Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
We may believe that Christ is God, we may be baptized, and we may attend church services, but we each must ask ourselves: Am I truly a Christian?
We do not always bother to look at life in the context of our Christian faith. Often, we look only for what we can find by earthly means. When we seek knowledge or understanding, we look to the wisdom of mortals. When we seek fulfillment, we look to our desires. When we seek love, we look to our feelings. When we seek healing, we look to physicians. When we seek contentment and mental peace, we look to meditation, relaxation, distraction and escape. But when we seek things this way, looking only through worldly eyes, we can find only what the world has to offer. Somehow, even the best of what the world has to offer always seems to leave us disappointed.
When we look with spiritual eyes, however—with Christian eyes, seeking true communion with the Lord, everything otherwise unreachable emerges into our vision and within our grasp. We can find knowledge and understanding by way of the Holy Spirit. In the depths of our heart, we can find fulfillment. We can find holy love, love that never dies. We can find healing, both physical and spiritual, by the Lord's own hand. We can find true contentment, both within ourselves and with those around us, and a sense of unshakable inner peace.
This is the way that we are supposed to approach life, looking with faithful eyes, seeking only the Lord. When we trade our fleeting worldly cares for the eternal heavenly ones—in other words, when we show God that we are concerned with fulfilling His will, He shows us that He is also concerned with fulfilling our worldly needs; and this is a promise. In the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, "Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you" (St. Matthew 6:32-33).
In a world riddled by so much despair, disillusionment, hopelessness, superstition, fear—each a devastating effect of unbelief, we often forget to look at life through Christ-loving eyes. Relentlessly, we are tempted and encouraged to stray from the holy path—from the Word of the Lord, the teachings of His Holy Church, the Tradition of the Apostles. We are tempted and encouraged to follow, instead, the lures of the enemy, the teachings of others who are spiritually blind, and the growlings of our own appetite for things of this world.
If we are to be truly Christian, however, we must seek God in every aspect of our lives, and not merely with our lips on Sunday morning. As the Scriptures warn, "If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth" (1 John 1:6). On the other hand, the Scriptures promise, "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). Thus, we each must make the choice: Will I walk in the darkness of sin, acknowledging and anticipating its many consequences, or will I make every effort to walk in the light of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, trusting in the promise of salvation and eternal life? It is not a one time choice; we must consciously re-make this choice each and every time our faith is called into question.
With Christian love and humility, the mission of The Saint Gregory Palamas Outreach is to proclaim and promote the truth about God, about life, about the call to holiness. Nearly 700 years have passed since the repose of Saint Gregory Palamas, but his words have not ceased to ring true. We are in greater need of his insight now, perhaps, than ever. We must heed his warnings about the dangers of Godless philosophies and ramblings. We must learn from him how necessary prayer is if we desire to commune with the Lord. We must trust him and his Orthodox contemporaries when they say that much struggle is needed in order to complete our journey toward Christ. We must consider these ideas not only when we are in church, but at every moment.
We are not all called to be monastics. We are not all called to be hesychasts. We all, however, are called to be saints. It is true that we are human and imperfect—we can be sure that we will repeatedly hesitate, stumble and lose footing; but the ability to know God and the potential to fulfill His holy purpose still exists within each of us. With the Lord's help, may the resources offered by this web site serve to remind us of that.
Greeting and welcoming you in the love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
The Staff of The Saint Gregory Palamas Outreach
