From His Grace Bishop MAXIM

Biography of His Grace Bishop Maxim

Pastoral Thought of the Week

Gratefulness for All Things 

Neither our self nor our salvation is separated from the other [person], who is our brother. 

If we can avoid separating ourselves from grace and from true life, then the trials and dangers of all kinds and all levels which threaten us within and without will be changed into blessings, into creative forces. We shall be grateful to our en­emies, to anyone who has roused us to vigilance and sobriety and pushed us into develop­ing—for ourselves and for the whole world—the inex­haustible deposits of spiritual energy hidden in the subsoil of our tradition. 

The Church does not react hastily and impetu­ously. She leaves things free, and everything is guided by the Spirit. She does not present a perspective, even a correct one; she possesses truth incarnate.  

Whether through the words of theology, or the paintbrush of iconography, or the melody of hymnography, or heartfelt joy in silence, people radiate the amazement of gratitude for the wealth of divine gifts that they suddenly receive, and this creates a temperate climate for the human being to live in. An iconographer paints icons with his brush tuned to the vibration of the earthquake that does away with hell and raises the dead.