tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1908072176406124456.post8664680178813626236..comments2024-02-03T17:54:52.026-08:00Comments on Eastern Christian Insights: A Light in the Darkness: Homily for the Sunday of the Forefathers in the Orthodox Church in the Aftermath of the Tragic Shooting in Connecticut Father Philip LeMastershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15802162495250481325noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1908072176406124456.post-24028431356408230712013-01-09T09:45:37.292-08:002013-01-09T09:45:37.292-08:00Thanks for sharing this with me. Your link has bee...Thanks for sharing this with me. Your link has been sitting in my inbox for a few weeks, but the reading of your sermon was providential. Through personal "sufferings" and difficulties of all kinds, it is so refreshing to be reminded that this is what my Savior experienced. The God of all threw himself into humanity, to save us from within. If anyone gets it, he does. So we're never alone, no matter what befalls us. <br />God is so very close--good, bad, in it all.Tim Dunnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1908072176406124456.post-78736551517081200372012-12-19T08:43:57.050-08:002012-12-19T08:43:57.050-08:00Father Phillip,
Thank you for your spiritual guida...Father Phillip,<br />Thank you for your spiritual guidance. Two things in your homily touched my heart. First, the parallel between the recent killing of children and the slaughter of the innocents by Herod in the Christmas story. It is so easy to think that contemporary evil is somehow worse than it ever has been, but the examples from history show that it is not so. It is easy to slip into the mindset that evil is advancing in this world but God's Kingdom is not. Yet it is God who is always doing the new thing, the thing we never would have dreamed of. There is nothing new in evil; it is the same sad story, over and over.<br /><br />Second, I appreciate how you related the Connecticut horror to sin in our own lives. These sorts of massacres leave us feeling helpless and out of control. It doesn't take a psychologist to realize that helplessness and hopelessness take their toll on the human body, mind,and spirit. It helps to remember that the root problem is ultimately sin, not lack of gun control, glorification of violence in the media, etc. And our own sin is something we can do something about, surrendering it to Christ and leaning on his Holy Spirit to transform us.<br /><br />I hope you and your family have a blessed Christmas!<br />Greg SchnellerAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com