Several ducks huddling,
paddling,
upon the shallow water.
Mudflats encroaching,
and rivulets flowing,
the sea is receding now.
Platoons of cats lining its margins,
crouching,
hiding within the reeds;
(their presence,
betrayed,
by their tails held high).
Will they pounce?
And send the ducks flying,
up,
into the glowing sky—
early morning sunlight,
reflecting,
from their white undersides.
The cats watching raptly, joyously;
their tails swishing briskly,
in the breeze.
~FS
Dear Lord—
Teach me to love You with all my heart, all my mind, all my soul and all my strength.
Teach me to love my neighbor more than I love myself.
Teach me to love my wife as I love my own body.
And teach me to take up my cross and follow You.
Cleanse me Lord of all self-love—
Cleanse my heart of all self-love,
cleanse my mind of all self-love,
cleanse my soul of all self-love,
and cleanse my body of all self-love.
Free me from all that binds me so that I may love You, Lord, with all my heart, all my mind, all my soul and all my strength—
Focus my heart in love for You, Lord.
Focus my mind in love for You,
focus my soul in love for You,
and focus my body in love for You.
Enable me to love my neighbor more than I love myself,
enable me to love my wife as I love my own body,
and enable me to take up my cross and follow You.
So fill my will with desire to do only Your will,
that I am only able to love You with all my heart,
all my mind, all my soul and all my strength.
So I am unable to love my neighbor less than I love myself,
so I am unable to love my wife less than I love my own body—
because You have taught me, cleansed me, freed me and focused me upon Your cross;
and by my cross, transform me into a good and faithful servant whom You love.
~FS
The acknowledgment of oneself as deserving of temporal and eternal punishments precedes the knowledge of the Savior and leads to the knowledge of the Savior, as we see from the example of the robber who inherited Paradise. Perhaps you will say that the robber was a flagrant criminal, and therefore confession was easy for him, but how is a person who has committed no crime to make a confession of that sort?
We reply that the other robber who was crucified beside the Lord was also a flagrant criminal, but he did not acknowledge his sinfulness, because awareness of sin is a result of love and humility, while unawareness is a result of pride and hardness of heart.
God’s saints were constantly aware that they were sinners, in spite of the obvious spiritual gifts with which they were so lavishly endowed. On the other hand, the greatest evildoers and criminals have always justified themselves. While drowning in crime, they never stopped proclaiming their virtue.
~Ignatius Brianchaninov
It must needs be, as the Apostle reminds us, that a man either ‘renewed in the spirit of his mind’ (Ephesians 4:23), progresses day by day, ‘ever stretching forward to those things which are before’, or, if he be neglectful, the result will follow that he will go backwards and become daily worse and worse.
…the human mind cannot remain constant in one and the same state…of necessity, something is ever either being added…or taken away, and there will never be such perfection found in any creature that it will be wholly free from the danger of change.
…therefore we must with unflagging zeal and care give ourselves to the pursuit of virtue, and constantly occupy ourselves in its practice, lest at any time progress may cease, and regress immediately take its place.
…so then there is no virtue that can be possessed by man without possibility of change, but in order that he may constantly keep it when he has acquired it, he must guard it with the same carefulness and application wherewith it was first gained.
~St John Cassian (Conference with Abbot Theodore)
There is a desert which stretches out before me, within my heart.
It is a quiet place. Still and lonely, and vibrant—
ablaze with light.
I have not trod here.
It calls to me in silent, unspoken words—
with breath my spirit understands.
And I know that I must step into this landscape,
leaving the world behind.
But there is a jungle teeming with life, within my mind.
Populated, unholy, with every kind of thing—
a busy place.
This is where I live.
I am wrapped here in familiar essences—
comfortable and hypnotizing.
I am held by my loves too strong,
and misdirected.
Arise! Oh my soul, and gather yourself within me.
Make haste to embark upon this journey.
The wilderness is waiting, do not linger over your meal—
this bread of sorrows.
The enemy may pursue but will not overtake you,
trample them in the dust of this arid land.
And there will be a fiery sun to burn the demons of noonday,
and a silvery moon to enlighten your steps at night.
Tears of repentance shall be your guide,
and love of God will quicken your steps.
Here arises a great pearl, wrought within a heart given to God,
made pure by tears,
and polished in the crucible of worldly sacrifice.
There is a great Pearl of the Desert, awaiting in our hearts.
The Kingdom of our Lord and Savior,
found through His sufferings and sorrows—
Dawning gloriously with bright tomorrows.
~FS
Remind and remind yourself: ‘I shall die, I shall die for certain! My fathers and forefathers died; no human being has remained forever on earth. And the fate that has overtaken everyone awaits me too!’ Do not fritter away the time given you for repentance. Do not rivet your eyes to the earth on which you are a momentary actor, on which you are an exile, on which by the mercy of God you are given a chance to change your mind and offer repentance for the avoidance of hell’s eternal prisons and the eternal torment in them.
Use the short spell of your pilgrimage on earth to acquire a haven of peace, a blessed refuge in eternity.
~Ignatius Brainchaninov
Our mind is so darkened by the fall that unless we force ourselves to remember death we can completely forget about it. When we forget about death, then we begin to live on earth as if we were immortal, and we sacrifice all our activity to the world without concerning ourselves in the least either about the fearful transition to eternity or about our fate in eternity.
On the other hand, he who often remembers the death of the body rises from the dead in soul. He lives on earth like a stranger in an inn or like a prisoner in jail…before his eyes the gates into eternity are always open.
…he condemns no one, for he remembers that at the judgment of God such judgment will be passed on him as he passed here on his neighbors. He forgives everyone and everything, that he may himself obtain forgiveness and inherit salvation. He is indulgent in all, he is merciful in everything, that indulgence and mercy may be shown to him. He welcomes and embraces with joy every trouble or trial that comes to him as a toll for his sins in time, which frees him from paying a toll in eternity.
If the thought comes to him to be proud of his virtue, at once the remembrance of death rushes against this thought, puts it to shame, exposes the nonsense and drives it away.
~Ignatius Brianchaninov
Just as our eyes of sense when healed of blindness see by their own natural property, so, too, our mind when purified of the disease of sin naturally begins to see the mysteries of Christianity. Rely on God in your efforts.
…strive for that which is essentially necessary for your salvation and which fully satisfies the demands of that need. Endeavor to acquire pure prayer combined with a sense of penitence and mourning, with the remembrance of death, of God’s judgment, and of the frightful dungeons of hell where eternal fire blazes and eternal darkness reigns.
Such prayer combined with such recollections is an unerring, excellent form of divine meditation, and of the greatest profit to the soul.
~Ignatius Brianchaninov
‘Rejoice in the Lord’, said St Paul (Philippians 3:1). And he was right to say, ‘in the Lord’. For if our joy is not in the Lord, not only do we not rejoice, but in all probability we never shall. Job, as he described the life of men, found it full of every kind of affliction (Job 7:1-21), and so also did St Basil the Great. St Gregory of Nyssa said that birds and other animals rejoice because of their lack of awareness, while man, being endowed with intelligence, is never happy because of his grief….since life is full of pain and effort, like a state of exile dominated by sin.
But if a person is constantly mindful of God, he will rejoice: as the psalmist says, ‘I remembered God, and I rejoiced’ (Psalm 77:3). For when the intellect is gladdened by the remembrance of God, then it forgets the afflictions of this world, places its hope in Him, and is no longer troubled or anxious. Freedom from anxiety makes it rejoice and give thanks; and the grateful offering of thanks augments the gifts of grace it has received. And as the blessings increase, so does the thankfulness, and so does the pure prayer offered with tears of joy.
~St Peter of Damaskos
…each of us faithful is attacked and led astray by the passions; but if he is at peace with God and with his neighbor he overcomes them all. These passions are the ‘world’ which St John the Theologian told us to hate (1 John2:15), meaning that we are to hate, not God’s creatures, but worldly desires. The soul is at peace with God when it is at peace with itself and has become wholly deiform. It is also at peace with God when it is at peace with all men, even if it suffers terrible things at their hands.
Because of its forbearance it is not perturbed, but bears all things (1 Corinthians 13:7), wishes good to all, loves all, both for God’s sake and for the sake of their own nature. It grieves for unbelievers because they are destroying themselves, as our Lord and the apostles grieved for them.
It prays for the faithful and labors on their behalf, and in this way its own thoughts are filled with peace and it lives in a state of noetic contemplation and pure prayer to God. To Him be glory through all the ages. Amen.
~St Peter of Damaskos
Prayerful Life 