Laughing at my subtitle: A place to store my thoughts and keep them fresh. Based on my posting history, I do not seem to have many of these. Or is it that I just do not like the writing process? Methinks the latter.
Although, in all truthfulness “fresh” thoughts about theology are usually what leads us to the dread “H” word. We are not charged to come up with “fresh” and “new” theology, but to keep the tradition that has been handed down to us fresh. That is what a humidor does, it keeps the old fresh as it ages them appropriately. Let us not seek our own “fresh” thoughts, but refresh ourselves in the Faith once delivered, for that is the Faith that saves.
I was reminded of this in my reading of “On the Prayer of Jesus” today. In discussing the permissibility, allowed by some spiritual fathers, to pray the prayer in two different parts, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on, a sinner” and “Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner”, he quotes St. Gregory of Sinai who forbid frequently changing the pattern of the original prayer. St. Gregory writes: “Trees that are often transplanted do not take root.”
So it is with us if we are constantly chasing the “fresh” and the “new”. We need the consistency, and the constancy, of the Faith.
From: “Orthodox Faith” by St. John of Damascus: “But, since with God creation is a work of His will, it is not co-eternal with Him–which is because it is not of the nature of that which is produced from nothing to co-eternal with that which is without beginning and always existing.” (Book I.8.)
Theological Humidor 