Sunday, July 17, 2022

Amphilochios And Trees

 ""Do you know there is an eleventh commandment not recorded in the Bible, and it says, 'Love the trees.' Those who do not love trees do not love Christ."  

Father Amphilochios (Makris)

(It is related by Kallistos Ware that when Amphilochios imposed penance on farmers following confession, he would tell them to plant two or three trees.)

12 comments:

  1. "When you are at war with a city and have to lay siege to it for a long time before you capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them. You may eat of them, but you must not cut them down. Are the trees of the field human beings, that they should be included in your siege?" Deut 20:19

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    1. ERJ, I thought of you when I remembered this quote.

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  2. Nylon125:25 AM

    To quote Martha....."Trees are good."

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  3. Anonymous6:07 AM

    I guess that would be the 12th commandment then, because there are 11 commandments in the bible. After the first 10 God gave Moses, Jesus said to the apostles “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” So Father Amphilochios may have been wrong about the number of commandments, but he was right about the trees.

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    1. Good point. And he was entirely right about the trees.

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  4. A blessed Sunday to you all.

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  5. I have always loved trees and have planted them wherever I lived. Native Americans call them the Standing People.

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    1. This quote strikes me just so, Tewshooz. One wishes Christianity has spoken more eloquently in the past on such things; not only did it harm things overall, it made it far too easy to fall way on the other side of things, worshipping nature instead of the Creator.

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  6. raven9:03 PM

    I have planted them, ate from them, cut them down, cut them up, made boats and guitars and furniture and home from them, warmed with them, hiked among them and admired them. Without trees, I would not have a job. And today, learned something new about one of them. The Wild Cherry is so rot resistant that after four years laying on the ground, after the bark rotted off, it remains solid, even the sapwood .

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    1. Raven - In our modern world, I think we take trees for granted, other than their beauty and their abilities as "carbon sinks". We forget all the ways they have improved our lives since the beginning of civilization - in a way I suppose, the story of trees is the story of us.

      That is interesting about the Wild Cherry. I would have had no idea.

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