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The path of every man toward God and his relationship with Him is unique. However, because we all share the same human nature, there are certain stages and characteristics common to our spiritual journey. Although Saint Sophrony was reluctant to make generalisations, he formulated a theory of three distinct periods in spiritual life: the period during which God, abundantly pours out His grace upon man, begetting a desire in his heart for His Person and making a covenant with him; the period of the withdrawal of the first grace, during which man is called to prove that he has not forgotten ‘his first love’ (Cf. Rev. 2:4) but faithfully does all he can to regain it; and the third period, when the grace of adoption makes him ‘an heir of God and co-heir with Christ’ (Cf. Rom. 8:17). The Elder presented the second period of spiritual dryness as an authentic spiritual event, an honour and privilege offered from On High to man, so that he may creatively transform the ‘death’ of Godforsakenness into incorruptible divine life.

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Cover of "Remember Thy First Love" by Archimandrite Zacharias, detailing three stages of spiritual life.

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eBook: Remember Thy First Love

The Three Stages of the Spiritual Life in the Theology of Elder Sophrony

EnglishEPUB reflowable463 pages20112nd editionSee all details ↓

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Book details

AuthorArchimandrite Zacharias Zacharou

LanguageEnglish

FormatEPUB reflowable

Print length463 pages

PublisherThe Stavropegic Monastery of St John the Baptist

Edition2nd edition

Publication year2011

ISBN978-1-918281-36-1

Foreword
Editorial Preface

FOUNDATIONS
The Just Shall Live by Faith

1. From Faith to Faith
2. The Three Stages of the Spiritual Life
3. After the Earthquake, the Spirit of Truth

THE FIRST STAGE
He First Loved Us

4. Longing to see the Lord
5. Seeing Greater Things
6. Knowing the Gift of God
7. Entering into a Covenant with God

THE SECOND STAGE
The God of Glory Thundereth

8. Man Comes to Himself
9. An Invitation to Overcome Death

a. The Merciful Chastening of the Lord
b. Charismatic Despair and Creative Suffering
c. Standing Before God with Prophetic Self-knowledge

10. The Self-denial of the Mother of God

Receive not the Grace of God in Vain

11. Earthly Life for Infinite Life
12. Discovering the Deep Heart
13. The Language of God
14. Living by a Single Thought
15. The Struggle with Temptation
16. Zeal for the House of God
17. Giving Thanks in All Things

THE THIRD STAGE
This Day Have I Begotten Thee

18. Christ’s Victory over Death: Man’s Inheritance
19. Knowing the Mystery of the Way of Salvation
20. Regeneration in the Spirit
21. The Infallible Criterion
22. Charismatic Humility

APPENDIX

Questions and Answers
Index of biblical references
Index of names and subject

Remember Thy First Love is a graphic description of the three stages in Christian life according to Saint Sophrony the Athonite (1896-1993), disciple of St Silouan the Athonite (1866-1938) and founder of the Patriarchal and Stavropegic Monastery of St John the Baptist in Essex, England.

In Remember Thy First Love, which complements The Enlargement of the Heart (2006) and The Hidden Man of the Heart (2008), Archimandrite Zacharias details the nature and purpose of the first grace given at the beginning of the Christian spiritual odyssey, the experience of the apparent withdrawal of grace, and then our final adoption as children, by which we become heirs of God and joint-heirs of Christ (cf. Rom. 8:17).

“The writings of Archimandrite Zacharias evince that inspiration which is born of an undistorted vision of Christ in glory.”
Christopher Veniamin
Professor of Patristics Saint Tikhon’s Seminary, USA

— From: Remember Thy First Love

Our faith is not simply an inner matter; it always reflects the times we live in as Christians.

The Fathers of the fourth century – a time of great flowering for the Church – repeatedly said that the Christians of the last times would neither have the strength to endure ascetic hardship nor be able to perform the godly works of the Fathers of old. But they added that those who would succeed in simply keeping the faith would be more greatly glorified in heaven than those Fathers who had worked miracles and even raised the dead to life.

In other words, it is the privilege of our time to preserve the fulness of our faith, and this requires a greater measure of grace than that by which our Fathers raised the dead.

… We see that God judges us with respect to the generation in which we live.

… So if our time is characterised by a general falling away from the faith of our Fathers, our success in preserving it will be the more sublime because of the apostasy surrounding us.

… In our day, we are witnessing a dynamic increase of evil, and we find ourselves caught in a surge of iniquity even as it gathers force. As Christians we must place ourselves in a different, indeed a contrary, dynamic increase which grows not away from but towards God, so that evil itself will spur us on to do good.

— Remember Thy First Love • From Faith to Faith (p. 18-19)