Category: Uncategorized

Great Pearl of the Desert

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

April 7

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

April 6

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

April 5

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

April 4

‘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

April 3

…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

April 2

The end of our journey is the Kingdom of God. But we ought diligently to inquire what our aim is to be, for, if it be not known and recognized, we shall only tire ourselves out in vain, since when a man knows not the way he is going, his journey is mere toil and not progress.

The end of our profession is, as we have said, the Kingdom of God…our immediate journey…is purity of heart, without which it is not possible for anyone to arrive at the end….Whatever, then, can guide our steps to this, namely, purity of heart, we must follow with all our powers, and what would draw us away from it we must avoid as deadly and evil. [Interview with Abba Moses.]

~St John Cassian

April 2

Unceasing prayer was enjoined by God Himself. The Savior of the world said, ‘Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you.’ ‘And shall God not avenge his own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily.’

…in order to become eventually capable of unceasing prayer [one] must practice frequent prayer. Frequent prayer in due time passes automatically into unceasing prayer….

He who does not train himself to frequent prayer will never receive unceasing prayer. Unceasing prayer is a gift of God, given by God to a slave and servant of His of proven fidelity. ‘It is impossible to draw near to God other than by unceasing prayer.’ (St Isaac the Syrian)

Unceasing prayer is a sign of God’s mercy toward a man; it is a sign that all the powers of his soul are bent on God.

~Ignatius Brianchaninov

April 1

The essential, indispensable property of prayer is attention. Without attention there is no prayer. True grace-given attention comes from the mortification of our heart to the world….

The separation of the mind from the heart, and their opposition to one another, have resulted from our fall into sin. It is natural for divine grace, when it stretches out its finger to heal a man, crushed and broken to pieces by his fall, to join together his severed parts and to unite the mind not only with the heart and soul but even with the body, and to give it a single, true ardor for God.

~Ignatius Brianchaninov

March 31

How can anything be accomplished without moral judgment? It is born of the intelligence and constitutes the mean between craftiness–that is, excessive astuteness–and thoughtlessness. Craftiness pulls moral judgment towards cunning and guile, and injures the soul of the possessor and as many other people as it can; lack of thought makes one obtuse and trivial, and does not allow the intellect to concentrate on divine matters or on something of profit to one’s soul or to one’s neighbor….

The man of moral judgment…neither climbs arrogantly upward seeking to harm others, nor descends foolishly only to be harmed by someone else. Choosing the middle way, he keeps to this with the help of Christ our Lord; to whom be glory and dominion throughout the ages, Amen.

~St Peter of Damaskos