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To: Forest Keeper

Here’s what we believe, from +Peter of Damascus:

“Fear is of two kinds: the first is introductory, while the second, which grows out of the first is perfect.

He who is afraid of God’s punishment has a slave-like fear of God, and it is this that makes him refrain from evil: ‘Out of fear of the Lord men shun evil’ ... through fear of what threatens us we sinners may be led to repent and may seek deliverance from our sins....

The more a man struggles to do good, the more fear grows in him, until it shows him his slightest faults, those which he thought of as nothing while he was still in the darkness of ignorance.

When fear in this way has become perfect, he himself becomes perfect through inward grief: he no longer desires to sin but, fearing the return of the passions, he remains in this pure fear invulnerable. As the psalm puts it, ‘The fear of the Lord is pure, and endures for ever’. The first kind of fear is not pure, for it arises in us because of our sins. But, independent of sin, the person who has been purified continues to feel fear, not because he sins, but because, being human, he is changeable and prone to evil.

In his humility, the further he advances through the acquisition of the virtues, the more he fears. This is natural; for everyone who possesses wealth greatly fears loss, punishment, dishonor, and the consequent fall from his high estate....The sign of the first kind of fear is hatred of sin and anger towards it, like someone wounded by a wild beast. The sign of perfect fear is the love of virtue and the fear of relapsing, since no one is unalterable.”


5,170 posted on 04/26/2008 5:24:48 AM PDT by Kolokotronis (Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated)
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To: Kolokotronis
Here’s what we believe, from +Peter of Damascus:

.... The more a man struggles to do good, the more fear grows in him, until it shows him his slightest faults, those which he thought of as nothing while he was still in the darkness of ignorance. ....

.... The sign of perfect fear is the love of virtue and the fear of relapsing, since no one is unalterable.

Thanks for the quote. That sounds pretty compatible. Any desire to be virtuous or do good on our part is love for God.

5,245 posted on 04/30/2008 2:11:15 PM PDT by Forest Keeper (It is a joy to me to know that God had my number, before He created numbers.)
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