💎 The Dignity of the Christian Woman The Christian woman must fully realize, not only with her mind but with her entire being: Firstly, that she is a being created in the image of God, exactly like man, and called to share God's life from now on, and that she has consequently been granted a supreme dignity, and that she is an end in herself—because she is loved by God and called to a unique relationship with Him—and therefore she must not be made a tool or a means for any ambition, purpose, or lust, and under no circumstances should she be emptied of her human value to become an object to be possessed or enjoyed. Secondly, that she, like man, is a child of God, and therefore free like him in this universe which is none other than her Father's house, and that Christ cemented this freedom and released it from its shackles through His death and resurrection, and that every attempt to enslave women, no matter what pretexts are adopted for it, is ultimately directed against God Himself who willed this freedom for her and paid the blood of His only Son as its price: "You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men" (1 Corinthians 7:23). Thirdly, that her unique person and freedom will only be realized if she accepts to transcend all self-centeredness and caprices, so she does not remain a prisoner of greed, possessiveness, or vanity, but transcends herself towards others, accepting them and giving to them, thereby achieving in herself, as in man, the image of the Trinitarian God who is by nature love and sharing, and thus she finds her true self. #WomensDignity #ImageOfGod #ChristianFreedom #IdentityInChrist #TheologyOfTheBody

💧 With Christ in Baptism and Temptation ⚔️ If after baptism the persecutor and tempter of the light assail you (for he assailed even the Word my God through the veil), you have the means to conquer him. Fear not the conflict; defend yourself with the Water; defend yourself with the Spirit, by Which all the fiery darts of the wicked shall be quenched. ... If he wrestle against you to a fall through avarice, showing you all the Kingdoms at one instant and in the twinkling of an eye, as belonging to himself, and demand your worship, despise him as a beggar. Say to him relying on the Seal, “I am myself the Image of God; ... I have put on Christ; I have been transformed into Christ by Baptism; worship you me.” Well do I know that he will depart, defeated and put to shame by this; as he did from Christ the first Light, so he will from those who are illumined by Christ. ... Let us then be baptized that we may win the victory. _St Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 40, 10-11; NPNF 2nd Ser, Vol VII, p 362-363. #Baptism #Temptation #SpiritualWarfare #ImageOfGod #VictoryInChrist

🌀 The Illusion of Self-Sufficiency 🌀 We exist in life completely naked; we are born naked and die naked. Thus, we need everything: air, water, food, clothing, shelter. We cannot live without these necessities, just as we cannot live without others. We enter life in complete poverty, and we receive life from God, from the universe, and from people. This richness, if according to true existence by the grace of God, allows us to live a true human life. But if it is the false existence distorted by sin, we fall into despair, ignorance, and all other sins. The origin of pride is the greatness of humanity received as the image of God. However, this divine greatness within us can turn from divine grace into a deadly sin leading to the destruction of both soul and body. We are great by the grace of God, but we transform this greatness into a personal attribute, ability, and special status, separating it from its true source, which is God. Even adultery is originally a desire for union with another, but instead of the spiritual union that precedes physical union, we turn to physical union without a bond of love or true communion, making the union adulterous. Even murder is originally a desire for giving and generosity, but instead of giving our lives and offering ourselves, we—out of fear and hatred—strip others of life so that we may live. #HumanNature #DependenceOnGod #Pride #Sin #ImageOfGod #Community

🔍 The True Paradigm of True Existence With the entry of sin into the world, falseness and deceit entered. And with the dissolution of human existence and its fall under the sway of death, human knowledge became corrupted and turned into a false knowledge, incapable of perceiving truth except through divine revelation itself, i.e., the Holy Scripture and the word of God. Thus, revelation came to restore man to the true knowledge that was his, deposited in his human being, and to which the Book of Genesis referred with one phrase: "Let Us make man in Our image" (Genesis 1:26). And the words "image" and "likeness" mean there are three levels of human knowledge: The first: which is man's knowledge of his being and capacities as an image of God, in which he sees God and perceives, through contemplating his being, the resemblance between him and the Creator. The second: man's knowledge of the creatures around him, placed at his service. The third: the knowledge of God Himself, which is the highest degree of knowledge, and it differs from the first and second degrees in that it is revealed by God, and man cannot storm it, take it by force, or obtain it by the capacities bestowed upon him. We have placed this degree last because it is the greatest and of the highest rank than the first and second. And we were created according to the image of God, because God is the creator of all things. And according to this image, knowledge does not come to us from the outside, but it is within us. If we advance in the knowledge of beings and the cosmos, this knowledge finds its origin within us, i.e., the element of intelligence and the power of observation that God placed in us. And if we advance in self-knowledge, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit accompanies this degree and purifies those who ask sincerely, because this knowledge becomes like a reflection of human existence on everything. And to the extent that man knows himself, he knows God, and this is due to the existence of God's image in us, and to the extent of the purity of that image, the knowledge of theology (the divine nature) in us is pure. #KnowledgeOfGod #ImageOfGod #Revelation #Theology #SelfKnowledge #ChristianAnthropology

💀 Spiritual Death Spiritual death and hell are two sides of the same coin; because hell is the confined life with no growth, which has lost the purpose or the end of existence; because man, created in the image of God, without God becomes an image of himself, and thus defines and confines his existence in a non-growing existence limited by the human image he created for himself, and therefore man is unable to rise to what is higher than his human image; because fighting the image of God in us makes us strangers to our true existence, and captives of our false existence which we made for ourselves. And when the Apostle said about our Lord glorified that He "condemned sin in the flesh" (Romans 8:3), He accepted the death of the body which desires immortality and strives to remain by the power of the inner life without God, i.e., without the grace of God, the true source of life. But the Lord Jesus took our flesh and restored it to the life that does not die through communion in His divine hypostasis, which is communion in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And when the Lord tasted death in the flesh on the cross, He passed judgment on the corruption of sin as a lifestyle (or means) of life, for He rejected the life that does not know God nor accepts Him, unlike Adam. When He tasted death, He put an end to the alienation of the flesh from God and from the inner life (the heart); because the flesh becomes alienated from the human spirit when it becomes a means and tool for sin, thus abandoning natural (biological) life and being shaped by all the images of sin and falling captive to death; because the death of sin springs from sin, which the Apostle describes as "dead works of the flesh," i.e., those that have no life in them, and which make us strangers to ourselves, to our bodies, and to God Himself, the source of life. #SpiritualDeath #Hell #Sin #ImageOfGod #Alienation #Redemption

💎 The Dignity of the Christian Woman The Christian woman must fully realize, not only with her mind but with her entire being: Firstly, that she is a being created in the image of God, exactly like man, and called to share God's life from now on, and that she has consequently been granted a supreme dignity, and that she is an end in herself—because she is loved by God and called to a unique relationship with Him—and therefore she must not be made a tool or a means for any ambition, purpose, or lust, and under no circumstances should she be emptied of her human value to become an object to be possessed or enjoyed. Secondly, that she, like man, is a child of God, and therefore free like him in this universe which is none other than her Father's house, and that Christ cemented this freedom and released it from its shackles through His death and resurrection, and that every attempt to enslave women, no matter what pretexts are adopted for it, is ultimately directed against God Himself who willed this freedom for her and paid the blood of His only Son as its price: "You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men" (1 Cor. 7:23). Thirdly, that her unique person and freedom will only be realized if she accepts to transcend all self-centeredness and caprices, so she does not remain a prisoner of greed, possessiveness, or vanity, but transcends herself towards others, accepting them and giving to them, thereby achieving in herself, as in man, the image of the Trinitarian God who is by nature love and sharing, and thus she finds her true self. #WomensDignity #ImageOfGod #ChristianFreedom #IdentityInChrist #TheologyOfTheBody

⚖️ What is God's Justice According to the Teaching of the Universal Church on the Trinity? It is not the justice of kings, judges, and earthly law. Therefore, recompense according to God's justice is a recompense according to love, and according to man's alienation first from himself, and second from the divine love. It is much more difficult and precise than the teachings of other religions which define God's justice by the laws they have, which overall do not differ from the laws of previous nations; because for every sin there is an earthly punishment, and for all sins there is one punishment: the fire of hell. This is the circle of justice according to the teaching of others, not us Christians. As for us, the justice of God is a question posed to man about the image and likeness of God given to him, which was renewed in Christ and sanctified by the Holy Spirit. It is a question about the being of man, what man did with his essence, and how he lived as an image of God? This places the justice of the Gospel on a level completely different from the justice of any other law. #JusticeOfGod #DivineJustice #Trinity #Gospel #ImageOfGod