Peace and Joy

“Our Lord knows His people, and as a word of encouragement He tries to comfort us. He says “Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink; nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not the soul more than food, and the body more than clothing?” Anxiety steals our joy. Our fear for all of the “what ifs” of life actually works to destroy our relationship with God. How does it do that? It causes us to doubt God and it focuses our energies on false gods, and temporary solutions. If a man thinks that his biggest problem in life is poverty, will he not focus on working to make as much money as possible? Will he not pour himself into the thing that he believes is the solution to all of his problems?” (Fr. James Guirguis)

“…external events might arise and motivate sadness, it must be stressed that such is truly not its real source. They are the occasion, not the cause which rather lies uniquely in the very soul of the individual, and more precisely in the attitude adopted with regard to himself and exterior events. … our joys and sadness come not so much from the nature of things as from our own dispositions.” (St. John Chrysostom)

“…human beings indeed are anxious and unworthy. But our evil is, in one sense, irrelevant, in that God still loves us nonetheless, and He sent His Son to become one of us, to die for us and to rise again, uniting human nature to Himself so that we could share His divine nature and find salvation. We are not worth saving, but Christ saved us anyway. No wonder our response to this is Eucharist—thanksgiving. Throughout all our life and into the endless ages to come, it is our joy to thank Him and glorify Him for saving us, the evil and unworthy. The immensity of God’s love and condescension and the power of His salvation may be discovered in a tiny little verse in the Book of Revelation. In Revelation 3:4 the Lord describes the redeemed in these words: “they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy”.” (Fr. Lawrence Farley)

“Personally, I want to think and think that a truly spiritual experience, that of meeting God, has a different ontology than all other types of joy. But I am against the division into the profane and the sacred. You can spiritualize your whole life, realizing that all of it is a gift from God. And then the joy of meeting with friends, walking, working, and praying turns everything into prayer. Life itself becomes a prayer. I see everything as a manifestation of God’s presence.” (Marina Filonik)

“For any bit of creation to take on a specific form, it has to be sustained by Christ, by His will, His love, and His power. But in His infinite mildness and goodness, our Divine Physician knows exactly what every part of chaos–broken and hurt chaos and non-being–needs in order to be whole, to be real. And so He shares Himself, offers His own body in a sense, to each bit of non-being in just the way that each created thing is able to accept Him with a maximum of joy and gladness.” (Timothy G. Patitsas)

“Of all the blessings of God, peace is one of the most sought-after. We begin our litanies in the Liturgy with the invitation, “In peace let us pray to the Lord”…And we follow with the petition for “peace from above.” However, we pray not only for heavenly peace but for peace in our world. So we pray for “peaceful times”…And later we pray for those in government that they enjoy “peaceful times.” Thus in their “tranquility,” we may live a “calm and peaceful life”…Peace is necessary for good order, cooperation, and happiness in our communities, work, families, and our churches. Without it, nothing constructive may be achieved, and no one can reach good and lasting goals.” (Fr. Basil)

“Alas, people today, particularly the young, are living in desperate individualism, far removed from any association with their Creator and other people. Without ideals and visions, they’re trying to be joyful in a milieu of the empty pleasures of consumerism, drugs and satisfaction of the passions. But joy, what Basil the Great calls ‘a skipping of the soul’, is an existential fact of life. And this fact is the fruit of the Holy Spirit: ‘for the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace and patience…’ (Gal. 5. 22). If we understand this eternal truth, we’ll really be joyful.” (Archimandrite Kyrillos Kostopoulos) 

“Though peace is desirable, many do not do what is necessary to pursue it. They do not realize how peace is attained. The apostle [St. James] states, “Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace” (James 3:18 18). We must actively make peace. This insight is an echo of the teaching of the Lord: “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God” (Matthew 5:9). Fostering peace means sowing peace, planting peace, and nurturing peace. None of this is done by wishing for it. The Lord and the apostle teach that peace starts with the human heart. This is true even for our rulers. In the Liturgy of St. Basil we pray “Remember…all civil authorities, grant them a secure and lasting peace; speak good things in their hearts concerning Thy Church and all Thy people, that we, in their tranquility may lead a calm and peaceful life…”…Putting these thoughts together, “tranquility,” that is, the peacefulness of heart, creates the climate of peace for the Church and for all.” (Fr. Basil)

“As God and human person, the Lord is the source of joy…His resurrection and passion are also an occasion for great joy. ‘And they quickly left the tomb with fear and great joy’ (Matth. 28, 8). And also ‘saying this, he showed them his hands and his side. And the disciples rejoiced at seeing the Lord’ (John 20:20). This is precisely why the existential imitation of the pain and suffering of Christ is completed with existential joy. ‘Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds’ (James 1, 2)…This is because the struggle ‘in Christ’ and ‘for Christ’ involves trials and sorrows. As Saint Peter aptly remarks, ‘In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith, of greater worth than gold refined by fire,…’ ( 1Peter 1: 6). Joy in Christ is inalienable. Nothing in this world can take it away from us. In any case, Christ himself has promised ‘… and no-one shall take away your joy from you’ (John 16, 23).” (Archimandrite Kyrillos Kostopoulos) 

“…the reasons for us to rejoice are obvious: a) because we came into being from non-being; b) because through word and the mind we can understand the beauty of creation; c) because we’re able to distinguish good from bad; d) because, having been estranged from God through sin we have been recalled to intimacy with him through repentance; e) because we have hope of resurrection, of the enjoyment of angelic blessings, the kingdom in heaven.” (St. Basil the Great)

#FrBasil #ArchimandriteKyrillosKostopoulos #StBasiltheGreat #FrJamesGuirguis #StJohnChrysostom #FrLawrenceFarley #MarinaFilonik #TimothyGPatitsas