Father John Behr - Advice to Someone Interested in Becoming Orthodox

father John Bayer is currently the director of the masters of theology program as well as the father george florovsky distinguished professor of patristic st. Vladimir's seminary in new york he is also distinguished professor of mature stiix at Fordham University father John visited the area recently and kindly agreed to sit down for an interview so I hope you'll enjoy this episode for my interview with father John bear [Music] I think the main thing that I would say to somebody who's interested in becoming Orthodox is come to church come to church with open eyes and open ears open heart and open mind and really pay attention to everything let it all sink in it all seep in I'm assuming that somebody who's coming to church will be struggling to live a Christian life already that they will be moved in these kind of ways they should talk with the place they should start reading in various ways but above all start reading the scriptures and start hearing the scriptures in the light of what you're hearing in church through the hymnography through the iconography through the rituals so that you start to see how the the fabric of the church is put together out of all of this scriptural material in all these ways proclaiming Christ presenting Christ to us enabling Franck's to dwell in us I think only if we approach the Orthodox Church enter into the church in that way we'll be really actually encounter the Orthodox Church not simply as a gathering of people who happen to like doing the same kind of thing or agency for social work or whatever other thing we think might need doing she obviously chair for work we have to be doing all the time but we'll actually come to encounter the church as the New Jerusalem as the heavenly mother the one who in whom in his room we are born again in Christ and Christ is born in us us and that reality is simply beyond anything so be prepared for that as you do that as I said don't leave your heart and especially you don't leave your mind of the door pay attention to what has been given to you so be there for the services here that material be there for the liturgy start to understand what all of that's about and then as you start to get a sense of that then what takes a further step you need to start understanding everything about the history of Orthodox Christianity as it's being embodied throughout countless generations for two millennia more now you need to learn to enter into the with rhythm of prayer of the Orthodox Church how to say daily prayers not just as expression was coming out of our anguish or coming out of our love for others and interceding to God on their behalf all of the things important is cries of a spirit towards God but from the beginning God has also put words into our mouths to pray obviously the Psalms and Christ Himself gives us a Lord's Prayer well the Orthodox tradition Church now has 2,000 years of experience of using these kind of prayers and has developed formal prayers for the morning for the evening for the middle of the night so start to come to know those prayers and let that become parts of the rhythm of your life you should also find time for silence we have been given a lot of these different nourishment for these different sized reading scripture hearing the source of the church encountering Christ in all of that your own daily prayer cycle your own struggle to be a better person to be more charitable towards your neighbors all these kind of things but also needs to be a place of silence in your life whether it is two minutes a day five minutes a day 10 minutes twice a day something regular where you are forced to sit down be quiet stop thinking try and hold your mind well don't let your mind wander our mind when you think about it and mind is almost everywhere else and when where we are you know we stand in church and our minds on what I've got to do when I finished or something that had to be the day before well we need to learn to let our minds be present where we are st. john climacus he described he gave a really fascinating definition of a esocast the hesychast refers to those who in orthodox monasticism specialized in same to jesus prayer going into retreat going into solitude and so on but he turns around and he actually says the truth esocast is one who strives to enshrine what is bodyless within the body one who strives to enshrine what is bodyless within the body know those to be true Eska so you don't have to go out to the remote regions of the world and live in a cave you actually need to bring your mind back to your body if Christ came to make himself known in the flesh if he worked our salvation in the flesh well rich these try and make sure that our minds are also in our flesh and that means putting them back not thinking about yesterday not thinking about tomorrow not thinking about this and to the other but pulling them back to where we are so that with all the nourishment that we are being given in the church we may actually digest it then to internalize it be present with it and through that also come to know Christ with it and then the final thing I would say I think is that it's really important that you have a personal connection within the church whether it's a person is standing next from the church your priest your Bishop all of these important but there really has to be somebody who is leading you in to the church and helping you to come to know personally what it is to be in the church so being present being prayerful and being present with somebody else in the church I think those are the three things that I'd say were most important for anybody who wants to step into the church and come to know more about it hi again hope you enjoy this episode from an interview with father John bear please subscribe below to get notified when new videos become available which happens every Friday and if you would please leave a comment below letting me know what you thought of this video have a great weekend and we'll see you next week

Channel: Protecting Veil

Views: 41,630

Rating: 4.9680214 out of 5

Keywords: Orthodoxy, Orthodox Christianity, Russian Orthodoxy, Greek Orthodoxy, Romanian Orthodoxy, Bulgarian Orthodoxy, Wisdom, Spirituality, Father John Behr, Saint Vladimir's Seminary

Id: 40Vo5SVP21E

Length: 7min 26sec (446 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 30 2018