David

Myspace provides a window to the world for me outside of work and church. It also provides a method to drive more traffic to St. Seraphims web site that am currently responsible for. St. Seraphims is home of his Eminence Archbishop Dmitri. Many of his writings, including the Doctrine of Christ can be read by clicking here. Photos from recent events can be viewed here.

My Patron Saint ...

KONTAKION, TONE I
An ever-blossoming garden, bearing fruits of virtues, thou didst appear on a garden tree like a sweet-singing bird; but all the more didst thou take into thy heart paradise, the Lord's tree of life, and having cultivated it, O divinely-wise one, by it thou dost nourish us with grace: ever pray for us, O David all-blessed.

Relics of St. David of Thessalonica

I actually first encountered Orthodoxy when I met a subdeacon from the Antiochian Church in 1988. I was already 2 years into "fleeing" the god of Luther and Calvin and had well vested myself into Gelug Budhism. Troubled by Je Tsongkapa always manifesting as Jesus Christ when doing my daily guru yoga practice I started using the Jesus Prayer that my subdeacon friend had told me about.

Then one day it hit me, Jesus Christ IS GOD! I couldn't find anyway to explain that; what rationality from the human mind can explain a mystery shouted from the depths the heart? This process lead me a year and 1/2 later, 2003, to start attending St. Seraphims, right at the beginning of Lent. God was gracious and provided circumstances such that I was able to attend daily vespers, week-end vigils and liturgies, then finally to have Holy Week off so I could attend all the services of Holy Week.

The next year of catechization was a long one, seems like a lifetime looking back on it. But somehow, simply by Gods Grace, I was Chrismated on Feb 7th. 2004.

Well that is a very condensed "cliff notes" version of how God brought me to the Orthodox Faith.

A Word From Saint Symeon The New Theologean

“I grieve, I exhaust my heart, I pine for you when I bring to mind that we have a Lord so bountiful and compassionate that simply if we have faith in Him He grants us gifts beyond our imagination – gifts we have never heard or thought of and that ‘man’s heart has not grasped’ (1 Cor. 2:9). Yet we, like beasts, prefer the earth and the things of the earth that through His great mercy it yields in order to supply our bodily needs; and if we use these things modestly, then our soul may ascend unhampered towards divine realities, nourished spiritually by the Holy Spirit according to the degree of our purification and to the level to which we have ascended.

This is our purpose, for this we were created and brought forth: that after having received lesser blessings in this world we may through our gratitude to God and our love for Him enjoy great and eternal blessings in the life to come. But, alas, far from having any concern for the blessings in store, we are even ungrateful for those at hand, and we are like the demons, or – if truth be told – even worse. Thus we deserve greater punishment than they, for we have been given greater blessings. For we know that God became for our sakes like us in everything except sin, so that He might deliver us from delusion and free us from sin. But what is the use of saying this? The truth is that we believe in all these things only as words, while we deny them where our acts are concerned. Is not Christ’s name uttered everywhere, in towns and villages, in monasteries and on mountains? Search diligently, if you will, and find out whether anyone keeps His commandments. Among thousands and myriads you will scarcely find one who is a Christian both in word and in act. Did not our Lord and God say in the Gospel, “He that believes in Me will also do what I do – indeed, he will do greater things’ (John 14 : 12)? But which of us dares to say, “I do Christ’s work and I truly believe in Christ?’ Do you not see, brethren, that on the day of judgment we risk being classed among the unbelievers and will be chastised more severely even than those ignorant of Christ? Inevitably either we must be chastised as unbelievers or Christ is a liar – and that, my brethren, is impossible.”

Saint Symeon The New Theologian “On Faith” pg. 21 [#70]. The Philokalia: The Complete Text; Vol. 4. Compiled by St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain and St Makarios of Corinth. translated by G. E. H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, and Kallistos Ware. Faber & Faber Ltd: London; 1979.

Final Judgement - River Of Fire

All Will Be Seasoned With Fire

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