Request

[J. A. McIntyre]

For more then a few years I’ve been busy convincing myself of “this” or “that” theological concepts, trying to find the fullness of the faith expressed in the Bible. I’ve been busy looking for true doctrine, only to have it swept away by competing theological opinions and then crashing into a hollow of spiritual gloom which I’ve found myself in for the last few years. Why have I been busy at this fruitless task? Because it diverts me, turns me aside from my own sinfulness…my own sense of emptiness and spiritual poverty. I’ve created a church of false idols that has imprisoned me in the illusion of “proper and true doctrine.” Feeding my hunger for true spiritual worship with dogma has left me tattered and weary. My head and heart are not in sync…my religion is vain…the only thing I know is “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!”

Please pray for me.

[Scott Pierson]

J. A. McIntyre,

I will pray for you. I'm sorry to hear of your anguish and suffering in this regard but it is a great thing that you are still searching.... it can be easy to give up and loose yourself in distractions like worldly pleasure and such. I was just reading a book today that I found really uplifting it was about suffering. Here is a paragraph from it I found really insightful:


“God is the source of joy, and the devil-the source of suffering. That is why even the sorrows which come to us according to Gods will in this temporary life carry in themselves joy and lead to heavenly glory if they are endured with faith and trust in God's good providence. In contrast, the temporal sinful pleasures with which the devil tempts us carry poison in themselves, and their end is utter disappointment. Whoever follows God is happy even in suffering, as the holy Apostle Paul speaks : 'sorrowful, yet always rejoicing' (2nd Cor. 6:10 ); but whoever follows the devil is unhappy even in his earthly joys. How many wicked ones there are who seem to be prospering in this world, but take a peek into their hearts, you will see such suffering, such an emptiness there.

It is true that the righteous, too , are not left without sorrows in life. The Savior Himself has prophesied to his Apostles: ' In the world ye shall have tribulations ( John 16:33) . The holy Apostle Paul says directly: 'all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution (2nd Tim. 3:12). But how different those sorrows, persecutions, and sufferings for Christ and in Christ are from the sorrows of the wicked! Their sorrows lead to hopelessness and despair, and the ones in Christ- to hope and joy. The sorrows of the faithless are storms which ravage everything, but the tears of the faithful are a quiet gracious rain which helps the beautiful flowers of virtue to grow and bloom in the soul. This is one of the extraordinary things in our precious Christian faith: it brings joy even in suffering. It transforms the sorrows into bliss.

When Jesus Christ was leaving this earthly life, He bequeathed to His beloved disciples sorrows and tears as if they were a most precious gift: 'verily, verily, I say unto you , that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice'. He did this not to doom His beloved ones to inconsolable suffering, but to draw even more radiantly on that dark background of suffering a picture of immeasurable bliss waiting for them. 'Your sorrow shall be turned into joy.", he said to them, ' your joy no man taketh from you‘. Only Christ can give such an eternal happiness, a happiness which cannot be taken away....…”


THE MEANING OF SUFFERING & STRIFE AND RECONCILIATION by Archimandrite Seraphim Aleksiev

[John Charmley]

For more then a few years I’ve been busy convincing myself of “this” or “that” theological concepts, trying to find the fullness of the faith expressed in the Bible. I’ve been busy looking for true doctrine, only to have it swept away by competing theological opinions and then crashing into a hollow of spiritual gloom which I’ve found myself in for the last few years. Why have I been busy at this fruitless task? Because it diverts me, turns me aside from my own sinfulness…my own sense of emptiness and spiritual poverty. I’ve created a church of false idols that has imprisoned me in the illusion of “proper and true doctrine.” Feeding my hunger for true spiritual worship with dogma has left me tattered and weary. My head and heart are not in sync…my religion is vain…the only thing I know is “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!”

Please pray for me.

Dear J.A. McIntyre,

I shall pray for you, and please do likewise for me, for the feelings you recount are known to me, as I am sure they are to others.

I hope that some of the wise pastors here will have words for your comfort, but all a fellow sufferer can say is that when you can see things as clearly as you do, then God is already showing His mercy to you. When we pray the Lord's prayer (and I have found that an ever present help) we ask for His will to be done, and we have His assurance about that; but He works in ways that are beyond our understanding, and we must have Faith in Him. Sometimes that has to be the Faith of a small child, we know nothing, we can know nothing, except that He died that we might be saved. An ineffable mystery, but one which brings us hope.

Is there a Church, a priest, or another with whom you can talk? There is always someone to whom you can pray. I have found the Lord's prayer and the Jesus prayer crutches which have supported me when all else has failed.

May God bless you and keep you, may He make His face to shine on you, and may you know His peace in your heart,


In Christ,

John

[J. A. McIntyre]

Is there a Church, a priest, or another with whom you can talk? There is always someone to whom you can pray. I have found the Lord's prayer and the Jesus prayer crutches which have supported me when all else has failed.


Mr. Charmley, I use to attend an Orthodox Church and did so for about a year. It was a very cultural Greek Church, very few people spoke to me and the Priest spoke Greek with very few words in English. I drifted a way...that was 4 years ago. I've been in this spiritual place countless times and every time I end up going back to the writtings of the early Church and the Jesus Prayer.

The local Greek Church is the only Church around my area, but things are looking up, they are getting a new younger Priest in the next few months. The Metropolitan Archbishop Sotirios of Canada is visiting the Church Wednesday next week, God willing, I'll be there.

Scott & John, thank you for your kind words.

[Owen Jones]

My wife and are members of a Greek Orthodox parish in Savannah, Georgia. We travel an hour to attend Church. No big deal. The parish is almost entirely composed of Americans of Greek descent with a few "converts" like us, and, interestingly, a few trickling in from the local military who have been exposed to the Syriac Church in Iraq. The priest is Romanian who speaks with a very thick accent. The liturgy is about half English and half Greek. I am just so grateful to be in the Orthodox faith, to participate in Orthodox communion, and be around other Orthodox, even when I have a hard time understanding the sermons, that I just don't worry my pretty little head about any of that. I humbly thank all "ethnic" Orthodox for keeping the faith and the traditions -- all for me! When I hear stories like the ones told here, about one less than ideal circumstance driving people away, I just wonder how serious people are in the first place. When we look at the travails of Orthodox martyrs over the past century, who are we to complain about a little minor inconveniences? Really! Our religion is not about the self -- satisfying the self. It is about martyrdom of the self.