{"id":621,"date":"2018-04-17T20:06:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-17T20:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.smallpage.online\/2018\/04\/17\/the-main-reason-why-we-should-be_17\/"},"modified":"2019-07-29T07:07:57","modified_gmt":"2019-07-29T07:07:57","slug":"the-main-reason-why-we-should-be_17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/2018\/04\/the-main-reason-why-we-should-be_17","title":{"rendered":"The Main Reason Why We Should Be Practicing Orthodox Christians"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"featured_img aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/a-young-girl-kisses-the-virgin-mary-at-the-front-of-the-ch.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"750\" data-original-width=\"1000\" \/>Why do I do it?\u00a0 Why am I a practicing Orthodox Christian.\u00a0 It\u2019s not because it\u2019s the true faith, the oldest form of Christianity, faithful to the teaching and worship of the ancient Church.\u00a0 It is these things, but that\u2019s not why I\u2019m a practicing Orthodox Christian.\u00a0 It\u2019s possible to be convinced of the verity of Orthodox Christianity and still not want to be Orthodox.\u00a0 An acquaintance of mine is also convinced that Orthodox Christianity is the true faith, that it\u2019s authentic ancient Christianity.\u00a0 However, he does not want to become an Orthodox Christian.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">My acquaintance doesn\u2019t want to become an Orthodox Christian because, as he put it, Orthodox Christianity is like Shakespeare in the original, while he compared the version of Christianity to which he belongs to Shakespeare simplified for eighth-graders (which seems to me to be a big insult to English speaking thirteen-year olds everywhere).\u00a0 I don\u2019t think the comparison of Orthodox Christianity to Shakespeare is as helpful as he does, but that was the image my acquaintance used.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">For him, the church, what he calls the church, needs to be accessible, relevant, easily relatable.\u00a0 That\u2019s why my acquaintance stays in his heterodox Christian world even though he is convinced that Orthodox Christianity is the original, the true Church.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">So if I\u2019m not an Orthodox Christian because it is the true, historic Christian Church, why am I an Orthodox Christian, particularly a practicing Orthodox Christian?<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">I am an Orthodox Christian because in the Orthodox Church I have found a way to be a Christian that actually changes me, that actually helps me to know and worship God, know and discipline (as in disciple) myself, and helps me to know and love my neighbour.\u00a0 But the secret is, you have to practice it.\u00a0 There is no magic in the holy chrism or the water of baptism.\u00a0 There is only an invitation, an open door, the beginning of a way.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">It\u2019s not an easy way.\u00a0 It\u2019s Shakespeare in the original.\u00a0 It takes more effort than a graded reader. It takes some study, involves some frustration, and includes a lot of wondering about what it all means.\u00a0 It has to be practiced.\u00a0 The stomach has to growl during lent.\u00a0 The legs have to be tired.\u00a0 Your schedule has to be adjusted.\u00a0 You have to weep.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">But the beauty is worth it.\u00a0 The terrible revelations of my own wickedness are worth it.\u00a0 The growing knowledge of my own soul, the insight into our common human weakness creating a deep pity (a species of love, Shakespeare tells us) for my neighbour, and the ongoing exercise of spiritual disciplines helping me increasingly to see my passions while they are yet thoughts and before they overwhelm me, all of these are worth it.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">That\u2019s why I\u2019m a practicing Orthodox Christian.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why do I do it?\u00a0 Why am I a practicing Orthodox Christian.\u00a0 It\u2019s not because it\u2019s the true faith, the oldest form of Christianity,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[61],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-orthodox-wisdom","tag-personal-thoughts-on-orthodoxy"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/a-young-girl-kisses-the-virgin-mary-at-the-front-of-the-ch-1.jpeg","views":{"total":121,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1768313770},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paPyw9-a1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24595,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621\/revisions\/24595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}