Often has the Church proclaimed, ‘Prayer is the act from which all other good comes.’1
It may seem strange that, in this statement, the source of all good is ascribed to the act and state of prayer. Certainly, all good comes from God! There is only one source of Good, and of the identity of this source there is no question. Lest any be tempted to forget, it is proclaimed at every Liturgy in the prayer before the ambo: ‘Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from Thee, the Father of Lights’.2 Certainly, there is no other fount from which goodness flows than God Himself, the very essence and heart of Goodness. Good gifts are good only insomuch as they come from Him, for ‘whatever is not God, is nothing’.3
Why, then, the exalted status given to prayer? If all good gifts are from God and Him only, how can we then say, ‘Prayer is the act from which all other good comes’? How is it possible to hold to the divine truth here stated, and still proclaim, as the holy Abba Agathon does in regard to prayer, that by its action it is the reconciliation of man with God, the mother and daughter of tears, a bridge for crossing temptations, a wall of protection from afflictions, a crushing of conflicts, boundless activity, the spring of virtues, the source of spiritual gifts, invisible progress, food of the soul, the enlightening of the mind, an axe for despair, a demonstration of hope, the release from sorrow. Διαβάστε τη συνέχεια του άρθρου »
Απόψεις για τη Μονή Βατοπαιδίου (και όχι μόνο) 