Lies Easily Conquered

April 17, 2019 | Saint Theophan

[Acts 2:14–21; Luke 24:12–35] At that time the Jews attempted to overshadow the light of Christ’s Resurrection with the mist of a lie: His disciples stole Him (Matt. 28:13). It was

pettiness, and the truth triumphed. But until now the enemy has not ceased to spread mist before the Sun of Resurrection, hoping to over?shadow it. Let nobody be troubled! What can be expected from the fa?ther of lies

taught many of his minions to write entire books against the Resurrec?tion. This

dissipated by books. Do not pick up a bad book, and you will not be mist-enshrouded by it; but if you should accidentally come upon such a book, take up a good book as an antidote, and you will refresh your head and breast. There is another mist that comes from the enemy —in our thoughts. But this can also be immediately

smoke in the wind, through sensible Christian discernment. Review all the preceding with discernment and you will see clear as day that it would have been impossible for all of it to happen except through the power of Christ’s Resurrection. This conviction will then be a firm stand?point from which you will easily re?pel and strike down the enemies of the truth.

Saint Theophan the Recluse

Rejoice full of grace

April 16, 2019 | Saint Theophan

[Acts 1:12–17, 21–26; John 1:18–28]. When the angel an?nounced the good tidings of the Lord’s incarnation he said: Hail, thou that are highly favored! (Luke 1:28);[1] proclaiming to the shep?herds the birth of Christ the Saviour he also said: behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy (Luke 2:10). But proclaiming Lord’s resurrection to the women, the angel only says: He is not here, but is risen! (Luke 24:6). He does not add “rejoice,” for joy would fill their heart on its own, as soon as the assurance came that the Lord was risen indeed. At that time this assurance was tangible: the an?gel prepared it; the Lord in His ap?pearing completed it. And every?one’s joy was inexhaustibly full! Now our church, houses and streets are clothed in the garments of re?joicing, and everyone is caught up in a general stream of joy. Now turn your thoughts away from the externals, and gathering them in your heart, raise up the truth of the resurrection, in all of its breadth, depth and height; so that your re?joicing be more than external. Bear out that spirit of joy, like a spring of bright water, gushing from depths of the earth.

[1]The first quote in the Slavonic reads: Rejoice thou full of grace.

Saint Theophan the Recluse

The Joy and Gladness of Sinners

April 13, 2019 | Saint Theophan

The crucifixion of Christ the Lord and the synaxis of Archangel Gabri?el! A new consoling combination! Gabriel proclaims beforehand the birth of the Forerunner; Gabriel brings good tidings to the Virgin; he, very likely, proclaimed the joy of the birth of the Saviour; no one else proclaimed to the women about the resurrection of Christ the Lord. Therefore Gabriel is the herald and bearer of every joy. The crucifixion of Christ is the joy and gladness of all sinners. A sinner, coming to a feeling of his sinfulness and of the all-righteous truth of God, has no?where to take shelter, except under the shadow of the cross. Here he ac?cepts the assurance that he has no forgiveness while he stands alone before God with his sins and even with tears over them. The only sal?vation for him is in the death on the cross of the Lord. On the cross the handwriting of all sins was torn a?part (cf. Col 2:14). And each who ac?cepts this with complete faith is made a participant in this mystery of forgiveness. As this faith ripens, confidence of forgiveness ripens as well, and also comfort from the feel?ing of entering into the state of for?giveness for all ages. The cross is the source of joy, because a sinner drinks with faith from it the joy of forgiveness. In this sense, it is in its own way an archangel, bringing good tidings of joy.

Saint Theophan the Recluse

Heaven

April 11, 2019 | Saint Theophan

Sat­ur­day. [Rom 6:3–11; Matt. 28:1–20] The Lord sleeps bodi­ly in the tomb; in soul He de­scend­ed in­to ha­des and preach­ed sal­va­tion to the souls there. The Old Tes­ta­ment saints were not in heav­en, al­though they a­bode in the con­sol­ing faith that they would be brought there as soon as the Prom­ised One came to earth, hav­ing lived by faith in Him. There al­so the Fore­run­ner foretold of His com­ing. When the Lord de­scend­ed, all who be­lieved cleaved to Him and were lift­ed up by Him in­to heav­en. But even that heav­en is on­ly the thresh­old of the true par­a­dise which will be re­veal­ed af­ter the gen­er­al res­ur­rec­tion and judge­ment., Al­though all of the new-tes­ta­ment saints al­so are bless­ed in heav­en, they a­wait an even more per­fect bliss in the age to come, with a new heav­en and new earth (cf. Rev. 21:1), when God will be all in all (cf. I Cor. 15:28).

Follow in the Lord’s Sufferings

April 9, 2019 | Saint Theophan

Monday (Holy Week). [Matt. 24:3–35] The Lord goes to a voluntary passion. We must accompany Him. This is the duty of anyone who con?fesses that by the power of Christ’s passion he has become who he is now, and of anyone who hopes to receive something which is so great and glorious, that it could not even enter one’s mind. How must one ac?company Him? Through reflection and sympathy. Follow the suffering Lord in thought; and in your reflec?

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could strike your heart and bring it to feel the sufferings which were borne by the Lord. In order to bet?ter accomplish this, you must make yourself suffer through perceptible lessening of food and sleep, and an increase in the labour of standing and kneeling. Fulfil all that the Holy Church does, and you will be a good fellow-traveller of the Lord to His sufferings.

Saint Theophan the Recluse

Crucify Him

April 8, 2019 | Saint Theophan

Palm Sunday. [Phil. 4:4–9; John 12:1–18] Who did not meet the Lord when He, as a king, triumphantly entered into Jerusalem; and who did not cry out then, Hosanna to the Son of David! (Matt. 21:15)? But only four days passed, and the same crowd with the same tongues cried, Crucify Him, crucify Him! (John 19:6). An amazing change! But why should we be surprised? Do we not do the very same thing, when upon receiving the holy Mysteries of the Body and Blood of the Lord, we barely leave the church before for?getting everything — both our rev?erence and God’s mercy toward us. We give ourselves over as before to self-pleasing deeds — at first small and then also large. Perhaps even before four days have passed, al?though we do not cry, “Crucify Him!” we will crucify the Lord with?in ourselves. The Lord sees all of this, and suffers. Glory to Thy long?suffering, O Lord!

Saint Theophan the Recluse

United with Christ in mind and heart

April 5, 2019 | Saint Theophan

Thursday. Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way (Prov. 23:19). Out of the heart continually proceed thoughts which sometimes are good, but more often are evil. The evil ones should not be followed at all, but even the good ones should not always be carried out. It happens that even thoughts which are good in and of them?selves are inappropriate in reality, due to circumstances. This is why it is prescribed to be attentive toward oneself, to keep an eye on all that proceeds out of the heart — to reject the evil, consider what is good, and fulfil only what proves to be truly good. But best of all would be to to?tally imprison the heart,

nothing leaves it and nothing enters it without the permission

mind; so that the mind would come first in all things, determining the movements of the heart. But the mind is this way only when it is the mind of Christ.

Christ in mind and heart and every?thing within you will be in good working order.

Saint Theophan the Recluse

Seeking through fasting alone

April 4, 2019 | Saint Theophan

Cry aloud, says the Lord to the Holy Prophet Isaiah; spare not, convicting the transgres?sions of My people. What did the people do? They seek me daily, and delight to know my ways.[1] But is there really a sin in this? Indeed, they ought to do this. Yes, they ought to, but the fact is that they do this not as they ought. They hope to be successful in their seeking through fasting alone, not caring for works of righteousness and love. “Fasting is pleasing to Me,” says the Lord, “but only such fasting where?by people, in humbling their body, forgive offences, forgive debts, feed the hungry, bring the outcast out to their house, clothe the naked. When all of this is done together with fast?ing, then you will succeed in seek?ing Me and approaching Me; then shall thy light break forth as the morning… the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and He shall say, Here I am… And the Lord shall guide thee continually (Isa. 58:1–11).

[1] The Slavonic for the second quote reads: they seek Me, take de?light in approaching God.

Entreaties of the Poor

April 3, 2019 | Saint Theophan

Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard (Prov. 21:13). And we often marvel why God does not listen to our prayers? Here is the reason! Because there surely have been instances when we have stopped

hearing the entreaties of the needy; so the Lord does not hear us either. It is no great woe if a prayer about something temporal is not heard; but how woeful if the Lord will not listen to us when we start to pray to Him about the forgiveness of our sins. He will not listen if the cry to Him of those

scorned is stronger than our pray?ers. We must hurry to avert this ex?treme misfortune, according to the example of Zaccheus, whose wise decision caused the Lord to say, This day is salvation come to this house (Luke 19:9).

Saint Theophan the Recluse

Evil thoughts go be­fore a fall

March 25, 2019 | Saint Theophan

emA haugh­ty spir­it goeth be­fore a fall/em(Prov. 16:18).[1] There­fore, do not al­low evil thoughts to come in, and there will be no falls. And yet what are peo­ple most care­less a­bout? A­bout their thoughts. They al­low them to seethe as much and how­ev­er they like, not even thinking to sub­due them, or to di­rect them to ra­tio­nal pur­suits. Mean­while, with­in this in­ner tur­moil the en­e­my ap­proach­es, places evil in the heart, se­duces it and in­clines it to­ward evil. And the per­son un­no­tice­ab­ly pre­pares him­self for evil. It re­mains for him to ei­ther car­ry out the evil fixed to his heart, or to strug­gle with it. But this is our sor­row: that al­most no­body takes on the strug­gle; while all are led to the evil as if bound.[1] The Sla­von­ic for Prov. 16:18 reads: emEvil thoughts go be­fore a fall./emProb­a­bly St. The­o­phan used the Sla­von­ic ver­sion as he wrote, but the ed­i­tor used the Rus­sian ver­sion, and so the ed­i­tor add­ed the words, “evil thoughts” in pa­ren­the­ses in my ver­sion of the text)