{"id":2404,"date":"2015-11-27T01:10:21","date_gmt":"2015-11-27T06:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stpeterorthodoxchurch.com\/?p=2404"},"modified":"2015-11-27T01:10:21","modified_gmt":"2015-11-27T06:10:21","slug":"55-maxims-for-christian-living","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stpeterorthodoxchurch.com\/55-maxims-for-christian-living\/","title":{"rendered":"Fr. Thomas Hopko: 55 Maxims for Christian Living"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fr. Thomas Hopko, Dean Emeritus of St. Vladimir&#8217;s Seminary and teacher of seminarians and priests for decades passed away in 2015. Fr. Tom was first a pastor, a man with a generous heart and burning love for Christ who directed many towards our Lord.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe width=\"853\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4U95M8BkfNE\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 2em;\">Below are 55 maxims that Fr. Tom says are necessary for a sound Christian life.<\/p>\n<p>Memory eternal to Fr. Thomas Hopko. <\/p>\n<p>Click the print icon <span style=\"margin-bottom:-2px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/stpeterorthodoxchurch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/print-icon-2.png\" alt=\"Click the print icon below.\" width=\"21\" height=\"23\" class=\"bottom size-full wp-image-4016\" \/><\/span> below to print and save.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Be always with Christ.<\/li>\n<li>Pray as you can, not as you want.<\/li>\n<li>Have a keepable rule of prayer that you do by discipline.<\/li>\n<li>Say the Lord&rsquo;s Prayer several times a day.<\/li>\n<li>Have a short prayer that you constantly repeat when your mind is not occupied with other things.<\/li>\n<li>Make some prostrations when you pray.<\/li>\n<li>Eat good foods in moderation.<\/li>\n<li>Keep the Church&rsquo;s fasting rules.<\/li>\n<li>Spend some time in silence every day.<\/li>\n<li>Do acts of mercy in secret.<\/li>\n<li>Go to liturgical services regularly<\/li>\n<li>Go to confession and communion regularly.<\/li>\n<li>Do not engage intrusive thoughts and feelings. Cut them off at the start.<\/li>\n<li>Reveal all your thoughts and feelings regularly to a trusted person.<\/li>\n<li>Read the scriptures regularly.<\/li>\n<li>Read good books a little at a time.<\/li>\n<li>Cultivate communion with the saints.<\/li>\n<li>Be an ordinary person.<\/li>\n<li>Be polite with everyone.<\/li>\n<li>Maintain cleanliness and order in your home.<\/li>\n<li>Have a healthy, wholesome hobby.<\/li>\n<li>Exercise regularly.<\/li>\n<li>Live a day, and a part of a day, at a time.<\/li>\n<li>Be totally honest, first of all, with yourself.<\/li>\n<li>Be faithful in little things.<\/li>\n<li>Do your work, and then forget it.<\/li>\n<li>Do the most difficult and painful things first.<\/li>\n<li>Face reality.<\/li>\n<li>Be grateful in all things.<\/li>\n<li>Be cheerfull.<\/li>\n<li>Be simple, hidden, quiet and small.<\/li>\n<li>Never bring attention to yourself.<\/li>\n<li>Listen when people talk to you.<\/li>\n<li>Be awake and be attentive.<\/li>\n<li>Think and talk about things no more than necessary.<\/li>\n<li>When we speak, speak simply, clearly, firmly and directly.<\/li>\n<li>Flee imagination, analysis, figuring things out.<\/li>\n<li>Flee carnal, sexual things at their first appearance.<\/li>\n<li>Don&rsquo;t complain, mumble, murmur or whine.<\/li>\n<li>Don&rsquo;t compare yourself with anyone.<\/li>\n<li>Don&rsquo;t seek or expect praise or pity from anyone.<\/li>\n<li>We don&rsquo;t judge anyone for anything.<\/li>\n<li>Don&rsquo;t try to convince anyone of anything.<\/li>\n<li>Don&rsquo;t defend or justify yourself.<\/li>\n<li>Be defined and bound by God alone.<\/li>\n<li>Accept criticism gratefully but test it critically.<\/li>\n<li>Give advice to others only when asked or obligated to do so.<\/li>\n<li>Do nothing for anyone that they can and should do for themselves.<\/li>\n<li>Have a daily schedule of activities, avoiding whim and caprice.<\/li>\n<li>Be merciful with yourself and with others.<\/li>\n<li>Have no expectations except to be fiercely tempted to your last breath.<\/li>\n<li>Focus exclusively on God and light, not on sin and darkness.<\/li>\n<li>Endure the trial of yourself and your own faults and sins peacefully, serenely, because you know that God&rsquo;s mercy is greater than your brokenness.<\/li>\n<li>When we fall, get up immediately and start over.<\/li>\n<li>Get help when you need it, without fear and without shame.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fr. Thomas Hopko, Dean Emeritus of St. Vladimir&#8217;s Seminary and teacher of seminarians and priests for decades  passed away in 2015. Fr. Tom was first a pastor, a man with a generous heart and burning love for Christ who directed many towards our Lord.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4008,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essays","category-slider"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stpeterorthodoxchurch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stpeterorthodoxchurch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stpeterorthodoxchurch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stpeterorthodoxchurch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stpeterorthodoxchurch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stpeterorthodoxchurch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stpeterorthodoxchurch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stpeterorthodoxchurch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stpeterorthodoxchurch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stpeterorthodoxchurch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}