St. John Chrysostom Russian Orthodox Church - House Springs (St. Louis Area), Missouri

The light of the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, they whole body shall be full of darkness.

The eyes are the body's window, through which the body perceives light and comes to know itself to be in the light. If this window is stuck tight, what a terrible darkness the body becomes! The eye are the body's guide; while this guide firmly goes ahead, the body moves forward and does not wander from the path: the feet move where they should, the hands do what they should and every organ plays its part as it should. But if the guide falls into darkness, what about the darkness into which those who are led will fall? If the eyes are put out and stop lighting the body, what a monstrous heap of darkness the body represents? Then all paths are closed to the body … Confusion and chaos appears. Without eyes, a man's body becomes a prison indeed.

The inner meaning of these words is made abundantly clear from the following sentence: If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness? With these words, the Lord turns the whole picture of the eye and the body to the inner man, to the mind and soul, for the eye is the image of the mind, and the body (is the image of) of the soul. In Holy Scripture, mention is often made of the mind's sight, also of its blindness. The Apostle Paul desires for the Ephesians, from God, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened (1:18), and the Psalmist says, Open Thou  mine eyes, that I may see the wondrous things of Thy law (Ps. 118/119:18), thinking here of the eyes of the mind and inner sight, by which alone God's law can be seen.

The mind is the eye of the entire soul. The mind is the soul's window God-wards. While the mind is pure, light, and open to God, the light of heaven is poured into the whole soul, and our thoughts rise straight up to God. All the feeling of our hearts pours into love for God and His Law; all our intentions, all our desires, all the activities of our souls, are light-filled, healthy and turned to God's service. They are like a sun-drenched field, in which flocks graze and shepherds make merry, and into which wolves dare not enter because of the light…. Illumined by a pure and healthy mind, our souls are free from the wild beasts of vice and the passions, that invade them only when they are overshadowed by the darkness of a sick mind…. When the mind is pure, all is pure in a man's soul and the whole man is pure….

There is no doubt that there is, in every man, along with the greatest purity, also impurity; but a man with a pure mind will not see the impurity. He directs his mind, and his mind directs his whole soul, only to that which is pure both within a man and in the external world. And, directing his mind only to that which is pure, he is more and more enriched by purity. The more our minds cleave to our Lord Jesus Christ as the perfection of purity and light, the purer our minds become, and, through our minds, our hearts and souls—the more enlightened, radiant, and perceptive.

        Fr John Behr:  The Pastoral Power of Theology

"O Taste and See How Good is the Lord"
(short audio clip)

An impromptu quartet of American singers sang at the matins and and presanctified liturgy which concluded the 2009 Lenten Diocesan Assembly. Among them were two young men of our parish: Rdr Nathaniel Brown and Rdr Constantine Stade. Also participating were Rdr Dimitry Kulp and Serge Kaminski.