The Catalog of Good Deeds: Life and guidance of the Holy Fathers

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There is a remarkable story told by an eyewitness (Bishop Elladius, the successor to Saint Basil the Great) how the holy hierarch rescued a young man who had signed a treaty with the devil. The young man was infatuated with a virtuous girl, so he asked the Satan to help him to marry that girl, which he finally did. It became known, and the fallen man was brought to the holy hierarch by his weeping wife. Saint Basil saw their sincere fear and repentance and locked the young man in a cell inside a church yard for forty days, urging him to fast and pray. After that, he convened all clergy, many monastics and lay people, and asked them for help. General prayer for God’s mercy towards the apostate continued all night long. The devil came invisibly in the morning, with the handwritten note of the miserable young man, and started to attack his debtor so fiercely that even Saint Basil was hurt. The hierarch called his flock to lift their hands to the sky and prayed, “Blessed is the Lord my God! These people won’t put their hands down until You take the note back from the devil.” People were crying out loud with tears for a long time, “Lord have mercy!” Suddenly, everyone saw the note fly right into the holy hierarch’s hands. Saint Basil tore it apart, and gave the Holy Eucharist to the young man…

It is hardly possible to recount all miracles that the Lord has performed thanks to the prayers of St. Basil the Great. The holy bishop was on friendly terms and in spiritual unity with the greatest ascetics of his time. As soon as he made St. Ephraim the Syrian a deacon, the latter is said to immediately become able to understand Greek. The saint converted many pagans and Jews into Christianity. He was a loving spiritual father for the penitent sinners until his last days.

Here is another story, related by Saint Demetrius of Rostov. There was a wealthy and noble widow in Caesarea. She was totally subjugated by fornication. However, God touched her heart with His grace. The woman started to repent and weep for her sins. She meticulously remembered and wrote down every sin that she had committed since her youth. She added the sin that bugged her conscience the most at the end of the list.

The widow went to church and knelt before Saint Basil asking him to purify her with his prayer.

The saint was praying for her all night long. He handed the list back to the woman the following morning and said, “No one can forgive sins, except God.” When she unfolded the list, she saw that all her misdeeds had been wiped out, except for the gravest one at the end of the list. The woman fell to her knees in front of the holy hierarch. She wept and cried, asking him to help her wash away that last sin. The holy man replied remorsefully, “Get up, o woman, I’m a sinful man myself. I need forgiveness, too. The Lord Who has cleansed your other sins, can also relieve you from that last sin. You must spend the rest of your life in chastity and keep praying to God incessantly so that He could have mercy on you. That’s what I advise you: Go to the desert and find a monk named Ephraim there. Ask him to pray for you, too.”

The widow made a long journey to the desert and found Saint Ephraim the Syrian who told her, “He who has been able to pray away the multitude of your sins, is definitely able to pray that last sin away, too. Hurry up while he’s still alive…”

The miserable woman hurried to her native city but managed to get to Caesarea only at the moment when the body of Saint Basil was being carried to the cemetery. She ran towards the procession and started screaming at Saint Basil in despair, as if he was still alive, “Woe to me, O man of God! God shall see and judge you because you were capable of helping me but you sent me elsewhere!”

She complained out loud and threw her list of sins on the saint’s body. A clergyman took that list to see what was in it.

“Why all the fuss?” he was puzzled. “The list is empty!”

By Andrei Kulba

Translated by The Catalog of Good Deeds

Source: https://azbyka.ru/days/p-vasilij-velikij-starshij-v-seme-svjatyh-zhitie-svt-vasilija-velikogo-glazami-nashego-sovremennika

The Satan seized Judas and taught him how to betray the Lord; Judas agreed and betrayed Jesus. The Satan entered Judas’s heart because the door was open. Our innermost is always locked; even the Lord always stands at the door and knocks. What is the key that unlocks that door? It’s affinity, inclination, and kinship. A person whose heart is inclined towards the Satan, opens his door for the Satan; a person whose heart is predisposed towards the Lord, opens his door for the Lord. The fact that it’s the Satan and not the Lord that enters your heart is your own fault. Don’t allow thoughts that please the Satan. Don’t listen to them. Don’t act on them. Don’t agree with them. The Satan will wander to and fro, and finally leave you alone. He doesn’t have any power over anyone. If he seizes a person, that’s only because that person yields to him.

Thoughts are the root of all evil. Don’t tolerate bad thoughts; that’s how you can effectively lock the door of your heart for the Satan. If you encounter bad thoughts, don’t worry: there isn’t anyone in this world who doesn’t, and it’s not a sin to actually have these thoughts. Drive them away, and that’s that; if they come again, drive them away again. Repeat when necessary. If you allow those thoughts to take root in your heart and begin to entertain them, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that you’ll gradually feel affinity with them. That will make them even stickier. Affinity will bring about bad intentions to do something bad. Those intentions, which aren’t defined yet, will mold into a certain shape and present a choice, agreement, and decision. That’s how a sin is committed!

The door of one’s heart is swung open. As soon as one agrees to sin, the Satan jumps in and starts to boss that person around. The poor soul is like a slave or as a beast of burden: it is driven to exhaustion doing obscene actions. If only that soul didn’t tolerate the bad thoughts from the start! Things would have worked out differently.

By St. Theophan the Recluse

Translated by The Catalog of Good Deeds

Source: https://azbyka.ru/days/2018-12-21

Lessons of the Great Archpastor, the Ever-memorable Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow (November 19, 1867)

Faith in Christ has existed on earth for almost 2,000 years now, and is in no way overcome. Hundreds of thousands of people have joyously borne terrible torments out of love for Christ, for faith in Him. And if in present times there have appeared men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith (II Tim. 3:8) and stood against the Faith and the Church of Christ, all their efforts are in vain: the Lord said that the gates of hell shall not prevail against [His Church] (Matt. 6:18). Let us look at ourselves. Is there among us firm faith and love for Christ? Do we not stifle it with our passions, laziness, doubts? Ah, friends, without faith in the Lord Christ there is no salvation! We must by all means kindle in ourselves the spirit of faith, that is, stimulate it, feed it with prayer, the Word of God, patience, sincere remembrance of the Saviour Who suffered for us. All of this can be done every day.

What to do in the morning

When you wake up, first of all let your soul and heart say “Glory to Thee, O Lord, Who has preserved us this night! Glory to Thee, Who has shown us the light! Lord, bless this day for us!” In doing this, think about how God gives you the day which you could not give to yourself, and devote the first hour, or perhaps the first quarter hour of the day given you and offer it as a sacrifice to God, in grateful, supplicatory prayer. The more zealously you do this, the more you will sanctify your day, the more strongly you will protect yourself from the temptations that we meet every day.

The Dwelling and Clothing of the Christian

From the start of the morning and throughout the day, make the thought about Christ the soul of your life, the moving force of your actions. So, for example, if you glance over your dwelling, remember Christ in the manger, in swaddling clothes, lying on straw, all this life not having a place to lay His head, finally imprisoned, nailed to the Cross, and thank God for your house, your shelter, however humble and poor it may be. Do not envy magnificently decorated mansions: the mansion of Christ is a pure heart!

As you dress in your simple clothing, remember Christ stripped naked and then robed in the clothing of mockery. Do not dwell on apparel, do not follow slavishly the whims of fashion, but try to garb yourself in goodness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, gazing mentally on the meek and humble heart of Jesus.

If you are eating a meal, remember the vinegar and gall that Christ tasted, and do not demand plentiful, luxurious food and drink: the heavenly Guest loves to enter not the house of feasting, but always to the one that opens the door of his heart to Him. Place in your heart Christ suffering and dying on the Cross, and in His unseen presence mortify your passions and lusts.

Contact with people

Later, when you deal with people, both relatives and others, before saying a word, think about what will be its effect, and think even more seriously before you do something in their presence, for actions speak louder than words.

Worldly Affairs

If you are undertaking anything, before asking any other adviser, ask the advice of faith. Appeal in the words of the Apostle: Lord, what wilt Thou have me do? (Acts 9:6). Is what I would undertake pleasing to Thee, Lord? If it is pleasing, bless it; if not, do not let me do what is displeasing to Thee. And then listen to what the Lord tells you in your conscience, in your reason, in the counsels of pious and wise people and, having begun the course that you select, pray in your heart, O Lord, make haste to help me (Ps. 69:1).

Absences

If you are going anywhere, go with God, as our pious forbearer said as a farewell, walk before meas the Lord Himself demanded (Gen. 17:1); always see Him before you, for He is at thy right hand (Ps. 15:8). As much as possible keep in your thoughts and in your heart that God sees you, so that you may be both ashamed and afraid to attempt anything unworthy before the eyes of God.

Word and Feelings

If you enter the company of people, behave with extreme caution. If you hear a word of praise for yourself there, be careful: praises frequently conceal flattery and can arouse in you self-satisfaction and neglect of your further improvement. If you hear an insulting or humiliating word, take care not to become inflamed with anger which worketh not the righteousness of God (James 1:20). Answer the one who insults you either with silence or a meek word of truth. If you hear a word that accuses a neighbor, be careful that you not take part in the sin of someone else’s tongue. Do not join in words that are more harmful to the one who judges than to the one being judged. If you hear a word that saddens one with bad news, be careful lest your sorrow become stronger than your common sense; dissolve it with hope in God’s mercy and with the warm prayer: O my Rejoicing, deliver me from them which have encircled me (Ps. 31:7). Endure without complaint sorrows and misfortunes. Sorrows are inescapable on the path leading to the Kingdom of God! Many are the sorrows of the righteous! Christ Himself endured them; the Mother of God endured them as well. Without sorrows we will not be saved, but even in the depth of sorrow believe that the Lord loves you truly, and is only testing you. Remember: you sometimes return home from afar by a bad road, in a storm, in frost, or in terrible heat, but you go patiently, willingly; likewise patiently go by the difficult and sorrowful path to the heavenly home, the Kingdom of God.

Caution regarding harmful books

If you see in a letter or a book a word of unbelief irreverence, or indecency, turn your eyes away from it quickly, do not entice yourself with the thought of reading it out of curiosity or for amusement. Do not touch filth. Do not play with fire. Do not desire to experience the taste of poison.

In general, in your relations with people be peaceable, just, compassionate, do good even to your enemies, imitating Him Who shines His sun on both the evil and the good.

If you will live and act in this manner, then, when you pray, nothing will obstruct your prayer’s path to heaven.

Attending Church

When the time comes, and especially the time put aside for God and His temple, a feast day or the hour of Divine Services, hurry to tear yourself away from business and worldly cares and voluntarily and zealously offer yourself to God in His church. When you enter the church bring to mind the promise of the Lord to those that gather in His name: there am I in the midst of them (Matt. 18:20), and stand reverently in church, as before the very face of Christ, and pray to Him that he sanctify you by His holiness, animate you by His prayer, and enlighten you with the word of the Gospel and the Grace of the Mysteries.

Take note of this, too: in the church, angels serve with us and guard the holiness dwelling there. Once, in the Lavra of Saint Theodosius near Jerusalem, Abba Leontius, coming one Sunday to church to receive the Holy Mysteries, saw an angel standing on the right side of the Holy Table, and when the elder, being afraid, turned to run to his cell, the voice of the angel called to him: “From the time this Holy Table was consecrated, I have been charged to stay by it.” Remember this, beloved, and stand reverently. And, if you feel that only your body is standing in church, while your mind thinks of home, or the market, or a place of merriment, collect yourself. Hurry to bring back your mind that has strayed, join it to God in your heart, force it to strive towards God, Who looks upon you. When you hear the word of God, open up not only your bodily ears, but your spiritual ones as well, open your heart, receive this heavenly Bread and with it nourish not only your memory, but also your life and work.

On Communion

When you are preparing to be a communicant of the Body and Blood of Christ, or are simply present at this Mystery, cleave in mind and heart to the Cross and the Tomb of the Lord, to the Body of Christ, suffering, dying, buried, risen, glorified and believe that your faith’s touching Him will be more substantial than the touching of His garment by the woman with an issue of blood, and Christ’s power [will] go out (Luke 8:46) to purify and elevate your powers of soul and body.

How to celebrate feastdays

Having left church and returned home, do not rush to worldly business on days dedicated to God: business that you illicitly conduct in festal times will bring you no benefit. Realize most of all that if you do not come to thank and glorify God in His church, then you can be sure that He will not send down His blessing on your business outside the church (Haggai 1:9). And if sometimes you decide to excuse yourself from attending the church, be in fear lest you suddenly be overtaken by death and lest it be said of you: Remember that thou in thy lifetime received thy good things… but now (in eternity) thou art tormented (Luke 16:25). God preserve you from this fate.

Never forget that your soul is also God’s temple, and if at any time an impure thought and evil desire draws near to your soul, and will draw your body as well towards sin, hasten to protect yourself with the words said to the first Christians, and consequently to you: Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? (I Cor. 3:16). Then say to yourself: how can I dare to ruin the temple of God, by sin and inequity! How can I be so bold as to insult and alienate the Holy Spirit!

What to do in the evening

Now the day has ended—you are going off to sleep. Ponder the thought that God gives you rest from labors, and take the first fruits of the time of your rest and dedicate it to God with pure and humble prayer. Its fragrance will draw an angel close to preserve your rest. While preparing for sleep, remember death, of which sleep is an image and threshold, and with a prayer of faith surrender yourself to Him that is the Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25). But when you can conquer sleep, or when it does not conquer you, remember [the Lord’s] name in the night (Ps. 118:55).

Such should be the constant disposition and activity of the believer that he may gradually draw near to that state of soul in which the holy Apostle Paul says of himself: I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me… Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me (Gal: 2:20)!

Translated by Seraphim F. Englehardt

From “Orthodox Life”, No. 10, 1952

Source: https://www.holycross-hermitage.com/blogs/articles-sermons/113633350-how-to-live-according-to-the-faith

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