{"id":7311,"date":"2019-10-27T12:38:17","date_gmt":"2019-10-27T16:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/?p=7311"},"modified":"2019-10-04T20:38:49","modified_gmt":"2019-10-05T00:38:49","slug":"on-the-need-for-vigilance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/?p=7311","title":{"rendered":"On the Need for Vigilance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThis is why vigilance is called for all throughout the Scriptures. Mindfulness is a virtue that calls us to remember our failings. I believe that is a rightful word to use for sin. The root word of sin is \u201cHamartia\u201d. It literally means missing the mark. Yes&#8230; that\u2019s an accurate summation. Wefrequently miss the mark because of our fallenness. But we are called to do better.\u00a0 To do better?! What do you mean you ask? Well&#8230; consider this. An archer is a highly skilled marksman who is adept at his art through realizing where his weaknesses are and through judicious and plentiful practice and honing of his skills; overcomes them. He then hits the mark 100% of the time because he has become one with his struggle and has mastered himself. This is a good definition of the Orthodox Christian viewpoint of \u201cTheosis\u201d. It is a burning away of all that separates us from God that we eventually become deified in likeness to God (*not in essence, but in imitation of Christ, the one perfect and sinless being who has walked the earth as an example to us and our propitiation for salvation.)&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>(Fr. Benedict\u00a0 of Ascension Monastery in Resaca, GA)<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-7312\" src=\"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/193393.b-211x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"211\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/193393.b-211x300.jpg 211w, https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/193393.b.jpg 599w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 211px) 100vw, 211px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>***Now and then we include a particularly thought provoking or inspiring excerpt not from one of our regular \u2018Elders\u2019***<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThis is why vigilance is called for all throughout the Scriptures. Mindfulness is a virtue that calls us to remember our failings. I believe that is a rightful word to [&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-7311","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\/7311","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=7311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7313,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7311\/revisions\/7313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}