Only a reductive and impoverished rendering of the Christian Faith could exclude the Mother of God from the Church’s life and experience, including its theology, which is faithful and inspired reflection on the experience of salvation in Christ.
— Fr. Maximos Constas, from his introduction to Mother of the Light
“The soul, like a ship, when it is swallowed up by external waves, is overwhelmed by internal bilge water. Certainly, we are destroyed sometimes by external actions, and other times we are led astray by internal thoughts. Therefore, we must watch out for encounters with external spirits, and drain out the impurities of internal thoughts; and always be vigilant of thoughts, for they occur continuously. In reference to the external waves, when sailors cry out, often their salvation occurs by means of the nearest boat. But the bilge waters, often while the sea is silent and the sailors are sleeping, come in and drown them.”
“Endeavor, O priest, to show yourself to be a blameless worker, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
The opening line of St. Basil’s admonition to priests, paraphrasing St. Paul (2 Timothy 2:15), included in the Hieratikon, the priest’s service book.
