The Cross Of Joy

May 3, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

The cru­ci­fix­ion of Christ the Lord and the syn­ax­is of Arch­an­gel Ga­bri­el! 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 no­where to take shel­ter, ex­cept un­der the shad­ow of the cross. Here he ac­cepts the as­sur­ance that he has no for­give­ness while he stands alone be­fore God with his sins and even with tears over them. The on­ly sal­va­tion for him is in the death on the cross of the Lord. On the cross the hand­writ­ing of all sins was torn a­part (cf. Col 2:14). And each who ac­cepts 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 feel­ing of en­ter­ing in­to the state of for­give­ness 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.

Love for God and neighbor

April 30, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost. [II Cor. 4:6-15; Matt. 22:35-46]

The Lord offered the commandment about love for God and one’s neighbor, and immediately supplemented it with the teaching about His Sonship to God and His Divinity. Why was this? Because true love for God and people is possible no way other than by the influence of faith in the Divinity of Christ the Saviour, that He is the incarnate Son of God. Such faith arouses love for God, for how can one not love God, who has loved us so much, Who did not even spare His Only-Begotten Son, but gave Him up for us? Faith brings this love to complete fulfilment, or to what it seeks; while love seeks a living union. To attain this union, one must overcome a feeling of God’s righteousness which punishes sin; without this it is terrifying to approach God. This feeling is overcome through the conviction that God’s righteousness is satisfied by the death on the cross of the Son of God. Such a conviction comes from faith; consequently, faith opens the path of love toward God. This is the first thing. Second: faith in the Divinity of the Son of God Who was incarnate, suffered, and was buried for our sake, gives an example of love for one’s neighbor; for love is when one lays down his soul for his beloved. Faith also gives strength for the manifestation of such love. To have such love, one must become a new person instead of an egotistical person—one must become a self-sacrificing person. Only in Christ does a person become a new creature; but we can only be in Christ if we unite with Christ by faith and grace-filled rebirth through the holy mysteries accepted with faith. From here it follows that any expectation by people without faith to maintain even good moral conduct is in vain. Everything is together; it is impossible to divide a man. One must satisfy all of him.

Follow The Lord’s Sufferings

April 29, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

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 confesses 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 accompany Him? Through reflection and sympathy. Follow the suffering Lord in thought; and in your reflection extract such impressions as could strike your heart and bring it to feel the sufferings which were borne by the Lord. In order to better 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.

Crucify Him!

April 29, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

[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 for­get­ting ev­ery­thing — both our rev­er­ence 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, al­though we do not cry, “Cru­ci­fy Him!” we will cru­ci­fy the Lord with­in our­selves. The Lord sees all of this, and suf­fers. Glo­ry to Thy long­suf­fer­ing, O Lord!

Unite with Christ in mind and heart

April 25, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

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 them­selves 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 to­tal­ly im­pris­on the heart, so that noth­ing leaves it and noth­ing en­ters it with­out the per­mis­sion of the 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. Thus, unite with Christ in mind and heart and ev­ery­thing with­in you will be in good work­ing or­der.

Fasting and works of righteousness

April 24, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Wednes­day. Cry aloud, says the Lord to the Ho­ly Proph­et Isa­iah; spare not, convicting the trans­gres­sions 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 where­by 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 fast­ing, then you will suc­ceed in seek­ing 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 de­light in ap­proach­ing God.

True Inner Peace

April 22, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Mon­day (6th week of Lent). Thus says the Lord: I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to prof­it, which leadeth thee by the way that thou should­est go. O that thou hadst heark­en­ed to my com­mand­ments! Then had thy peace been as a riv­er, and thy righ­teous­ness as the waves of the sea: Thy seed al­so had been as the sand, and the off­spring of thy bow­els like the grav­el there­of; his name should not have been cut off nor de­stroy­ed from be­fore me. Un­der what con­di­tion should all this come to pass? Go ye forth out of Bab­y­lon (Isa. 48:17–20). Bab­y­lon is an im­age of all-a­round sin­ful­ness. Aban­don sin, turn to the Lord with all of your heart. He will not re­mem­ber your trans­gres­sions, and will con­sign all of your un­righ­teous­ness to obliv­i­on. You will en­ter again in­to mer­cy with Him — and then you need on­ly to walk the way which He will teach you, and your in­ner peace will be like a riv­er, the good thoughts of your heart like the sand, and the fruits of your good works like the dust of the ground.[1]

[1] The Sla­von­ic for Isa. 48:19–20 reads: …and the off­spring of thy bow­els like the dust of the ground. The word­ing, dust of the ground, in the Sla­von­ic re­fers to Gen­e­sis 2:7.

A haughty spirit goeth before a fall

April 18, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Thursday. A haughty spirit goeth be‐fore a fall (Prov. 16:18).[1] There‐fore, do not allow evil thoughts to come in, and there will be no falls. And yet what are people most care‐less about? About their thoughts. They allow them to seethe as much and however they like, not even thinking to subdue them, or to di‐rect them to rational pursuits. Meanwhile, within this inner tur‐moil the enemy approaches, places evil in the heart, seduces it and in‐clines 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: Evil thoughts go before a fall.

God sees everything

April 16, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Tuesday. Hell and destruction are before the Lord:[1] how much more then the hearts of the children of men? (Prov. 15:11). But the sinner thinks that nobody sees him. Con‐cealing himself from human eyes, in the darkness of night or in a deserted place, he supposes that he is not noticed by anyone. But God’s eye has seen everything; his guard‐ian angel and conscience were wit‐nesses. At some time you will stand at the judgement: then all that is hidden will be laid bare: uncompro‐mising witnesses will be present —and you shall be speechless. The verdict will not be subject to appeal. There is only one way to prevent this ultimate inevitability: repen‐tance. The door to repentance is o‐pen. Hurry to enter, before the hour strikes… and it will strike. When? You do not know. But it will put an end to your sins, or to any hope of pardon.

[1]The Slavonic for Prov. 15:11 reads: Hell and destruction are man‐ifest before the Lord…

Take up his cross

April 8, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Third Sunday of Lent. [Heb. 4:14–5:6; Mark 8:34–9:1] Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me (Mark 8:34). It is impossible to fol‐low the Lord as a crossbearer with‐out a cross, and everyone who fol‐lows Him, unfailingly goes with a cross. What is this cross? It is all sorts of inconveniences, burdens and sorrows — weighing heavily both internally and externally — a‐long the path of conscientious fulfil‐ment of the commandments of the Lord, in a life according to the spirit of His instructions and demands. Such a cross is so much a part of a Christian that wherever there is a Christian, there is this cross, and where there is no such cross, there is no Christian. Abundant privileges and a life of pleasure do not suit a true Christian. His task is to cleanse and reform himself. He is like a sick person, who needs cauterization, or amputation; how can this be with‐out pain? He wants to tear himself away from the captivity of a strong enemy; but how can this be without struggle and wounds? He must walk counter to all practices surrounding him; but how can he sustain this without inconvenience and con‐straint? Rejoice as you feel the cross upon yourself, for it is a sign that you are following the Lord on the path of salvation which leads to heaven. Endure a bit. The end is just around the corner, as well as the crowns!

Saint Theophan the Recluse