Purification Of The Heart ...

LISTING #7.  RELEVANT TO YOU - OBSCURE?
      continuation from 6

Prayer, study, and dogma "are abolished in vision of Christ in His Father's glory by the Spirit, an experience which transcends concepts and expressions about Him, and at the same time inspires concepts and expressions which will lead others to Him[1]."
      There are some things that aid in purification of the heart, they are cures for specific injuries that a person may have that need attention before the main cure can be addressed. There are misconceptions from childhood that result in continuous psychological pain, there are unconscious presuppositions from faulty religious training or ideas. There is a great effective support system in true Christianity throughout the world, but definitely mix your adventure with growth in hidden-man-of-the-heart unceasing prayer. It will preserve you if all else fails.

"Theology is to know about God in unceasing prayer and the study of scripture and dogma which is a guide to God in an ocean of superstitions and misunderstandings about Him[2]."
      Do you have a concept of God? - do not mistake it for the true word on God, or worse yet for our Triune Deity Himself. Do you have a clear and strong statement of Faith? - realize that no matter how committed you are to it that it is no more than a naming, a partial descriptive, a mere appellative. Our Godhead cannot be named or described. Yes, i am aware of the 250 names and titles of our Deity in scripture distributed throughout three quarters of a million words throughout nearly twenty thousand references! And yet this is a naming, a descriptive, an appellative process effective for guiding us to His Revelation of Himself to the individual.

"Theology is not conceiving God and dogma does not express God[3]."
      Consistent collaboration among Church Fathers on a topic needs be seen as persuasive.

"All the Fathers agree with St. Gregory the Theologian, so called because he had reached glorification, that 'it is impossible to express God and even more impossible to conceive Him'[2]."
      To attempt to understand the 'mysteries of God' is futile, for understanding is evidenced by those who actually depart from evil. Trying to advance dogma is not theology, dogma is a record of those defending the truth of the Gospel.

"The formulation of dogma had nothing whatsoever to do with any attempt to understand the mysteries (of God)[4]."
      If you study the advancement of technology, philosophy, or medicine through time, one would outline the development of the progress of man in such areas. For one to write about theology in such a manner is to reveal that the individual himself is outside the Body of Christ and relying only on human reasoning.

"It should be clear, except for Augustine (of Hippo), no Father of the Church ever imagined himself as being engaged in an alleged attempt by the Church to understand the mystery of God and the incarnation better and better with the passage of time[2]."
      Mankind's understanding of the only Triune Godhead is not a matter of the evolution of a certain number of centuries and improvement on that which has gone before. Consider for example the Franks that took over the Roman See by the tenth century; when they saw crowds of people participating in Christian tradition and worship, they assumed it was some kind of magic that they had to have to control their new subjects.

"St. Paul does not say that the Body of Christ is being built up by baptism, chrismation, eucharist, etc., but by apostles and prophets, meaning apostles and fathers who give birth to others in Christ by preparing them for the reception of the Holy Spirit's prayer in their hearts; it is only within such a context that the sacraments of baptism, chrismation, eucharist, ordination, confession, penance, etc. are not hocus pocus[3]."
      It is possible and is often the case that many people participate in all the religious rituals of various forms of Christianity and never touch the underground stream that the form represents. Also there are times when the lifeless institution above ground wanders far from the underground river of life below that defines it.

"Without those, who with unceasing prayer and reach glorification, the mysteries (sacraments) of the Church become a system of hocus pocus[2]."
      What happens in a location when the disciplined learning (discipleship) is amiss because no illuminated ones are present? Those who become the Body of Christ in such areas are few and far between.

"Whether one has such fathers (those with unceasing prayer who reach glorification) in concrete local congregations, or in monasteries does not change the fact they are the specialists for producing members of the Body of Christ[5]."
      The Body of Christ is built upon the genuine Apostles and Prophets of the Church only, and has been that way from the beginning.

"The important thing is that those with unceasing prayer who reach glorification are the central core of Holy Tradition since without them there is no Body of Christ[2]."
      A prophet can be a prophet in name only as we have seen in so many modern heresies. A genuine prophet can be called something else and it does not change the fact of his state and existence.



.... CONTINUED FROM THE PREVIOUS LISTING ...
[1]. Search for any partial string between any set of quotation marks to follow my sources.
[2]. ALL MY SOURCES ARE ON LINE.
[3]. All My Sources Are On Line.
[4]. All My Sources Are On Line.
[1-5]. John S. Romanides, Romanity.org