The Divine Love of God

“The Divine Love of God for man did not come in power and glory, nor did it come fully matured, instead this divine love came swaddled in frailty, clothed in weakness, and as vulnerable and helpless as a new born babe is without his father, so too was Christ the tender babe left defenseless at our hands. In His birth, Christ delivers Himself over to us humans, without a home, without shelter, seen by our eyes and allows us freely to treat Him as we choose. This is the divine image of God which is revealed to us in the incarnation. It is not an image of those men who rule on earth through power and authority, but rather it is an image of a king and God who rules through love”

-Sermon on the Nativity 2012

“When you are depressed, bear in mind the Lord’s command to Peter to forgive a sinner seventy times seven (Matt. 18:22). And you may be sure that He Who gave this command to another will Himself do very much more. But if, on the other hand, we become too self-assured, let us remember what has been said about the person who keeps the whole spiritual law and yet, having slipped into one passion, that of pride, is guilty of all (James 2:10).”

“As we rise daily, let us suppose that we shall not survive ‘till evening and again as we prepare for sleep, let us consider that we shall not awaken.”

- St. Anthony the Great

“To us, however, it often seems that God’s help is slow in coming, and sometimes even arrives too late. But this is not so, for God’s help arrives exactly when it is needed, neither too soon nor too late, but exactly on time.”

- Elder Aimilianos of Simonapetras, Mt. Athos

                                               An Icon of St. Peter and St. Paul

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If i give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Therefore make Love your aim.”

                                                                                                      -1 Corinthians 13 

Icon of St. Sisoes the Great Ascetic before the tomb of Alexander the Great

“Weep, and with tears lament when with understanding I think on death, and see how in the graves there sleeps the beauty which once for us was fashioned in the image of God, but now is shapeless, ignoble, and bare of all the graces. O how strange a thing; what is this mystery which concerns us humans? Why were we given up to decay? And why to death united in wedlock? Truly, as it is written, these things come to pass by ordinance of God”                             

                                                                                                   - St. John of Damascus

This life is but a moment. When we remember that we are bust dust and ashes, arguments and grudges dissolve - the thought of enemies dissipate. But it is Love which endures forever, therefore “Make Love your aim.” (Corinthians 14:1)

“A woman’s heart should be so hidden in God, that man has to seek Him just to find her.”

                                                                                                                    - Max Lucado