Even a cursory glance at the early patristic writings up until the 5th century will show that the church Fathers did not use such terminology as “the experience of the church” or “the living community of faith.” Rather, their reference to the correctness of the faith of the community was the prophetic and apostolic teaching communicated through God’s servants, the prophets and the apostles. And no wonder, since they were raised on the one valid source of the knowledge of God, the only kanon of theology (or word about God), which was nothing other than the word of God Himself as imbedded in His scripture. And it is from this God that they learned His language. They learned that the biblical communities, Israel and the church, are always erring, sinning, and harloting after other gods. They learned that these communities are always in need of the prophets and apostles, whom God sends them, to chastise them and to call them back to the path that leads to salvation and life. The Fathers of the church did not earn their appellation as Fathers honoris causa; they earned it because they did to the best of their ability what every true father is supposed to do: they begot children and raised them with the authority of the one who knows better….

If, as we Orthodox maintain, salvation is the ultimate business of the church, then the main, if not foremost, occupation of the church’s leaders ought to be the study and teaching of scripture.

~ Fr. Paul Nadim Tarazi, “Scripture in Theological Education”

 People can do me no evil, as long as I have no wounds.

I saw two caves, one of which revealed an echo, while the other had none. And many curious children were visiting the former and were mischievously carrying out shouting matches with the cave. But from the other cave visitors were quickly returning, because it was not answering them with an echo.

If my soul is wounded, every worldly evil will resound within it. And people will laugh at me, and will throng more and more strongly with their shouting.

But truly, evil-speaking people will not harm me, if my tongue has forgotten how to speak evil.

Nor will external malice sadden me, if there is no malice in my heart to resound like a goatskin drum

Nor shall I be able to respond to ire with ire, if the lair of ire within me has been vacated and there is nothing to be aroused.

Nor will human passions titillate me, if the passions within me have been reduced to ashes.

Nor will the unfaithfulness of friends sadden me, if I have resolved to have You for my friend.

Nor can the injustice of the world crush me, if injustice has been expelled from my thoughts.

Nor will the deceitful spirits of worldly pleasure, honor and power entice me, if my soul is like an immaculate bride, who receives only the Holy Spirit and yearns for Him alone.

People cannot shove anyone into hell, unless that person shoves himself. Nor can people hoist anyone up on their shoulders to the throne of God, unless that person elevates himself.

If my soul has no open windows, no mud can be thrown into it.

Let all nature rise up against me; it can do nothing to me except a single thing—to become the grave of my body more swiftly.

Every worldly crop is covered with fertilizer, so that it will sprout as soon as possible and grow better. If my soul, alas, were to abandon her virginity and receive the seed of this world into herself, then she would also have to accept the manure, which the world throws onto its field.

But I call upon You day and night: come dwell in my soul and close all those places where my enemies can enter. Make the cavern of my soul empty and silent, so that no one from the world will want to enter it.

O my soul, my only concern, be on guard and learn to distinguish between the voices striking your ears. And once you hear the voice of your Lord, abandon your silence and resound with all your strength.

O my soul, cavern of eternity, never permit temporal thieves to enter you and kindle their fire within you. Keep quiet, when they shout to you. Stay still, when they bang on you. And patiently await your Master. For He will truly come.

~ St. Nikolai Velimirovic, Prayers by the Lake, XVIII

On selfishness. The more this stews in the back of my mind, the more it seems to me that a good definition of selfishness is not to take responsibility for oneself and, as the case may be, for one’s interaction with others. Sometimes we need to go AWAY from someone even to be WITH them — to love them as we are commanded. It’s not always about “doing” for people. That is not the definition of unselfishness. We get it in our heads that it’s all about “doing” for others and “instructing” them or witnessing or preaching to them or trying somehow to “save” them. WE CAN’T do that. The only thing we can do in our love for others and in striving to be genuinely non-selfish is to take care of what we CAN take care of, and that is ourselves, i.e. take responsibility for ourselves, full, genuine, authentic responsibility. We ought not to fling our sin and passion and heresy around on others in hopes that we can suck up their lives into our own to shore ourselves up. We think we’re “saving” them, but what we are really doing is grasping onto them to try to save ourselves — and all of us are sinking in the process, like two drowning men trying to cling onto each other, both flailing. No, somebody has to grab onto the ROCK. Then perhaps someone else can grab onto him, once he is stable. Like barnacles. :)

I would start, as an Orthodox boy, with the fact that everyone who is Orthodox has agreed to “deny himself, take up his cross and follow Christ.” The ecclesiology of the Orthodox Church, the Pillar and Ground of Truth, is found precisely in its weakness and is found there because God wants it that way.  If salvation means loving my enemies like God loves His enemies, then I am far better served by my weakness than my excellence. If humility draws the Holy Spirit, then my weakness is far more useful than any excellence I may possess.

The Orthodox Church has perhaps the weakest ecclesiology of all, because it depends, moment by moment, on the love and forgiveness of each by all and of all by each. Either the Bishops of the Church love and forgive each other or the whole thing falls apart. “Brethren, let us love one another, that with one mind we may confess: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” These are the words that introduce the Creed each Sunday, and they are the words that are the bedrock of our ecclesiology.

 ~ Fr. Stephen, “The Ecclesiology of the Cross”

I take Fr. Stephen to be saying that there is no intrinsic form or institution that guarantees the Church. We don’t have an infallible pope with a direct line to God (or an infallible “teaching magisterium”). We don’t have an infallible interpretation of Scripture — and reliance only on Scripture for all truth (sola Scriptura). No, our Pillar and Ground is that… we don’t have one. Not in ourselves. Not in any form or institution or method or system. No “best practices.” No latest and greatest accounting package. No institutional structure, carefully crafted chain of command, or revised organizational Statute. No constitution or “rule of law” is going to fix us or guarantee the Church or any given incarnation of it. No democratic, participatory, grass-roots, people-power form of governance, however American, will save anything, not even the greatest cause we can imagine living for, not even the evangelization of the Americas.

Having nothing, however, we have everything. For “humility draws the Holy Spirit.” For desert warriors — those who fight the demons — humility is everything. If a monk thinks he can fight the devil (in his pride), he immediately loses, and the devil wins. Only God can win. We win only if, in abject humility, we admit our utter powerlessness and call upon Him to save us.

And when we call, He does. 

In a sense, then, we do believe in in sola gratia, sola fidei — grace alone, faith alone. But this does not mean there is nothing we can do. God does give commands to us. Love each other. Forgive each other. “Either the Bishops of the Church love and forgive each other, or the whole thing falls apart.” In humility. Loving our enemies, even as Christ loved and forgave those who crucified Him.

Nor is it only for the bishops. We ALL say, “Let us love one another, that with one mind we may confess…” How can we have one mind if we have no love? How can we love if we have no unity of mind? How can we be Orthodox? How can we be the Church, Pillar and Ground of Truth? We cannot.

This is what it means to pick up a Cross. And in that Cross is victory — God’s victory.

Only His victory can be the victory of the Church, its “bedrock ecclesiology.” No form or institution, policy or procedure, can save us.