Fire

St. Nikolai Velimirovich: . . . The error of the nature worshipers, the ancient as well as the modern . . .

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Thus then we Christians understand the earth, the sun and the stars as the symbols of spiritual reality and in no way as the reality itself. Pagans of all ages, however, have mistaken those luminous bodies of the firmament for reality. As soon as they took them for reality they began to worship them. That is how the pagans have been ensnared by a terrible error to worship the creatures instead of the Creator. The Greeks worshiped the earth under the name of goddess Gaia, and the sun under the name of Apollo. The sun was worshiped in Egypt under the name of Osiris, and the moon under the name Isis. The moon was worshiped in Babylon, Assyria, Arabia and in many other countries under the name Ishtar.The Persians, as fire worshipers, bowed before the stars as divinities.

The error of the nature worshipers, the ancient as well as the modern, was caused by the fact that their spirit did not guide their eyes but vice versa: their eyes guided their spirit. Similar to a blind person their spirit tottered after their physical eyes and worshiped everything that the eyes declared as reality, and consequently as divinity.

+ St.  Nikolai Velimirovich, The Universe as Signs and Symbols

The Universe as Symbols and Signs: An Essay on Mysticism in the Eastern Church

St. Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain: The grace of the Holy Spirit which is given mystically to every Christian . . .

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“The grace of the Holy Spirit which is given mystically to every Christian when he is baptized acts and is manifested in proportion to our obedience to the commandments of the Lord. That is, if a Christian obeys the commandments of the Lord more, grace acts with him more, while if he obeys them less, grace acts within him less. Just as a spark, when covered in the ashes of fire becomes increasingly manifest as one removes the ashes, and the more fire wood you put the more the fire burns, so the grace that has been given to every Christian through Holy Baptism is hidden in the heart and covered up by the passions and sins, and the more a man acts in accordance with the commandments of Christ, the more he is cleansed of the passions and the more the fire of Divine grace lights in his heart, illumines and deifies him.”

+ St. Nicodemos of the Holy Mountain, Christian Morality

St. Cyril of Jerusalem: . . . A fiery sword barred of old the gates of Paradise: a fiery tongue which brought salvation restored the gift.

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“‘And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 2:3-4). They partook of fire, not of burning but of saving fire; of fire which consumes the thorns of sins, but gives luster to the soul. This is now coming upon you also, and that to strip away and consume your sins which are like thorns, and to brighten yet more that precious possession of your souls, and to give you grace; for He gave it then to the Apostles. And He sat upon them in the form of fiery tongues, that they might crown themselves with new and spiritual diadems by fiery tongues upon their heads. A fiery sword barred of old the gates of Paradise; a fiery tongue which brought salvation restored the gift.”

+ St. Cyril of Jerusalem, 17.15, Catechetical Lectures

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St. Maximos the Confessor: Just as the thought of fire does not warm the body . . .

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“Just as the thought of fire does not warm the body, so faith without love does not actualize the light of spiritual knowledge in the soul.

Just as the light of the sun attracts a healthy eye, so through love knowledge of God naturally draws to itself the pure intellect.”

+ St. Maximos the Confessor, Four Hundred Texts on Love 1.31-32, The Philokalia: The Complete Text (Vol. 2)

St. John of Kronstadt: When you look at the candles . . .

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“‘When you look at the candles and lamps burning in church, rise in thought from the material fire to the immaterial fire of the Holy Ghost,’ for our God is a consuming fire.” When you see and smell the fragrant incense, rise in thought to the spiritual fragrance of the Holy Ghost, ‘for we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ.’”

— St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ

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