The 400 Chapters of Love, by St. Maximos the Confessor
Talk by Metropolitan Jonah (Paffhausen), part 2

Chapters 1-41.
Includes discussions of:
1. The nature of true love: directly connecting with God in pure prayer, as opposed to attachments to created things; 
2. The path to true love: faith, fear, self-control, patience and forbearance, hope, and dispassion; 
3. Relating to others in true love and with appropriate detachment. Love of God produces love for people because God is love and loves all people. Such love causes all other relationships to fall into place. The one who truly loves God can hate no one, but is generous, forgiving, and kind to all; 
4. The destructive role of the passions; 
5. Blessed dispassion: "a peaceful condition of the soul in which the soul is not easily moved to evil."

Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St John the Baptist in Washington, DC
February 16, 2021
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