Spiritual Life
Orthodox Prayers & ServicesThe Importance of a Spiritual Father
"One who climbs a mountain for the first time needs to follow a known route; and he needs to have with him, as companion and guide, someone who has been up before and is familiar with the way."
Excerpt from The Spiritual Father in Orthodox Christianity
by Metropolitan Kallistos Ware Video Series on TheosisTheosis is the process of "becoming by grace what God is by nature." +St. Athanasius of Alexandria
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55 Maxims for Christian Life by Fr. Thomas Hopko
"Spirituality in the Orthodox Church means the everyday activity of life in communion with God. The term spirituality refers not merely to the activity of man's spirit along, his mind, his heart and soul, but it refers as well to the whole of man's life as inspired and guided by the Spirit of God. Every act of a Christian must be a spiritual act. Every thought must be spiritual, every word, every deed, every activity of the body, every action of the person. This means that all that a person thinks, says and does must be inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit so that the will of God the Father might be accomplished as revealed and taught by Jesus Christ the Son of God. "...whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." (1 Cor. 10.31)
Doing all things to the glory of God is the meaning and substance of life for a human being. This "doing" is what Christian spirituality is about." 
Excerpt from The Orthodox Faith: Spirituality, Vol. 4
by Fr. Thomas Hopko The Meaning of Icons - Fr. Maximos Constas
"Orthodox spirituality aims at the perfection of the faithful in Christ. This perfection can't be obtained in Christ, except by participation in His divine-human life. Therefore the goal of Orthodox spirituality is the perfection of the believer by his union with Christ. He is being imprinted to an ever-greater degree by the human image of Christ, full of God.
So the goal of Christian Orthodox spirituality is the union of the believer with God, in Christ. But as God is unending, the goal of our union with Him, or of our perfection, has no point from which we can no longer progress. So all the Eastern Fathers say that perfection is unlimited. Our perfection, or our union with God, is therefore not only a goal, but also an unending progress. On this read two great steps can be distinguished: first, the moving ahead towards perfection through purification from the passions and the acquiring of the virtues and secondly a life progressively moving ahead in the union with God. At this point, man's work is replaced by God's work. Man contributes by opening himself up receptively to an ever-greater filling with the life of God." 
Excerpt from Orthodox Spirituality
by Dumitru Staniloae |
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