other two persons without any time separation. The Son is begotten by the Father The Holy Spirit Proceeds from the Father We reject the filioque because it is ‘double

procession’

2) It is in the Son and Through the Son, the Father is revealed: Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Jn 14:6

3) The Spirit Shows us the Son and makes the son present to us. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and

declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you. Jn 16:14,15

Three persons in One Essence

Council of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381)

One Essence = consubstantial = Homoousious

Yet , although the three persons never act apart from each other , there is in God

genuine diversity as well as specific unity. We experience God as Three-in-one , and

we believe that this threefold differentiation in God’s outward action reflects a threefold differentiation in his

inner life

Bishop ware p30 (the Orthodox Way)

perichoresis

Father

Holy Spiri

tSon

Perichoresis

Father

Holy Spiri

tSon

Living the Trinitarian life

The Christian life is the life of God accomplished in men by the Spirit of Christ. Men can

live as Christ has lived, doing the things that he did and becoming sons of God in Him by the power of the Holy

Spirit. Thus, once more, the Christian life is a Trinitarian

life.

The Aim of Orthodox Teaching

The Aim of all religious teaching in the Orthodox Church is to introduce the

Child/adult into the Church, to integrate him into her life –

the life of Grace , communion with God, love , unity and spiritual progress towards

eternal salvation, for such are the essential aims of the

Church.

Fr Schemamann p23 (Liturgy and Life)

Father Parsnophious

The Aim of Christian teaching is Fellowship in the Divine Life

The aim of the Christian worship is to conform to the image and likeness of God.

The aim of the Christian love is to have full fellowship with God

The aim of the Incarnation of the Son of God is to open for us the way to the

communion of the Eternal Life

The Testimony of the Saints

The saints of the Church are unanimous in their claim that Christian life is the

participation in the life of the Blessed Trinity in the most genuine and

realistic way. It is the life of men becoming divine. In the smallest

aspects of everyday life Christians are called to live the life of God the

Father, which is communicated to them by Christ, the Son of God, and made possible for them by the Holy

Spirit who lives and acts within them.

Marriage

In marriage the unity of two into one makes the new unity a reflection of the unity of the

Trinity, and the unity of Christ and the Church. For the family of

many persons united in one truth and love is indeed the created

manifestation of the one family of God’s Kingdom, and of God Himself, the Blessed Trinity.

Repentance and Confession

In Repentance and Confession once more

we renew our new life as sons of the Father through the grace of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit,

forgiven and reunited into the unity of God in His

Church.

Holy EucharistHoly Eucharist, is the actual experience of all Christian people led to communion with God the Father by the power of the Holy

Spirit through Christ the Son who is present in the Word of the Gospel and in the Passover Meal of His Body and Blood eaten in remembrance of Him.

The very movement of the Divine Liturgy—towards the Father through Christ the Word and the Lamb, in the power of the Holy Spirit—is the living

sacramental symbol of our eternal movement in and toward God, the

Blessed Trinity.

PrayerEven Christian prayer is the revelation of the Trinity, accomplished within the third person of the Godhead. Inspired by the Holy Spirit,

men can call God “our Father” only because of the Son who has taught them and enabled them to do so. Thus, the true

prayer of Christians is not the calling out of our souls in earthly isolation to a far-away God. It is the prayer in us of the divine Son of

God made to His Father, accomplished in us by the Holy Spirit who himself is also

divine.

Second Coming

At the end of the ages Christ will come in the

glory of God the Father, He will make the Father known throughout all

creation. The Holy Spirit will fill all things and

enable all to be in union with God through Christ

for eternity. Again we have the presence and action of

the Holy Trinity.

(St. Cyprian)

We ought then, beloved brethren, to remember and to know, that

when we call God Father,

we ought to act as God’s children;

so that in the measure in which we find pleasure in considering God as a Father, He might also be

able to find pleasure in us.

Liturgy of St Basil

Make us all worthy, O our Master, to partake, of your holies 1unto the purification of our souls, our bodies and our spirits. That 2we may become one body and one spirit, and may 3have a

share and an inheritance with all the saints who have pleased

you since the beginning. Remember, O Lord, the peace of your one, only, holy, catholic and

apostolic church.

The Baptism is the Door and

The Eucharist is the Way

St. Cyril of Alexandria As two pieces of wax

fused together make one,

so he who receives Holy Communion is so united with Christ

that he is in Christ, and Christ is in him.

St. Augustine

"Through the Holy Eucharist the faithful eat and drink the

Life of Christ.”

The Perfect Christainity

The most perfect rule of Christianity, its exact definition, its highest summit, is this : to

seek what is for the benefit of all. States St. John Chrysostom. “I

cannot believe that it is possible for a man to be

saved if he does not labour for the salvation of his

neighbor” Such are the practical implications of the dogma of the Trinity. That is what it means to

the Trinity. (The Orthodox Way p 39)

Sharer or not?

Make us all worthy, O our Master, to partake, of your holies unto the purification of our

souls, our bodies and our spirits. That we may become one body and one spirit, and may have a share and an inheritance with all the saints

who have pleased you since the beginning. Remember, O Lord, the peace of your one, only,

holy, catholic and apostolic church.

The Liturgy of St Basil

Be Careful, it is Real !!!

The Spiritual man shall also judge those who give rise to schisms, who are destitute of the

Love of God , and who look to their own special advantage rather than to the unity of the Church; and who for trifling reasons, or

any kind of reason which occurs to them , cut in pieces and divide the great and glorious

body of Christ.

St Irenaeus A H Book IV 33:7

St Augustine "I (Christ) am the food of full-grown men. Grow and

you shall feed on me. But you shall not change me into your own substance, as you

do with the food of your body, instead you shall be changed into me“.

Confessions, VII 10 (PL 32, 742) ed & trs. R.S. Pine-Coffin, Penguin 1971, p. 147.

The prayer of the laying of the hands

Your servants , O Lord, who are serving you, entreating your Holy Name and submissive to you, dwell in them, O Lord; walk among them; aid them in every good deed; wake their hearts

from every vile earthly thought; grant them to live and think of what is pertaining to the living,

and understand the things that are yours....

True Life Begins with the Trinity

Charles IrvinSenior priest, Diocese of Lansing, Michigan

Founding editor of Faith Magazine

Jesus told us that heaven begins here on earth. The kingdom of heaven is here, among

you, he told us. We are not far from it. The life of God begins to be experienced

here. Heaven is not a carrot dangled in front of us. Heaven isn't the reward at

the end of a road of pain, trial, and suffering. Heaven begins when we discover

ourselves, when we discover each other, when we begin to live a Trinitarian life

with others, when we begin to live in the communion with others that is God's. Isn't that what Holy Communion is all

about?

More Applications1) Selfishness

2) Gossiping

3) Condemning

4) Never volunteered any acts of genuine love

5) Stubbornness

6) Disobedience

7) Not seeking the sacrifice of peace

8) Not seeking Honesty and perfection in every aspect in my life according to the best of my knowledge and ability

9) I have my own standards

10) God is not everything in my life