- The sign of the cross
- The Russian Orthodox Old-Believer Church, which preserves apostolic continuity and purity of the Orthodox faith
Well today, in this worlds context, the Blessed Lord is asking us, how do we perceive the world around us ? It is certainly a rhetorical question. For it is not what we see but what we look at?
If our mind were to be consumed with the pattern of an earthworm, wherein all that we are concerned about is what we eat, and we try to stay in our comfort zones, we are not capable of living life to its completeness.
Living a life where pain exists within (from history, from memory), or where anxiety, depression, worry, fear tramatises our inner life, it is absolutely contradictory to the fullness of life that Jesus desires to give us (Saint John 10:10).
The first thing needed to come to a healthier state of mind is to immerse ourselves in quiet prayer. Our Whole beings need to undergo change for us to experience as it were, heaven within us. Our God is limitless, and so is everyone who clings onto real prayer. The Good Lord really desires that we come to the fulness of the faith. It is our resistance that has kept us away from Him.
When we transform from within, everything around us is looked at newly with the eyes of Mercy, with the eyes of Justice, with the eyes of Courage, with the eyes of Prudence, the soul awakens as the Most Holy Spirit moves within us.
Glory to God!
(From my notes on perceptions, Fr. Thomas Benedict, GOC, Bangalore, India)