Thy pure image do we venerate, O good One, asking forgiveness of our sins, O Christ our God; for by Thine own will Thou didst ascend the Cross in Thy body, to save Thy creatures from the bondage of the enemy. Thou hast verily filled all with joy, since Thou didst come, O our Savior, to save the world.
Quotes about Freedom
If the opposition disarms, well and good. If it refuses to disarm, we shall disarm it ourselves.
One man with a gun can control 100 without one.
Gain salvation by conducting yourself in a way pleasing to God, pleasing Him by all kinds of love. Make this your sole concern---to grow rich in love. He who has love has God within him.
To live with abundance and joy is to transform your thoughts in a way that embraces your innate holiness. The positive aspects of the self are a radiant light that will guide us to our divinity if we live a life of peace and purpose. Today find your own voice, channel earth energies and know that true spiritual freedom resonates within. Life if appreciated can be a breathtaking stroll through a garden of love profound.
The greatest freedom is to be obedient and faithful to God. As we yield ourselves to God's love and mercy, we are liberated from the suffering of sins. No longer are we dominated by unreasonable fears, compulsions and addictions. We live in peace and unity with all people. Despair and rage pass away. Yet, these things only come when we bear the responsibilities for our own behavior, admitting our faults and receiving God's forgiveness.
You have every opportunity, both eternal and external, for repentence and salvation, which is so rare in this day and age. If you do not take advantage of this now, but keep putting off the work of salvation, you may easily fool yourself. We cannot be certain that tomorrow belongs to us. The Lord warns us all: be ready each minute, for you know not what day or what hour they will come for you.
The most important work that a spiritual wrestler can do is to enter
within the heart, there to fight Satan; to hate and repel the thoughts
that he inspires and to wage war upon him.
Don't do anything that might stumble or offend those close ones living with you; if they should offend you, accept this as not as an offense but as a tool, prepared for you by the Lord God, which, if you so desire, you can use to uproot all filth from you heart.
"Peace in our souls is impossible unless we beg the Lord with all our hearts to give us love for all men. The Lord knew if we did not love our enemies, we should have no peace of soul, and so He gave us the Commandment, 'Love your enemies.' Unless we love our enemies, we shall only now and then be easy, as it were, in our souls; but if we love our enemies, peace will dwell in us day and night."
Saint Silouan the Anthonite
A person who suffers bitterly when slighted or insulted should recognize from this that he still harbors the ancient serpent in his breast. If he quietly endures the insult or responds with great humility, he weakens the serpent and lessens its hold. But if he replies acrimoniously or brazenly, he gives it strength to pour its venom into his heart and to feed mercilessly on his inward parts. In this way the serpant becomes increasingly powerful; it destroys his souls strength and his attempts to set himself right, compelling him to live for sin and to be completely dead to rightousness.
Do not rail against anyone, but rather say, "God knows each one." Do not agree with him who slanders, do not rejoice at his slander and do not hate him who slanders his nieghbor. This is what it means not to judge.
The Lord does not reveal himself to many men because of their intellectual pride, yet they still think they possses much knowledge. But what is their knowledge worth, if they not the Lord, know not the grace of Holy Spirit, know not how this grace comes and wherefore it is lost? But let us humble ourselves, brethren, and the Lord will show us all things, as a loving father shows all things to his children.
If one has peace within their heart they will have joy within their soul. By making a positive contribution to humankind we connect with higher wisdom and expand our spiritual consciousness. Live your destiny by allowing yourself to blossom, for when you spread your wings and fly free you will see your path is written in the stars. Plant seeds of kindness and let the singing of your heart serenade the universe.
The devils greatest weapon is convincing people he doesn't exist.
Avoid praise, but do not be ashamed of reproach.
Life is a magnificent manifestation where if we honour Sacred Mother Earth, rivers of love will flow freely. New levels of spiritual awareness are upon us and by recognizing their beauty we can inspire every aspect of our lives. Let your soul be an oasis of transformation that takes your life to the next level and fulfills your dreams. Rejoice in your awakening, the future is now and love is in every breath you take.
Modernity and most of all bourgeois-banausic "individualist" ideologues cannot begin to fathom the visceral lust for domination, whether in the form of demented idiotist-master-types or in the form of demented idiotist-slave-types. If humans profoundly and rationally wanted to live free and think free, they would in every case have spun out for themselves forms of existence that both prudently and wisely foster an ethos of self-determination. Moderns are self-delusive beings who cannot begin to face much less fathom their own primal need to be taken care of, to be dependent and directed and consoled and reassured etc. They are inbred patsies standing in droves on the corner, waiting for the next conscription-bus to come along and give their aimless, dissolute and valueless existences some kind of transcendent meaning by putting them to work in imperialist wars for even more brutal domination over other peoples around the planet. After the third or fourth war cut from the same veil of Maya, one gets weary beyond telling of man's insuperable mendacity to himself. "Human nature" is forever a topic unable to be characterized without a word like "pseudophilic." Most humans prove their vacuum of aristeia, of truth, conscience, rationality, or principles, by their truly dreadful and credulous yearning to be lied to. We aren't just by accident a species gullible enough to believe what mass-campaigns of organized deception feed us; we were truly born hungry for sweet illusions and delusions. And nowhere near enough humans succeed in emancipating themselves from the simian lust for narcosis, for soporific virtualities, to make civilization truly feasible.
Keep from prying into other people's affairs, for such prying gives occasion for slander, judgment, and other grievous sins. Why do you need to be concerned about others? Know and examine your own self.
Arise my soul, and review your deeds which have preceeded from you. Scrutinize them closely, and shed the rain of your tears, declaring openly to Christ your thoughts and deeds, so that you may be justified.
Saint Andrew of Crete
Our Father awaits us with great zeal and desire, and with love He will see us returning from afar, and He will look upon us with compassionate eyes, and we shall be dear to Him, and He will fall on our neck running and embrace us and kiss us with His Holy Love. He will not reproach us, and He will no longer remember our sins and iniquities, and all the holy angles and all His elect will begin to rejoice over us.
"What joy is ours that the Lord not only forgives our sins ,but allows the soul to know Him, so soon as she humbles herself. The poorest wretch can humble himself and know God in the Holy Spirit. There is no need of money or posessions in order to know God, only humility. The Lord gives Himself freely, for His mercy's sake alone. I did not know this before but now every day and every hour every minute, I see clearly the mercy of God. The Lord gives peace even in sleep, but without God there is no peace in the soul."
There are very many unpleasant states that occur within each person; without knowledge one can never be free of them.
Sin, first and foremost, is the cause of every damage in this world. The evil one is the master of this sin, the master of this damage, but we have the Lord Jesus Christ, the Master of the Kingdom of God to defeat any kind of sin.
Your Father in Christ,
Bishop JOSEPH
http://www.antiochianladiocese.org/
Freedom is not the absence of commitments, but the ability to choose--and commit myself to--what is best for me.
Freedom is not the absence of commitments, but the ability to choose--and commit myself to--what is best for me.
Gary Snyder points out, "The world is our consciousness, and it surrounds us. There are more things in mind, in the imagination, than 'you' can keep track of -- thoughts, memories, images, angers, delights, rise unbidden. The depths of mind, the unconscious, are our inner wilderness areas." When we turn to a spiritual teacher we look for a guide, not one who is familiar with well-worn paths, but one who knows, as Snyder puts it, the "ettiquette of freedom."
Despots can hide behind the word democracy, they can hide behind rigged elections, but they can't hide behind the actions they take that limit liberty. It's all about the liberty thing...not the democracy thing. If liberty is being devalued, limited, decreased or otherwise compromised then we have to scrutinize the leadership for what they are doing. Bottom line, those who limit liberty are no friends to freedom.

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