Presentation of English edition of book of Archbishop of Australia, “Lord and Master of My Life”
The presentation of the English edition of the book by Archbishop Makarios of Australia, “Lord and Master of my Life,” took place at the Cathedral of the Annunciation in Redfern, Sydney, on Thursday, April 22.
Bishop Siluan of Sinope, who has prefaced the English version, presented the Archbishop’s book.
The event was attended by Metropolitan Seraphim of Sebastia, the Archepiscopal Vicar of Canberra, Archimandrite Prochoros Anastasiadis, and the Consul General of Greece in Sydney, Christos Karras. The Professors of the Theological School, such as Dr. Filippos Karyatlis and Dr. Marios Bangos, Vassilios Psilakos, Deacon Stefanos Tinikashvili, Dr. Anna Dimitriou and Angeliki Georgiou, whom the Archbishop thanked them for their contribution.
“This book was written in difficult circumstances and through personal and spiritual quests, and, as the Bishop was speaking, he reminded me of these moments,” he noted.
The Archbishop then made a brief reference to the content of the book, focusing first on the title, which is a prayer and a confession, as he explained.
“It is a prayer; on the one hand, I pray to God and, on the other hand, I confess that Christ is the Lord and Master of my life,” he noted.
“And this is important,” he pointed out, “because if I do not accept that Christ is the Lord and Master of my life, then this position will be taken by myself and Christ will be a decorative element. And I will be the Lord and Master of my life, something that will lead me to destruction.”
Focusing then on one of the last chapters, the Archbishop stressed that this was a prayer in which we asked God to give us the gift of seeing our own faults and not criticizing our neighbor.
“We have a tendency to judge everyone and everything except to judging ourselves,” he said, “We do not like to judge ourselves. We like to stand in the mirror to see if we are beautiful, but we do not like to stand in the mirror and see reality and the truth.”
