Articles

Day 1 2018 (1st Monday of the Holy Great Fast )

How? Be devoted to God

“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’” (Matt 22:37)

. . .

“What does to ‘love God with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all our mind, and with all our strength’ mean? This means to be steadfastly devoted to God with our whole hearts and souls; that is, with all the strength and fullness of love that is possible for the human heart, not sharing our love in the same measure with any other being, however, beloved, needed, and dear that being may be to us.

To love God with all [our] heart, and so forth, means to think more often and more readily about God and what is pleasing to God, because in general it is an attribute of the love of our heart that the one whom we sincerely love is constantly with us in our thoughts. We are often separated from the one we love, but are always with that one in our thoughts: looking at, listening to, and speaking with him or her.

To love God with all [our] heart means to speak about the Lord God, as often, as long, and as readily as we can. Because it is an attribute of the love of our heart that we speak as often, as long and as willingly as possible about whom we sincerely love, for you speak of whatever lies deepest in your heart; ‘for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.’ (Matt 12.34).”

Metropolitan Gregory (Postikov) of St Petersburg