The Catalog of Good Deeds: Orthodox Wisdom

Showing posts with label Orthodox Wisdom. Show all posts

Labour as Prayer

Your Convent helps many people. We pray that the Lord empowers you to keep up your good work because it is helpful not only for them but also for your own souls. Acts of mercy give us the hope for salvation. Your actions sometimes mean more than prayer. Please continue this ministry. There are lots of people who have lost their roots and foundation in life and are in need of your spiritual support.

One day, I was comforted by an example from the life of an elder. Crowds of pilgrims pass his cell on their way up and down the Holy Mountain. He welcomes everyone and never expels anyone. He believes that the Lord who sees his diligence and good deeds will count them as part of his prayer.

We should do everything with a great deal of love and self-sacrifice, sometimes even at the expense of canons and prayer rules.

Obedience Is a Monastic’s Chief Virtue

A monk or a nun must not have any personal desires. He or she must persevere in obedience. Obedience makes up for everything else. Whatever your abbess or your spiritual father say to you is a word from God. They are responsible for what ensues.

When people don’t obey, everything in their lives turns upside down, and they have to face difficulties and hardships.

Sadly, there is jealousy among sisters in some convents: why did they tonsure that sister but not me? Why didn’t the abbess pay attention to me? Why does this sister talk with the spiritual father more often than I do? and so on. Everyone should mind their own business and do their own duties. You can fall into a trap if you overlook it. Additionally, women are more emotional, which isn’t good for spiritual life. Monks in monasteries have a calmer, colder attitude, even if they have many shortcomings typical of humans, for we are all human, and to err is human.

According to the monastic charter, the abbot is prescribed to turn to the brethren after the Compline and bow to them, and the brothers in turn bow to their abbot. This is a wise tradition of our Church that requires monastics to ask each other for forgiveness at the end of each day. After that, we can peacefully go to our cells and pray.

I would like to tell you about a miracle, which happened in the Holy Trinity Cell on Mount Athos. There were seven monks from one family in that cell. There are old monks today who used to know them personally. The seven monks were quarrelling all the time. Everyone was amazed at that temptation that had befallen them. One day, no one heard them again. It was strange, so all monks came together, entered the church, and saw the brothers on their knees and dead. All seven brothers! The monks realised that they had been asking each other for forgiveness every day; the Lord took their lives at the moment when they were asking each other for forgiveness on their knees. The Lord showed how powerful it is when people forgive.

Even though we are monks, we remain human. The feeling of a family is very important in a monastery. We must not stick out or set ourselves apart. Only then will the younger sisters, the novices, and the abbess alike feel fine.

Every sister has her own talent. One sister complements the other.

It is essential that all sisters gather to talk and to celebrate feasts together. Everything must be as simple as possible.

May everything in your Convent be simple and good!

Fragments of a Conversation with Monks from St John Chrysostom Cell in the Skete of Holy Righteous Anna: Schema-Monk Gabriel, Monk Chrysostomos, and Monk Leontius from The Karakallou Monastery

September 18, 2018
St. Elisabeth Convent
Translated by The Catalog of Good Deeds

What is “Spiritual Life”?

Spiritual life is nothing other than “life in Christ.” In the words of a contemporary Orthodox lay theologian, spirituality consists of “the ways which … lead to sanctity, to sainthood.” A Spiritual life, then, is about salvation, and salvation is about understanding, growth and struggle, among other things. It is hard work, for no one is “born” a saint. By contrast, the average Orthodox layman today seems to think that he is leading an exceptional spiritual life merely because he attends church regularly, receives Holy Communion (sometimes without any proper preparation), and contributes to the support of the Church. This, however, only shows that he is a member of the Church, not that he is leading an active spiritual life.

“By definition, an Orthodox Christian is one who strives to be obedient to the Commandments and, at the same time, obediently tries to fulfill the requirements of an Orthodox way of life, as revealed by Scripture and Tradition. Thus, [regular] attendance at Divine services, frequent reception of the Mysteries, observance of the seasonal fasts, the giving of alms, etc. — all of these, and more, constitute the bare minimum expected of those who follow Jesus Christ. This … is, however, only the beginning for anyone who wishes to call himself Christian; these are the ‘first steps’ in spiritual life …. Yet … they represent the patient, hard work of actually beginning to ‘walk’ the narrow path to the Kingdom of Heaven.’

Active spiritual life, then, is much more than “minimalism.” It is, in fact, nothing less than a sincere attempt to fulfill the Lord’s command, Be ye perfect, even as your Father Who is in Heaven is perfect(Matt. 5:48), so that at death we might be presented to God, holy and unblamable and unreproachable in His sight (Col. 1:22). The Church, in all of her grace-filled manifestations (the Sacraments, the Divine services, and even parish life itself), is the proper school for spiritual life, for the Church possesses abundant wisdom and experience, and this is the primary purpose — to lead us to sainthood by showing us how to unite our will to God.

What is Spiritual Direction?

Since the essence of spiritual life consists “in healing our impaired will, uniting it with the will of God and sanctifying it by this union,” and since “in order to do the will of God it is necessary to know it,” spiritual direction is a careful process by which we first learn and then apply the principles of spiritual life, thus coming to know God’s will for us with assurance. Some very few saints and righteous ones, finding themselves in circumstances where healthy and genuine spiritual direction was not available, were able to do this for themselves through a very patient, prayerful, and life-long study of sacred texts. Such, for example, was the great Saint Paisius Velichkovsky, the eighteenth-century Russian monastic reformer and teacher. Most of us, however, must imitate the Ethiopian in the Book of Acts -How can I understand unless someone guides me?

Spiritual direction consists not only of learning ancient techniques of prayer, but it requires detailed instruction by the director, as well as guided reading and study and learning inner attention. But it also has an important dimension of asceticism — that is, certain kinds of bodily practices that, in Orthodox spirituality, go hand in hand with prayer and learning. Such practices may include learning how to live a quieter lifestyle, adopting (with the permission of one’s director) additional fasting and abstinence exercises, and more frequent attendance at Divine services — all of which are calculated to slightly challenge and tax the body and its natural energies, putting it under additional discipline and control.

In most cases, a spiritual director will take his spiritual child “from strength to strength,” beginning with the simplest and easiest “ABC’s” of spiritual striving. He will first inquire to know at what level the student is in his spiritual life — and it does not matter how basic or even primitive the student may be — and the director will also want to know in some detail about his state in life — married or single, with children or without, what kind of job, and what the student does for entertainment. Slowly but surely the director will introduce the student to certain hallowed principles and ideas. He will assign reading and will carefully discuss that reading with the student.

The director will expose his spiritual child to various methods of prayer which are time-honored in the Church (for spiritual life is in many ways as much a science as an art). He will also assign a Prayer Rule, very simple at first, and then gradually more complex, and he will carefully supervise the student’s progress in prayer. He will also act as confessor to his spiritual son or daughter, for in this great Mystery of Repentance the director is most able to act as a spiritual physician. In this context, a spiritual father strives particularly to show his spiritual children the way to repentance, which means “a change of mind that is accompanied by deep regret over one’s past life or over some particular act which one has committed,” so that “there is a profound change of orientation, a sudden shift of the center of gravity of one’s total being from the material to the spiritual, from the physical world to God, from concern for the body to concern for the soul.”

Not least, a spiritual father will be available as a sympathetic ear and a healthy and objective “sounding-board” when his spiritual sons and daughters are in need of this.

By Hieroschemamonk Ambrose (Young)

Excerpt from: http://www.pravmir.com/how-can-i-understand-unless-someone-guides-me-on-the-place-and-importance-of-spiritual-direction/

“Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” (2 Timothy 3: 12)

And the Lord Jesus Christ had foretold and proved by it by His own example. And so did the apostles, who talked about it, and proved these words by their own example. And all the God-bearing Fathers of the Church, confessors and martyrs talked about this, and proved it by their own example. So is it possible to doubt even for a moment the fact that you must take the narrow path to enter the Kingdom of Heaven? Is it even possible to doubt the fact that we must face many misfortunes in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven?

No, there are no longer any grounds or justification for doubt. Can a sheep live amongst wolves and not be attacked? Can the flame of a candle burn on the path of strong winds and not tremble? Can a fruit tree grow near the road and not be plucked by those who pass by? The same goes for the Church filled with pious souls which will be persecuted, in fact it will be persecuted by pagans, by idol worshippers, by heretics,by apostates, through various passions and vices, sins and lawlessness, by the world and demons.

The same applies to any no pious soul which can not remain without persecution - either external or internal - until it is ready part with the body and the world. Someone can deny this and try prove something else, according to his own reasoning and his own logic. But neither the mind nor the logic of a single person will be helpful here: thousands of crucified people say otherwise, and thousands of people who were burned to death shout a different opinion, and thousands of those who were hacked to death prove otherwise, and thousands of those who were thrown into the water to drown testify about something else. O my brethren, the Christian faith is strong not only when it agrees with mind and logic, but even then (especially at that moment) when it opposes any reason and any logic.

Whoever wants to live in piety, will be persecuted. The Apostle predicted in the early Christian times,while twenty Christian centuries responded with a chorus of echos, and confirmed that the prophecy was true.

O Resurrected Christ, give us light, that we may be pious to the end, and give us strength to withstand persecution until the end. To you glory and praise forever. Amen.

Translated by The Catalog of Good Deeds

By Fr. Sergius Nezhbort

It is very important in our lives not to confuse the most important things with that which is secondary. Human life is very long, diverse, and a person lives going through different inner states: there is inspiration, but there are also hard times. But in these different states it is necessary to understand what we are doing and why we are doing it.

A person who has come to church, discovers the simple truth for himself: Christ must be the center of one’s life. And all the obediences, cares, worries that fill our daily routine, must be done in order to achieve the main and most important goal. But if it so happens that we are distracted from what is most important by the weakness of our human infirmities, then we begin to dig into small and unimportant details.

For example, I have my obedience as an iconographer. A common mistake of an artist who is just beginning - when he is engulfed in his work it can get him carried away and focus on little details, and forget about the work as a whole. The work becomes fractional, and in this fragmentation you can not see the beauty of the artistic image. The same happens with our life. But this does not mean that certain details and everyday worries are not entirely important. In fact they often take up most of our time. But is necessary for us to understand, why we do them and whom we do them for. Then even the simplest and a most basic job will seem to be a true service to Christ. Something that in our everyday life can go unnoticed, will become an apostolic ministry.

The All Night Vigil, chants, cannons - everything that is sung in church needs to lead us to this kind of mentality. We often done hear or think why we need all of it. And sometimes come to church mechanically because we have become used to this rhythm. Yet, by doing so we greatly rob ourselves.

May the Lord help us remember what is most important,and what is the true axis of our life: Christ came to save mankind, and first of all he came to save me. In my life there were moments when I sensed, rather clearly felt that the Lord pulled me out of an everyday cycle of insignificant worries and revealed to me a completely different life. Christianity is a victory, it is a life force. But if we disfigure this concept, it becomes a performance of whining and weakness. When a person is predetermined for everything which is bad, he does not need anything. He is already tired of everything ten years in advance. Therefore, it is very important for us to shake off this fatigue and complaining. Very often while I am Confessing you can not help but hear certain parishioners walk into the church and start talking about something insignificant... That's an example of our condition. And this is not because we came to the wrong place, but it is because we forgot about what is most important.

July 4, 2018

St. Elisabeth Convent

And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Matthew 13: 4-9)

The parable about the sower depicts the different relationships of the soul as it interacts and lives by the word of God.

First, we see those who do not heed the word at all. They hear, but the words do not enter their soul, instead they simply lie on top, like a seed on the road. The word is not compatible with them, because they have a different way of thinking, different rules, different tastes. Therefore, it it vanished from their memory very quickly,it is forgotten, as if it had not been heard at all.

The second group are those who hear the word willingly and accept it quite quickly, but do not want to put any effort in keeping the word. Therefore, they enjoy the word and especially the promises that come with it but only until personal sacrifices are required. As soon as there is a need to sacrifice something for the sake of loyalty and faithfulness to the word, they begin to turn away from it and refuse both the word and the promises in favor of their passions and the things they are attached to.

The third group of people are those who accept the word and begin to live by its guidance, but they are still heavily devoted to the worries, sorrows and other earthly cares, which suppress all the good beginnings that were formed under the influence of the word of God.

Finally, the forth group includes those who accept the word with full faith and have decided to live by its rules while showing readiness for any and all necessary sacrifices and do not allow their hearts to fall into the earthly trap of worries.

May the Lord grant everyone the strength to sit down and decide for themselves: Where do you belong?

Daily Gospel Reflections of St. Theophan the Recluse for June 29

Translated by The Catalog of Good Deeds

Subscribe to: Posts ( Atom )

Search This Blog

featured Slider

A Word of Spiritual Advice from Mount Athos

The Meaning of Spiritual Life and Spiritual Direction

Can a Christian Live and not Be Persecuted?

"Don't Mix up What Is Most Important with What Is Secondary!"

The Story of the Sower: Where Do You Belong?

Why It Is Important to Become Children

Partners