Monday, November 1, 2010

October 31, 2010- Kodosh Etho Thoughts

1) God created us in His likeness and image.
2) Adam by disobedience caused this world to be fallen and He who cares for us provided us this opportunity to reenter that relationship through the Church.
3) We are baptised and anointed with the Holy Spirit into the Church where the Holy spirit dwells in it's fullness and we reunite to that relationship with God within it.
4) We are to live in genuine repentance approach confession before the priest who is the living image of God and partake of the Holy communion knowing that whatever we are, we are not to despair and doubt His mercy knowing that He is a just judge.
5) Also we are not to be looking at others but look within ourselves our short comings and we are to grow in Holiness together as Church as one body, His body
6) All the fathers who lived in the Church who have lived this have shown us if we are willing to look within the Church, we will know what we each are to do.
7) We out of our unwillingness are the cause of our hell here and we read of the fathers that even at death bed pleading 'Lord have mercy" knowing they need it and without Him nothing is possible

Christ in Us - (From grade V1 Sunday school text Lesson -31)Jesus Christ abides in us.

In HIM we live a new life of the kingdom of God.Through Holy Baptism we are born anew as God's own children and heirs of the Kingdom of God. From a life of death and decay we are raised to anew life that is eternal and imperishable.We are anointed and are made temple of the Holy Spirit, (1 Cor 3:16)who dwells in us, guiding and renewing us, that we might be transformed to the perfect image of God in Jesus Christ.

The purity and holiness that we all aim in Baptism is to be kept till the end of our life.The garment of purity, we are given in Baptism may be stained by the dust and dirt of the world in which we live in. We are living in a world where evil forces work. We must renew ourselves again and again through genuine repentance and confessions. The sacrament of Holy Confession cleanses us of all our sins and re-establishes our broken relationship with God, the Father.The Body and Blood of Jesus Christ that we participate in the Holy Eucharist make us abide in Him and He in us (Jn. 6:56)

The sacrament of Holy Matrimony unites man and woman together to form a new little Kingdom of God where they live together in a bond of selfless love and affection, reflecting the great love that the Lord showed toward His beloved Church.Thus the Church, through the sacraments, helps us grow into full stature and maturity in Jesus Christ.

The saints lived the new life of the Kingdom. They were the living presence of God on earth. Their thoughts words and deeds were in conformity with God's will. For them life in the Church and life in the world had no contradictions. They participated in the Holy Sacraments constantly and kept their lives always pure and renewed.They worked for the Church and for the people of the society to which they belonged without any selfish motives. They poured out their lives for others. Their mere presence had a sanctifying influence.Devotion to the Lord and commitment to the uplift of the people of God; this was all their life. These words of St. Paul were quite true in the life of the saints:" Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold the new has come."

In Jesus Christ we too have put on a new nature. As God's holy and beloved ones, we have put on the virtues of compassion and kindness,lowliness and meekness, forbearing and forgiveness and above all love that binds everyone with perfect harmony. Anger, wrath, malice,slander, foul talk, all these do not have any place in us. We have put of all these practices of our old nature. Again, among us there is no distinction between man and man in the name of caste, colour or wealth because Christ is all, and in all (Read Col 3:8-12)St. Paul says, " If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.For you have died and your life is hid with Christ in God."We are raised with Christ to the new life in the Kingdom. Therefore,our words and deeds should be in accordance with this new life. Every aspect of our life should be holy and sanctified.

For Memorization I Cor 3:16" Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If any one destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and that temple you are."

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