Receptive
“The Holy Spirit, one of the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity comes to abide in us, God’s people, if we are receptive to having the Spirit abide in us…We make ourselves receptive to God through humility, love and by following Christ’s commandments to love God and neighbor. God is revealed to us through those in whom the Spirit abides. In God’s Holy Ones we find God’s holiness. Humans are capable of being God-bearers, of being a light to the world as is our God.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh)
“Let us first consider the senses. We humans have, in fact, two sets of sensory organs. We possess organs of sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing for receiving impressions from the physical world. The Fathers of the Church show us in their teachings that we also have spiritual organs – the receptive capacities of the heart… The Mystery of Christ opens the spiritual capacities of the faithful so that we can receive Truth.” (Dynamis 3/28/2020)
“Within the heart is the antenna for the voice of God. We keep our heart open and pure as much as we can, to keep the antenna receptive…We are made in God’s image and likeness. His being, His heart becomes our heart to the extent that we are capable of opening ourselves to His divine life.” (Albert S. Rossi)
“There is a certain wisdom that settles into a life that does not attempt to control what everybody else ought to be thinking, saying, doing, or voting on. Wisdom, health, life, and love cannot be found in trying to control the wind, but rather in harnessing the wind in the sails of receptive engagement of the present moment.” (Martin Laird)
“To me, it is no wonder in a country that seems to be drifting away from God and rejecting “organized religion” that we are seeing in upward trend in anxiety and depression. While is always dangerous to be simplistic in cause and effect reasoning, I think the disordered personality that results in a tormented mind and a hardened heart, at least at the spiritual level, is linked to the rejection of God, either through outright rejection, ignorance, or apathy, and thus the rejection of the Holy Spirit within us. To not walk in the futility of our mind (Ephesians 4:17) and lack understanding due to hardened hearts (Mark 6:52), is to cultivate the Holy Spirit within, who unites us to Christ, the Logos, the ordering principle of reality, who then orders us from within, so we have receptive hearts and illumined minds and face pain, trials, and suffering as agents of our growth, not as things that destroy our mental health.” (Sacramental Living Ministries)
“…reception is not purely passive. We use what we receive. We invent, we improve. We enjoy. However, doing those things with a heart that gratefully receives what has been given, and that seeks to know and understand the nature of that gift, is vastly different than the various arrogant modernisms of “making the world a better place,” and “re-inventing human beings.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“A gardener for example, does not actually grow plants. The gardener practices finely honed skills, such as cultivating soil, watering, feeding, weeding, pruning. But there is nothing the gardener can do to make the plants grow. However, if the gardener does not do what a gardener is supposed to do, the plants are not as likely to flourish. In fact they might not grow at all. In the same way a sailor exercises considerable skill in sailing a boat. But nothing the sailor does can produce the wind that moves the boat. Yet without the sailing skills that harness the wind, the boat will move aimlessly. Gardening and sailing involve skills of receptivity. The skills are necessary but by themselves insufficient. And so it is with contemplative practice and the spiritual life generally.” (Martin Laird)
“…the spiritual person can become an example to those who wish to imitate him. Receiving experiential knowledge of the Divine Beauty, a person is transformed by that beauty to become an example of it and a witness to its saving power…This beauty…is Christ… The divine… is subject to movement; and as that which is intensely longed for and loved, it moves [or draws] towards itself everything that is receptive of this force and love… In other words, [the divine] moves others and itself moves, since it thirsts to be thirsted for, longs to be longed for, and loves to be loved…” (Fr. John Breck, St Maximus the Confessor)
“Unlike what others think in the secular, psychological environment, to become more conscious and aware is not here the value in itself; “increased consciousness” is not the aim at all. Rather, it is “pivotal” in the sense that it takes us to something beyond itself. Through increased consciousness we are attempting to develop a relationship with our depths as a way of touching what is shining through them as a transparency of Divinity, that is, the light of another being and life. Thus, what we seek is not an “experience,” but God Himself. What is important is not an emotional, psychological, physical, or otherwise experience, but that our receptivity may be increased. The goal is clearly communion with the Divine; this is what we must seek to “experience.” (Metropolitan Philip Saliba and Fr. Joseph Allen)
“ We must be transfigured from the depths of our souls…if we are to gain the strength necessary to glorify God and bless our neighbors in all that we say and do. That is why we must humble ourselves by fasting in order to gain strength to redirect our hearts from gratification of self-centered desire to their true fulfillment in God. That is why we must become fully present before God in prayer each day as we open ourselves to His presence in our lives. That is why we must focus on serving our neighbors and not on pleasing ourselves. That is why we must confess and repent of sins that keep us wedded to the darkness. By persistently orienting ourselves to God in this way, we will become more personally receptive to the gracious divine energies and gain the spiritual clarity to behold the glory of the Lord and to speak and act accordingly.” (Fr. Philip LeMasters)
“Ever since Pentecost, the Good News of the Kingdom has been proclaimed in the whole world, and yet not everyone is receptive to it. Jesus saves the deepest revelations of Himself for those who love and obey Him.” (Life Application Study Bible, John 14:22-23)
“There is a way of ordering our mental life on more than one level at once. On one level we may be thinking, discussing, seeing, calculating, meeting all the demands of external affairs. But deep within, behind the scenes, at a profounder level, we may also be in prayer and adoration, song and worship and a gentle receptiveness to divine breathings.” (Thomas Kelly)
“Thou should also know that the more a man sets himself to be receptive of divine influence, the happier he is: who most sets himself so, is the happiest." (Meister Eckhart)
“Someone once said that "God must really love ordinary people--He made so many of them!" In this day of media stars, sports heroes, authorities, experts and personalities, it is reassuring to know that there is one place where the ordinary person will always be loved and needed--in the church. Although the church welcomes everyone, the truth is that the rich and wordly are not generally receptive to the Gospel. Christ found that it was the "common people" who "heard him gladly." St. Paul also observed that not many of those who were worldly, mighty, or of noble birth accepted the Christian calling. (l Cor. 1:26).” (Rev. Andrew Demotses)
“Those fully endowed by the Spirit with spiritual knowledge and virtue are able, through preaching and instruction, to make the hearts of others receptive of true devotion and faith…” (St. Maximos the Confessor)
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