Here are the ways in which we can cooperate with God’s grace and form this conscience within ourselves:
1 . We are to
have much love for our Savior, with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. We are
not to divide our love between God and the world. For a beginner this means
that when we pray we should struggle mightily to concentrate and avoid
distractions: we are to be wholly in God. Furthermore, as St. John of Kronstadt
teaches:
“Love for God begins to
manifest itself, and to act in us, when we begin to love our neighbor as
ourselves, and not to spare ourselves or anything belonging to us for him, as
he is the image of God: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath
seen, how can he love God Whom he hath not seen? (I John 4:20).”
St. John says that this is
the only love which is real, and lasting:
“The purer the heart
becomes, the larger it becomes; consequently it is able to find room for more
and more loved ones; the more sinful it is, the more it contracts; consequently
it is able to find room for fewer and fewer loved ones–it is limited by a false
love; self-love.”
2. We must
pray often, both at church and at home. St.
Gregory of Sinai says that the great gift which God gives us in Holy Baptism is
buried by us, just as a treasure is buried in the ground–‘and common sense and
gratitude demand that we should take good , care to unearth this treasure and
bring it to light.” One of the most important ways to do this is by acquiring
the habit of prayer. Blessed Theophan the Recluse explains further:
“Those who only hear about
spiritual meditation and prayer and have no direct knowledge [experience] of it
are like men blind from birth, who hear about the sunshine without ever knowing
what it really is. Through this ignorance they lose many spiritual blessings,
and are slow in arriving at the virtues which make for the fulfillment of God’s
good pleasure.”
3. We must
carefully read and study Holy Scripture. Although
many saints had the habit of reading through the entire Psalter and New
Testament every week, we should at least read the Gospel and Epistle appointed
in the Church Calendar for each day. According to St. Seraphim of Sarov, “It is
very profitable ‘to occupy oneself: with the reading of the word of God in
solitude, and to read the whole Bible intelligently…in order that the whole mind
of the reader might be plunged into the truths of Holy Scripture, and that from
this he might receive warmth.”
4. Attendance
at Divine Services and frequent reception of Holy Communion is vital
to the development of an Orthodox conscience. Of this, St. John of Kronstadt
writes:
“The Divine Liturgy is
truly a heavenly service on earth, in which God Himself, in a particular,
immediate, and most close manner is present and dwells with men ….There is on
earth nothing higher, greater, more holy, than the Liturgy; nothing more
solemn, nothing more life-giving.”
St. Tikhon of Zadonsk
observed: “TheChristians of old frequently received communion as
the cause and food of immortality, wherefore even up to our own time the Holy
Church daily exhorts us to ‘draw near with fear of God and with faith’. At the
present day people have neither, as the facts abundantly prove; only once a
year, and even then almost under compulsion, do they approach the Table of
Immortality …. Men hasten joyfully to banquets, but to this spiritual and
most Sacred Table to which Christ invites them they come under compulsion.”
5. We should
read the writings of the Holy Fathers of the Church and the Lives of the Saints. Blessed Theophan the Recluse explained
this to one of his spiritual children in the following way:
“The spiritual life is a
special world into which the wisdom of men cannot penetrate… This is a subject
which embraces much and is lofty and sweet to the heart …. If you seriously
desire to enter onto this path, then you won’t have time to turn to the study
of other subjects.. for human philosophizing cannot even be compared with
spiritual wisdom.”
Therefore, if we wish to
learn ways that are pleasing to God, it stands to reason that we will set
aside time in order to study the writings and lives of those who have drawn
close to Him while still in this life, for according to St. John of Kronstadt
there are rich and poor in the spiritual world just as there are in worldly
society:
“As the poor ask charity
of the rich, and cannot live without help· from them, so also in the spiritual
order the poor must have recourse to-the rich. We are the spiritually poor,
whilst the saints, and those who shine even in this present life by their faith
and piety, are the spiritually rich. It is to them that we needy ones must have
recourse.”
6. We are to
practice the presence of God in our daily life. St. John of Kronstadt explains it in
this way:
“Believe that God sees you
as undoubtedly as you believe that anyone standing face to face with you sees
you, only with this difference, that the Heavenly Father sees everything that
is in you, everything that you are …. God is nearer to us than any man at any
time. Therefore we must always set God before us, at our right hand, and there
behold Him; we must be strong, and in order not to sin we must so place
ourselves that nothing can thrust God from our thoughts and hearts, that
nothing can hide Him from us, that nothing may deprive us of our beloved Lord,
but that we may every hour, every minute, belong to Him, and be perpetually
with Him, as He Himself is perpetually with us, as He constantly cares for us
and guards us”.
7. We should
often, if not daily, examine our souls and repent of the sins we find there. St. Mark
the Ascetic writes: “The conscience is nature’s book. He who applies what he
reads there experiences God’s help.” Thus, Elder Macarius of Optina wrote in a
letter of spiritual direction:
“The Lord calls to Him all
sinners; He opens His arms wide, even to the worst among them. Gladly He takes
them in His arms, if only they will come. But they have got to make the effort
of coming. They must seek Him, go to Him. In other words, they must repent. It
is not He that rejects those who do: not repent. He still longs for them, and
calls them. But they refuse to hear His call. They choose to wander away, in
some other direction.” Therefore, St. John of Kronstadt explains:
“Conscience in men is nothing else but the voice of the omnipresent God moving
in the heart–the Lord knows all …. Watch your heart throughout your life;
examine it, listen to it, and see what prevents it from uniting itself with the
Lord. Let this be your supreme and constant study …. Examine yourself more
often; see where the eyes of your heart are looking.”
And then, as Blessed
Theophan the Recluse counsels:
“Repent, and turn to the
Lord, admit your sins, weep for them with heartfelt contrition, and confess
them before your spiritual father.” St. Hesychios the Priest tells us that
according to St. Basil the Great, “a great help towards not sinning and not
committing daily the same faults is for us to review in our conscience at the
end of each day what we have done wrong and what we have done right. Job did
this with regard to both himself and to his children [cf. Job 1:5], These daily
reckonings illumine a man’s hour-by-hour behaviour.”
8. Struggle
mightily to avoid judging others. God alone
has the right to judge, for as St. Tikhon of Zadonsk says:
“Do not judge others, for
you cannot know what is inside the other man. Do not condemn, for he may still
rise whilst you may fall. Be-ware of even talking about others, lest you start
judging them. Enquiring into other people’s sin is a curiosity hateful to God
and man…because, by judging, man usurps the powers of the only judge, Christ ….
Above all, when judging another we cannot know whether perchance he has not
already repented and been forgiven by God.”
If we are willing to
arrange our lives in the above manner, resolving not to withdraw from this holy
labor even if it means suffering and also death, then, from the very moment
that we begin, grace starts to flow into us, according to Blessed Theophan the
Recluse:
“The help of God is always
ready and always near, but is only given to those who seek and work.”
CONVERSATION