Dear Barry,<\/p>\n
CHRIST IS RISEN! May the blessing of our Lord be with you!<\/p>\n
We were very happy to receive your letter and hear of your path to Orthodoxy. May God send you His grace abundantly and grant you eternal salvation in His True Church!<\/p>\n
The light you saw, and the presence you felt, I am sure, are from God. Such a thing is fairly frequently experienced by converts to Orthodoxy, and the remembrance of it is often of great help in the temptations that come upon one in leading a true Christian life. However, don\u2019t think much about it, and especially don\u2019t make any \u201ctheories\u201d about it! Just know that God is close and sometimes lets us feel that closeness.<\/p>\n
As you prepare for Baptism, I would give you several words of advice:<\/p>\n
1. Don\u2019t allow yourself to get stuck on the outward aspect of Orthodoxy\u2014whether the splendid church services (the \u201chigh church\u201d to which you were drawn as a child), the outward discipline (fasts, prostrations, etc.), being \u201ccorrect\u201d according to the canons, etc. All these things are good and helpful, but if one overemphasizes them one will enter into troubles and trials. You are coming to Orthodoxy to receive Christ, and this you should never forget.<\/p>\n
2. Don\u2019t have a hypercritical attitude. By this I don\u2019t mean to give up your intellect and discernment, but rather to place them in obedience to a believing heart (\u201cheart\u201d meaning not mere \u201cfeeling,\u201d but something much deeper\u2014the organ that knows God). Some converts, alas, think they are very \u201csmart\u201d and they use Orthodoxy as a means for feeling superior to the non-Orthodox and sometimes even to Orthodox of other jurisdictions. Orthodox theology, of course, is much deeper and makes much better sense than the erroneous theologies of the modern West\u2014but our basic attitude towards it must be one of humility and not pride. Converts who pride themselves on \u201cknowing better\u201d than Catholics and Protestants often end by \u201cknowing better\u201d than their own parish priest, bishop, and finally the Fathers and the whole Church!<\/p>\n
3. Remember that your survival as an Orthodox Christian will depend very much on your contact with the living tradition of Orthodoxy. This is something you won\u2019t get in books and it can\u2019t be defined for you. If your attitude is humble and without hypercriticism, if you place Christ first in your heart, and try to lead a normal life according to Orthodox discipline and practice\u2014you will obtain this contact. Alas, most Orthodox jurisdictions today (such as the OCA) are losing this contact out of simple worldliness. But there is also a temptation on the \u201cright side\u201d which proceeds from the same hypercriticism I just mentioned. The traditionalist (Old Calendar) Church in Greece today is in chaos because of this, one jurisdiction fighting and anathematizing another over \u201ccanonical correctness\u201d and losing sight of the whole tradition over hyper-fine points. Our Russian Church Outside of Russia is in the best possible position in this regard, being rather in the middle of these two extremes and maintaining a balanced position (for example, grieving and occasionally remarking on the loss of Orthodoxy by the other jurisdictions, but not going to the extreme of declaring them to be \u201cwithout grace\u201d). We have recently written an article, in this connection, on Blessed Augustine, whom some converts (and Greeks) would like to regard as simply a \u201cheretic,\u201d without seeing that despite his errors he is actually more Orthodox than the modern, formally-correct \u201ctheologians\u201d who criticize him<\/p>\n
You yourself have had enough experience in life to avoid these temptations, which are actually those of the young and inexperienced; but it is good to keep them in mind.<\/p>\n
You are already probably fairly well prepared for Baptism in outward knowledge (that is a lifelong task in any case, and one is never really \u201cprepared\u201d!). I would advise you to read some things that give more the \u201cfeel\u201d of Orthodox Church life. The Confessions of Blessed Augustine is good reading for repentance and the warming up of the heart, and the ascetic and devotional literature of the Church is also very good\u2014Lives of Saints, Desert Fathers, collections like the Lausiac History and the Dialogues of St. Gregory the Great (who is much loved in the East). I am sending you separately our newest publication\u2014some Homilies of St Symeon the New Theologian, which serve as a kind of catechism of the meaning of our Christian life, and also (in case you haven\u2019t seen it) our article on Blessed Augustine from last year\u2019s Orthodox Word.<\/p>\n
As for serving God in the clerical state\u2014that can be seen better after you become Orthodox. It is best not to think too eagerly of it in the beginning for fear of going \u201ctoo fast\u201d and not absorbing the lessons right in front of one. God will show. Just this Saturday (two days from now) we will have the ordination here of a young convert from Roman Catholicism. He joined the Church about 9 years ago and matured through various trials into someone who is just \u201cripe\u201d for pastoral service. You must definitely meet him, and will gain much from talking with him. (He is Alexey Young, editor of the missionary periodical Nikodemos. He will take over our missionary labors in the southern Oregon area. By the way, the latest issue of Nikodemos is an excellent appeal to Roman Catholics to come to Orthodoxy\u2014you should read it. We will have some extra copies soon in case you don\u2019t subscribe.) There are many complications in pastoral labors today, and there is more hope for success in them if one \u201cmatures\u201d into them rather than follow a standard path of \u201cbeing assigned to a parish.\u201d<\/p>\n
This summer we will have our St. Herman Pilgrimage again on August 8-9, and then a week of courses on various Orthodox subjects (this year it will probably be a rather intense course). It would be good if you could attend. Of course, you are welcome to come and visit us any time. Please feel free to write about any questions you may have, also.<\/p>\n
May God guide your steps into His Church and make you a fruitful laborer for Him!<\/p>\n
With love in Christ,
\nH.S.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Barry, CHRIST IS RISEN! May the blessing of our Lord be with you! We were very happy to receive your letter and hear of your path to Orthodoxy. May God send you His grace abundantly and grant you eternal salvation in His True Church! The light you saw, and the presence you felt, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1440\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}