Anchor/Anchored

“A ship without an anchor runs the risk of being dashed against the rocks along a coast. When people without hope are faced with the adversities of life, they’ve got nothing to lean on. What an anchor is for a ship, or air for the lungs, hope is for our spiritual existence. Hope is the anchor of the ship of life. Hope becomes our support in times of sorrow and of trials, of pain and failure. Hope urges our tired footsteps forward, illumines the dark and uncertain path of life and expels confusion, stress and turbulence from our heart.” (Metropolitan of Pisidia Sotirios)

“Our reading [Hebrews 6:13-20) proclaims that believers have an anchor of the soul, a connection to this Eternal God. What an anchor is to a ship, so our hope in Christ is to our souls. That anchor is sure and steadfast (vs. 19) because it is fixed to the Almighty, who is faithful and unfailing. The divine favor of God and His calling for us belong to His Kingdom, are both true and irrevocable (Romans 11:29). So, our anchor of hope in Him will hold through all the storms of life and the currents of the changing world. Anchors lie outside the ships that they hold fast. In the same way, the anchor that holds our souls secure lies in the Everlasting God and not anything in this passing world.” (Fr. Basil)

“The Church was, is and must always be ‘a Body in motion;’ living and active, never stagnant. And the forces of motion and perfectly exemplified, respectfully, by Peter and Paul. Without the centripetal force of Peter, the Church would have become little more than loosely connected groups ‘doing their own thing’ with no cohesiveness or foundation upon which to build in a unified manner. And without the centrifugal force of Paul, the Church would have remained a relatively small Jewish sect in Palestine. The Church needed both of these ‘forces’ to implement the great Commission of Our Lord to teach and baptize all nations! In like manner, we—as individuals and members of parish communities—need to practically apply these same forces of motion today. “Our lives must be centered on Jesus Christ, anchored in intimate communion with Him Who alone is the Source of our being and the Author of our Salvation.  We need centripetal force to keep us grounded in faith as we go about our daily activities and face the trials and tribulations of life. And the Church wonderfully provides this in her worship, sacraments, and ascetic life.” (Archpriest Daniel)

“Sometimes the Lord strips us of all the props we use to support our false self precisely so we can begin anchoring our identity in Him alone (1 Cor. 2:2). Even good things, like being useful to others, being appreciated by our family members or colleagues, or having an intimate relationship, can all become idols when they lead us to suppose that our sense of self is conditioned by these factors.” (Robin Phillips)

“When I was much younger, I was cynical for a time. It was largely because I didn’t hope in anything beyond my present circumstance. That changed and deepened as my relationship with God changed and deepened. Even fairly recently, during the darkest of times, I didn’t lose hope because of the trust that was now a part of me through Christ. I also found that the hope I have in the future, in the time Christ promises when all tears and sorrow will be wiped away, bleeds over into the present and affects the experience of the present greatly. This type of hope kept despondency at bay, freed me from the tyranny of anchoring it solely to my desired outcome, and enabled me to take beneficial actions that I wouldn’t have taken without hope and this type of submissive trust that no matter what the outcome, He is there.” (Sacramental Living Ministries)

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