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WEB 4 - ARCHIVE
Commentary 1 - Page 7 | ||||||
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PRAXIS NOW
Darkness of
the psyche The Hermit's Message
Way of Theosis Psychological method Prayer of the heart
praxis studies
Introductory studies
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In the early centuries of the church the aim not only of the education
of children, but the training of Christian adults, possessed a strong
emphasis on emotional education: the proper preparation of the heart. Traces
of this emphasis survive throughout the Western world. For instance, a Greek
taxi driver, faced with impatient passengers, will counsel hypomonie: patience, and the word he uses is the same as that used
by the fathers of the Greek church fifteen hundred years ago, when those who
seek God were counseled to practice hypomonie;
to endure with patience.
Today the training of the heart has almost disappeared from our
educational system, and is left to individuals to resolve as best they
can through therapy, counseling, self-knowledge or the substitutes adopted
when no help seems to be available -- alcohol and drugs -- and the Western
world is 'reaping the whirlwind' as a result [i] See Saint Theophan the Recluse, The Heart of Salvation [ii] Werner Jaeger: Early Christianity and Greek Paedaeia, Harvard, 1965. P153 [iii] Not all subtle sensations have spiritual significance, nor do the highest mystical impulses equate with any ordinary sensations, yet even here an increase in sensibility is valuable -- although we should be warned that it has its problems. |
different christianity
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