Fasting

The words I remember most about Father Bernstein's Homily this morning is something he said about fasting. Fasting is about the persuit of holiness, love, and freedom from bondage. He said to break fast in the persuit of love is not to break fast at all, but to fast in the Greatest way possible. To Break fast in the persuit of loving others is not to break fast at all. I love this.

The second thing Father Bernstein said that struck me is that those who persue holiness find the persuit natural, without all the rules and constraints. The constraints are there to help in our walk, but the persuit of holiness must be our own walk toward God into love. I thought this was beautiful because it illustrates that even those outside of the Orthodox Christian Faith can be far more holy than those within, Precisely because Holiness is a personal walk of Growing in love. Love for all people. Love can be vaguely explained, but it cannot be measured by knowledge. Only Growth in the Lord Causes love to Grow.

I am not Holy, and I am constantly having to ask for mercy for my own sins, but I cannot measure the spiritual condition of any man, Whether he is Orthodox, Catholic, Calvinist, Pentecostile, or anything else that I can think of. Maybe even a Muslim can work from his corrupt religion, and individually follow that which is love: The Trinity.