{"id":7899,"date":"2020-02-18T12:51:54","date_gmt":"2020-02-18T17:51:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/?p=7899"},"modified":"2020-02-08T11:54:04","modified_gmt":"2020-02-08T16:54:04","slug":"elder-sophrony-on-knowing-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/?p=7899","title":{"rendered":"Elder Sophrony on Knowing God"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-contents=\"true\">\n<div class=\"\" data-block=\"true\" data-editor=\"7c0ki\" data-offset-key=\"9d8q6-0-0\">\n<div class=\"_1mf _1mj\" data-offset-key=\"9d8q6-0-0\">&#8220;But the only study that enables us to sense what God is like, is the ascetic life according to the commandments of the Gospel. When our life is lived according to the will of God, then we understand that there cannot be a difference between the commandments and the mind of God Himself. When we think according to the commandments, then our mind gets used to thinking as God Himself thinks. And regarding theosis, they say: but what is theosis? With obedience to the abbot from the beginning, one\u2019s will is cut off, then in obedience to the Gospel commandments one reaches this state. We do small things but the results must become great. Through obedience we enter into the life of divine Being. We have good descriptions of this in the writings of St. Nicodemus the Athonite.&#8221;<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"\" data-block=\"true\" data-editor=\"7c0ki\" data-offset-key=\"evbnv-0-0\">\n<div class=\"_1mf _1mj\" data-offset-key=\"evbnv-0-0\"><span data-offset-key=\"evbnv-0-0\"> &#8211; Interview<\/span><\/div>\n<div data-offset-key=\"evbnv-0-0\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-7900\" src=\"http:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/327916.b-2019_11_08-19_20_40-UTC-300x212.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"212\" srcset=\"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/327916.b-2019_11_08-19_20_40-UTC-300x212.jpg 300w, https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/327916.b-2019_11_08-19_20_40-UTC-768x544.jpg 768w, https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/327916.b-2019_11_08-19_20_40-UTC.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;But the only study that enables us to sense what God is like, is the ascetic life according to the commandments of the Gospel. When our life is lived according [&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-7899","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\/7899","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=7899"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7901,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7899\/revisions\/7901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}