Accept and Keep

About Bishop St. Theophane the Recluse

About "old" and "new" calendar

October 23 (November 5)

IThes. 1:1-5; Lk. 10:22-24

“No man knoweth... who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him" [Lk. 10:22]. The Son lived on earth and has revealed to us everything which we need, either personally, or through the Holy Spirit working in His Apostles. Therefore, we can and should know only as much about God and Heavens as we find in the Gospels and Apostolic legacy. Don’t pretend to seek elsewhere, to find some other truth about God and His plans.

What a great treasure we have!... Everything has been said. Don’t try to reason out anything new; just accept with faith what has already been revealed. It has been revealed that God, one in essence, has three Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, — accept it with faith and keep it in your heart. It has been revealed that God in the Trinity has created everything by His word, holds everything in His hand, and provides for everything, — accept it with faith and keep it in your heart. It has been revealed that once we had been in a blessed state in Paradise and then fell, and that to restore and redeem us the Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, became Man in the flesh, suffered, died on the cross, rose from the dead and ascended into the heavens, — accept it with faith and keep it in your heart. It has been revealed that those who seek salvation have to believe in the Lord, receive Divine Grace in the holy sacraments, and with its help live a life according to Lord’s commandments, a life of continuous struggle against sin and evil passions, — accept it with faith and do just that. It has been revealed that those who follow the Lord and His precepts proceed after death into the abodes of light, a prelude to the eternal bliss, whereas those who do not follow Him foretaste after death the torments of hell, — accept it with faith and let it instruct and inspire you to do good and resist evil.

Much the same way accept and keep every tenet of faith. Attempts to rationalize, to invent something of your own, are futile; those who get involved in them know not whither they go.

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