• About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
Saturday, May 21, 2022
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
Orthodox Times (en)
  • Home
  • Orthodoxy
    • Ecumenical Patriarchate
      • Dioceses of the Ecumenical Patriarchate
      • Mount Athos
      • Archdiocese of America
      • Archdiocese of Australia
      • Church of Crete
    • Patriarchates
      • Patriarchate of Alexandria
      • Patriarchate of Antioch
      • Patriarchate of Moscow
      • Patriarchate of Serbia
      • Patriarchate of Romania
      • Patriarchate of Jerusalem
      • Patriarchate of Bulgaria
      • Patriarchate of Georgia
    • Churches
      • Church of Greece
      • Church of Cyprus
      • Church of Poland
      • Church of Albania
      • Church of Czech and Slovakia
      • Church of Ukraine
  • Politics
    • USA
    • Europe
    • Middle East
  • Society
    • Greek Diaspora
    • Culture
  • Spirituality
  • Christianity
  • Opinions
  • Home
  • Orthodoxy
    • Ecumenical Patriarchate
      • Dioceses of the Ecumenical Patriarchate
      • Mount Athos
      • Archdiocese of America
      • Archdiocese of Australia
      • Church of Crete
    • Patriarchates
      • Patriarchate of Alexandria
      • Patriarchate of Antioch
      • Patriarchate of Moscow
      • Patriarchate of Serbia
      • Patriarchate of Romania
      • Patriarchate of Jerusalem
      • Patriarchate of Bulgaria
      • Patriarchate of Georgia
    • Churches
      • Church of Greece
      • Church of Cyprus
      • Church of Poland
      • Church of Albania
      • Church of Czech and Slovakia
      • Church of Ukraine
  • Politics
    • USA
    • Europe
    • Middle East
  • Society
    • Greek Diaspora
    • Culture
  • Spirituality
  • Christianity
  • Opinions
No Result
View All Result
Orthodox Times (en)
No Result
View All Result

Fr Georgios Lekkas: The return home of our “heart”

Mar 07, 2022 | 22:27
in Opinions
Fr Georgios Lekkas: The return home of our “heart”

By the Protopresbyter Dr Georgios Lekkas, priest of the Orthodox Archdiocese of Belgium.

Repentance is the way to return home, and home is our spiritual self, what the Orthodox Tradition calls our ‘heart’. It is there that the Triune God was worshipped before the Fall, and it is there that we are called to worship Him again.

The journey home is usually much more painful than we could ever have imagined, because each of us is called upon to retrace the whole arduous route that our ancestor Adam travelled after he departed from his home.

Returning home would be impossible if God the Father, our Father, were not always there waiting for us, and if he did not do everything, even sending His own Son, to gather us there again in the Holy Spirit.

However, because man left Paradise freely, and freely lost the knowledge of his spiritual self as the preeminent place for a worshipful encounter with his Creator God, so only freely can he return there again.
To be sure, the free choice to return home would never succeed without divine support, which always eases the agonies of our painful return, without however eradicating them altogether, so that our freedom to return is kept struggling and unambiguous.

The joy of returning home is joy at the rebirth of our spiritual self, which has opened its doors fully, in order to accommodate its Creator God and all of His Creation just as He wished to create it.

The joy of rebirth makes us forget all the pains we needed to undergo in order to be reborn, just as the joy of the birth of her child makes the mother forget all the pain that she had to suffer before she could take him in her arms.

Indeed the joy of spiritual rebirth is so great that it makes man rejoice even at the fact that he had to suffer in order to be reborn.  The one who has been reborn now sees everything with new eyes and is grateful for everything (both beautiful and ugly, pleasant and painful) because he now recognizes in all things – in each individual thing and in all things together – the means by which the infinite love of God made it possible for him to be reborn.

The person who has returned home celebrates because he sees the God of all things permitting Himself to be worshipped in his own heart.  His joy is so great that he wants to worship God wholly and in all things, because there is no greater joy than worship of the Lord.

He takes joy in worshipping his Lord wholeheartedly in his own home and in seeing realised in the home of his own heart the reason for which man and the world have been created.  This joy is unbounded, and the man who takes delight in the joy of meeting his Lord in his own home would perish instantly from an abundance of joy, if he were not protected in his joy by the Lord Himself.

By worshipping the Lord in his home, man finally discovers his own home; as a result he is no longer able to live outside it. Thus whoever has discovered the Holy Altar of his own heart wishes to live around it permanently, just like the All-Holy Mother of Christ in the Temple.  He wishes to surrender even the least particle of himself, in order to be glorified by the Lord even in his darkest point, just as he would wish to surrender to Him even the least particle of His Creation in unceasing and complete worship, if possible, of His All-Holy Name.

A person who has returned to the home of his heart has made the whole world his home, all people his brothers and sisters, and all the works of God his own family.  The man who has returned home can, in the abundance of his own joy, endure all except for one thing – to live outside of it. For anyone who returns home, the failure to repent is not simply an alternative choice: rather it is spiritual suicide.
Sunday of the Prodigal Son, 20.2.22.

Protopresbyter Dr. Georgios Lekkas is a priest of the Orthodox Archdiocese of Belgium. He studied Law, Philosophy and Theology at the University of Athens. He has a PhD in Greek Studies from the Sorbonne (Paris IV) and was a postdoctoral researcher at the French National Research Agency (2000-2005). He taught Greek philosophy in Greek Higher Education (2005-2017). His latest poetry collection, PROSECHOS ANAGENNISI (IMMINENT REBIRTH) was recently published by To Koinon ton Oraion Technon (Athens, 2021, pp.79).

Tags: Opinions

Follow OrthodoxTimes.com on Google News and learn all the news about Orthodoxy in Greece and worldwide.

All the latest developments in the Orthodox world, society and humankind, at the moment they happen, at OrthodoxTimes.com


Related Posts

Unanimous condemnation of the war (including by the Russians) at the WCC
Opinions

Unanimous condemnation of the war (including by the Russians) at the WCC

May 17, 2022
Fr Georgios Lekkas: From God-Forsakennes to Resurrection. The case of the Myrrhbearers
Opinions

Fr Georgios Lekkas: From God-Forsakennes to Resurrection. The case of the Myrrhbearers

May 12, 2022
A post-war Ukrainian religious reconciliation – An appeal by the CEMES
Opinions

A post-war Ukrainian religious reconciliation – An appeal by the CEMES

April 6, 2022
Fr. Georgios Lekkas: The “higher mathematics” of the Cross – Addition through subtraction
Opinions

Fr. Georgios Lekkas: The “higher mathematics” of the Cross – Addition through subtraction

March 30, 2022
Divine Liturgy in Kyiv by Metropolitan Epiphaniy for Saint Theodore (PHOTOS)
Opinions

Ukraine and the ecclesiastical guilt

March 26, 2022
Fr. Georgios Lekkas: A Sunday of Orthodoxy different from others
Opinions

Fr. Georgios Lekkas: A Sunday of Orthodoxy different from others

March 16, 2022
Load More
Next Post
Cheesefare Sunday at the Archdiocesan District of Northcote, Victoria

Cheesefare Sunday at the Archdiocesan District of Northcote, Victoria

Latest News

Memory of the Holy Great Sovereigns Constantine and Helena, Equal to the Apostles

Memory of the Holy Great Sovereigns Constantine and Helena, Equal to the Apostles

by NewsRoom
May 21, 2022 | 11:23
0

The Church celebrates the memory of Holy Great Sovereigns Constantine and Helena, Equal to the Apostles. Saint Helena was...

The feast of the appearance of the sign of the cross in the heavens at the Patriarchate

The feast of the appearance of the sign of the cross in the heavens at the Patriarchate

by NewsRoom
May 21, 2022 | 11:14
0

On Friday, May 7/20, 2022, the Patriarchate celebrated the feast of the appearance of the sign of the Precious...

Assistant Bishop of Botoșani: A chanter’s work does not end when the church service is over (VIDEO)

Assistant Bishop of Botoșani: A chanter’s work does not end when the church service is over (VIDEO)

by NewsRoom
May 20, 2022 | 18:53
0

The Byzantine chant is a unique adornment of the service to the Lord. Still, the work of the chanter...

Revelations by Metropolitan of Laodicea and Ev. Venizelos for the role of the Russian Church

Revelations by Metropolitan of Laodicea and Ev. Venizelos for the role of the Russian Church

by NewsRoom
May 20, 2022 | 18:18
0

In the book of Alexandros Massavetas, "The Third Rome – Moscow and the Throne of Orthodoxy", it is described...

Archbishop of Lower Danube: The Church’s young people are the apostles of our deliverance from loneliness

Archbishop of Lower Danube: The Church’s young people are the apostles of our deliverance from loneliness

by NewsRoom
May 20, 2022 | 18:00
0

Last week, Archbishop Casian of Lower Danube opened the meeting of the National Council of the Romanian Orthodox Christian...

Archbishop of Finland: Disappointed by WCC report on the war in Ukraine

Archbishop of Finland: Disappointed by WCC report on the war in Ukraine

by NewsRoom
May 20, 2022 | 17:24
0

Archbishop Leo of Helsinki and all of Finland expressed his disappointment at the report of the Inter-Orthodox Pre-Assembly Consultation...

Newsletter

Sign up for our weekly newsletter



Quick Links

  • Orthodoxy
  • Politics
  • Society
  • Spirituality
  • Christianity
  • Opinions
  • History
  • Press Releases

Get Social

About Us

Advertise

Contact

© 2022 OrthodoxTimes.com
digital world media

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Orthodoxy
    • Ecumenical Patriarchate
      • Dioceses of the Ecumenical Patriarchate
      • Mount Athos
      • Archdiocese of America
      • Archdiocese of Australia
      • Church of Crete
    • Patriarchates
      • Patriarchate of Alexandria
      • Patriarchate of Antioch
      • Patriarchate of Moscow
      • Patriarchate of Serbia
      • Patriarchate of Romania
      • Patriarchate of Jerusalem
      • Patriarchate of Bulgaria
      • Patriarchate of Georgia
    • Churches
      • Church of Greece
      • Church of Cyprus
      • Church of Poland
      • Church of Albania
      • Church of Czech and Slovakia
      • Church of Ukraine
  • Politics
    • USA
    • Europe
    • Middle East
  • Society
    • Greek Diaspora
    • Culture
  • Spirituality
  • Christianity
  • Opinions
  • Greek Version

© 2022 OrthodoxTimes.com - All rights reserved.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptReject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

SAVE & ACCEPT