eBook: The Ineffable Folly of Divine Love

Many wonder: ‘Why did God permit the devil to tempt the first-created in the Garden of Eden?’ The answer is that in this way, God desired to reveal unto the world ‘the ineffable folly’ of His love for man unto the end.

God ordained all creation to be a paradise for man; Eden was but the beginning. The Book of Genesis does not say that God ‘created’ Paradise, but that God planted a paradise in Eden’ (Gen. 2:8 LXX), revealing thereby the dynamic of this place, where Adam could potentially increase in God and come to know the perfection of His love. After the Fall, the gates of Eden were shut without return, for God would give man another Paradise, incomparably greater than the paradise lost: Abraham’s bosom, the grace of adoption.

— Excerpt from: The Ineffable Folly of Divine Love • Prologue (p. 11) • Archimandrite Peter

Humility is of the utmost importance, for it characterises the way of the Lord, of His angels and of His saints. The way of the Lord is a humble descent and sacrifice. He Himself said: ‘The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many?’ He ministers to His enemies with His love. He gives His life for them and feeds them with His Body and Blood in every Liturgy.

— Excerpt from: The Ineffable Folly of Divine Love • Whatsoever Is Humble Bears the Seal of Truth • Why is humility such a fundamental virtue? (p. 15)

The angels are always mindful of their createdness: they cover their faces and their feet with four wings to preserve their humility before the Lord Who brought them from non-being into being. Although they are immortal and incorporeal beings, they never forget that they are creatures, that they are not without beginning. Therefore, it is with restrained boldness — with only two wings — that they fly around ‘the throne of the Majesty in the heavens’. Humility gives them the strength to abide in everlasting doxology before God.

— Excerpt from: The Ineffable Folly of Divine Love • Whatsoever Is Humble Bears the Seal of Truth • Why is humility such a fundamental virtue? (p. 16)

How did Saint Sophrony receive the non-Orthodox guests who visited your monastery?

Saint Sophrony had unshakeable confidence in the unique truth of the Orthodox Tradition; he would never compromise the dogmatic truth of the Church. But he would go out of his way to show love and honour to anyone who came to him.

Let us suppose that a non-Orthodox bishop comes to our monastery. It does us no harm to honour him, because that is the treatment he is accustomed to having from the people in his church. He may have travelled far to visit us, and we must receive him with honesty, humility and love, and give him the possibility to hear, to learn, to live with us.

Let us take the example of the Slavs. The emperor sent emissaries to examine all the religions of the world and advise him on which religion to adopt for his empire. On their return, they told him: ‘Only in Constantinople have we found the true religion. When we entered the church of Saint Sophia during the Liturgy, we thought we were in heaven.’ The emperor then invited missionaries from Constantinople to come and teach his people.

— Excerpt from: The Ineffable Folly of Divine Love • The Mystery of the Church (p. 95)

The missionaries from Byzantium did not go to Russia to convert by force; they were invited there by the emperor. The Orthodox have never had the tendency to use politics or armies to propagate Christianity and impose their faith. Indeed, we are sometimes accused of being a ‘closed circle’ because of our relative lack of missionary work. When we do carry out missionary work, we respect the freedom of others. If others invite us and are willing to hear, we preach the word of God. Otherwise, we simply try to live the tradition that we have received.

If those Russian emissaries had been forbidden from entering the church of Saint Sophia because they were pagans, they would not have been able to experience the atmosphere of the Divine Liturgy. But because they were welcomed and honoured, they were inspired and convinced by their experience. People who lack compassion of this kind pray externally, not with their heart.

Prayer with the heart fills man with the desire for all to share in the grace he has received. A simple example of this are the peasants in Cyprus, who used to thank God after every meal and say: ‘Lord, do not deprive all Thy world from the same.’ This is true Christian compassion.

— Excerpt from: The Ineffable Folly of Divine Love • The Mystery of the Church (p. 95-96)