The Way True Love Heals You

Orthodox Christianity is not ultimately about history, comparative religion, written doctrine, and external practices.  The Orthodox Way is about internal prayer and personal healing through prayer.  It is not an academic path, but a practical one.  It is about the experience of God and personal transformation through that experience.  Human religion based on imagination and opinions don't make you a better person (and can make you a lot worse), but true religion - the spiritual Way - leads to the fullness of Life.  God does the work in us if we are willing to cooperate.  

Attending a class is not going to change you, but learning about the richness of the spiritual treasure very well may be life-changing.  If you take hold the treasure before you, then you will most certainly be on the healing Way.

St. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna

St. Polycarp served as the bishop of the church in Smyrna, one of the churches mentioned in The Apocalypse (Book of Revelation).  He lived and served the Church during the time of the Apostles.  St. Irenaeus of Lyon, who  lived near the time of the Apostles, wrote this about St. Polycarp: 

"Polycarp also was not only instructed by apostles, and conversed with many who had seen Christ, but was also, by apostles in Asia, appointed bishop of the Church in Smyrna, whom I also saw in myearly youth, for he tarried [on earth] a very long time, and, when a very old man, gloriously and most nobly suffering martyrdom, departed this life, having always taught the things which he had learned from the apostles, and which the Church has handed down, and which alone are true. To these things all the [churches in Asia] testify, as do also those men who have succeeded Polycarp down to the present time...." (Against the Heretics, Bk. III)

  

You may read The Martyrdom of Polycarp on the website of the Orthodox Metropolitanate of Hong Kong and Southeast Asia (Ecumenical Patriarchate).  St. Ignatius, the second bishop of Antioch, wrote a letter to St. Polycarp, which can be read on the Early Christian Writings website. (On this site, a shorter version and a longer version are included, so you may want to skip the repeating paragraphs).

Mount Athos on 60 Mintues (CBS)

Watch a very well done presentation on Mount Athos from 60 Minutes.  Part 1 and Part 2, along with additional supplementary segments, can be viewed on CBS.com. 



Photo from Wikipedia: Subject, Mountain Athos, monastery; Photographer: Witold Rawicz (PL); GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2.

A Conversation With Kallistos Ware | Big Questions Online

Here is a video (from bigquestionsonline.com) of Met. Kallistos speaking on prayer and silence:
A Conversation With Kallistos Ware | Big Questions Online

"heal my soul"