purity

She Chose Him

By Mirette Abraham

Of all the virtues of St Mary, her purity feels a little understated.

We know of her purity.

We recite hymn lyrics and read books about her purity.

We wish to emulate and embody her purity.

But I think we tend to glance over words without truly understanding the fervency in her commitment.

Mary was pure in her sacrifice of both her body and soul, bringing them into complete submission before God. What is even more beautiful about her submission is that her chastity was a choice she had made as a young girl; a young girl with her entire life before her. While girls her age were busy planning their futures and preparing themselves for marriage, she had set her eyes on eternity and consecrated her heart to God.

Think about the magnitude of this sacrifice for a moment!

By choice, she spent her childhood serving in the temple, rather than playing with girls her age and running around the neighbourhood.

By choice, she spent her evenings in the presence of God, rather than drinking and dining with her friends.

By choice, she committed her mind to learning about God, her body to kneeling before Him and her heart to being completely taken over by His love.

Looking at her life through this lens-seeing her life as the complete embodiment of sacrifice and the purest of offerings-we can finally appreciate her response to Gabriel:

“How can this be, since I do not know a man?” (Luke 1:34 NKJV)

Giving her heart and body to somebody else wasn’t ever on her agenda. She wanted God alone. She gave her heart to God alone. Her purity, though, was more than simply a vow of celibacy. A vow to keep her body untouched and sanctified.

It was more.

She set aside her whole self-mind, body, spirit. Everything she had, she gave to God. She knew that all the happiness and wealth this world could offer, “could not be compared to the glory” (Romans 8:18 NKJV) that was to be found with God alone.

She lived for more.

She lived in God’s grace.

She lived for Him alone.

She chose Him.

And because of her purity, “all generations shall call [her] blessed.” (Luke 1:48 NKJV)

So, may we learn how to become sanctified for God alone, letting go of all the treasures we are so desperately trying to hold onto here, in this impermanent, imperfect world. Instead, we need to lay down the foundation for our forever-home in heaven, offering up our hearts, bodies, minds, our entire selves, brick by brick. And may we esteem the virtue of purity and learn, from our mother Mary, how to make it a way of life.

The Key to Answered Prayer

Prayer

Dear Lord, I know well that every perfect gift come from above. I know that I depend upon the most powerful assistance of Your Providence, and that without You a creature can do nothing.

I pray that You come to my defence, with Your grace, chastity and purity to heal my soul and body of all impurity. For every thought, action or behaviour that has stained my chastity and purity, may You, who is the Supreme Lord of all my powers, take it from me, that I may advance in Your love and service, offering myself chaste all the days of my life on the purest altar of Your Divinity.

Obtain for me a deep sense of modesty, which will be reflected in my external conduct. Protect my eyes, the windows of my soul, from anything that might dim the lustre of a heart that must mirror only Christ-like purity.

Finally, may I be among the number of those of whom Jesus spoke, “Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God.” Amen.

Purity

The Key to Answered Prayer

Focus Quote

Children, I beseech you to correct your hearts and thoughts, so that you may be pleasing to God. Consider that although we may reckon ourselves to be righteous and frequently succeed in deceiving men, we can conceal nothing from God. Let us therefore strive to preserve the holiness of our souls and to guard the purity of our bodies with all fervor. Ye are the temple of God, says the divine Apostle Paul; If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.”
St. Nicholas of Myra

Purity

The Key to Answered Prayer

New Testament Passage

Matthew 5: 1-12

And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Discussion Questions

Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also (Matt 23:26). Do we only look at the outward appearance? Or do we clean the inside (our hearts)?
To see God means to be admitted to His presence. How often do we spend quality time with the Lord completely undistracted and filled with His love?
To have a pure heart means to cleanse it from all falsehood and double-mindedness. It is to wholeheartedly, will one thing which is full and total allegiance to God. King David says, “Cleanse me and I shall be whiter than snow” – how do we strive for such purity?

Old Testament Passage

1 Samuel 16:7

But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

Discussion Questions

What does it mean to have a double mind? How can we practically keep our minds on the Kingdom and our Father in heaven?
What obstacles can get in the way of achieving purity? Think of some obstacles in your own life and make a plan of action to overcome them.

Am I Truly Clean?

Am I Truly Clean?

By Ereeny Mikhail

“When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.” – Luke 11:24-26

Every year after Passion Week and the Resurrection feast, sometime in the following week, this is the first passage from the Bible that pops into my head. One moment we are attending prayers every morning and night, fasting, doing prostrations, singing at the top of our lungs, sleepless nights filled with prayer, not distracted by television, secular music and social media and spending the week in repentance. And then in a moment…everything changes.

When it should for the better because of what we just witnessed during Passion week, it becomes overeating, catching up on T.V., changing back to our normal Spotify playlist and our time with God drops dramatically. Of course, every year it takes me a few days to come out of the food coma in order to realise that this is the case. That is when this parable (which is also in some of the other gospels) comes to mind. Likewise, following confession this parable again arises. Every time I walk out of confession, I am cautious of my actions, my words and my thoughts. However, as humans we have weakness and we fall back into old ways.

So, I asked myself, what is the solution? How do we try to the best of our ability to maintain that spirituality? How do we not fall back? This parable tells us that when we become clean and our sin is wiped away, we then find that same sin and seven others make their way back into our hearts. Why? Aren’t we clean?

St Augustine of Hippo contemplates on this and says, “When there is forgiveness of sins through the sacraments, the house is cleaned; but the Holy Spirit must be a necessary inhabitant.”

It makes a lot of sense. We may be clean, but we are empty. We need to fill our home with good.

Think back to King David, who flourished in strength and victories but still fell like any of us. He saw Bathsheba bathing and lusted over her, fell into sin with her and left her with child. To cover up for his sin, he sent Bathsheba’s husband, one of his most trusted soldiers, Uriah the Hittite, to the front line of battle to get him killed. Let me just emphasise the loyalty of Uriah, so after his sin, David sent for Uriah in hope that Uriah would go home and lay with his wife and she would appear to have conceived from her husband. But Uriah was so loyal that when he found no one was protecting the king that night, he slept at David’s footsteps two nights in a row even after David tried to convince him to leave. It says “Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants…” After all this loyalty, David sent him to the front line of battle and Uriah died. Although his sin was so great, he repented. But he says something very specific, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.” (Psalm 51:10-11). He repents and is sorrowful, but he specifically asks the Lord not to take the Holy Spirit from him. The Lord obviously saw his sorrow and repentance and amongst all his sins of murder and adultery, in Acts 13:22 it says: “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.” But to reach this, the importance of the Holy Spirit to him was tremendous. Why was it so important?

Again, St. Peter was not without fault. A number of times in the gospels St. Peter fell, to which the Lord answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” (Matthew 16:23). Or when he denied the Lord, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny three times that you know Me.” (Luke 22:34) Contrast his actions here to following the resurrection of our Lord, he showed acts of desperation to return to Christ, “But Peter arose and ran to the tomb…” (Luke 24:12) and “…when Simon Peter head that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment (for he had removed it), and plunged into the sea.” (John 21:7) Likewise, when the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples and they began to bring all nations to Christ, St Peter says “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk,” (Acts 2:6) and “…Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them…” (Acts 4:8) He was not about the things of the world anymore, he only filled himself with the Lord. And he continued on to become one of the most important Saints of the church, with no more fear. To the extent, that he requested to be crucified upside down, because he felt unworthy to be crucified like Jesus. Why was the Holy Spirit also so important in this transition?

On both accounts, and many others, two of the greatest Saints in the church became the greatest Saints because they filled their life with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit already abides in us, but we must provide its fruits. In Galatians 5:22-23 it says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”

Against such there is no law.

Yes, we must repent like King David and we must desperately run to the Lord like St. Peter. But we cannot just repent and leave our house empty. We must fill it with the Holy Spirit like the both of them. They changed their life after the repentance. They didn’t just return to their old ways. They didn’t switch back to their secular Spotify playlist. They didn’t fill their lives with T.V. shows. They didn’t overindulge. When we do this, there is no space for Christ. They continued to fill their lives with the Lord. Because if we leave our house empty of the Lord, it will only be filled with more sin. It isn’t a fast solution. We will fall. But “…narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there is few who find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14) We must become resilient in the way to life by continuing to fill it with the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

St Cyril of Alexandria says; “For just as the Holy Spirit, when he sees a person’s heart desisting from all uncleanness, abides and dwells and rests in that one, so also the unclean spirit likes to take lodging in the souls of the lawless.”

The Persecuted for Righteousness’ Sake

The Beatitudes Series: Part 8

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

By Marc Eskander

The sermon on the Mount remains, to this day, one of the most uplifting sources of inspiration for Christians around the world. Far be it from Christ to do anything by chance, the very mountain on which He stood first resembles the heights of His love.

As Christians, we all aspire to climb the mountain that is our spiritual life, for if we are not climbing higher, we know that we are falling backwards. We endure injuries, setbacks, trials, tribulations but we continue to climb higher. We “run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:1).

The final beatitude says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake,” and again, its final position isn’t by chance with a promise that mirrors the first. The Beatitudes are widely regarded as the most concise summary of the spiritual life of Man. Each beatitude, a height of virtue that we climb. Why then, does Christ seal his sermon speaking about persecution, and furthermore, persecution for righteousness’ sake?

What makes persecution for righteousness’ sake different to other kinds of persecution? St Peter puts it very simply, “For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God” (1 Peter 2:20). The ultimate example of persecution for righteousness’ sake is in martyrdom – those that laid down their lives for the sake of Christ. But when we consider our own day to day lives, persecution for righteousness’ sake can still be emulated; we can still lay down our lives for the sake of Christ. For every, “why me?” or “this is so unfair” or “I don’t deserve this,” there is also an opportunity for us to lay down our will. Each of these moments, when given to Christ, takes us one step closer to persecution for righteousness’ sake.

In this life, we will have tribulation, Christian or not, righteous or not, but how we handle tribulation makes a world of difference. The Silent Patriarch by Fr Daniel Fanous gives a fascinating insight into the way that Pope Cyril VI embodied poverty of spirit and persecution, through his life of “kenotic ecclesiology.” While this book is a biography, it should be read as a guide for a life of asceticism, service and self-emptying. Pope Cyril undoubtedly led a near impossible revolution of the Coptic church in many aspects. It was done however, with little to no fanfare. One can see an echoing of Christ’s crucifixion – public and humiliating yet remaining in peaceful silence. While he enjoyed the glorious Resurrection in complete secrecy and humility.

Pope Cyril’s revolution was a reflection of his inner life. He was simple, yet determined to instil inner silence and peace. His very source of life was prayer. Prayer unceasing, well-fed by humility. Many times he would be heard berating himself, “the boy has become a Patriarch.” As a Pope, he would write to a future bishop, “I am very sad because I cannot achieve humility up until now…” The many years he spent as Fr Mina in prayerful solitude in various settings, whether the desert or the windmills of old Cairo, had ingrained in him a strong sense of “self -emptying”. It is through this self-emptying that the Lord came and made His home. As a Pope, his method of constant prayer, sacrificial love for his congregation, and commitment to silence attracted much criticism and negativity, yet beneath the surface was being wrought an inner revolution in the Coptic Church on a scale that would create boundless positive change.

In a teary recount, we read one of these instances; an instance of persecution for righteousness’ sake. There was a decision to move a certain priest against the wishes of his congregation who loved and adored him. For months on end, the Pope endured criticism in newspapers, protests, questioning of his judgement and much more…all with silence. When asked why later on, it was revealed the priest was guilty of financial misconduct within his parish. Had this been publicly revealed it would certainly have led to the demise and ill-repute of this priest. The Pope decided to reform and correct this priest quietly, while taking the backlash on himself, not saying a word. A move that would prove to restore this priest and correct him. At no point did Pope Cyril consider his own reputation but how he may restore the salvation of this priest.

We see that we have now come full circle of the beatitudes. The First Beatitude, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” lists the same blessing as the last beatitude; the Kingdom of Heaven. There is a correlation between being poor in spirit and those that are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. Christ begins and ends the same for His ultimate will for our lives is to enter the Kingdom.

Poverty in spirit is the condition for those that gain the Kingdom of Heaven. This is the first rung on the ladder of virtues that Christ has invited us to climb. Why is it so crucial? To be poor in spirit is to begin to look inwards. It is to see our own helplessness, smallness and unworthiness before God. To begin to be poor in spirit requires humility. It requires accepting that with Christ we can neither be nor go anywhere. The closer we begin to draw to God, the more we realise how big the gulf is between us and Heaven.

By emptying ourselves and submitting our lives to Him, we begin to find ourselves in Him. If we were to find ourselves in another way, it would only lead to despair. For we are a creation made for the Creator. We cannot begin to attain mercy, peace, meekness, or mourning of spirit unless we empty all that is within us. As David the Psalmist says, “a broken and a contrite heart, these O God you will not despise.” Ps 51:17

Poor in spirit, when fully formed, will inevitably mean persecution for righteousness’ sake but having already attained poverty of spirit, the persecution no longer feels like persecution, but a loving encounter with our Father. Persecution for righteousness sake’ entails a higher spiritual level than to be persecuted when it is warranted. To be persecuted for your faith, your beliefs, when you are wronged because of no wrongdoing of your own – these are all ways in which we imitate the suffering of Christ and grow in compassion and love for both Christ and those around us.

This does not mean that we suffer abuse as a means of virtue, Christ never asked this of us. But to recognise that we are not our own, and any kind of blessing and abuse alike, is handed over to Christ. For the battle is not ours, but His. As St John Chrysostom says, “Scripture therefore does not mention the persons of the persecutors, but only the cause of persecution, that you may learn to look, not by whom, but why you suffer.”

When we look above the pain and the suffering and begin to look to Christ, the author and finisher of our faith, we are reminded that the purpose of this life is much bigger than our present situation. As St Paul teaches us, “Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” – Hebrews 12:11.

We cannot forget the ultimate goal that Christ has prepared for those who love Him…

“For after your resurrection you shall begin to possess the earth delivered from death, and in that possession shall find comfort” – Ambrose of Milan

The Light in Your Eyes

The Light in Your Eyes

By Bethany Kaldas

‘The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.’ – Matthew 6:22

It is easy to look at the world and grimace. I mean, look around—what do you see?

Disaster after disaster, fire, flood and plague. Starvation and famine in one region while obesity and obsession reign in another. Not to mention our own evils—greed, violence, anger, lust, lies…the world looks broken, destructive and morally compromised. It’s enough to make one want to throw it all out, to succumb to the notion that what we have here is nothing but a lost cause. To simply wait, gaze down your nose at a world gone bad, until it finally dissolves away. After all, it seems like this world is a Godless one, one without hope. There is nothing left for us here, right?

But before you ride off on your high horse, let me ask you this: How much of this is your fault?

No, no, I’m not saying you caused every natural disaster or human evil out there (that’s a different discussion for another day). I’m talking about that feeling you get when you look at the shattered world around you. That sense of despair, of disgust, that feeling that all that remains is darkness and that God has abandoned this world. Is that feeling coming from what you see? Or is it something else?

‘Bad times, hard times, this is what people keep saying; but let us live well, and times shall be good. We are the times: Such as we are, such are the times.’
St Augustine of Hippo

We don’t tend to think about this much, but although we have very little control indeed over what is going on around us, we can control something. We can control ourselves. If we cannot decide what it is we see, at the very least, we can decide how we see it. My father has told me for many years now an old Stoic phrase: it’s not what happens to you, but what you do with it.

But aren’t some things just…bad? How can we look at the torment of a dying world and do anything but weep?

‘I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.’
C.S. Lewis

It is important to remember that, although our hope is in ‘the life of the coming age’, it is still true that ‘the Kingdom of Heaven is within’ (Luke 17:21). Heaven is not meant to be a distant thing that we strive towards, in the same way that Christ has not really left this world—because He is right here. Right now. In you.

And when you realise that God resides in you, you realise something else. Something so wonderful it might seem, at first, too good to be true.

‘For, indeed, everything about is marvellous, and wherever a man turns his gaze he sees the Godhead of the Word and is smitten with awe.’
St Athanasius of Alexandria

…You realise that He is everywhere else too.

But how can God be present in a world so plagued by evils? How can you think there is any Light in a world shrouded in shadow? When disaster strikes and the night falls…where is He?

‘God is everywhere. There is no place God is not…You cry out to Him, ‘Where art Thou, my God?’ And He answers, “I am present, my child! I am always beside you.’ Both inside and outside, above and below, wherever you turn, everything shouts, ‘God!’ In Him we live and move. We breathe God, we eat God, we clothe ourselves with God. Everything praises and blesses God. All of creation shouts His praise. Everything animate and inanimate speaks wondrously and glorifies the Creator. Let every breath praise the Lord!’
Elder Joseph the Hesychast

But you see, it could never for a moment have been otherwise. God never left us. God is all-good and all-present—there is nowhere He is not. If you have closed your eyes, how can you blame the Light for all the darkness you see?

I want you to look again. Look again at this weary and broken world, but this time remember that He is within—within you, within all of it. Remember that He has not forsaken it. It’s not a lost cause to Him. There is hope, not because there is no bad in the world—but because there is no bad in Him. And He never left.

Believe it or not, the Light is all around you—there is nowhere it cannot reach, no place it cannot find you. The only question that remains is, will you let it in?

‘Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.’ – Matthew 5:8

The Pure in Heart

The Beatitudes Series Part 5

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God

By Marc Bastawrous

While serving in Sunday School a few years ago, one of my fellow servants thought of the clever idea to create a “Question Chest” for the kids. Basically, it was a home-made treasure box of sorts, where the kids would leave pieces of paper with questions on them anonymously for the servants to answer in the next lesson. During my week to answer questions, I pulled this out of the chest:

“Why should I believe in God, if I can’t see Him?”

The question broke me. Partly because I felt for my Sunday school kid who was going through a period of doubt, but mostly because I had no answer. I mustered up a half-hearted response, but I purposed in my heart that I wouldn’t let the year go past without offering a solution to this child’s problem.

A few months down the track, I was attending a revival for St Mary’s feast and the topic of the evening was purity, with the theme verse coming from Matthew 5:8 which says:

“Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.”

You know in those Tom & Jerry cartoons when Tom gets a great idea for catching Jerry and a lightbulb hovers above his head. Well, I had one of those “lightbulb” moments. ? The answer has been there all along. If I wish to see God, I must be pure in heart. One of the most precious promises in the Bible and it’s been right under our noses this whole time. I couldn’t wait to tell my Sunday school kid, but before I did, I had to dig a little deeper.

In Exodus 33:11, it says this of the Prophet Moses:

“So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.”

Why was Moses of all people allowed to see God? It’s simple. Because while Moses, was spending time in the presence of God, waiting to receive instruction, what were the Israelites doing at the bottom of the mountain? Worshipping idols, corrupting themselves.

Which is why King David said in psalm 24:

Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?
Or who may stand in His holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol,
Nor sworn deceitfully.
He shall receive blessing from the Lord,
And righteousness from the God of his salvation.

The one who is pure in heart, can stand in the Presence of God and see His face. There is no other condition.

God emphasised this condition in Exodus 25 and 34 as well – which we sing about in our midnight praises. In these 2 chapters, Moses describes Gods instructions for the construction of the tabernacle and in them He says that they had to make things out of pure gold, in fact, the word pure in just one of these chapters is repeated 11 times.

It makes you wonder, why does God care about it so much? I can’t imagine God to care about whether the gold is made out of 10 carets or 24 carets and He doesn’t really. What He is trying to say is that His presence is only available in a place of purity. Purity is a necessary component to accessing God.

One of the most taken-out-of-context verses comes from James 4:8. It reads:

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you…”

But the part we often forget is the remainder of that verse which reads:

“…Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

Before we can even contemplate drawing near to God, our hearts must first be pure. Which is why the final thing the priest prays in the Fraction right before communion is:

“Purify our souls, bodies and spirits. Purify our hearts, eyes, minds, thoughts, understanding and intentions. So that with a pure heart and an unashamed face we may dare with boldness to say unto You…”

So there! I finally had my answer. You can see God – but before you can even think about coming near Him, you had to be pure in heart. And just as I was about to offer this answer to my Sunday school class, I ran into another problem.

I discovered that in the Old Testament, seeing God was a problematic idea, to say the least. It was in fact considered to be life-threatening.

While on Mount Sinai, the Lord says to Moses:

You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live. (Ex 33:20)

Therefore, what God chose to do, was He appeared to people in the Old Testament in very filtered ways: in a fire, a cloud and even a whirlwind in the book of Job.

So then, what does Jesus mean when He says: “they shall see God”?

The word “see” here doesn’t actually mean to see with your eyes, but rather, loosely translated, it means, “to possess”.

Consequently, when Christ says:

Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God

What He really means to say is:

Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall possess God

It means that if I am pure, then I can possess God, He belongs to me. It’s a ridiculous thing to imagine but God is telling us that it’s possible. That if my heart is pure, then He will be my possession, God will belong to me and I to Him. How beautiful?

What God is describing here is the ideal relationship between a Bridegroom and his Bride. That they belong to each other. St Paul speaks of this relationship in 1 Cor 7:4 where he says,

The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

This is the relationship God wants to have with me, this intimacy, this closeness. That He would allow Himself to belong to me. And do you know just how much God wants to belong to me?

In Isaiah 49:16 we read,

See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands

What does He mean by using this picture of “inscribing” me in the palm of His hands? Well, in that time, people would own slaves. In order to ensure that others knew who these slaves belonged to, the masters would engrave their names on the hands of these slaves. What God therefore is essentially saying is, “I will be your Servant, and I will belong to you.”

A sentiment echoed in the Christological Hymn found in Philippians 2 that says:

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. (Ph 2:5-7)

If all this wasn’t clear enough already, God makes sure the message is loud and clear in the book of Ezekiel. When talking about those who belong to His people, He says:

It shall be, in regard to their inheritance, that I am their inheritance. You shall give them no possession in Israel, for I am their possession. (Ez 44:28)

God is telling me, that He is my possession. How precious is it that He makes Himself my possession, my belonging?

Let us then conclude by understanding once and for all what it means to have a pure heart so that I can share in this intimate relationship with God. Simply put, to have a pure heart is to devote myself to Him. To dedicate every facet of my being to Him. My soul, body and spirit. And when I do that, only then will I see Him, only then will my name be “inscribed” in His hands as a symbol that He will forever belong to me.

In fact, the word “inscribed” that God uses in Isaiah is even more powerful in that, it means literally, “to engrave with nails”. He belongs to me, when He gives me His body on the Cross. To be pure in heart is to give Him mine in the same way.

Fr Yacoub’s 10 Tips on Purity

Fr Yacoub’s 10 Tips on Purity

Based on an URM sermon: http://subspla.sh/zdzyjhs

Fr Yacoub in his wisdom and experience of dealing with people over the years, has collated a list of how to deal with purity. Here it is:

It IS possible to overcome the temptations of impurity. There are people in the church who have suffered daily from impurity, and were able to abstain completely for months, even years. The fact you know it’s possible is a huge motivation.
Use the power of the saints as witnesses – go to the church alone and pass by the icons of the saints. Although some may think it is just paper, the saints can listen. Use them as your witnesses.
Expect a tremendous gift from God – encourage yourself by asking for something high. After a number of days you’ll feel it’s impossible – temptation following you day and night. You may ask how can I be pure for 40 days? The harder it is, the more you know the reward is coming – expect it to be hard. But it does not go to infinity, the temptation will saturate.
NOT A HINT OF TOLERNACE. Zero! If anything has a hint of impurity, escape. Not a hint!! (Ephesians 5:3 – “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy.”) If the edge is in front of you, stay 100m from the edge. The body desires against the spirit, you will fall if you allow a hint of temptation.
The sooner you escape, the more the grace of God will come to you. Escape immediately! If you switch off the temptation immediately, God’s grace will come. If you linger, you will fall.
Don’t resist, escape. Eg Kalistos Ware sermon on chocolate – he had health issues and refused to eat a chocolate in front of him. Eventually he ate it after a struggle sitting in front of it – he reflected how stupid he was not to throw the chocolate away. Escape straight away! If you rid the temptation straight away, you will overcome it. Distract yourself with something – but not anything, something engaging, something you can achieve!
Don’t try to overcome alone. Use your confession father. Tremendous help is available if you are accountable to a human.
The strongest weapon is the Psalms. Prayer of the psalms expels devils. Every time you feel a temptation – go to the psalms.
Be joyful when your body is disturbed by temptation; when you are unbelievably moved by temptation be joyful. You can show the Lord how much you are struggling, and yet still resist. You are building blessings. You have evidence of your struggle for the Lord, despite no one physically seeing your battles!
Understand the two major consequences of purity: 1. personal success and 2. the ability to save the one who is not innocent! You can rescue those around you with your purity – even those who are guilty. (“He will even deliver one who is not innocent; Yes, he will be delivered by the purity of your hands.”- Job‬ ‭22:30‬). The personal benefits are overwhelming. The converse is also true, you can destroy those around you with your impurity (see Joshua 7 – story of Achan and his sin destroying the people).

It takes 6 weeks to break a habit. Work hard for 40 days of purity, and expect huge miracles.

Glory be to God, forever. Amen