[HERn]

Learned something from Demetrios a used car dealer today when I bought a car from him. We had some good fellowship and one of his comments caught my ear. He said that in the EO church that you pay attention to what the priest says during mass, but ignore what he does that might be sinful. I told him that would be hard for a Protestant to do regarding his spiritual leader. I asked him if the reason the EO could have this opinion was because the message of the church was greater than life of the priest he agreed. To me this relates to the teaching in the LSM LC where we were told to just listen to the ministry and ignore the sins and unrighteousness of the speakers of the ministry (or something like that). He was a dear brother but had never heard of the sin of prelest. I welcomed his offer for his priest to call me about this and other questions. He also shared with me that as a young man he had strayed from the church and then spent a night or two in a monestery in Greece where after two days of open and mutual conversations with a priest he said that he found himself confessing and not even realizing that he was doing this. He said an enormous burden was lifted from him. When I asked him if he thought it was an epiphany he said maybe something close to that. When I asked him whether he felt any emotion or love for God during the litergy of the EO mass he said yes and that he lifted his heart to God. I was one with this dear brother during our fellowship.