My journey into the Orthodox faith, one day at a time, one moment at a time. Updated faithfully.

Sparks Along The Path

5 Apr 2024

I'm reading "Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works" by Hieromonk Damascene and wanted to share this quote with you.

"One must study the Church services and the Church statutes, because the beauty and profundity of Christian worship is higher than that of angels; it is the link between earth and heaven. It is a choir of angels and men striving toward the union of their hearts with God, and of their wills with the will of God. — Elder Zachariah of St. Sergius Lavra, Russia (†1936)"

Start reading this book for free: https://a.co/0QRR9b9

Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius

Music Along The Path

1 Jan 2024

ZAMN

Orthodox chant☦️ SoundClound Playlist by ZAMN

https://on.soundcloud.com/V6gKD

Other Sparks Along The Path

2 Jan 2024

Thomas A` Kempis

Spark Quote

From Thomas a Kempis’ ‘The Imitation of Christ

"You have come to serve, not to rule. You must understand, too, that you have been called to suffer and to work, not to idle and gossip away your time. Here men are tried as gold in a furnace. Here no man can remain unless he desires with all his heart to humble himself before God."

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"If men used as much care in uprooting vices and implanting virtues as they do in discussing problems, there would not be so much evil and scandal in the world, or such laxity in religious organizations. On the day of judgment, surely, we shall not be asked what we have read but what we have done; not how well we have spoken but how well we have lived."

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"He is truly great who has great charity. He is truly great who is little in his own eyes and makes nothing of the highest honor. He is truly wise who looks upon all earthly things as folly that he may gain Christ. He who does God’s will and renounces his own is truly very learned."

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"Above all, we must be especially alert against the beginnings of temptation, for the enemy is more easily conquered if he is refused admittance to the mind and is met beyond the threshold when he knocks."

About and Contact

Why the Orthodox Spark?

Hello everyone, my name is Jeff. You might know me as Protestant of almost forty years, but today, I want to introduce myself as someone new: a Orthodox Christian seeker (pre-catechumen). For me, It's still very fresh, like newly baked bread, fragrant with possibility.

Truth be told, I stumbled into Orthodoxy more than I walked. I was searching for something deeper, something beyond the closed box of everyday life. A whisper of beauty kept pulling me towards the Church's saints, their holy lives shining a different kind of light. The liturgy, felt like stepping into a whispered conversation between heaven and earth. But most of all, it was the theology that demonstrated that repentance and suffering leads to holiness (that I still barely understand), yet one thing I do believe; the Church's claim to have preserved this true understanding from the very beginning.

There's so much to learn, of course. Saints with names I can barely pronounce, prayers in languages I fumble through. There's a sense of entering something very old, very true and very unchanging, a woven tapestry of generations linked by stories of a man named Jesus who loved the world enough to bring about the death of Death and set us, the captives free.

I don't have hardly any answers, and sometimes, the theology feels like a dense forest at dusk. But there's a glimmer of something, a crack in my blindness letting in a light I haven't seen before. So, here I am, a fledgling traveler on this ancient path, excited and terrified in equal measure. Wish me luck, friends, and feel free to point me north, to the Fathers, when I get lost. This is just the beginning, I know. But for now, it feels like coming home.

The Narrow Path of Repentance and Suffering

Photo by

Rafik Wahba

Jacob Bentzinger