#Father Spyridon Bailey

[orthodoxadventure]

LEARNING FROM ST MARY MAGDELENE

A podcast with pictures reflecting on the devotion of St Mary Magdelene.

[apenitentialprayer]

The human person is a mystery; we don't know the true depths of our hearts. The mystery of human being is only revealed in Christ […] this mystery of human being is only known truly by God Himself. And if we don't know the mystery of ourselves, how less do we really know the mystery of other people? So quickly we attribute motivations, we make judgments about other people based on assumptions that —very often— are completely wrong.

Father Spyridon Bailey (Spiritual Self-Deception)

[godbeautyorder]

One crisis of our contemporary age is that people are once more becoming aware of demonic activity, but no longer have the Christian framework from which to understand it.

Father Spyridon Bailey

[rtrixie]

Have you read the book Orthodoxy and the Kingdom of Satan by Father Spyridon Bailey? It’s the best read in awhile and really insightful on growing resentment towards Christianity.

I haven’t, but I quite like his videos so I might check it out

[orthodoxadventure]

THERE IS ONLY ONE CHURCH ~ WHY ORTHODOXY?

[orthodoxadventure]

DO WE LOVE GOD?

St Gregory the Great challenges us to ask ourselves how far we truly love God. A podcast with pictures.

[apenitentialprayer]

Father Spyridon Bailey basically just said “If it was really the fault of women for wearing certain clothes that you fell into the sin of lust, how come you wouldn’t have the same reaction to your mothers and sisters if they wore those clothes? Maybe it’s not just the clothes, but something inside you” And honestly, I’m digging it

[apenitentialprayer]

So why did God create the angels? What is their purpose? The first and most important purpose is simply to reflect the glory of God; to reflect the glory of God and to participate in His blessings.

Father Spyridon Bailey (The True Nature of Angels)

[apenitentialprayer]

The martyrs of the Church, we are taught, are not victims, but victors. Theirs is a victory over the world. All of us, of course, want to be safe; all of us are longing to live a long life, a healthy life; the world convinces us of so much, and yet these martyrs understood that their faith in Christ -their faith in God- was worth more than any of this. And they overcame even the natural inclination to survive. For their faith in Christ was stronger than any impulse, any desire, anything the world had to offer - even life itself.

Father Spyridon Bailey (The Nearness of Martyrdom)

[apenitentialprayer]

There’s apparently an Orthodox tradition that claims that, no matter how successful he was in converting people to Christianity, and no matter how humble and saintly a man he grew into, even after becoming Pope of Rome, Saint Peter would weep every time he heard the crowing of a rooster. Father Spyridon Bailey says we must take this example and “see ourselves as beginners in the spiritual journey, and always, always continue to see ourselves til our last breath as beginners in the spiritual journey. The minute we imagine we are humble, or virtuous, or dare we think saintly, we must take it as a sign that we are deluded.” There is never a moment where we don’t need our repentance and God’s forgiveness.

[apenitentialprayer]

And so the Jesus Prayer is a means given to us by God to enter into communion with God; to bypass the crowded intellect that is filled with so much nonsense, until ultimately (we pray and we hope, and we seek) that silence, that stillness within ourselves where we have nothing, not even ourselves, except for Christ.

Father Spyridon Bailey (The Jesus Prayer: Encounter with God)

[apenitentialprayer]

We honor them [the saints] because we honor God in them.

Father Spyridon Bailey (Holy Relics ~ Signs of Ourr Salvation)

[apenitentialprayer]

All of us will fall. We must not be so shocked, so broken by the thought of our sinfulness, that despondency can grow there. It is a trick of the devil; we must always look to the mercy of God, and when we are fallen, climb back to our feet. Begin again, repent again, turn once again to the mercy of God.

Father Spyridon Bailey (Overcoming Despondency When We Fall)

[apenitentialprayer]

Without the illumination of Christ, we cannot see each other. We treat each other as caricatures, free to be cruel; harsh; judgmental. But when we are illuminated by Christ, we may begin to see each other and show compassion and love for what we truly see in one another.

Father Spyridon Bailey (Ancient Christian Teaching on Spiritual Blindness)

[apenitentialprayer]

For the disciples, they were hiding away; they were terrified. Their hopes in Christ had come crashing down and they feared arrest. So when Saint Thomas said he would not believe unless he saw the Christ himself, it wasn't just the reality of the Resurrection that he doubted, it was the restoration of all his hopes. Everything he believed in had been taking from him; his security. He wanted it all restored, but he could only have it restored through this encounter with Christ.

Father Spyridon Bailey (The Reality of Doubt)