Finding God

FINDING GOD

“The soul of man,” Photini continued, “came from God. Since God is immortal, the human soul is also immortal. Since this world is temporal, the human soul finds no rest in this world. A person may acquire wealth, glory, power, and other things, but times will come when he will be troubled and worried, because the soul, which is a foreigner in this world, is the main part of man. The closer the hour of departure approaches, the more a person is troubled and grieved, because his soul yearns for something that it did not find in this life. What it yearns for is the Ultimate Good, Immortality, which is God. When man reaches the Ultimate Good – not physically but spiritually – then he finds rest, is satisfied, and rejoices, because he attained what he longed for: God.”

“How can man, who is clothed with flesh and lives in the material world, find God, Who is a Spirit? For Christ said, ‘God is a Spirit.’” [Jn. 4:24]

“By working at attaining the virtues, man attains the likeness of God and becomes a god, not by nature but by grace. In other words, he becomes like God and feels God within himself, as the Savior says, ‘We will come and make our abode in him.’ [cf. Jn. 14:23] By working at what is good man can achieve immortality, even though he lives in this world and bears a mortal body. As the Savior says, ‘If a man keep my words, he shall never see death.’ [Jn. 8:51] By keeping the words of God, one receives the confirmation and assurance that he has eternal life.

“The soul of man is immaterial, immortal, immutable, and eternal. When it receives sanctifying grace from God and when it is connected with God through prayer and virtuous works, it becomes holy. And this is why we call virtuous people saints, because they rose above earthly things. So a saint could also be called immortal because he has overcome mortality and received the grace of sanctification from God. God gave great worth to man; but it is up to him to realize his own worth and descent, and it is his duty to work at the virtues to make himself worthy of God’s grace for which he is destined…”

- The Hermitess Photini, by Archimandrite Joachim Spetsieris (Florence, AZ: St. Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Monastery, 2000), pp. 118-119.