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July 3

For someone who loves the body, mortal life, sensual pleasure, and the material world, separation from them is death; but for someone who loves holiness, God, the immaterial world and virtue, true death is for the mind to be separated from them even briefly. If the eyes of a person who can see sensible light are closed for an instant or covered by someone else, he suffers and is distressed and cannot bear it, especially if he was looking at something important or unusual. But is someone is illumined by the Holy Spirit and, whether asleep or awake, sees spiritually those blessings that ‘the eye has not seen, and the ear has not heard, and man’s heart has not grasped’ (1 Corinthians 2:9), and ‘that angels long to glimpse’ (1 Peter 1:12), how much more will he suffer and be tormented if he is torn away from the vision of these things? For this will seem to him like death, a veritable exclusion from eternal life.

~St Symeon the New Theologian

Paths: (Part 50: In From the Wilderness)

The best, most meaningful things in life, the ones that touch us the most deeply, and evoke the most within our souls, always tend to be multi-faceted and complex. They are never just one thing, but appear differently to us, when looked at from other perspectives, or when held in a different light. In addition to being beautiful and mysterious, the Divine Liturgy of the Orthodox Church, is also homey and familiar. Not only does it have the power to uplift and transform us into heavenly realms, but it also evokes the best memories and feelings of earthly life.

In many Orthodox churches, and all of the ones I’ve attended, there are no pews in the center of the worship space, since everyone who is able, stands throughout the service. Before the Liturgy begins, as the chanter chants the psalms of the hourly prayer, the people meet together and mill about; it is like a gathering of family, for a holiday, at the home of a loved one. It is an informal and intimate experience as families greet each other, children run to visit one another, perhaps a few folks are lighting candles and oil lamps, others are looking over their music as they stand ready in the choir, some find a quiet space in a corner and pray, or they find solace in the embrace of a beloved friend, or they stand in silence pondering the life of a friend from the past, staring intently at an icon—into the golden face of a departed saint. I have always felt this feeling of festivity awaiting the beginning of the Liturgy; the air has a feeling of excitement and anticipation, and the space itself has a feeling of warmth and comfort. Adding to this feeling of coziness are the assortment of throw rugs adorning the floors, much like the home of that loved one we might visit every Christmas or Thanksgiving. In all of these ways, the church is welcoming us and inviting us home again.

I’ve already mentioned the sublimity of the Divine Liturgy, its music, prayers, incense, and so on, yet it also contains innocence and simplicity. Nothing, to my mind, portrays this simplicity and innocence more than when it is time for the priest to share his homily and everyone, young and old, takes their seat on the floor to listen. It reminds me of story time in grade school. All generations, grandchildren, grandparents, all sitting humbly together on the rugs, ready to listen to the story that our father has for us today. There is something so very helpful in allowing our bodies to conform to this attitude of humility and innocence, it stimulates our minds to follow suit, assisting us in acquiring that blessed simplicity that Jesus encourages us to adopt on our journey to the Kingdom of God.

If the gathering of the church—the body of Christ, as the church is defined—could be compared, in a small way, to a gathering of family during the holidays, then the liturgy, which is the primary weekly holiday gathering in the Orthodox Church, is a fulfilling, satisfying and transformative, truly holy day. So very unlike the family gatherings I had come to expect in the houses of worship from my past, here the televisions are turned off, entertaining music isn’t playing in the background for our amusement, and the entire gathering is focused and directed in joyful anticipation towards the thanksgiving meal at the end, of genuine participation in the feast of feasts, our true communion with the body and blood of our Lord.

In other houses of worship, which I have experienced, I was first entertained and informed, and then maybe encouraged, and then finally given some inspiring words, a prayer and a pep talk; and on occasion, I was given a chip or a cracker and some juice as a tribute to an idea, a memorial to an important event from the past, and then benedicted away for the week. But in this liturgy, at this gathering of the people, the goal is true union with the body of Christ, communion with the Spirit of God, it is all about our participation with God, and not merely our conceptualization of Him. We seek to dwell now with our creator, the awesome and magnificent Power behind everything that exists; it is a fearful and presumptuous desire that we have, made possible only through the grace and mercy of a loving God. It is a transcendent and solemn affair, and it is given the solemnity and respect due something so uniquely powerful, holy, and priceless.

For about two years I attended the liturgy but was unable to fully participate in it, since I wasn’t a baptized Orthodox Christian. I can understand why some people might feel left out and feel offended or angry about being excluded from the Eucharist, but certainly the intent in offering it only to members of the church isn’t to exclude people; for everyone is welcome to join, but it is a respect for the importance of the gift being offered, and a protection against our superficiality, which could tend to render this amazing gift commonplace. Scripture itself admonishes us all to take these gifts of our Lords flesh and blood, with respect, and in a worthy way, so as not to bring condemnation down upon us. So it is out of loving concern that the Orthodox Church doesn’t open this sacrament up to those who may not understand its significance, or the appropriate attitude to have when approaching it. As for the inclusiveness, that we in the world tend to want, from all of our institutions, it is there in the form of the antidoron bread, which is available for everyone to enjoy during Communion, as an expression of fellowship and love.

So I had been attending the church for quite a while, and had even joined the choir, but was unable to participate in the Eucharist; the entire teleological reason for the liturgy, and indeed, also for my life. I knew I had found my spiritual home finally, after all the years of seeking in so many different places, I knew my home was in the Orthodox Church. I knew this was the place for me to finally find rest from my years of wandering and experimenting. Not that this was the end of my journey, for Christ and the church promises us an eternity of discovery and growth in God, but rather this was the place where I could finally become myself. I could see, and feel, and understand the potential, and the hope present here, for all that kept me from God, to finally fall away, or be ground out of me; like scales, or dead skin—all the lies, confusion, the emptiness and meaninglessness, the loneliness and anxiety could be shed, and I could be healed and transformed, resuscitated and given new life. The church has a method and a means to do this; an apostolic mandate and heritage, with the power of the Holy Spirit filling its traditions and its teachings, so that each member can, in actuality, attain divine union; attain purity, illumination, and deification, according to the workings of grace granted them by God.

All of this I knew instinctively about my new spiritual home, from all of the things I had already experienced within it, and also from the things I had read about it. In my heart I felt as if I had always been an Orthodox Christian, I just hadn’t known it. I had been a voice crying out, alone in the wilderness, and I could now finally come inside, and live amongst my own people.

(to be continued)

~FS

July 1

The goal of all who pursue the spiritual path is to do the will of Christ, their

God, to be reconciled with the Father through communion in the Spirit, and

so to achieve their salvation.  For only in this way is the soul’s salvation

attained. And if it is not attained, our labor is fatuous and our work vain.

Every path of life is pointless that does not lead the person pursuing it to

this consummation.                                      

                                                       ~St Symeon the New Theologian

June 30

Insensibility or deadening of the soul consists in the deprival and loss of a sense of repentance and mourning from our spirit, and a loss of that salutary pain called contrition from our heart. Painlessness of heart or illusory peace is a true sign of a wrong outlook, wrong struggle, self-deception. “However great may be the life we lead,” says St John of the Ladder, “it we have not acquired a suffering and painful heart, we may count it stale and spurious.” Painlessness comes from an inattentive life…from gluttony…from vainglorious thoughts, from presumption and pride. “If you are without compunction,” says the Fathers, “know that you have vainglory; for it does not allow the soul to come to compunction.”

The way to attain compunction is an attentive life. “The beginning of repentance comes from the fear of God and attention,” as the holy martyr Boniface says. “The fear of God is the father of attention, and attention is the mother of inner peace, which gives birth to a conscience which enables the soul to see its deformity as in a kind of clear and still water, and so are born the beginnings and roots of repentance.”

~Ignatius Brianchaninov

June 29

The greatest of the holy Fathers admitted that repentance was their sole occupation. Having given themselves up to this activity, they more and more widened its scope for themselves, since repentance not only cleanses a person from sins but also sharpens his sight so that he sees himself more clearly.

When some spots of sin are removed by repentance from the garment of the soul, then suddenly the existence of other spots is discovered, less coarse but no less important, which have remained unnoticed till now on account of the dullness of our sight.

Finally repentance leads a person who practices it to the most profound spiritual visions; there is disclosed to him his own fall and the fall of all mankind, his suffering and the suffering of mankind under the yoke of the prince of this world, the wonderful work of redemption and the other mysteries, with which the reader must become acquainted by experience, for human speech is quite inadequate to tell of them.

~Ignatius Brianchaninov

June 28

In order to approach Christ and enter into union with Him by means of holy baptism, it is essential first of all to repent. And after holy baptism, we are given freedom either to stay in union with the Lord or to break this union by intercourse with sin. Not only that, but in our fallen nature holy baptism does not destroy our aptitude for producing evil mixed with good, so that our will and pleasure may be constantly tested, so that our choice of divine good and our preference of it to evil and our corrupted good may be free, proved positively by our submission to all the sorrows and sufferings of the way of the cross.

By holy baptism, original sin is expunged, as are also sins committed before baptism. It also eliminates the violent power sin has over us till our rebirth; it gives us the grace of the Holy Spirit by which we are united with God in Christ, and we receive power to subdue and conquer sin. For the simple reason that we are not delivered from the struggle with sin, we cannot be entirely free from sin during the whole of our earthly life, and even “a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again” by repentance, says scripture….

Repentance becomes his secure possession, his constant weapon, his invaluable treasure. By repentance, the righteous man maintains his fellowship with Christ. He is healed by repentance from the wounds caused by sin.

~Ignatius Brianchaninov

June 27

The Savior of the world has said, “The lamp of the body is the eye.” By lamp the Savior meant the spiritual power of the human soul, the spirit of man; by body the Savior meant all man’s activity and the quality of his life that is formed by and depends on this activity….

“When your eye is good,” that is, when the spiritual power is unconfused by sin or fellowship with Satan, then “your whole body also is full of light,” that is, your activity will be right and will be holy in quality. “But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness.” See to it that your spirit, which is your natural light and the source of light for  your life, does not become dark and a source of darkness.

This eye becomes evil through accepting falsehood. A result of this acceptance is wrong activity, while the quality of life becomes a state of sinfulness and self-deception. By accepting false thoughts the mind is corrupted, the conscience loses its reliability, and all the spiritual feelings of the heart are likewise infected with abnormality and sinfulness. Man becomes useless, an enemy of his own salvation, a murderer of his own soul, an enemy of God.

~Ignatius Brianchaninov

June 26

The Savior of the world has said, “The lamp of the body is the eye.” By lamp the Savior meant the spiritual power of the human soul, the spirit of man; by body the Savior meant all man’s activity and the quality of his life that is formed by and depends on this activity….

“When your eye is good,” that is, when the spiritual power is unconfused by sin or fellowship with Satan, then “your whole body also is full of light,” that is, your activity will be right and will be holy in quality. “But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness.” See to it that your spirit, which is your natural light and the source of light for  your life, does not become dark and a source of darkness.

This eye becomes evil through accepting falsehood. A result of this acceptance is wrong activity, while the quality of life becomes a state of sinfulness and self-deception. By accepting false thoughts the mind is corrupted, the conscience loses its reliability, and all the spiritual feelings of the heart are likewise infected with abnormality and sinfulness. Man becomes useless, an enemy of his own salvation, a murderer of his own soul, an enemy of God.

~Ignatius Brianchaninov

The Arena

I would like to recommend reading, The Arena: Guidelines for Spiritual and Monastic Life written by Ignatius Brianchaninov. Though the title seems to imply that it is written for monastics this isn’t entirely the case, but rather, it is written also for lay people who are interested in deepening their relationship with our Savior.

It is an extremely clear and concisely written guidebook in the spiritual life and the inner spiritual struggle, written by a Russian bishop as a summary of all that he had learned in his forty years of study in the holy Fathers, and through serving the church as a monk, priest, archimandrite, abbot and eventually as a recluse.

The majority of the text falls under his heading, ‘Counsels for the Spiritual Life…’ and consists of a comprehensive series of topics which each of us will face in our own spiritual life. Each chapter is quite short and can be read in a space of anywhere from a few minutes up to a half hour, so the book could be used as a devotional if one wanted to approach it in that way.

Here are the titles of some of the chapters to give you a brief idea of the scope and breadth of his instruction: On the Study of the Commandments of the Gospel…The [Spiritual] Life is Life According to the Commandments of the Gospel…Love for Our Neighbor Is a Means of Attaining to Love for God…On Prayer…On Divine Meditation…On the Remembrance of Death…Sources of Temptations…On the Necessity for Courage in Temptations…Concerning Human Glory…Concerning Resentment of Remembrance of Wrongs…Concerning the Fallen Angels…Struggling with the Fallen Angels…On the Close Affinity Between Virtues and Vices…Concerning Repentance and Mourning.

Most of us in today’s world lack a spiritual father, or someone who acts in our lives directly as a spiritual director. In absence of this we can find direction from the church Fathers and others who have written and been approved by the Church. As each of us strive to deepen our relationship with The Divine, we need guidance and direction, and thankfully the Orthodox Church has many who have gone before us and can show us the way. Bishop Ignatius has provided in this relatively brief volume just such direction for us, and I hope many will make use of his hard-fought wisdom.