Finding the Freedom to Live

Life in Christ frees us to build intimacy with integrity

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Obedience in marriage is discernment and love — St John Chrysostom

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When we speak of the wife obeying the husband, we normally think of obedience in military or political terms: the husband giving orders and the wife obeying them. But while this type of obedience may be appropriate in the army, it is ridiculous in the intimate relationship of marriage. The obedient wife does not wait for orders. Rather, she tries to discern her husband’s needs and feelings, and responds in love. When she sees her… [ read more ]

— Robert Van de Weyer (ed.): /On Living Simply: The Golden Voice of John Chrysostom/

The passions turn our thirst for the infinite on to something which cannot satisfy it — Dimitru Staniloae

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Another characteristic of the passions is that in the man unquenchable thirst is manifested, which seeks to be quenched and can’t be. Blondel says that they represent man’s thirst for the infinite, turned in a direction in which they can’t find their satisfaction. Dostoevsky has a similar idea.

Neilosthe ascetic writes that the stomach, by gluttony, becomes a sea impossible to fill – a good description of any passion. This always unsatisfied infinity is due… [ read more ]

— Dimitru Staniloae: /Orthodox Spirituality: A Practical Guide for the Faithful and a Definitive Manual for the Scholar/

The man of the passions is a man of passivity, enslaved — Dimitru Staniloae

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The passions represent the lowest level to which human nature can fall. Both their Greek name, pathi, as well as the Latin, passiones, show that man is brought by them to a state of passivity, of slavery. In fact, they overcome the will, so that the man of the passions is no longer a man of will; we say that he is a man ruled, enslaved, carried along by the passions.

— Dimitru Staniloae: /Orthodox Spirituality: A Practical Guide for the Faithful and a Definitive Manual for the Scholar/