Even before entering the institute, I read Nikolai Berdyaev and some Russian religious thinkers. Perhaps it was their thoughts and Dostoevsky's books that prompted me to choose the St. Sergius Institute. In addition, there was a great strong friendship with the Russian youth from the Christian Movement. 

But I did not come to St. Sergius Institute from the Arab desert. The Church of Antioch is my mother. And it was in Antioch that Christ's disciples were first called Christians (Acts 11:26). There I found faith, there began my prayer life. And there, in 1942, we, seventeen young students, created the Orthodox Youth Movement, which became the most powerful source of Christian life in the space where our local Church operates. Evangelization began, and souls of extraordinary vitality were manifested in it. All of our current monasticism came from there. Most of our missionary priests, our bishops, were educated there. Anyone who speaks truly fervently about Jesus must have been touched by our apostolic message. The Lord has delivered us from narrow conservatism, from rigid ritualism, and has commanded us to bear witness to the authentic life of the Gospel. This is perhaps the best that the Church of Antioch has been able to give to universal Orthodoxy.

Much of what you will find here comes from this experience. Theological formulations serve to imprint this experience in the language of concepts. Enriched with all the best in our tradition, church spirituality brings life to the world. 

The most interesting thing in this book comes from the experience of the neighborhood of different religions in our regions. Perhaps the peculiarity of our Orthodoxy is that we have a concept of the modern East, but also of the West, for Western culture also lives in us. Orthodoxy, rooted in the experience of the Fathers, and perhaps especially of the ascetic Fathers, accepts every breath of the Spirit.

Metropolitan George (Khodr) of Mount Lebanon

A Call to Christians

You are the bearers of the great call, you are the leaven of salvation. You have become such because of Him Whose name you bear, into Whom you were baptized. However, you are mistaken if you think you mean anything without Him. You are also mistaken if you think that others can never change for the better, as if names are valuable in themselves, and that Christ cannot, with or without water, baptize into God anyone to whom He wishes to bestow His grace. Surely everything comes from the Savior whom you worship: all truth, all purity, all greatness, every ideal. Everything good that is in this world was created by Christ in one way or another. But the Lord acts wherever He pleases, and it is not for you to limit His activities. He promised to fill you with His grace, but He did not say that He would make you the guardians of it alone. I adjure you: do not be "greater royalists than the king" – than your King, who is able to "raise up children for Abraham out of these stones" (Matt. 3:9).

Do not think that you are the goal of this world! The world was not created to serve you, but you are called to be servants. And the servant listens attentively to the will of his master and works to implement his plans. The concept of domination is alien to your faith, it has been replaced by the concept of service. And it is only in self-denial that one of you who is invested with responsibility acquires the legitimacy of his power. And this power melts away as soon as its bearer is imbued with the spirit of consumerism. Often the meaning of the existence of this power is lost even before it disappears in reality. Neither the Lord, in whom you believe, nor those for whom you are responsible, will recognize such authority, which is not based on service. In addition, the cultural advantage by which you justify some of your superiority is now becoming, if it has not already become, a myth. Learning has ceased to be your exclusive possession, and enlightenment – in its dimensions of openness to goodness, refinement, taste, elegance – is spreading more and more among people. If civilization is in no small measure connected with women, who make up half of the human race, its inspirers and educators, then it is obvious that non-Christian women have the same share in the gifts of nature as Christian women.

Undoubtedly, there is nothing more precious to the heart of Christ than such a course of events. For Christ gives Himself to all, He is by no means anyone's exclusive property. He responds to the needs of all, just as He did His works during His mortal ministry regardless of the beliefs of the people. Any advance of the non-believers rejoices Him as well as the success of His own disciples. He is the Savior of the world, not just of his followers. It leads to salvation in various ways, including culture, technology, and legitimate methods of social struggle. Why should we not rejoice with Him in the achievements of others?

I will say more: the Lord is present in the ethical, artistic, scientific revolutions that enlighten the world and in one way or another reveal His presence in the universe. Modern Christian thought accepts this position and begins to realize that God is not only present in humility, kindness, or charity. If, in manifesting His presence, God desires the good of all, He must diversify the means of expression. Spiritual life, with all the inspiration and with all the power that transforms the personality that it carries within itself, does not exhaust the spiritual energy in the world.

Of course, the world is transformed by holiness. When he was still small, not very strong, and his problems were incomparable with the universal order, holiness had only one appearance. But in an open, unifying world, with its ever-increasing complexity, globalization, and all the problems that flow from it, holiness itself must surely take on new forms. Such forms that would not be alien to the objective search for a solution to the complexities of human life.

Creativity, through which the man of today seeks to grow and outgrow himself, presupposes the hidden presence of Christ in the world. The day will come when this presence will be revealed, but for the time being it must be hidden. The duty of love towards the world obliges the disciples of the Lord to participate in its development and radical transformation. Their love can no longer be limited to the individual level, but must be manifested at the level of social impact and historical change.

Christians, together with all other people, must bring about this transformation of the world for the benefit of all. It cannot be the work of any one group or country, no matter how powerful. No, it is no longer possible for him to remain the result of unidirectional activity, exchange and participation are necessary. For any help from the more powerful to the less developed runs the risk of subjugating the weak, of imposing its demands on him, and of finally arriving at a policy of superiority. A believer must not only give generously, but also be able to receive with the same simplicity, with the same humility with which he is supposed to give.

If this is the Christian view today, then you Christians, wherever you are, must be willing to give and to receive, that is, to be partakers. You must be willing to give, because you have been given much by Christ. You must be willing to receive, because this is also a grace that God bestows upon you through other people.