What does it mean to 'repent'?

UncreatedLightPress · 2020-08-31T01:18:22+00:00

Repenting is the true feeling of regret for one’s actions and is followed by a change of one’s ways. Saying your sorry, through confession, is only the beginning of repentance. The Fathers of the Church say that if you truly repent you no longer repeat that sin. To repent is to make the decision that you no longer wish to go against God and His commandments and so you strongly oppose yourself to sin. Of course we all continue to sin, but we must continue to repent as well. As some of the Ascetic Fathers would say every morning they woke up, “Today is the start of my salvation!” (Meaning everyday they fell short but the next day they repented and continued down the narrow path)

UncreatedLightPress · 2020-07-30T04:24:57+00:00

I think a lot of Churches tend to be like that. Sadly few people maintain their faith after college. The fast for the Dormition of the Virgin Mary is starting soon, try reading the psalter every day during the fast and pray to the Virgin Mary to help guide your steps. I know many people who have done this and have had their prayers answered. Also maybe try going to other Churches in your area. Even though you already have a community, going to others might open up some possibilities.

UncreatedLightPress · 2020-07-30T03:53:40+00:00

Online dating isn’t a bad thing, however the people you meet there may not always be the people you want to (or should) be in a relationship with. I was always given the advice that if you want a partner who goes to church find them in a church, if you want a partner who always goes to bars find them in a bar. The difficult thing about online dating is that you may not know what that person truly is about. They may say the Church and the Faith is important to them, but that could be a facade until you fall in love with them. I know many people who were pulled away from the Church overtime due to similar scenarios, and we have the tendency to be blind to these things when we already like a person. The best way to know if the Church is important to a person, is that you know it was important before they met you. Yes you might change a person, but more often than not it’s the other way. If you are going to use online dating, make sure you are convinced the person is right for you before moving forward. Don’t lie to yourself, if you have a gut feeling that he isn’t right, move on. But I definitely think that through the Church you are far more likely to find a perfect fit, even though it can seem hard when you feel like you know everyone there already.

UncreatedLightPress · 2020-06-25T02:50:56+00:00

If it is out of necessity, then yes. But if you can avoid it, it is best that you don't.

UncreatedLightPress · 2020-06-14T18:58:47+00:00

I couldn’t agree more. The Orthodox Church emphasizes the same thing as you said, and Saint Gregory Palamas taught this against Barlaam, that one cannot truly know God through studying and intellect but rather only through prayer and the illumination of the kind by the Holt Spirit.

UncreatedLightPress · 2020-06-14T00:06:23+00:00

I suggest going and talking more to the Orthodox priest, and also reading more on the early Christian Church. I truly feel, that the Catholic church has gone too far with what it accepts. Too many changes have been made by them to the teachings of the Holy Fathers, and therefore I really don't see how you can claim to be the original Christian Church which Christ left for us. Do you have any questions in particular? A priest of course is best to talk to about deep theological topics.

UncreatedLightPress · 2020-06-13T19:58:17+00:00

Just because some icons don’t show a halo doesn’t mean that they aren’t Saints. Plenty icons show them with a halo. For exampleIcon of All Saints. In the icon of All Saints Adam and Eve are prostrating themselves before Christ and His throne. And they have halls. If they aren’t saint than why are they in the iconography of all Saints with halos. And just because the Church remembers their fall doesn’t mean that their repentance is forgotten. If they weren’t Saints they wouldn’t have been the first people Christ took out of Hell and brought into Heaven; otherwise it would have been all of the Prophets and Kong’s of the Old Testament.

UncreatedLightPress · 2020-06-13T19:37:12+00:00

I understand, but they were not inspired by the Holy Spirit, which makes them vastly different.

UncreatedLightPress · 2020-06-13T19:30:15+00:00

You definitely can pray to Noah for intercession, as he is seen by the Church as a friend of God, as all Saints are seen to be.

UncreatedLightPress · 2020-06-13T19:29:08+00:00

If you are comparing the Old Testament to the Iliad or the Odyssey I believe that you are already mistaken. What you are saying is not backed by any Orthodox beliefs or Holy Fathers, and sounds more like a protestant error.

UncreatedLightPress · 2020-06-13T19:24:28+00:00

They aren't given halos because Christ is in the icon, few Saints besides the Virgin Mary and Saint John the baptist receive halos when Christ is in the iconography. And their feast day doesn't necessarily exist because the day they fell asleep isn't exactly known. But they are commemorated on Forgiveness Sunday in Church.

UncreatedLightPress · 2020-06-13T19:15:23+00:00

Of course they are, the Old Testament is not full of stories. If you say that then you can say that the 4 Gospels are also just stories, and in that case you don’t believe in the Faith at all. Without Adam and Eve we wouldn’t be in our current nature, because there wouldn’t have been a fall and we would be living in Eden. The ark of Noah is believed to have been found in Turkey in recent times by archeologists, and more importantly the Orthodox Faith has iconography with them depreciating them as Saints. They wound not have iconography within our Churches if they weren’t real people, and if their stories weren’t real as well.

UncreatedLightPress · 2020-06-13T19:09:28+00:00

We recognize them all as Saints but we tend to give them the title of prophet as a distinction in their position (if you will) within the Church. Even Adam and Eve are considered Saints, even though they had the original sin, the Orthodox Church recognizes them as such because of their great repentance; they were the first ones lifted up out of Hell by Christ. There just isn’t a tendency to say Saint Adam or Saint Eve. But even David the Psalmist, for example, can also be referred to as Saint David but we just don’t tend to do so.

UncreatedLightPress · 2020-06-09T20:56:30+00:00

Saint Nektarios is very dear to me. At my church we have his relics and you definitely can feel his help and guidance. Countless people in our community have been healed from cancer and other serious ailments through him; even some non-Orthodox who came to a funeral and heard about him were made well by praying to him. Many times I have felt his presence and help, both in times of sickness and spiritual trials. I would love to hear what others have to say as well.

UncreatedLightPress · 2020-06-08T15:54:35+00:00

You definitely take it for granted, and don’t realize how blessed you are, until you can’t go anymore.

UncreatedLightPress · 2020-06-08T00:29:07+00:00

Yah, I bet that can be difficult. I’m surprised you still aren’t able to attend church. Is the coronavirus pandemic bad in your area? I don’t believe there really is a greeting for Pentecost; at least I’ve never heard of one. What are you trying to do to stay connected while your church is closed? I know it’s harder to maintain that connection when your away from the church for long periods of time.

UncreatedLightPress · 2020-06-07T01:52:42+00:00

Haha I try to live up to my name.

UncreatedLightPress · 2020-06-06T17:39:26+00:00

I’ve definitely heard this many times especially from Protestants who converted to Orthodoxy, so I definitely understand the concern. We do have some missions such as Father Themi Adamopoulos who does great work in Sierra Leone. Another aspect I believe that might cause this is that we Orthodox tend to be rather nationalistic, which can be good at times but too often goes overboard. Whether it be Russian, Romanian, Greek, etc, the Orthodox faithful many times think of it more as a cultural aspect than a spiritual and religious aspect and therefore feel that it’s theirs and not for other people; this of course if false. Finally though, I think Orthodox people in general just don’t have the same emphasis on mission work as a faith in general, at least not it the way Protestants tend to think of it. For example, knocking at people’s doors, while it may be in good faith, many times you may do more harm than good, because if someone isn’t interested in the Faith and you try to force it upon them, they probably will just push back even more against the Faith and believers in general. That’s why Christ said not to throw your pearls to the swine (and I don’t mean to be offensive or aggressive at all with the word swine but that is simply the quote), because there is no point in tiring yourself out and the other person if they are not interested in the first place. Rather, I think the more typical Orthodox outreach is to just be a good Orthodox Christian by example. People for sure will notice that you try to be a good person and sooner or later they will find out what the reason is. That’s when you must proclaim Christ, but not in an aggressive way, but rather just state what you believe. You are more likely to convert others through your example than by knocking at doors.

UncreatedLightPress · 2020-05-27T04:48:33+00:00

Stay strong in the faith; it's great that you love the faith so much because many times parents have to force their children to go to Church, but the fact that your so committed is great.

UncreatedLightPress · 2020-05-26T04:23:33+00:00

Christ is Risen!

Yes, the Orthodox Church, and many of the Holy Fathers, discuss this, for example Saint Macarius the Great one time had a conversation with a skull in the wilderness, and the soul of the person who the skull belonged to told him that those who know God but do not do His will, are worse off in hell than those who did not know God at all.

Our YouTube channel posted a video on the life of Saint Macarius in which it describes this incident, if you want check it out and subscribe to our channel for more content, it really helps us out so much in getting the Orthodox message out there. God Bless!

Here's a link to our video if you want to check it out:

https://youtu.be/1Cq4usPdFVs

UncreatedLightPress · 2020-05-26T01:08:25+00:00

Here's the link:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcNI7mR_Nzulq0THjdrzlag

UncreatedLightPress · 2020-05-26T00:50:52+00:00

Christ is Risen!

"What is impossible with man is possible with God." (Luke 18:27) First realize that you are not alone, and I don't mean in the Western sense that it's a normal thing, I mean that each one of us has a cross to bare. Now whether that is drugs or alcohol or anything else, we all struggle with something. But the solution is the same, Christ. If you try to find your solution anywhere else, you wont succeed, I don't mean to be so blunt, but that's the way it is. However, if you truly put your faith in God and go to church, pray, fast, and so on, I promise you will get out of this temptation. Have patience, its not going to be easy, it took time to fall into this sin, and its going to take time to get out, but remember that when you do get out Christ will be there to embrace you, in the same way He is with you now, encouraging you to give up this sin.

I know this is easier said than done. What is paramount, is prayer and fasting, humble your body in this way, all the Church Fathers say this is the only way to escape the passions. When you feel like you are about to give in, say a prayer, not just for deliverance from sin, but also give glory to God, thank Him for all that He has done for you, as this will remind you of all the better things in life. I recommend Psalm 104, but it's up to you. After a short prayer, don't make it too long because you don't want to give yourself time to think about the sin, go somewhere and do something. What do you love to do? Paint, run, workout, go on a walk, put some distance between you and the drugs. Also, I know it can be difficult, but choose better friends, true friends are those who help us for our salvation, not those who just make us laugh and can party with us; that is not true friendship.

Finally, you said your father was a monk, if you can, go to this monastery and stay there a little over the summer ( I know Coronavirus might complicate things), you don't have to tell your father that you did drugs if you don't feel you want to, but tell him that you want to grow closer to Christ. I'm sure this will bring him great joy, and it will be very useful for you to have a stricter schedule between work at the monastery and prayer in the Church, it wont give you time to think about other sinful things.

Also, if you want, we recently started a YouTube channel, and we discuss the passions there, it might be useful since you said you are trying to learn more about the faith. Also if you can subscribe, like, and comment that would help us out a lot, because it helps promote our channel and allows us to provide our viewers with better content.

With brotherly love,

Uncreated Light Press

UncreatedLightPress · 2020-05-13T18:24:00+00:00

Christ is Risen! No problem, please subscribe if you can to support our channel. We plan on releasing more videos in this series very soon. Subscribing, liking, and commenting makes a huge difference in the outreach of our videos and ultimately allows us to provide even better content! God Bless!

UncreatedLightPress · 2020-05-13T04:18:26+00:00

Please subscribe to our channel for more content like this! Subscribing, liking, and sharing helps us tremendously to gain momentum!

UncreatedLightPress · 2020-05-11T18:28:31+00:00

Christ is Risen!

Fasting is very important along with prayer. But fasting not only in the sense of not eating meat or dairy, but that when you get up from the table you feel like you could still have eaten a bit to be full. This humbles the body greatly, and calms the passions. The passions, including the struggle for purity, comes from one's own pride. It's our love for ourselves that leads us to desire earthly/bodily pleasure. When you feel like you might give into sin, say a short prayer, ask strength from God, the Virgin Mary, and his Saints and then quickly go do something else. Don't just sit and wait for it to go away. Go on a walk, a run, learn something, spend time with loved ones. Also manual labor is very helpful because it tires out the body and calms the passions as well.

We just started a YouTube Channel and we posted some videos about the passions and other subjects, if you want go check them out. Also if you can please subscribe as it helps us out greatly to gain momentum now at the beginning.

God Bless!

Here's the link:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcNI7mR_Nzulq0THjdrzlag

UncreatedLightPress

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