Category: Uncategorized

To Be Taken Internally

The Jesus Prayer can be strong medicine in the battle against our passions, but it must be applied to the source of our illness. It does no good to treat a stomach ache by applying ointment to the surface of the skin; so too is it ineffective to say the Jesus Prayer with inattention or a distracted mind. To fight our passions with this prayer—to combat sadness, or anger or sinful thoughts with it—requires that it be applied deep into our heart, the place of these illnesses, and this necessitates vigilant and focused prayer, developed with effort and mental focus over time.

~FS

March 8

“Behold what ought to be the point of departure for a profitable journey according to God. You must always go over in your memory, and guard in unceasing meditation, the remembrance of the goodness of God Who has ordered your life’s course according to His design, of His benefits that aim at your soul’s salvation. Do not let your memory be darkened by vice, the source of indifference; neither lose the remembrance of the multitude and extent of His graces and consequently spend the rest of time without profit in ingratitude. For this ceaseless remembrance pricks the heart like a thorn, at all times pushing it to confession, humility, thanksgiving with a crushed soul, great zeal as regards the good, so as to offer in return a way of life, profitable conduct and all virtue according to God…[He who] does not allow himself to fall into the forgetfulness of such benefits…directs himself towards all the good ascesis of virtue and towards every work of justice with an ever-sustained ardor always disposed to carrying out God’s will.”

                                                            ~St Mark the Ascetic

Dangerous Rapturous Love

I have often struggled with the imposition that is Christian love;
a love so different from the love that is often exchanged in our world,
a love that asks us to give our lives away incrementally, or all at once…
What would we have and where would we be, had Christ turned away from His cross?
If His love was not sacrificial love, and had He not given His life away?
Instead, perhaps merely leaving us with a kind word, and a smile, and wishing us the best…
Is there a true love that won’t also require us to sacrifice ourselves?
This is a love that is risky, dangerous, and can expose us to losses;
literal losses of money, property, time, sleep—
and other essential, or superfluous pleasures.
Christian love is the prototype and embodiment of selflessness,
when practiced in its pure form, following in the steps of our namesake.
Worldly prudence has taught me to count the costs, weigh the risks,
and back away from any that cross the line, that are too costly.
Divine prudence teaches me to give more,
to extend this line further towards my neighbor, or erase the line altogether.
Experience has shown me that sacrificial love engenders a joyful bliss,
a type of euphoria, and a freedom that calls out from within me, wildly…
and rapturously,
when I am courageous enough to follow, and do this love—
the will of my Lord.
 
~FS

March 6

Scientific knowledge itself is not neutral; but, as St Gregory Palamas emphasizes (in this matter the most modern epistemological thinking concurs with him), it is relative “to the intention of those who make use of it,” “appearing according to the thought of those who make use of it and easily taking the form which is given it by the point of view of those who possess it.”

~Dr Jean-Claude Larchet (Therapy of Spiritual Illnesses vol.1, p.62)

March 5

Having lost the true knowledge of reality that he possessed in the Spirit, but nonetheless needing knowledge, fallen man ends up replacing this knowledge not by another single knowledge, but by a multitude of forms of knowledge of all sorts, corresponding to the multitude of appearances among which he henceforth moves. St Mark the Ascetic thus notes that its ignorance and forgetfulness of God “cast a pall of terrible and unstable curiosity over the soul.”

But the types of knowledge resulting from this loss are partial, shifting, differing, even opposed to one another–just like the phenomenal realities to which they apply. Man, in his substitutive forms of knowledge, is limited to classifying the appearances of things–these appearances that per se have no objectivity–since they are defined by the deformed and fallen intellect of their observer.

…Fallen man’s various forms of knowledge are thus nothing more than illusory projections of his fallen consciousness, and even where an objectivity or truth seems to have been attained (such as in scientific knowledge), this objectivity and truth can be reduced as a matter of fact to the temporary agreement of states of consciousness producing the same type of projection and being in accordance with one another in some way in their common state of decline.

~Dr Jean-Claude Larchet (Therapy of Spiritual Illnesses vol.1, pp.61-62)

March 4

Thus, fallen man replaces the worship of the Creator with the worship of creatures. Idolatry exists not only in the oft-taken forms of organized religion, in which creatures are explicitly defined as gods, but also in all man’s attitude vis-a-vis being, when this being is taken as an end and is endowed with a sense and value per se, instead of these latter being recognized in God. Idolatry also exists in every activity and effort consecrated upon a being per se, instead of being consecrated to God through it. One holds an idolatrous attitude towards a being whenever this being stops being transparent to God, stops revealing Him–in other words, whenever man stops perceiving its spiritual ‘reasons’ and ‘perceiving’ in them the divine energies present in them that define its true nature.

Thus this being hides God instead of manifesting Him; it is closed in on itself in a way instead of serving as a stepping stone for man, that he might be raised up to his Creator.

~Dr Jean-Claude Larchet (Therapy of Spiritual Illnesses vol.1, pp.58-59)

March 2

[One] should always act as if [they] were going to die tomorrow; yet [they] should treat [their] body as if it was going to live for many years. The first cuts off the inclination to listlessness, and makes [one] more diligent; the second keeps [one’s] body sound and [their] self-control well balanced.

~Evagrios Pontikos (Philokalia, vol. 1, p. 53)

 

With our being focused on God, we can more easily entertain the inevitability of our mortality, and by allowing this to shape our actions and our thoughts every day it can stimulate us to take our lives more seriously—considering how we spend our time, what we think about, how we react to others, and whether we are living to make our home and build our treasures here in this life, or preparing for our heavenly home and placing our treasures with God.

Acknowledging that our death is imminent can bring us into much greater intimacy with our Creator; it acknowledges the truth that this life, no matter how many years we are given, is just a shadow and we don’t have the luxury of putting off the things that truly matter. The day of our death, whether it is literally tomorrow or fifty years from now, will be upon us and we should be prepared.

As for our bodies, the Lord is greatly concerned with these as well as our souls, otherwise the Apostle never would have said, “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) or, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

Therefore, if God cares for it, and He has plans for it even into eternity, then we must also care for it. However, not as the world cares for it, enslaved to our body’s appetites or lost in devotion to it, but rather caring for it in a spiritual manner, bringing it under the direction and control of our intellect, so that it is given what it needs for its ongoing health and vitality.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.

~FS

March 1

In the whole range of evil thoughts, none is richer in resources than self-esteem; for it is to be found almost everywhere, and like some cunning traitor in a city it opens the gates to all the demons. So it greatly debases the intellect of the solitary, filling it with many words and notions, and polluting the prayers through which he is trying to heal all the wounds of his soul. All the other demons, when defeated, combine to increase the strength of this evil thought; and through the gateway of self-esteem they all gain entry into the soul, thus making a man’s last state worse than his first (cf. Matthew 12:45). Self-esteem gives rise in turn to pride, which cast down from heaven to earth the highest of the angels, the seal of God’s likeness and the crown of all beauty. So turn quickly away from pride and do not dally with it, in case you surrender your life to others and your substance to the merciless (cf. Proverbs 5:9). This demon is driven away by intense prayer and by not doing or saying anything that contributes to the sense of your own importance.

~Evagrios Pontikos (Philokalia, vol. 1, pp. 46-47)

 

Self-esteem, or vain-glory, is subtle and devious in the way that it turns the mind of its victim away from God, and towards him or herself. It can use nearly every aspect of one’s life as its raw materials for elevating the self, making it glory in itself apart from God, and even in place of God. Like the Pharisee it makes one proud of their accomplishments, or the gifts given them by God, and unlike the Publican it prevents one from humbling themselves and repenting before God, which is a necessary prerequisite for coming into genuine relationship with Christ, and for being healed of our spiritual diseases and attaining salvation.

Have you conquered gluttony, are you no longer attached to possessions, have you attained peace and freedom from disputes and confrontations with others, do you follow Christ’s commands—if you have achieved any of these and yet believe that you have done something yourself, you are in danger of self-esteem and losing the victory in Christ. Vain-glory works along with pride to delude the mind of those who trust in its lies, tricking the mind into believing in its own powers, and divorcing the soul from its marriage with God.  Constant prayer, determined prayer, prayer with attention and effort reunite the soul with God, restore the proper humility within the soul, turning it away from itself, and reorienting it towards the Lord.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.

 

~FS

February 28

Man cannot drive away impassioned thoughts unless he watches over his desire and incensive power. He destroys desire through fasting, vigils and sleeping on the ground, and he tames his incensive power through long-suffering, forbearance, forgiveness and acts of compassion. For with these two passions are connected almost all the demonic thoughts which lead the intellect to disaster and perdition. It is impossible to overcome these passions unless we can rise above attachment to food and possessions, to self-esteem and even to our very body, because it is through the body that the demons often attempt to attack us. It is essential then, to imitate people who are in danger at sea and throw things overboard because of the violence of the winds and the threatening waves. But here we must be very careful in case we cast things overboard just to be seen doing so by men. For then we shall get the reward we want; but we shall suffer another shipwreck, worse than the first, blown off our course by the contrary wind of the demon of self-esteem.

~Evagrios Pontikos (Philokalia, vol. 1, p. 39)

 

*Incensive Power-one of three aspects of the soul (along with the intelligent aspect and the appetitive aspect), the force that provokes strong feelings such as anger, all three aspects of the soul can be used positively in accordance with God’s will or negatively, against nature, sinfully.

 

Impassioned thoughts are the myriad of thoughts that draw us away from God and draw us into every sort of trouble, difficulty and destruction. Evagrios shines light here on the fact that most of this sort of thinking derives from a misuse of the faculties of the soul connected to our desire and our anger. Desire should be directed towards God and not towards food and things; and anger should be directed against anything that comes between our relationship with God and in defense of virtuous conduct, not against other people or in defense of our selfishness.

In order to drive away sinful thinking, and destroy wrongly directed desire and anger, we have practical steps of ascetic practice that can help us, by loosening our attachment to the thoughts within us, and things outside of us, that keep us disoriented; rather helping us to focus in the proper spiritual direction aimed toward God.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.

 

~FS

February 27

…the grace of deification is entirely unconditional, and there is no faculty whatever in nature capable of achieving it since, if there were, this grace would no longer be grace but merely the manifestation of the operation of a natural capacity. Nor, if deification were in accord with a natural capacity, would there be anything miraculous in it; for then deification would truly be the work of nature, not the gift of God, and a man would be able to be and to be called a God by nature in the full sense of the words.

For the natural capacity of every being is nothing other than the undeviating and natural disposition for active accomplishment. It is, indeed, incomprehensible how deification can raise the person deified outside or beyond himself if it is encompassed within the bounds of nature.

~St Gregory Palamas (Philokalia vol.4, pp.420-421)