Click here for part one, part two; here for past retreat notes (’07) — and remember, these notes are filtered through a slow moving hand and noggin:

On the manifestation of the hypostasis – both in God and Man — in the teaching of Elder Sophrony …

1) Christ is a true person revealed to Moses
2) Man – a person created in the Image and Likeness
3) The hypostasis of the Son of God was manifest by his love to the end (KENOSIS)
4) In man, the hypostasis is manifest when he acquires love for God and self-hatred

KENOSIS – the expression of God’s Love to the end

The Lord’s prayer in Gethsemane incorporates all Mankind – as does the high priestly prayer in John’s Gospel. In Gethsemane, Christ’s prayer makes manifest the perfection of human will in uniting with Divine will.

Just as in the Incarnation (Kenosis), Christ empties himself to become Man, in Gethsemane, as perfect Man, He offers himself to God for all humanity.

Final stage of Christ’s Kenosis … His descent into Hell.

To live a Christian life is impossible – to live a Christian life is to die … daily.

Detest yourself because of love for God, and you will embrace all that exists in your love.

More later …