{"id":4541,"date":"2018-03-20T15:35:06","date_gmt":"2018-03-20T19:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/?p=4541"},"modified":"2018-03-15T08:36:10","modified_gmt":"2018-03-15T12:36:10","slug":"elder-joseph-of-vatopaidi-on-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/?p=4541","title":{"rendered":"Elder Joseph+ of Vatopaidi on Love"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-contents=\"true\">\n<div class=\"\" data-block=\"true\" data-editor=\"8k3t\" data-offset-key=\"6nooc-0-0\">\n<div class=\"_1mf _1mj\" data-offset-key=\"6nooc-0-0\">&#8220;If we are to show how much we love the Lord in practice, we ought to obey His commands. \u2018Whoever does not love me does not keep my words\u2019 (John 14, 24). Also \u2018whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he is the one who loves me\u2019 (John 14, 20). I can safely say that to a great extent what causes this outcome is the expression of our love towards the Lord; we have also heard this from our Fathers and it is worth keeping. Such an expression (of love) begins with the memory of the Lord. Someone, who says that he loves the Lord but does not remember Him is like someone who is not telling the truth. We all have such an experience. Our mind sticks on the subject of our love or on what has captured our attention. If we truly wish to love the Lord, we are obliged to force ourselves to keep remembering Him constantly. We must do what St Gregory the Theologian says: \u2018It is better to remember the Lord rather than breathe\u2019.&#8221;<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"\" data-block=\"true\" data-editor=\"8k3t\" data-offset-key=\"bf33o-0-0\">\n<div class=\"_1mf _1mj\" data-offset-key=\"bf33o-0-0\"><span data-offset-key=\"bf33o-0-0\">-\u2018The Practical Expression of Love\u2019<\/span><\/div>\n<div data-offset-key=\"bf33o-0-0\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-4543\" src=\"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/wwewewe-300x145.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"145\" srcset=\"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/wwewewe-300x145.jpg 300w, https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/wwewewe.jpg 736w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;If we are to show how much we love the Lord in practice, we ought to obey His commands. \u2018Whoever does not love me does not keep my words\u2019 (John [&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-4541","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\/4541","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=4541"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4544,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4541\/revisions\/4544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}