Animals and nature in the Orthodox tradition, in pictures and quotations.
Thank you to everyone who has followed this page and shared posts! I will not be updating it any more, but I have started a facebook page on the same theme and invite you to like/follow there (www.facebook.com/orthodoxyandanimals). The initial posts will be mostly reposts from here for awhile, but there are many new ones to come!
Animals and nature in the Orthodox tradition, in pictures and quotations.
Thank you to everyone who has followed this page and shared posts! I will not be updating it any more, but I have started a facebook page on the same theme and invite you to like/follow there (www.facebook.com/orthodoxyandanimals). The initial posts will be mostly reposts from here for awhile, but there are many new ones to come!
" #Geronda, how do animals sense a person’s goodness?"….. "They can instinctively sense if you love them. The animals in Paradise felt the fragrance of Grace and served Adam. Since the transgression, nature groans together with man" #SaintPaisios #dttw #deathtotheworld #animals #rabbit #monk #orthodox #orthodoxy
A student of spiritual knowledge…is he who esteems and studies God’s wisdom mirrored in His creation, down to the least vestige of it; but he does this without any self-display or any hankering after human praise and glory, for he wishes to be a lover of God’s wisdom in creation and not a lover of materialism.“ -St Gregory of Sinai
“When God, who is absolute fullness, brought creatures into existence, it was not done to fulfill any need but so that his creatures should be happy to share his likeness, and so that he himself might rejoice in the joy of his creatures as they draw inexhaustibly upon the Inexhaustible.”— St. Maximus the Confessor
“Everywhere and always God is with us, near to us and in us. But we are not always with Him, since we do not remember Him…Take upon yourself this task - to make a habit of such recollection.” - St Theophan the Recluse
“The world itself, by its well-ordered changes and movements, and by the fair appearance of all visible things, bears a testimony of its own, both that it has been created, and also that it could not have been created save by God, whose greatness and beauty are unutterable and invisible.” - St Augustine
“For the power of God is always present, in contact with us…God is not in darkness or in place, but above both space and time, and qualities of objects. Wherefore neither is He at any time in a part, either as containing or as contained, either by limitation or by section. For what house will you build to Me? says the Lord. Nay, He has not even built one for Himself, since He cannot be contained. And though heaven be called His throne, not even thus is He contained, but He rests delighted in the creation.” - St Clement of Alexandria
“Do you know that God gave us one more commandment, which is not recorded in Scripture? It is the commandment “love the trees.“ When you plant a tree, you plant hope, you plant peace, you plant love, and you will receive God’s blessing.” - Elder Amphilochius of Patmos
“Love is an ontological first-principle. But love for God is inseparable from love for neighbour, love for God’s creation. Christianity also is a revealing of Divine-human love. It saves me, i.e. not only love for God but also love for man transfigures my nature. Love for those near, for brothers, the acts of love enter upon the path of my salvation, of my transfiguration. On the way of my salvation enters in love for animals and plants, for each thing close by, for stones, for rivers and seas, for hills and fields. By this too I am saved, all the world too is saved, it attains to illumination.” - Nicholas Berdyaev
