Our Life in Christ

  There is in this life but only "one thing needful",  that is to "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness".   Since the "Kingdom of God is within" it is within our own hearts and the hearts of others that we seek God's Kingdom.   How this is accomplished is by "entering into the closet" of our soul where we are to "pray without ceasing": Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.    In our profound acknowledgement of our personal unworthiness our hearts are enlargened for the love of all mankind.  It is by this grace-filled humility together with the reintegration of our psychonoetic Self from its "fallen state" that  the monastic becomes the advocate of all peoples in-the-world.  Thus the monastic fulfils the highest commandment to "Love others  as I have loved you", says Our Lord.

    While the physical life of a monk may be solitary his or her ascetic love for God and the activities born from this love hence extends the monastic to reach out in both a humanly and other-worldly manner for the salvation of our enemies as well as all Orthodox Christian faithful living in the world of conflict and strife.

      Through a daily cycle of prayer and ascetic practices the monk aims to "work out his salvation in fear and trembling" ( Phil. 2:12 ) therefore entering the kenotic experience of decreasing "so that Christ must increase" ( John 3:30 ).  In so doing one becomes a co-worker, a co-laborer in Christ  ( 1 Cor. 3: 9 ). With Him, Through Him, in Him and in the unity of His Spirit we are engaged in the re-creation of man and the cosmos.