{"id":5239,"date":"2018-08-03T12:49:41","date_gmt":"2018-08-03T16:49:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/?p=5239"},"modified":"2018-08-01T09:50:45","modified_gmt":"2018-08-01T13:50:45","slug":"metropolitan-tikhon-shevkunov-on-ceaseless-passions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/?p=5239","title":{"rendered":"Metropolitan Tikhon Shevkunov on Ceaseless Passions"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"\" data-block=\"true\" data-editor=\"22cqv\" data-offset-key=\"7ea2t-0-0\">\n<div class=\"_1mf _1mj\" data-offset-key=\"7ea2t-0-0\">&#8220;After all, upon taking monastic vows and becoming a priest, many things change in our lives, but not everything. The ancient evil that always dwells within us will always haunt us, and will never quit trying to steal in upon us in order to accomplish the Devil\u2019s main goal\u2014to steal our soul. Only ceaseless courageous battle with evil, solely for the remarkable goal that is incomprehensible to many\u2014the purity of our soul\u2014will justify us before God. But if Christ does not see this struggle within us, He turns away from us, from that priest, monk, or layperson who has turned from Him, leaving him alone with what he has chosen for himself. And that choice is the same as it always was\u2014insatiable pride and desire for the pleasures of this world. As time passes, sooner or later these passions will subvert or even pervert someone who has forgotten about God. Then these passions reveal their true horrible dangers Then the Sea of Galilee will rise up, and from its abyss the enrage swine who were drowned long ago will race ashore and hurl themselves on the unfortunate who thought there could be any compromise between them and God.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"\" data-block=\"true\" data-editor=\"22cqv\" data-offset-key=\"985t1-0-0\">\n<div class=\"_1mf _1mj\" data-offset-key=\"985t1-0-0\"><span data-offset-key=\"985t1-0-0\">&#8211; \u2018Everyday Saints\u2019<\/span><\/div>\n<div data-offset-key=\"985t1-0-0\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-5240\" src=\"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/athos2-300x125.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"125\" srcset=\"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/athos2-300x125.jpg 300w, https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/athos2-768x320.jpg 768w, https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/athos2.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;After all, upon taking monastic vows and becoming a priest, many things change in our lives, but not everything. The ancient evil that always dwells within us will always haunt [&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-5239","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\/5239","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=5239"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5241,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5239\/revisions\/5241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}