old Spiritual Renewal cassette tape

So my dad's car, that I drive when I'm home, is a 98 Civic and doesn't have a cd player...I'm also not a radio listener, in general...so I have to be creative if I want to listen to stuff in the car. I've been listening (a lot) to a recording of Paraklesis by Simonopetra Monastery on Mt. Athos, which I copied from CD to tape so I could listen to it in the car. Yesterday, I decided to dig through some old cassettes and see if anything interesting reared its head. It sure did. I listened to Bishop Basil (who had been a bishop for two years) talking to young people about Orthodoxy in America and an upcoming assembly of the 60 canonical American Orthodox Bishops at Antiochian Village, Ligonier PA ... in 1994. 

(And I thought that was old!) When that was done, I put on a recording of the first ever Spiritual Renewal Conference, held at Duquesne University, and Sponsored by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America. Archbishop Iakovos wanted to be there but he was in Greece. The keynote speaker was His Grace, Bishop Maximos of Pittsburgh. Some of the speakers were Fr. Ted Stylianopoulos (who is still around, at HCHC! He's great!) and Fr. Stanley Harakas. It was a little hard to understand, partly because of Bishop Max's speech impediment, but mostly because the quality of the recording wasn't very good, as this tape is from 1979 :)
 

31 years doesn't make something unapplicable...if I can attempt to summarize Bishop Max's keynote, it would be this: Spiritual renewal and the life in Christ are a process, because our measure of perfection (given by Christ) is to "be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect." Our measure of perfection is God Himself. We will never satisfactorily reach that point and not have to struggle anymore...life in Christ is a constant struggle. We have to constantly renew the vows made at our Baptism...we have to constantly renounce Satan and join ourselves to Christ. the chief way to do this is through making use of Confession - by which we are able to cleanse ourselves - and Communion - which is God's wonderful gift to us, and whereby everything we do is united with Christ and we become one with Him. (Oh, and delaying baptism - as they often did in the early Church - is foolish). I forget some of the rest, but I remember that the conclusion was a bit unclear. I want to go and re-listen to the conclusion. Tomorrow, God willing, I will listen to Fr. Harakas' lecture...we'll see what pearls I will gain from that :)

CHRIST IS BAPTIZED!!!

IN THE JORDAN!!!

(to sanctify the waters!!!)