Orthodox Way of Life: Orthodox Spirituality by Fr. Dimitru Staniloae

This is an index for my commentary on the presentation of Orthodox Spirituality by Fr. Dimitru Staniloae. For me this has been an incredible learning experience. I can only pray that you also gained insights about your own spiritual journey. I have also included a link to a pdf which contains all of the posts in this series.

Orthodox Spirituality - A Commentary on the work of Fr. Dimitru Staniloae (pdf)

An index to the individual blog entries:

Introduction

i. What is Meant by Orthodox Spirituality?

ii. The Aim

iii. Deification - The Uncreated Light

iv. The Essential Nature of Asceticism

v. Basis for Union with God: Love not Intellect

vi. Working in Community Develops our Soul

vii. Ascent is Based on Love and is Within the Church

viii. Major Steps of the Spiritual Life

ix. Are Passions Natural?

x. Causes of Passions

xi. Why Do We Speak of Liberating the Soul?

xii. How the Passions are Aroused

xiii. Free From Fear and Anxiety - Care

xiv. Purification by the Virtues

Part One: Purification
1. Faith: The Starting Point to Perfection

2. Fear of God is Next Step

3. Repentance - Main Means for Our Perfection

4. Repentance - The Ship that brings us to the Divine Harbor

5. Repentance - Way to Overcome Egoism

6. Repentance as a Sacrament

7. Self-Control lifts us to see the infinite in things of this world.

8. Self-Control as Fasting

9. Self-Control to Overcome our Passions

10. Guarding the Mind - Watchfulness - Getting at the Root

11. Guarding the mind- Knocking on the Door of the Heart

12. Longsuffering - Why Troubles and Suffering?

13. Role of Temptations -

14. Hope - Power of Advanced Faith

15. Patience with Hope Leads to Meekness and Humility

16. With Dispassion Love Blossoms

Part Two: Illumination

17. Entering the Next Phase of Spiritual Development

18. Gifts of the Holy Spirit

19. Contemplation of God in Creation

20. How to Discern the Truth (logo) in Things

21. Why is Prolonged Preparation Necessary

22. Steps Needed to Discern Truth

23. Spiritual Understanding of Scripture

24. Going Beyond Knowledge - Apophatic Knowledge

25. Facing the Abyss

26. Positive Theology is a Companion to Apophatic Theology

27. Pure Prayer
28. Developing Pure Prayer

29. Entering Within

30. Mind Beyond Reason

31. Knock and the Door Will Be Opened

32. Mental Rest or Stillness of the Mind

Part Three: Perfection

33. The Steps of Love - The Path to Union

34. Joined in Love
35. Prayer Develops Love and Union with God
36. Divine Love Brings Union of All
37. The Mind and the Divine Light
38. The Divine Light is Spiritual
39. Divine Light - Knowledge Beyond Knowledge
40. The Divine Light
41. Deification

A Simple Guide to an Orthodox Way of Life

6 comments:

Dennis JustisonJuly 20, 2010 at 7:07 AM
Thanks for all these wonderful articles! I have learned and grown while reading them. I downloaded your pdf files as I am sure they are going to help me to continue to grow in Christ. Keep up the work on behalf of the Church and for Christ.
Fr Dn Charles JoinerJuly 20, 2010 at 9:55 AM
Thanks Daniel for your encouragement.
May the Lord lead us all to grow in His Kingdom.
MattJuly 20, 2010 at 8:39 PM
Great work. I've learned a lot from your commentary. There is so much I didn't know and I'm a life-long Orthodox Christian. I wish they would teach this stuff in Sunday School.
Fr Dn Charles JoinerJuly 20, 2010 at 10:04 PM
Thank you Matt. I agree there should be more emphasis put on the long Spiritual Tradition of our faith.
Next I am going to focus on a slightly different view which places more emphasis on love, the teaching of Elder Porphyrios. Hopefully you will be able to make a synthesis of the two.
UnknownAugust 11, 2010 at 3:53 AM
Thanks for the informative post in this site. I have learned more from this post topic. Thanks for sharing with us.

spirituality
Fr Dn Charles JoinerAugust 11, 2010 at 10:41 AM
Fr Dimitru is a good teacher. Glad you were able to learn from his teachings, Sandra.

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Orthodox Way of Life

Monday, July 19, 2010

Orthodox Spirituality by Fr. Dimitru Staniloae - A Commentary

6 comments: