The Catalog of Good Deeds: Orthodox Wisdom

Showing posts with label Orthodox Wisdom. Show all posts

During this week the holy Church continues to exhort us to fasting, prayer, penance, charity and other efforts of virtue, opening also to the true self these ascetic efforts. In the hymns for this week the holy Church chants: "Prayer and fasting are a marvelous weapon: this Moses points out to us as the writer of the Law and Elijah shows us in zealous sacrifices", "When the men of Nineveh repented, Thou has delivered them from the wrath", "Fasting bore Samuel as fruit;" "through fasting Samson grew up brave", "Elisha after fasting brought the dead child back to life"; "through fasting priests and prophets were made perfect". "As Christ has taught us in the scriptures, a pure fast means the putting away of sin, the rejection of the passions, love for God, attentiveness in prayer, tears of compunction, and acts of mercy to the poor".

Thus the holy church also appeals to us: "let us keep a true fast before the Lord: let us abstain not only from food but from angry speech and lying, and from every other passion", "Let us keep a spiritual fast: let us loose every bond; let us avoid the stumbling blocks of sin; let us absolve our brothers from their debts, that we too may be forgiven our transgressions." "Come let us cleanse ourselves with mercies and compassions for the poor, not trumpeting them, nor revealing our good deeds, but let us not hang on the left hand the right hand business, let us not squander with vanity the fruit of mercies"; "In this season of repentance, let us stretch out our hands in works of mercy; and then the ascetic struggles of the Fast will bring us to eternal life. For nothing saves the soul so much as generosity to those in need, and almsgiving combined with fasting will deliver a man from death. Let us do all this with gladness, for there is no better way, and it will bring salvation to our souls."

From Monday of the second week we sing in the Compline the canons of the saints from the Menaion, which belongs to the period between Lazarus Saturday and Thomas Sunday, with the Theotokions of the canon; first we sing the canon to the Theotokos, then from the Menaion; after the third ode sing the kontakion and sessional hymn from the Menaion: then after the sixth ode sing the sessional hymn of the Theotokos: we sing the stikhera from the Menaion after the canon.

The order of service for all the Fridays up to the Friday of the Fifth Week is in the Rubrics, for the order of Wednesday and Friday of the first week, and for the Friday of the second week. On all the Fridays of the Holy Forty-day Fast we do not make prostrations at Vespers and Compline, except for those fixed in the Presanctified Liturgy (see the Rubrics for the Order of Friday of the First week and Monday of the Second week). On all the Fridays of Lent the Priest does the Little Dismissal at Compline.

On the Saturdays of the second, third, and fourth weeks of Great Lent the holy church prays for all the Saints, asking them, to intercede before God for us especially during Lent, and prays to the Lord for the departed.

Similar to the service for the departed done on the Saturday of the second week, there are like services on the following two Saturdays, except when a feast of the Forerunner, the 40 Holy Martyrs, or the Annunciation falls on them.

Source: https://www.orthodox.net/ustav/bulgakov-second-week-great-lent.html

March 13, 1876

Greetings, sister in Christ, dear Mother T.! I congratulate you on accepting the holy and angelic image. Do you know that this image is the symbol of betrothal with Jesus, the Heavenly Bridegroom? For it is sung in the troparion to a martyr, “I love You, my Bridegroom”, and for every nun is a martyr, remember, to Whom you are betrothed!

You ask me for guidance and advice on what you should do in order not to deviate from your path? Start with humility. Then do with humility and finish with humility. Thus you will reach holiness. This path, the path of humility, is the safest one. Holy Fathers say, this path just “prevent you from falling down. Where can a humble one fall, when he considers himself worse than anyone?” So, how can we not be humble, when Christ, the God of gods and the Lord of lords, humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2:8)? The astonishment of angels, the most beautiful of all sons of the humankind, died a shameful death for us; how dare we, weak and sinful, reject to admit our sins and weaknesses?

What concerns high thoughts: avoid them like the plague. “What is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15). “And the heavens are not pure in His sight” (Job 15:15). And Prophet Isaiah said long ago what any our truth is: “all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6).

You ask how can one follow his way? Listen not to me, a filthy man, but to the Eternal Truth Itself: “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).

It means that anyone who is going to reach the Kingdom of Heaven, must not recall their high virtues – and especially their high thoughts – but must look at the feats and glory of saints. Let us stick to them! But you should look at your own weaknesses and sins and remember about the possible future torments of a soul – then you will not sin.

Peace to you, mother T.

– Sinful Hieromonk Anatoliy

"Nowadays people often feel sadness, despair, lethargy, laziness, apathy, and all things satanic. They are downcast, discontent and melancholy. They disregard their families, spend vast sums on psychoanalysts and take anti-depressants. People explain this as 'insecurity.' Our religion believes that these states derive from satanic temptation.

Pain is a psychological power which God implanted in us with a view to doing us good and leading us to love, joy, and prayer. Instead of this, the devil succeeds in taking this power from the battery of our soul and using it for evil. He transforms it into depression and brings the soul into a state of lethargy and apathy. He torments us, takes us captive and makes us psychologically ill.

There is a secret. Turn the satanic energy into good energy. This is difficult and requires some preparation. The requisite preparation is humility. With humility you attract the grace of God. You surrender yourself to the love of God, to worship and to prayer. But even if you do all in the world, you achieve nothing if you haven't acquired humility. All the evil feelings, insecurity, despair and disenchantment, which come to take control of the soul, disappear with humility. The person who lacks humility, the egotist, doesn't want you to get in the way of his desires, to make any criticism of him or tell him what to do. He gets upset, irritated and reacts violently and is overcome by depression.

This state is cured by grace. The soul must turn to God's love. The cure will come when we start to love God passionately. Many of our saints transformed depression into joy with their love for Christ. That is, they took this power of the soul which the devil wished to crush and gave it to God and they transformed it into joy and exultation. Prayer and worship gradually transform depression and turn it into joy, because the grace of God takes effect. Here you need to have the strength to attract the grace of God which will help you to be united with Him. Art is required. When you give yourself to God and become one with him, you will forget the evil spirit which drags at you from behind, and this spirit, when it is disdained, will leave. And the more you devote yourself to the Spirit of God, the less you will look behind to see the spirit that is dragging at you. When grace attracts you, you will be united with God. And when you unite yourself to God and abandon yourself to Him, everything else disappears and is forgotten and you are saved. The great art, the great secret, in order to rid yourself of depression and all that is negative is to give yourself over to the love of God.

Something which can help a person who is depressed is work, interest in life. The garden, plants, flowers, trees, the countryside, a walk in the open air -- all these things tear a person away from a state of inactivity and awake other interests. They act like medicines. To occupy oneself with the arts, with music and so on, is very beneficial. The thing that I place top of the list, however, is interest in the Church, in reading Holy Scripture and attending services. As you study the words of God you are cured without being aware of it.

Let me tell you about a girl who came to me. She was suffering from dreadful depression. Drugs had no effect. She had given up everything -- her work, her home, her interests. I told her about the love of Christ which takes the soul captive because the grace of God fills the soul and changes it. I explained to her that the force which takes over the soul and transforms the power of the soul into depression is demonic. It throws the soul to the ground, torments it and renders it useless. I advised her to devote herself to things like music which she had formerly enjoyed. I emphasized, however, most of all her need to turn to Christ with love. I told her, moreover, that in our Church a cure is to be found through love for God and prayer, provided this is done with all the heart."

A selection from Wounded by Love: The Life and

the Wisdom of Elder Porphyrios

Source: http://orthodoxhealing.blogspot.com.by/2010/03/elder-porphyrios-overcoming-depression.html

Continuing our commentary on the Beatitudes by Saint Gregory of Nyssa.

In this next step, Saint Gregory begins by discussing the nature of our appetite for food. This hunger we experience is a natural one. When we lose it we face an unhealthy condition. After the previous steps outlined in the Beatitudes, our soul should have a healthy appetite much like that we have for food. Much like our desire for food, the food we desire for our soul differs from one person to another.

Gregory writes:

Everyone's desire is not for the same. Some people covet glory, or wealth, or prominence. The desire of others is incessantly occupied with the table. Others again lap up envy like some noxious food; and then there are also some who desire things whose nature is good.

But what is good that we should desire? Gregory writes,

Now what is good by nature is the same for all and at all times. It is that which is desirable not because of something else, but for its own sake. It is always the same, and satiety can never blunt its attraction. Therefore the Word calls blessed those who hunger not without qualification, but those whose desire is directed towards true justice.

So why is what is good called justice? The common view of justice is “the disposition to distribute equally to each, according to his worth.” Gregory then shows us that this view is not sufficient.

Gregory provides us with some examples of this common view.

He writes:

For example, if someone is charged with distributing money, he will be called just if he aims at equity and fits the gift to the needs of the recipients. Again, a man invested with the authority of a judge will not pass sentence according to favor or disfavor; but he will be guided by the nature of the case and punish those who deserve punishment whilst acquitting the innocent.

The problem with this view of justice is that it assumes that one person, the one who “distributes” or “judges,” is higher than another. Jesus cannot be calling blessed only those who have such superiority. The aim of Jesus is salvation which is a common good for all. Gregory points out that there something higher in the “sublime laws of God.” Again, tries to lift our minds to a concept of justice that is beyond our common worldly notions.

Gregory writes:

But as I look up to the sublime laws of God, I come to realize that one must see something higher in this justice than what has been discussed hitherto. The word of salvation is indeed given as a common good for all mankind, but not every man is concerned with the things that have just been mentioned. For only few are called to reign or govern, to give judgment or to have power of administering money or other revenues; whereas the majority of men are subjects of rulers and administrators. How then can one accept as true justice what is not meant equally for all? For if, according to the words of those outside the fold, the purpose of the just man is equality; but on the other hand pre-eminence presupposes inequality, then this definition of justice cannot be regarded as true, because it is at once completely refuted by the inequality of life.

Gregory tells us that justice spoken of in this beatitude belongs to all. It makes no different whether rich or poor, king or slave. He uses the example of Lazarus in the story of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:19–31). Poor Lazarus had no means to be just, neither power or material resources. Therefore he was unable to be just under the common notion of justice. But we know that in terms of salvation and eternal life it was Lazarus who was deemed by God to be just.

He writes:

For if justice consisted in ruling, or distributing, or administering anything, anyone without such authority would be quite outside the scope of justice. But how could a man be deemed worthy of the eternal rest who had none of those things which, in the general opinion, are the characteristics of justice?

Therefore we must search for that kind of justice the fruition of which is promised to him who desires it.

***

Justice has to do with our salvation and everyone whether rich or poor, powerful of a slave can have justice in the eyes of God if they hunger for it.

This justice we are to hunger for involves keen discernment of God’s will. Gregory uses one of the temptations Christ experienced in his retreat to the desert. The devil used Christ’s human hunger for food as a temptation when he commanded Jesus to turn the stones into bread to satisfy his hunger on this long fast. To desire to turn stones into food when God had provided us the means to make bread and other food from seeds planted in soil, is a distortion of our natural desire for the means of our physical sustenance. For Christ to agree to this command He would be using his hunger to go beyond what God has provided or intended for us. This would be avarice, letting our desire led to things that go beyond our necessities of life. This is unjust.

Gregory speaks of how we are led to succumb to similar temptations in our daily life. He writes,

Now people eat food made from stones if their meals betray their avarice, because from their unjust gains they procure for themselves luxurious dishes worth fabulous sums, and the paraphernalia of their dinners are designed only for show so as to impress people, since they far outstrip the necessities of life. For what relation to the needs of nature has this silver which no one can eat and which is displayed in such quantities that it can hardly be carried?

In other words, we act without justice when we use resources God has given us for pleasures that are not a necessity. We can observe in our own lives how we let our hunger for food go beyond what is necessary. It is God’s intention for our hunger to led us to nutritious food, but not beyond this. Our excesses led us to injustice. We can easily let our desires take us beyond what is necessary. In our hunger for justice we must over come temptations by constraining our desires for things of this world. limiting them to that which is necessary. We do not what to eliminate desire but to control it to act with justice.

Gregory writes:

He who overcomes temptation does not eliminate hunger from nature, as if that were a cause of evil. He only removes the worry and fuss which the counsel of the enemy causes to enter together with the need, and leaves nature to adjust itself within its own limits. To give an example: Those who filter the wine do not reject the good liquid on account of the foam mixed up with it; they separate the superfluous matter with a strainer, but do not refuse to use what is pure.

We still need to clarify what the food that the soul desires. Gregory points us to Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman.

And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?”

The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” Then they went out of the city and came to Him. In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” Therefore the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. (John 27-34)

“My food is to do the will of Him who sent me.” To hunger for justice is to do the will of God. This is the kind of food Jesus instructed His disciples to hunger after.

Gregory says,

“For if a man has desired the justice of God, he has found what is truly to be desired. And he satisfies this desire not only in one of the forms this appetite can take; for He wants us to partake of justice not only as food…Therefore the Word expresses thus the highest desire for the Good and calls blessed those who suffer both hunger and thirst for justice. For the coveted object is great enough to meet the desire in both ways: grace becomes solid food to the hungry, and drink if a man be drawn to it by thirst.”

But what is it that God wants us to do?

***

We are to desire the ultimate Good, to do God’s will. Next he raises the question justice is the only virtue that is involved in doing God’s will. How about virtues such as “temperance or wisdom, prudence or any other kind of virtue?” Would we not be blessed also if we hunger after these? Clearly, Gregory points out, justice is but one of the virtues to be desired.

Gregory says,

Now Divine Scripture frequently expresses the whole by the part, for example, when it gives certain names to the Divine Nature. Thus, speaking in the person of God, the prophecy says: I the Lord; this is my eternal name, and this is my memorial unto all generations. And again elsewhere, I am who am;(Exod 3:14) and yet in another place, I am compassionate.(Exod 22:27) Thus Holy Scripture can call Him by innumerable other names which fittingly signify God's majesty; and so it becomes quite clear to us that when it says one thing the whole series of names is quietly understood to be included as well.

Therefore we should expand the idea of justice to include the other virtues as well. He says, “if the conception of justice does not admit of anything bad, it must needs comprise in itself everything good, but what is good belongs to virtue. Therefore every virtue is here comprised under the name of justice. Those who hunger and thirst for it the Word calls blessed and promises them the fulfillment of their desires.”

Gregory writes:

I think the saying means something like this: None of the things that are coveted in this life for the sake of pleasure will satisfy those who run after them, but, as Wisdom says somewhere metaphorically, A cask full of holes is the occupation with the pleasures of sense. For those who are always anxiously busy filling it show that their unending labor is fruitless. All the time they are pouring something into the abyss of desire, they add pleasure to pleasure, yet never procure themselves full satisfaction.

Therefore we learn from the Lord this sublime doctrine that the only truly and solidly existing thing is our zeal for virtue. For if a man has perfected himself in any of the higher things, such as continence, temperance, devotion to God or any other of the sublime teachings of the Gospel, his joy in these achievements does not quickly pass away, but is truly solid, lasting his whole lifetime.

He teaches us in the discourse from the high mountain of thought: not to desire eagerly any of those things that end in nothingness for those who pursue them. To occupy oneself with them is as devoid of sense as to run after the top of one's own shadow. For such people run on forever, since the object of their pursuit always quickly eludes the pursuer. But we should turn our desire to those things where, if a man exerts himself, the object of his efforts becomes his possession. If a man desires virtue, he makes goodness his very own, for he sees in himself what he has desired.

Finally, he offers a bolder interpretation, referring to Holy Communion:

He became for us wisdom from God, justification, sanctification and redemption, but also Bread descending from Heaven and living water…. For if, as the Psalmist says, a man has truly tasted the Lord;(Ps 33:9) that is, if he has received God into himself, he is filled with Him for whom he has thirsted and hungered, as He has promised who said: I and my Father will come and will make our abode with him (John 14:23) (the Holy Spirit of course had already been dwelling there before). I suppose the great Paul, too, who had tasted of those ineffable fruits from Paradise, was at the same time full of what he had tasted al-id always hungering for it. For he owns that he his been filled with what he desired when he says, Christ liveth in me;(Gal 2:20) yet he is still hungry, for he always stretches forth to the things before him,(Gal 3:13) saying: Not as though I had already attained, or were already perfect; but I run that I may apprehend.(Gal 3:12)

Source:

http://orthodoxwayoflife.blogspot.com.by/2009/09/4th-beatitude-blessed-are-they-that.html

http://orthodoxwayoflife.blogspot.com.by/2009/09/4th-beatitude-continued-justice.html

http://orthodoxwayoflife.blogspot.com.by/2009/09/4th-beatitude-continued-justice_09.html

“We are fools for Christ’s sake” (1 Corinthians 4:10).

Thus speaks the great Apostle Paul who in the beginning was guided by worldly wisdom, which is against Christ, until he recognizes the falsehood and decay of the wisdom of the world and the light and stability of the wisdom of Christ. Then, the holy apostle did not become angry with the world because they called him “a fool for Christ’s sake” neither did he, in defiance of the world, hesitate to be called by this name.

It is not of any value to us how the world is going to regard or call us. However, it is important, and extremely important, how the holy angels in the heavens will regard and call us when, after death, we meet with them. This is of crucial importance and everything else is nothing.

St. Nikolai Velimirovich

Either we are fools for the world because of Christ or we are fools for Christ because of the world. O how short-lived is the sound of a word of the world! If the world would say to us “fool,” the world will die and its word will die! What then is the value of its word? But if the heavenly, immortal ones say to us “fool,” that will neither die nor is it removed from us as eternal condemnation.

Whoever does not believe in the Living God, nor in eternal life, nor in the Incarnation of the Lord Christ, nor in Christ’s Resurrection nor in the truth of the Gospel nor in God’s eternal mercy and justice – is it any wonder if he considers that one a fool who does believes in all of this?

O, may every one of us who cross ourselves with the Sign of the Cross not only find it easy to endure but with satisfaction receive the name “fool” for Christ’s sake! Let us rejoice and be glad if the non-believers call us such, for that means that we are close to Christ and far away from the non-believers. Let us rejoice and be glad and repeat with a powerful echo in the ears of the world: yes, yes, indeed we are fools for Christ’s sake!

O Lord Most-wise, strengthen us by Your power that we not fear the non-believing world neither when they lash us with whips nor when they insult us with words for Your sake.

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

Homily for February 22, Prologue of Ohrid

Source: http://www.orthodoxchurchquotes.com/2013/09/10/st-nikollai-velimirovich-it-is-not-of-any-value-to-us-how-the-world-is-going-to-regard-or-call-us/

Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Continuing our commentary on the Beatitudes by Saint Gregory of Nyssa:

Next, building on poor of spirit and meekness, we move to yet a higher rung. Does seeing those who mourn as blessed involve those who endure misfortune and hardship and imply that those who do not have such sorrow in their lives cannot be blessed? Of course not. Gregory says this would be ridiculous.

Saint Paul teaches us that there are two kinds of sorrow (2 Cor 7:10). A worldly sorrow and one that comes from God. Gregory writes, the work of the worldly sorrow is death, whereas the other works in those afflicted with it salvation through repentance. For surely, if a soul bewails its wicked life because it feels its bad effects, such suffering cannot be excluded from the sorrow that is called blessed.

If we do not feel sorrow when engaging in sin because we feel no pain, then we have become paralyzed and dead to the life of virtue. We have lost what God have given us to encourage us to come to repentance and to grow spiritually. But Gregory says there is more than this in the idea of mourning.

Saint Gregory writes:

For if He meant to indicate only repentance for sin, it would have been more consistent to call blessed those who have mourned rather than those who are always mourning. Taking by way of comparison an example from illness, we would call blessed those who are healed, but not those who are forever in process of being healed. Obviously the continual healing would indicate at the same time the continued existence of the disease.

Gregory tells us that we cannot limit this beatitude to those who sin or misfortune. We have many examples of the saints who were not in continual sin. We know they were not denied blessedness. We know that mourning has to do with losing something that is seen to be good. When one faces misfortune he mourns, because he lost what was pleasant to him. At issue here is what we see as pleasant. Gregory asks us to raise our understanding from what we know to be pleasant to that which we do not know to be good. He says, we must first know what really is the true good, and then, with this in mind, consider human nature. For only thus can we attain to the mourning that is called blessed.

Now this is key to understanding what Jesus meant by mourning. We need to expand our understanding of what is good, to include what is beyond the pleasures of this life. We need to focus on the Kingdom of Heaven and the Divine goodness. As we grasp that what is true goodness, the perfection that we are capable, the goodness that Jesus showed us through His life, what is beyond our comprehension, our sorrow should grow and we should mourn about this lack of understanding.

Gregory writes:

But lest our words should labor in vain in our effort to reach what is inaccessible, we will cut short our enquiry into the nature of the transcendent good.... And the more we believe the nature of the good to exceed our comprehension, the more should our sorrow grow within us, because we are separated from a good so great that we cannot even attain to its knowledge.

This knowledge is something mankind once knew. Gregory explains that we only need go back to the story of creation where we learn that man was created in the image of God and lived in Paradise. But we were disobedient and separated ourselves from God’s goodness. This led to dire consequences.

Gregory writes:

Thus the creature that had once been without a master and in full possession of his free will, is now dominated by so many great evils that we can hardly count all our tyrants. For as soon as any of our innate passions is allowed to dominate, it becomes the master of the person it has enslaved. It occupies the castle of the soul like a tyrant, and afflicts the obedient lord through his own subjects. It uses our thoughts as its servants who carry out what seems good to it. For the whole array of passions, wrath and fear, cowardice and impudence, depression as well as pleasure, hatred, strife and merciless cruelty, envy as well as flattery, brutality together with brooding over injuries–they all are so many despotic masters who make the soul a slave in their territory as if it was a prisoner of war. If one were to add to this also the physical sufferings that are insolubly bound up with our nature, I mean the manifold forms of disease from all of which human nature was originally immune, our tears would flow still more, as we were comparing and contrasting what is painful and evil with the things that were good and pleasant.

When Jesus calls mourning blessed, Gregory says, “the underlying sense seems to be that the soul should turn to the true good and not immerse itself in the deceits of this present life.” Unfortunately, those who enjoy things of this world do not look for what is better. But if one chooses to seek, he will find what only those who seek can find. Gregory says that this is the primary reason Jesus calls mourning blessed. We need to be aware that we do not know true goodness, goodness that is so great we cannot describe it, and feel sorrow about our condition, mourning, and seeking to know.

Gregory concludes:

Therefore we should think it blessed to reserve our share of joy for the truly good things in eternal life, and to fulfill the duty of sorrow in this short and transitory life. We should not think it a loss to be deprived of some of the pleasant things of this life, but rather to lose the better things for the sake of enjoying the others. If therefore it is blissful to have the unending and everlasting joy in eternity, human nature is bound also to taste of the opposite. Then it will no longer be difficult to see the meaning of the passage, why those who mourn now are blessed, because they shall be comforted in the world without end. Now the comfort comes through participating in the Comforter. For the gift of comforting is the special operation of the Spirit, of which may we also be made worthy, through the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever.

Source: http://orthodoxwayoflife.blogspot.com.by/2009/09/3rd-beatitude-blessed-are-those-who.html

A mountain ahead. Hurray?

As a rule, when running up against difficulties in our ordinary, daily life, we try to get around them however we can. This is perfectly natural—after all, if we, let’s say, are walking home and on our path is an icy hill, it would be more reasonable to take another route rather than risk slipping and breaking a limb. Or, let’s say we are looking for an apartment and find out that in such-and-such a building the elevator doesn’t work, then it would be perfectly natural for us to strike that building off the list and not get all enthused about walking up ten flights of stairs all the time. This is probably the first thing to which it would make sense to pay attention: As Christians and simply as adults, responsible people, we should not create hardships for ourselves artificially. Our lives are hard enough without that.

Nevertheless, a person who categorically avoids whatever difficulties that may be rarely succeeds in life. He can graduate from school, university, find a relatively comfortable and easy job, but he will not attain any important thing that a different attitude towards life might attain. After all, only truly difficult situations, moreover, stressful situations force us to mobilize all our strength, and stimulate us to learn how to “outgrow” them. Therefore, while avoiding difficulties where it is rational to do so, we must under no circumstances hide from them where they might be able to teach us something essential. This applies to study, work, sports, and of course to Christian life.

Igumen Nektary (Morozov)

Why must we definitely struggle with difficulties in Christian life? Because, as St. John Climacus formulates it, when we are warred against we fight back; that is, when we run up against an inner struggle, when we have to do something with psychological difficulty, with effort, we understand that our passions are behind this along with our direct enemy [the devil], who does not sleep. And this understanding arouses us to overcome fear and laziness, and do the very thing that is salvific for us.

And what in Christian life is especially hard for us? Deeds and acts directed against the passion that is acting most forcefully at that moment in us. It is even somehow strange at times to see how one thing is hard for one person, another thing for another, a third for a third; and each of them would gladly do what is hard for the others. This is not so much because these people are so very different as it is because different passions act in them to different degrees.

What does it mean to “overcome difficulties”? It practically always means growing out of our faintheartedness. And of course when we are already adults this becomes more and more difficult if we have not been accustomed to it from childhood. Thus, when a child comes to confession and tells about some dishonesty, for example that he made a mess and blamed it on his younger brother, the priest might say to him, “Understand that there is only one way to set things straight: God to your mom and dad and admit everything.” And the child has to admit the reason for his deceit: thinking that the truth would not come out, or that he was afraid of punishment, or that he just didn’t want others to think badly of him.

And not only a priest but any adult that the child trusts can reveal this spiritual law to him: “Do you know that if you do not admit it now then in all likelihood you will not admit to something the next time, because then it will be much harder than today. You will get used to deceiving, and this will lead to your doing it that way every time. And later, when you grow up and want to become a different person, it will be very, very hard for you to change. I can’t force you to do this, but I strongly advise you to overcome your fear now, today, so that it won’t be so hard for you to do it later.” And it must be said that quite a few children decide to follow this advice, and you will see how this child outgrows himself, how he becomes stronger.

And for the most part, the same thing happens with an adult when he decides not to run away from a situation in which he is ashamed and fearful, but to take a step toward the truth and bear all possible consequences...

Read full article: http://orthochristian.com/100662.html

Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.

Saint Gregory sees the Beatitudes as a series of steps, an ascension to union with God:

It seems to me that the Beatitudes are arranged in order like so many steps, so as to facilitate the ascent from one to the other. For if a man's mind has ascended to the first Beatitude, he will accept what follows as a necessary result of thought, even though the next clause seems to say something new beyond what had been said in the first.

Why is it then that in the first Beatitude we receive the Kingdom of Heaven and in the second we inherit the earth? In answering this question he writes:

But if the [1st] sermon has given us wings, and we have been placed on the ridge of the heavenly ark, we shall then find the super-celestial earth which is reserved to be the inheritance of those who have led a life of virtue.

Here he is pointing out that all we can perceive of heavenly things is described in earthly terms. Even God the Word had to descend to us because we were unable to ascend to Him. So to grasp higher spiritual things, we must first be raised beyond what is earthly, or known to us by our senses, so we can see that which is beyond the reach of our senses. The meaning of Kingdom is not an earthly one with a throne and a king dressed in fine clothes and jewels, but much more.

He writies:

Therefore the word "earth," though it comes after that of "heaven," should not draw down your thought to the earth below; but if by the preceding Beatitude the Word has raised your minds to the heavenly hope, you should ask me about that earth which is not the inheritance of all, but only of those whose holy life has rendered them worthy of that promise.

He uses David as an example of a holy person who is worthy to “inherit the earth.” He is one, who based on his faith, could see in earthly things the goodness of God.

Gregory writes:

[David] grasped by faith the things for which we hope, when he said, “I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.”

For I do not suppose the prophet called this earth the land of the living, seeing that it brings forth only mortal things and again dissolves into itself everything that comes from it. But he meant the land of the living which death does not approach, where they do not tread the way of sinners, and where wickedness finds no foothold… but the land of the water of refreshment and the green places, where springs up the fourfold fountain and the vine that is tended by the God of all creation, and all the other things the inspired book teaches us in metaphors.

How else do we describe the “good things of the Lord”? We cannot find the proper words to do so. to understand them using earthly terms, we must be lifted to a higher spiritual awareness, giving our limited speech higher meaning. This was the object of the first beatitude. We must first become "poor in spirit," humble, so we can be lifted to the heights of the Kingdom of Heaven, giving us an open mind for higher understanding. Then we will be able to view the earthly life from the perspective of this higher level of understanding. Lifted to the "Kingdom of Heaven" we can grasp the meaning of "inheriting the earth."

These are all steps along the pathway of the Orthodox Way of Life. After mastering the first Beatitude we can now address the second one about being meek. Gregory says:

If we are able to contemplate the transcendent land above the heavens, whose capital is the city of the King, of which, as the prophet says, “glorious things are spoken, we shall probably no longer be surprised at the order in which the Beatitudes follow each other”.

Source: http://orthodoxwayoflife.blogspot.com.by/2009/09/2nd-beatitude-blessed-are-meek.html

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