{"id":4494,"date":"2018-03-09T11:55:14","date_gmt":"2018-03-09T16:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/?p=4494"},"modified":"2018-03-01T09:56:22","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T14:56:22","slug":"elder-joseph-of-vatopaidi-on-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/?p=4494","title":{"rendered":"Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi+ on Grace"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"\" data-block=\"true\" data-editor=\"55hpa\" data-offset-key=\"2f4kq-0-0\">\n<div class=\"_1mf _1mj\" data-offset-key=\"2f4kq-0-0\">\u201cFreeing ourselves from sin is not an immediate but a gradual process which resembles growing up. Through our perseverance, the purification of the heart is attained to slowly and inexplicably with the assistance of Grace. First the mind is cleansed and illuminated and then it recognizes the essence of thoughts and is not deceived. After making proper use of thoughts and obeying the commandments exactly, the heart is purified. Then divine Grace enters and resides permanently and turns man into a genuine God-bearing person. This person, while still living, has passed from \u2018death into life\u2019. This is sanctification. No natural laws have any relevance to him. He permanently communicates with divine Grace and enters into the state which is \u2018beyond nature\u2019 and he either acquires the gift of perspicacity or of prophecy. He is not afraid of any sickness or danger, since he is protected by divine Grace, having been transferred to the state of adoption. When the time comes to leave this world, he will win the trophies promised by our Jesus.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"\" data-block=\"true\" data-editor=\"55hpa\" data-offset-key=\"4gnnl-0-0\">\n<div class=\"_1mf _1mj\" data-offset-key=\"4gnnl-0-0\"><span data-offset-key=\"4gnnl-0-0\">-\u2018Purification of the Heart\u2019<\/span><\/div>\n<div data-offset-key=\"4gnnl-0-0\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-4495\" src=\"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/dsc_1583-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/dsc_1583-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/dsc_1583-768x510.jpg 768w, https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/dsc_1583-480x320.jpg 480w, https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/dsc_1583.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cFreeing ourselves from sin is not an immediate but a gradual process which resembles growing up. Through our perseverance, the purification of the heart is attained to slowly and inexplicably [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-modern-orthodox-elders","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4494"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4496,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4494\/revisions\/4496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}