“The Hidden Man of the Heart” (Pt 1)

The tragedy of contemporary man is that he lives outside his heart.

The heart is the battlefield of our salvation.

The heart is the true temple where meeting with God takes place.

God, who is a jealous God, will not settle for a portion of the heart.

We are held captive by the Passions, leaving no room in the heart.

God knocks at our heart and encourages us to knock at His mercy.

This action [the knocking] possesses the possibility of our rising from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light — this is the moment when man comes to himself.

Our goal is to convince God that we are His.

When Man made motion to sin, his mind was scattered out. When he “comes to himself,” the mind moves back toward the heart … and from there to God the Father. (Prodigal Son)

Christ bore our sins by ascending the Cross of shame. We do the same in Confession.

Grace purifies the heart so that Man can stand in the presence of God.

Repentance cleanses and justifies.

When mind and heart unite — then Man possesses his nature.

In our fallen state, we are divided [thinking (or feeling) one thing with the heart and thinking another with the mind, etc.]

No human being can weep having two thoughts. When we weep, we have unity of thought (feeling).

Repentance = to prove that God is good and Man is a liar.

These notes were taken during the annual Clergy Retreat for the Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America, February 6-9, 2007. The retreat was led by Archimandrite Zacharias of the Stavropegic Monastery of St John the Baptist in Tolleshunt Knights-by-Maldon, Essex, U.K. These are my notes and were filtered through my poor faculties. Any and all errors theological are mine. Forgive me.

UPDATE: Listen to the entire talk — CDs now available!

Image by Paula Wiggins – source.