Mailing: 30251 Golden Lantern Ste E #380, Laguna Niguel, CA 92677 | Services: 4949 Alton Pkwy, Irvine, CA 92604

The kingdom of heaven is like…


[I Cor. 2:9-3:8; Matt. 13:31-36] The king­dom is like a grain of mus­tard seed and leav­en. A small grain of mus­tard seed grows up in­to a big bush; leav­en pen­e­trates the whole lump of dough and makes it leavened. Here, on the one hand, is an im­age for the Church, which in the be­gin­ning con­sist­ed on­ly of the a­pos­tles and sev­er­al oth­er peo­ple, then spread and be­came most nu­mer­ous, penetrating all of hu­man­i­ty; on the oth­er hand, it is an im­age of the spir­i­tu­al life re­veal­ed in ev­ery per­son. Its first seed is the in­ten­tion and de­ter­mi­na­tion to be saved through pleas­ing God, up­on faith in the Lord and Sav­iour. This de­ter­mi­na­tion, no mat­ter how firm, is like a ti­ny dot. In the be­gin­ning it em­brac­es on­ly one’s con­scious­ness and ac­tiv­i­ties; then from this all of the ac­tiv­i­ty of a spir­i­tu­al life de­vel­ops. Its move­ment and strength mul­ti­ply and ma­ture with­in its own self, and it be­gins to pen­e­trate all the pow­ers of the soul — the mind, will, feel­ings, then fills them with it­self, makes them leavened ac­cord­ing to its spir­it, and pen­e­trates the en­tire con­sti­tu­tion of the hu­man na­ture, bod­y, soul, and spir­it in which it was en­gen­der­ed.


Discover more from Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading