My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
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RATIONALISM IN OUR TIMES
Logic and Spiritual Life
Geronda (Elder) what is the place of reason and logic in spiritual life?
- Which logic are you talking about? If you mean secular logic, then this kind of logic has no place at all in the spiritual life. [When the Elder refers to logic and reproaches it, he does not mean by this term the gift of reason with which God has honored human beings, but rather rationalism, or, as he calls it "afflicted reason", the logic that is void of faith in God, rejects Divine Providence and denies the possibility of miracles.] Angels and Saints, enter through our windows, we can see them, talk with them, and then they leave...There is no way that one can explain this logically. Today, increased knowledge and trust in logic has, unfortunately, shaken our faith to its foundations and filled our souls with question and marks and doubts. This is why we don't have miracles anymore because a miracle cannot be explained logically, it can only be experienced. But faith in God will bring down divine power and overturn all human expectations. It will perform miracles, resurrect the dead and astonish science. From the outside, all things pertaining to the spiritual life seem upside-down. Indeed, the mysteries of God will be impossible to know and will appear strange and contrary to nature as long as we don't overturn our secular mindset and see everything with spiritual eyes. Those who believe that they can come to know God's mysteries through mere scientific theory, without spiritual life, resemble a fool who thinks he can look through a telescope and see paradise.
Logic is very harmful when we use it to scrutinize the divine, the mysteries, and the miracles. Logic drove the Roman Catholics, as I have heard, to put the Holy Communion through chemical tests to determine it if is the actual Body and Blood of Christ! Now think of the Saints who had so much faith that they could often see flesh and blood on the Holy Communion spoon. Pretty soon, they will be putting the Saints through an X-ray machine to establish their sainthood! Thus, the Catholics got rid of the Holy Spirit, put logic in its place and now spend their time with "white magic". I said to a Catholic, a man with a good disposition, who came to see me and was in tears, "Among the most important differences that we have with you, is that you put the mind first, whereas we put faith. You have developed rationalism and, in general, you stress the human factor. This way you limit the power of God because you put Divine grace aside. You put a preservative in Holy Water to keep it from spoiling. We, on the other hand, pour Holy Water on spoiled things and they become fresh again. We believe in grace that sanctifies, and for this reason Holy Water remains unspoiled for two hundred years, five hundred years; it never spoils."
In other words, Geronda, what has happened is that logic and rationalism have taken precedence over God?
- Could it be that what we are talking about is not logic but pride? Because you see, this kind of logic is actually impaired rather than sound reason. Pride is the reason that is impaired, full of egoism, harboring demons. When this sort of logic is involved in our actions, we grant rights to the devil to intervene. (Source: With Pain and Love for Contemporary Man)
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" - Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George