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PAUL EVDOKIMOV (1901—1970)

St Philip NeriLove is not a feeling but a state of being.  It is not born of instinct but of freedom.  To love is not to seek oneself in another, but to consent to the mystery of the other, to receive them as a gift, and to offer oneself without possessing.  Love is crucifying because it strips us of our illusions, yet it is resurrecting because it opens us to eternity.  In love, human persons become what they truly are: icons of the Trinitarian God.
God never violates human freedom, because freedom is the very space in which love can exist.  God stands before us as a beggar, waiting for a response.

 

 

 

 

In their many different idioms the classical spiritual writers have attempted to throw light on the eternal question of union with God. 
Every month we give you a brief passage from a spiritual classic.