Saturday, February 25, 2017

Pat. Theodoros of Alexandria consecrates first deconesses

Pat. Theodoros of Alexandria consecrates first deconesses:  (http://basilica.ro/en)

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Dan Everiss

<oregdan@hotmail.com>
Fri, Feb 24, 2017 at 7:50 PM
http://basilica.ro/en/patriarch-theodoros-of-alexandria-performs-first-consecration-of-deaconesses/

On the feast of the Saint and Great Martyr Theodore of Tyre, 17 February 2016, the day on which His Beatitude Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa celebrates his name day, a festive Divine Liturgy was celebrated at the Holy Church of St Nicholas, within the Missionary Centre of Kolwezi. Together…

Pastoral Visit to Wintry Sweden

A General Sharing: (GOC): pdf, "Pastoral Visit to Wintry Sweden"

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Dan Everiss

<oregdan@hotmail.com>
Fri, Feb 24, 2017 at 6:38 PM


From: Saint Edward Brotherhood <info@saintedwardbrotherhood.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2017 10:30 PM
Subject: Pastoral Visit to Wintry Sweden
 Bless!  A 3 page report on a Pastoral Visit to Wintry Sweden from the Oropos & Fili website today:-

Orthodoxy, World-Wide: "Orthodox Music"

And- OF ORTHODOX COMMON INTEREST: General Sharing: (found on the open internet): Orthodoxy, World-Wide: "Orthodox Music"

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Dan Everiss

<oregdan@hotmail.com>
Fri, Feb 24, 2017 at 2:00 PM

"Their voice has gone out to the ends of the earth, and their words to the end of the world!"

and-
The prokeimenon: "The Lord is King, He is robed in majesty!"

(To best appreciate  this, one must suspend one's critical jurisdictional or nationalistic perspectives, and just appreciate what common simple and pious Orthodox believers do, as most of them have little or no control of who their bishop's are or what they teach.)

Also, in this internet collage are some views of Coptic or other Eastern but non-Orthodox,  those close to our faith, but not united with our church.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckbsVvGl5x4

Beautiful Orthodox greek- serbian byzantine music, arabic and russian orthodox chant Related Videos ...

General Sharing: GOC article: Many PHOTOS: SARDINIA Pastoral Visit

Pastoral Visit to Sardinia:

> A short report from the Oropos & Fili website today:
WARNING: I gave up trying to spend a lot of wasted time, in my declining health and in gradually going blind from glaucoma, to smooth-out this machine-English. So for readers to fully understand this report in 100% GOOD ENGLISH, please just read the descriptive report text on the link here, of the original English language report....posted by Oropos and Fili:

> Link to read the ALL- good human-English & ORIGINAL descriptive report with these photos: 

(The machine-English translation FROM the Russian machine-translation FROM this below original all-good-English text, is rough and hard to follow in some places).


PHOTOS

Many PHOTOS: Sunday of Last Judgement in Attica, Greece

A General Sharing: GOC article: Many PHOTOS: Sunday of Last Judgement in Attica, Greece

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Dan Everiss

<oregdan@hotmail.com>
Wed, Feb 22, 2017 at 1:34 PM


Humanly smoothed-out, machine-'English' translation from the Russian):

Genuine Orthodox Church of Greece:  Service on the Sunday of the Last Judgement in Attica, Greece  ФОТО - PHOTOS Автор: Монахиня Вера вкл. Author: Nun Vera 22 Февраль 2017 February 22, 2017 . . Опубликовано в ИПЦ Греции (Просмотров: 19) Posted in Greek CPI (Views: 19)
6/19 февраля 2017 г. В церкви Святого Креста в Кератеа (Аттика, ИПЦ Греции) воскресную литургию в Неделю о Страшном Суде возглавил Митрополит Хризостом Аттикийский и Беотийский, в сослужении о.

6/19 February 2017 In the Church of the Holy Cross in Keratea (Attica, Greece GOC) at the Sunday liturgy on the Sunday of the Last Judgment, the services were
  headed by Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Attikiysky and Boeotian, and concelebrated by its rector, Fr. Callinicus and two deacons. 

 Каллиника и двух диаконов.


«В этот день, когда Церковь напоминает нам о славном Втором пришествии Бога, мир празднует и самозабвенно наслаждается, желая забыть этот факт.

"On this day when the Church reminds us of the glorious Second Coming of Christ, the world is celebrating and enjoying its earthly life  enthusiastically, wanting to forget this fact.

Тем не менее, это является неизбежной реальностью, в которой будут открыты книги нашей жизни, и нас будут судить наши же слова, поступки, сердце и разум, с позиции основного критерия любви.

Nevertheless, it is an unavoidable reality, which will open the book of our lives, and we will be judged by our own words and deeds, the heart and mind, with the position of the main criterion of love....

Любви к Богу и любви к ближнему ", - сказал в своей проповеди Его Высокопреосвященство.

Which is: Love of God and love of neighbor, "- said in his sermon, His Eminence.

PHOTOS

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Christians should get priority in refugee order

SHARING: Christians are genocide victims and should get priority in refugee order

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Dan Everiss

<oregdan@hotmail.com>
Tue, Feb 21, 2017 at 2:16 PM


Famous quote of our recent past-president, B.H. Obama, when asked his view of the persecution and mass murdering of middle-eastern Christians by Muslims: "Christians can't ride on their high horses forever, this is payback for the Crusades!"
 
The US, under pro-Muslim, Obama,  admitted only 77 middle-eastern Christian refugees  this last year, and over close to 14,000 Muslims!

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/02/21/christians-are-genocide-victims-and-should-get-priority-in-refugee-order.html#.WKy5qEUvyCk.email
It is ethical and legal for the United States government to provide special assistance to those religious minorities who have been displaced, whose whose countless ...

Monday, February 20, 2017

Feast of St. Gregory the Theologian in Bentleigh

WITH ADDED NEWEST ARTICLE: "Feast of St. Gregory the Theologian in Bentleigh": + Australian and New Zealand Diocese - Russian Orthodox Church Abroad

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Dan Everiss

<oregdan@hotmail.com>
Mon, Feb 20, 2017 at 1:31 PM

http://australiaorthodoxroca.org/
After the 2007 union with Moscow, people of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, due to understandable and profound disappointment, have become cautious in trusting ...


+ Australian and New Zealand Diocese - Russian Orthodox Church Abroad

http://australiaorthodoxroca.org/?x=entry:entry170217-011054 

Thanks from Bulgaria

Sharing: Thanks from Bulgaria

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Dan Everiss

<oregdan@hotmail.com>
Mon, Feb 20, 2017 at 1:18 PM


From: Saint Edward Brotherhood <info@saintedwardbrotherhood.org>
Sent: Monday, February 20, 2017 12:50 PM
Subject: Thanks from Bulgaria
 

From: Nadejda Hadjieva
Subject: Grat Bow


Beloved in Christ Father Alexii, dear Parish of St. Edward the Martyr
M
onastery,

My name is Nadejda Hadjieva and I am writing this letter to thank all
of you. You have a wonderful parish - christians with merciful hearts.
St. Ioan Chrysostomos has once said that there is no sin that mercy
can not cover.

And now a few more facts about us and our situation:

I did'not know absolutely anything about the donation campaign which
my dearest friend Eva has launched. I was informed about this by
Bishop Photios's secretary who has called a friend of mine in Sofia.
This was a great surprise and at first I was shocked. Eva has kept it
all a secret. She knew I would not agree you to share your money with
me. It is true that I have told her that at present my family is in
great need because we have recently moved from Bulgaria to Germany and
now in winter it is hard for my husband, who is a construction
specialist, to find work. I have not yet all the necessary documents
ready in order to be able to receive financial back up from the State.

I have told Eva that at present I have only three beds and a fridge.
Maybe this is the reason she decided to help us by addressing you.
Thank you for all you have done, for having put yourselves into my
shoes and for being really compassionate. May God see your good hearts
and may the guardian angels of my suffering children (I have four
children, two of whom are 17 years'old twins with cerebral palsy) help
you.
You support came as a Christmas present to me. The same has happened
to my family many years ago and the man who came to our rescue was
Bishop Photios himself!

Many years ago we have just moved to Sofia in January in order to be
closer to the hospital where my twins were undergoing some medical
treatment. Me and my husband we were both students at that time - two
students with two handicapped babies. Our abbess Seraphima, let her
memory be eternal, provided us with a free place to live in and during
all that time Bishop Photios has been taking care of us but we were
not aware of this fact at that time....

I am saying this because all of us we are rich. God is our father and
He is taking care of us and I have always counted only on Him! And no
matter how many sins I have committed, He mercifully kept on sending
me help throughout the years.

Please allow me to say a big THANK YOU once again!

With love in Christ

Nadejda Hadjieva

Confessions of one anonymous MP parishioner

Informational Sharing: (For those who read Russian:) THE ON-GOING BAD FRUITS OF SERGIANISM: Confessions of one anonymous MP parishioner-

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Dan Everiss

<oregdan@hotmail.com>
Mon, Feb 20, 2017 at 12:05 PM


(Sorry to English-only  readers, but the pathetic machine-'English' translation of this is just too crude, which is why I have not included it here, to catch the full precise meaning, but this is a small and personal revealing testimony and glimpse of what all locally goes on inside of the corrupt MP-'church', to which Hilarion Kapral's ROCOR/MP is united with and subservient to, -a pseudo-religious  KGB-front political organization founded in 1943 by Joseph Stalin, to mimic the real Russian Church).

МП: Исповедь одной прихожанки

Автор: Монахиня Вера вкл. 20 Февраль 2017. Опубликовано в Московская Патриархия (Просмотров: 27)
Из общины уходят целыми семьями

На почту Ахиллы пришло письмо от Татьяны Сергеевой, прихожанки одного деревенского храма. Какого – думаю, многие узнают по числу «150 тысяч рублей для митрополита». Сия раба Божия, наверное, не вполне поняла наш призыв, поэтому ее письмо начинается с ответа на один из вопросов анкеты анонимному священнику. Но в целом этот безыскусный рассказ вполне можно считать первым из условного цикла «Исповедь анонимного прихожанина». Условного, потому что мы рады смелым авторам, которые не боятся подписать свои тексты, хотя понимаем и уважаем тех, кто не готов пока к этому.

***

Разница между церковью, в которую я пришла когда-то, и РПЦ есть. И, к сожалению, далеко не в лучшую сторону.

Первая моя встреча произошла в начале 90-х, когда я приехала в городской храм из своего села крестить младшего ребенка после трагической гибели старшего. Батюшка встретил меня грубо, сказав: «Пока жареный петух вас не клюнет в одно место, в церковь вы не приходите». Так же грубо, с нервными окриками, окрестил он толпу желающих: взрослых и детей. Радости это мне не прибавило, но было большое утешение, что крестила ребенка.

Через три года, в разгар лихих 90-х принесла крестить в открытый в нашем селе храм новорожденного сына. Священник встретил нас спокойно, объяснил, как подготовиться к крещению. С того времени воцерковилась наша семья. Вера, молитвы на службе, домашние молитвы с моими детьми дали мне очень много. Самое главное: выстоять и не сойти с ума от нищеты и беспросветности тех страшных дней. Я нашла утешение своей душе, нашла подруг для себя и друзей своим детям.

Наш батюшка терпеливо и спокойно восстанавливал храм, не прерывая церковных служб, создавая из нас, очень разных по возрасту, образованию, социальному положению христианскую общину. Слава Богу, все дети тех прихожан нашей общины выросли хорошими людьми! Может быть, в те годы было много таких священников, но сейчас в священники пошли алчные и недобрые люди.

Так получилось и с нашим приходом. Зимой 2016 года нашего батюшку просто убрали без всяких объяснений. В нашем приходе никогда не было разговоров о деньгах. Прихожане добровольно жертвовали на храм. Причину увольнения нашего священника мы нашли в интернете – не сдал митрополиту 150 тысяч рублей. Если бы об этом знали все прихожане, может, и собрали эти деньги. Но ведь это не выход.

А службы ведёт новый священник, который поставлен благочинным и хорошо ладит с местными властями. Особенно он преуспевает на совместных мероприятиях – этакий шоумен в рясе! Крестит и причащает всех подряд без какой-либо подготовки. Старается убрать и разрушить то, что сделано нашим батюшкой и в храме, и в наших душах. А из общины уходят целыми семьями, ушли и мы. Всё это принесло столько вреда православию в нашем районе, сколько не сделали за 20 лет 4 известные местные секты.

Куда податься моим младшим детям и внукам? К кому они попадут? Государству мы, простые люди, давно не нужны, не нужны теперь и РПЦ. Ей нужны богатые спонсоры и большие деньги, а не спасение наших душ.

SARDINIA-PHOTOS & REPORT

General Sharing: SARDINIA-PHOTOS & REPORT: Sister GOC church to our ROCA: from the Oropos & Fili website: Pastoral Visit to Sardinia

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Dan Everiss

<oregdan@hotmail.com>
Mon, Feb 20, 2017 at 10:59 AM


From: Saint Edward Brotherhood <info@saintedwardbrotherhood.org>
Sent: Monday, February 20, 2017 9:46 AM
Subject: Pastoral Visit to Sardinia

> A short report from the Oropos & Fili website today:
>
> http://www.hsir.org/pdfs/2017/02/04/E20170204aSardinia%2001-17.pdf

Sunday, February 19, 2017

3 icons Christ Enthroned

Sharing For Deep & Sober Thought on this Sunday of the Last Judgement: 3 icons of - Christ All-Mighty Enthroned:

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Dan Everiss

<oregdan@hotmail.com>
Sun, Feb 19, 2017 at 3:43 PM

On this fearful Sunday we, with much trembling and humble tearful repentance,  dare to commemorate the coming longed-for day, of  the Archangel Gabriel's trumpet's loud call, of The Glorious yet Dread Day of Christ's Triumphant Second Coming, The Lord of the Living and the Dead, HE WHO WAS, WHO IS, and WHO FOREVER SHALL BE!, The Alpha and Omega, The Beginning and The End, of His  General Resurrection of all the dead of  all the ages, and the Last Judgement, and the Restoration of all Things, of fallen and now suffering and in anguish and decay and dying and groaning creation, to its blessed primordial pristine state, before our fore-father Adam's  Fall. The Paradise of Eden will be restored, the real heaven on earth re-established, as God always planned.

OH PARADISE!,.... OH PARADISE! ....How we long for thee........the homeland of our heart's desiring.

Evenso, Lord Jesus!, Come quickly, come quickly!  AMEN and AMEN! So be it!
ALLELUIA!  ALLELUIA! ALLELUIA! 

LORD HAVE MERCY UPON US ALL! in that dread and terror filled  day! May we, each one of us,  be pure and blameless and worthy sheep to enter Paradise then, and not be justly, with the goats,  cast into Hell Eternal, but to belong in Christ's heavenly mansions, where all the saints abide, in the bosom of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. AMEN
 
                                                            



                                

Saturday, February 18, 2017

The Last Judgement

For the Sunday of The Last Judgement: "Of the Last Judgement" – Blessed Augustine of Hippo

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Dan Everiss

<oregdan@hotmail.com>
Sat, Feb 18, 2017 at 6:06 PM



Have Mercy Upon Me, O God, Have Mercy Upon Me!

.

ICON
Christ Pantocrator Rublev

ICON
St. Augustine




 OF THE LAST JUDGEMENT


Blessed Augustine of Hippo

From The City of God
Intending to speak, in dependence on God’s grace, of the day of His final judgement, and to affirm it against the ungodly and incredulous, we must first of  all,  as it were, lay in the foundation of the edifice the divine declarations. Those persons who do not believe such declarations do their best to oppose to them false and illusive sophisms of their own, either contending that what is adduced from Scripture has another meaning, or altogether denying that it is an utterance of God’s. For I suppose no man who understands what is written, and believes it to be communicated by the supreme and true God through holy men, refuses to yield and consent to these declarations, whether he orally confesses his consent, or is from some evil influence ashamed or afraid to do so; or even, with an opinionated mind,  closely resembling madness, makes strenuous efforts to defend what he knows and believes to be false against what he knows and believes to be true.

That, therefore, which the whole Church of the true God holds and professes as its creed, that Christ shall come from heaven to judge the living and the dead, this we call the last day, or last time, of the divine judgement. For we do not know how many days this judgement may occupy; but no one who reads the Scriptures, however negligently, need be told that in them “day” is customarily used for “time.” And when we speak of the day of God’s judgment, we add the word last or final for this reason, because even now God judges, and has judged from the beginning of human history, banishing from paradise, and excluding from the tree of life, those first men who perpetrated so great a sin. Yea, He was certainly exercising judgement also when He did not spare the angels who sinned, whose prince, overcome by envy, seduced men after being himself seduced. Neither is it without God’s profound and just judgement that the life of demons and men, the one in the air, the other on earth, is filled with misery, calamities, and mistakes. And even though no one had sinned, it could only have been by the good and right judgement of God that the whole rational creation could have been maintained in eternal blessedness by a persevering adherence to its Lord. He judges, too, not only in the mass groupings,  condemning the race of devils and the race of men to be miserable on account of the original sin of these races, but He also judges the voluntary and personal acts of individuals. For even the devils pray that they may not be tormented (cf. Mt. 8:29), which proves that without injustice they might either be spared or tormented according to their deserts. And men are punished by God for their sins often visibly, always secretly, either in this life or after death, although no man acts rightly save by the assistance of divine aid; and no man or devil acts unrighteously save by the permission of the divine and most just judgement. For, as the apostle says, There is no unrighteousness with God (Rom. 9:14) and as he elsewhere says, His judgements are inscrutable, and His ways past finding out (Rom. 11:33). In this book, then, I shall speak, as God permits, not of those first judgements, nor of these intervening judgements of God, but of the last judgement, when Christ is to come from heaven to judge the quick and the dead. For that day is properly called the Day of Judgement, because in it there shall be no room left for the ignorant questioning why this wicked person is happy and that righteous man unhappy. In that day, true and full happiness shall be the lot of none but the good, while deserved and supreme misery shall be the portion of the wicked, and of them only.

And Continued: Of the Last Judgement – Blessed Augustine of Hippo (Part 2)

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Dan Everiss

<oregdan@hotmail.com>
Sun, Feb 19, 2017 at 7:23 PM



 




 
OF THE LAST JUDGEMENT

Blessed Augustine of Hippo


The Passages in Which the Savior Declares that There Shall Be a Divine Judgement in the End of the World 
The Saviour Himself, while reproving the cities in which He had done great works, but which had not believed, and while setting them in unfavorable comparison with foreign cities, says, But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgement than for you (Mt. 11:22). And a little after He says, Verily, I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgement than for thee (Mt. 11:24). Here He most plainly predicts that a day of judgement is to come. And in another place He says, The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgement with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgement with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the words of Solomon; and behold, a greater than Solomon is here (Mt. 12:41–42). Two things we learn from this passage, that a judgement is to take place, and that it is to take place at the resurrection of the dead. For when He spoke of the Ninevites and the queen of the south, He certainly spoke of dead persons, and yet He said that they should rise up in the day of judgement. He did not say, “They shall condemn,” as if they themselves were to be the judges, but because, in comparison with them, the others shall be justly condemned.
Again, in another passage, in which He was speaking of the present intermingling and future separation of the good and bad,—the separation which shall be made in the day of judgement,—He adduced a comparison drawn from the sown wheat and the tares sown among them, and gave this explanation of it to His disciples: He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man [Augustin quotes the whole passage, Mt. 13:37–34] etc. Here, indeed, He did not name the judgement or the day of judgement, but indicated it much more clearly by describing the circumstances, and foretold that it should take place in the end of the world.
In like manner He says to His disciples, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Mt. 19:28). Here we learn that Jesus shall judge with His disciples. And therefore He said elsewhere to the Jews, If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges (Mt. 12:17). Neither ought we to suppose that only twelve men shall judge along with Him, though He says that they shall sit upon twelve thrones; for by the number twelve is signified the completeness of the multitude of those who shall judge. For the two parts of the number seven (which commonly symbolizes totality), that is to say four and three, multiplied into one another, give twelve. For four times three, or three times four, are twelve. There are other meanings, too, in this number twelve. Were not this the right interpretation of the twelve thrones, then since we read that Matthias was ordained an apostle in the room of Judas the traitor, the Apostle Paul, though he labored more than them all (cf. 1 Cor. 15:10), should have no throne of judgment; but he unmistakably  considers himself to be included in the number of the judges when he says, Know ye not that we shall judge angels? (1 Cor. 6:3). The same rule is to be observed in applying the number twelve to those who are to be judged. For though it was said, “judging the twelve tribes of Israel,” the tribe of Levi, which is the thirteenth, shall not on this account be exempt from judgement, neither shall judgement be passed only on Israel and not on the other nations. And by the words “in the regeneration,” He certainly meant the resurrection of the dead to be understood; for our flesh shall be regenerated by incorruption, as our soul is regenerated by faith.
Many passages I omit, because, though they seem to refer to the last judgement, yet on a closer examination they are found to be ambiguous, or to allude rather to some other event,—whether to that coming of the Saviour which continually occurs in His Church, that is, in His members, in which comes little by little, and piece by piece, since the whole Church is His body, or to the destruction of the earthly Jerusalem. For when He speaks even of this, He often uses language which is applicable to the end of the world and that last and great day of judgement, so that these two events cannot be distinguished unless all the corresponding passages bearing on the subject in the three evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are compared with one another,—for some things are put more obscurely by one evangelist and more plainly by another,—so that it becomes apparent what things are meant to be referred to one event. It is this which I have been at pains to do in a letter which I wrote to Hesychius of blessed memory, bishop of Salon, and entitled, “Of the End of the World.” [Ep.199].
I shall now cite from the Gospel according to Matthew the passage which speaks of the separation of the good from the wicked by the most efficacious and final judgement of Christ: When the Son of man, he says, shall come in His glory, . . . then shall He say also unto them on His left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels (Mt. 25:34–41), given in full. Then He in like manner recounts to the wicked the things they had not done, but which He had said those on the right hand had done. And when they ask when they had seen Him in need of these things, He replies that, inasmuch as they had not done it to the least of His brethren, they had not done it unto Him, and concludes His address in the words, And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. Moreover, the evangelist John most distinctly states that He had predicted that the judgement should be at the resurrection of the dead. For after saying, The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgement unto the Son: that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father: he that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father which hath sent Him; He immediately adds, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgement; but is passed from death to life(John 5:22–24). Here He said that believers on Him should not come into judgement. How, then, shall they be separated from the wicked by judgement, and be set at His right hand, unless judgement be in this passage used for condemnation? For into judgement, in this sense, they shall not come who hear His word, and believe on Him that sent Him.
From The Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers, by Phillip Schaff.