Standing in the Temple of Thy Glory, We Think Ourselves to Stand in Heaven, O Theotokos

“Everything in the Church must be heavenly.”“In truth the church is an earthly heaven, where God’s altar is, where the awesome Mysteries are celebrated, where the Angels minister with men, where there is uninterrupted glorification of the Almighty - there heaven truly is, and the heaven of heavens.” –St. John of Krodstadt“In church, everything is different:  there one’s particular world is not earthly, but heavenly; there one’s rules, customs, one’s regulations and customs are prescribed by the church order.  And he who loves the church, for whom it is the way to heavenly sanctity, such a one must know all this, and, if he does not know it, he must strive to learn it.”“And so, see the characteristic sign of our times: the true Church of Christ with her preaching of the spiritual life must needs be abolished, and exchanged for a certain false likeness, one with exclusively worldly working principles, aims and tasks.But isn’t such a mentality the very clearest sign of the approach of that dread time, of which the Saviour and Lord spoke: “When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8)? Already many have no faith in God, no faith in Christ and no faith in the Church; and in the place devoid of faith, they set up other idols, among which the proponents of the new “false Church” have the idol of “organization” and that of “administration.”  But why, and what for, if the most important thing, faith, is not there, if it is unknown?“Organization” and “administration,” without real faith, without a genuine spiritual life, are but a body without a soul, a dead, lifeless corpse!”Archbishop Averky was a righteous shepherd of the 20th century who served as Abbot of the Holy Trinity Monastery and Rector of Holy Trinity Seminary in Jordanville, NY. He was spiritual son of the great 20th century theologian and holy hierarch, Archbishop Theophan of Poltava, Russia, who himself was a disciple of St. Theophan the Recluse, and therefore is a living link in America to the Faith of Pre-Revolutionary Russia. Archbishop Averky was so esteemed that before his repose, St. John Maximovitch told Fr. Seraphim Rose that if he had any theological questions to ask Archbishop Averky. The honorable Archbishop reposed in 1976 and his relics lie in a small chapel for veneration at Holy Trinity Monastery.Full text: https://orthodoxethos.com/post/standi...This channel is dedicated to sharing the writings and lives of the Saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Glory to Jesus Christ!