Monday
Acts 6:8-7:5, 47-60; John 4:46-54
St. Stephen says: The most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands... What house will ye build Me? saith the Lord, or, what is the place of My rest? (Acts 7:48-49). Only the temple in the heart, not made with hands, can contain God, as the Lord said: If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him (John 14:23). How this is accomplished is unfathomable to us, but it is true because it is obvious that then it is God Who worth in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13). Do not deliberate about it, just give your heart to the Lord, and He Himself will make of it a temple for Himself-but give it unsparingly. If there are parts which are not given, then an integral temple cannot be made from the heart, for one thing will be decayed, another broken-and what will result, if anything results, will be a temple with holes or without a roof, or without doors. It is not possible to live in such a temple: the Lord will not dwell in it. It will only seem that it is a temple, but in reality it will just be a pile of material.
-From St. Theophan the Recluse
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