Good intentions to the poor

August 10, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Sat­ur­day. [Rom. 12:1-3; Matt. 10:37-11:1] He that re­ceiv­eth a proph­et in the name of a proph­et shall re­ceive a proph­et’s re­ward; and he that re­ceiv­eth a righ­teous man in the name of a righ­teous man shall re­ceive a righ­teous man’s re­ward. With this all un­cer­tain­ties con­cern­ing the giv­ing of alms are re­solved. Good in­ten­tions for the poor are al­most al­ways if not sup­press­ed, then sig­nif­i­cant­ly di­min­ished by the ques­tions, “Who is beg­ging,” and, “Where are the alms go­ing?” The Lord says to those who ask these ques­tions: Your re­ward is de­ter­mined ac­cord­ing to how you re­ceive the beg­gar and help him. Do not look at the one who is ask­ing, but at your thoughts. The val­ue of your deed will be com­men­su­rate to your thoughts. The right thoughts to have a­bout a poor per­son can be de­fined this way: He who has mer­cy on the poor is lend­ing to God; or Inasmuch as ye have done it un­to one of the least of these my breth­ren, ye have done it un­to me (Mt. 25:40). Thus, re­ceive ev­ery­one in need as you would the Lord, do what you can for Him with the thought that you are do­ing it for God, and you will re­ceive the re­ward not on­ly of a proph­et and a righ­teous man, but of the Lord.

Overcoming Passions with Fasting

August 8, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Wednes­day. [I Cor 7:12-24; Matt. 14:35-15:11] Not that which go­eth in­to the mouth de­fil­eth a man; but that which com­eth out of the mouth, this de­fil­eth a man. The Lord said this not be­cause He did not fa­vour fast­ing, or be­cause He con­sid­ered it not nec­es­sary for us — no, both He Him­self fasted, and taught the a­pos­tles to do so, and He es­tab­lish­ed fasts in his ho­ly Church; but He said this so that we would not on­ly fast by eat­ing lit­tle or on­ly uncooked food, but rath­er so that we would keep the fast in our soul, not in­dulg­ing it with de­sires and pas­sion­ate in­cli­na­tions. And this is the im­por­tant thing. Fast­ing serves as a pow­er­ful means for this. The foun­da­tion of the pas­sions in the flesh; when the flesh is ema­ci­ated, then it is as if a hole is dug un­der the pas­sions and their for­tress is de­stroy­ed. With­out fast­ing, over­com­ing the pas­sions would be a mir­a­cle, sim­i­lar to be­ing in a fire and not be­ing burned. How can he who pro­fuse­ly sat­is­fies his flesh with food, sleep and rest, keep any­thing spir­i­tu­al in mind and in his in­ten­tions? For him it is as easy to re­nounce the earth, to con­tem­plate and strive for the in­vis­i­ble world, as would be for an old, de­crep­it bird to take flight and soar.

The Inner Brightness

August 5, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Mon­day. [I Cor. 5:9-6:11; Matt. 13:54-58] The Naz­a­renes did not be­lieve the word of the Lord, be­cause when He lived in a­mongst them, He had no at­trac­tive lus­tre or out­ward dig­ni­ty that would com­mand in­vol­un­tary re­spect from all. “We know who He is,” they said; “there can’t be any­thing ex­traor­di­nary a­bout Him.” Their re­ac­tion, how­ev­er, did not in­duce the Lord to as­sume an imposing ap­pear­ance. He re­main­ed ex­treme­ly sim­ple in ap­pear­ance; lat­er the A­pos­tles bore them­selves the same way, as did all of those who tru­ly fol­low­ed and em­u­lated them. Why is this so? Be­cause it is there is no man-made lus­tre that could ful­ly cor­re­spond to the light of life in Je­sus Christ. More­over, we rec­og­nize that it is bet­ter to rel­e­gate ex­ter­nal ap­pear­ance the lowest val­ue, so that it does not block what is with­in. Let him who has eyes to see look di­rect­ly at the lat­ter, with­out ar­rest­ing his at­ten­tion up­on the for­mer. The ho­ly A­pos­tle Paul ex­pressed it like this: We have this trea­sure in earth­en ves­sels (II Cor. 4:7). If we could see what was the out­ward ap­pear­ance of those per­sons whom we now re­vere and call up­on in prayer, we would not be­lieve our eyes — they were so sim­ple. But to this day, those who have come to know the life in Je­sus Christ aban­don care for their out­ward ap­pear­ance and turn ful­ly with­in. That is why the for­mer falls a­way on its own, but the lat­ter is raised up and grows. It of­ten hap­pens that no­bod­y even no­tices this in­ner bright­ness, not even the one who pos­sess­es it. The hu­man eye is evil; it is not shown what is tru­ly good, if this good can harm it.

The kingdom of heaven is like…

July 31, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

[I Cor. 2:9-3:8; Matt. 13:31-36] The king­dom is like a grain of mus­tard seed and leav­en. A small grain of mus­tard seed grows up in­to a big bush; leav­en pen­e­trates the whole lump of dough and makes it leavened. Here, on the one hand, is an im­age for the Church, which in the be­gin­ning con­sist­ed on­ly of the a­pos­tles and sev­er­al oth­er peo­ple, then spread and be­came most nu­mer­ous, penetrating all of hu­man­i­ty; on the oth­er hand, it is an im­age of the spir­i­tu­al life re­veal­ed in ev­ery per­son. Its first seed is the in­ten­tion and de­ter­mi­na­tion to be saved through pleas­ing God, up­on faith in the Lord and Sav­iour. This de­ter­mi­na­tion, no mat­ter how firm, is like a ti­ny dot. In the be­gin­ning it em­brac­es on­ly one’s con­scious­ness and ac­tiv­i­ties; then from this all of the ac­tiv­i­ty of a spir­i­tu­al life de­vel­ops. Its move­ment and strength mul­ti­ply and ma­ture with­in its own self, and it be­gins to pen­e­trate all the pow­ers of the soul — the mind, will, feel­ings, then fills them with it­self, makes them leavened ac­cord­ing to its spir­it, and pen­e­trates the en­tire con­sti­tu­tion of the hu­man na­ture, bod­y, soul, and spir­it in which it was en­gen­der­ed.

He that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad

July 23, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Tues­day. [Rom. 14:9-18; Matt. 12:14-16, 22-30] He that is not with me is a­gainst me; and he that gath­er­eth not with me scat­ter­eth abroad. Who is with the Lord? He who lives and acts in His spir­it; he who al­lows him­self nei­ther thoughts, nor feel­ings, nor de­sires, nor in­ten­tions, nor words, nor deeds, which would be un­pleas­ing to the Lord and in op­po­si­tion to His re­veal­ed com­mand­ments and de­ter­mi­na­tions. He who lives and acts oth­er­wise, is not with the Lord and con­se­quent­ly does not gath­er, but scat­ters. What does he scat­ter? Not on­ly en­er­gy and time, but al­so what he gath­ers. For ex­am­ple, one who gath­ers rich­es not with the Lord, amass­es on­ly rich­es, not sharing with oth­ers, while de­priv­ing him­self even of nec­es­sary things; or an­oth­er gath­ers them, spends a part on his own lux­u­ri­ous life­style, part on do­na­tions made out of vain­glo­ry, and saves part for his heirs. In the oth­er world he will ap­pear with noth­ing — and there he will be the poorest of the poor. On the con­tra­ry, one who gath­ers rich­es with the Lord pass­es on what is gath­er­ed through the hands of the poor and need­y, un­to eter­nal treasuries. When such a per­son dies, he will find in that world all his rich­es in­tact, not scat­ter­ed, al­though he spent them through­out his life. The same ap­plies to the gathering of knowl­edge. Here scat­ter­ing is even more ob­vi­ous, be­cause it can be seen how one who is in­tel­lec­tu­al not in the Lord gath­ers a seem­ing moun­tain of knowl­edge, but it is no more than rub­bish — a phan­tom of the truth, and not the truth. They not on­ly lack knowl­edge, but even loose hu­man sense. They be­come de­lir­i­ous, like one who is asleep. Read the sys­tems of the ma­ter­i­al­ists and you will see that this is so.

I will give you rest

July 18, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Thurs­day. [Rom. 11:13-24; Matt. 11:27-30] Come un­to Me, all ye that la­bor and are heav­y lad­en, and I will give you rest. O di­vine, O dear, O sweet­est voice of Thine! Let us all fol­low the Lord Who calls us! But first we must feel some­thing dif­fi­cult and bur­den­some for us. We must feel that we have man­y sins, and that these sins are grave. From this feel­ing is born the need to seek re­lief. Faith will then show us that our on­ly ref­uge is in the Lord and Sav­iour, and our steps will di­rect them­selves to­ward Him. A soul de­sir­ing to be saved from sins knows what to say to the Lord: “Take my heav­y, sin­ful bur­den from me; and I will take on Thy easy yoke.” And it hap­pens like this: the Lord for­gives the sins, and the soul be­gins to walk in His com­mand­ments. The com­mand­ments are the yoke, and sins are the bur­den. But com­par­ing the two, the soul finds that the yoke of the com­mand­ments is light as a feath­er, while the bur­den of sins is heav­y as a moun­tain. Let us not fear read­i­ly ac­cept­ing the Lord’s easy yoke and His light bur­den. In no oth­er way can we find rest un­to our souls.

Not caring about anything

July 16, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Tues­day. [Rom. 10:11-11:2; Matt. 11:16-20] The Lord says that we, not head­ing the Gos­pels, are like those to whom mer­ry songs are sung, but they do not dance; sad songs are sung, and they do not cry. You can­not do any­thing with them. We are prom­ised the heav­en­ly King­dom, most bright and joy­ous, but we are unmoved, as if they were not speak­ing to us. We are threaten­ed with im­par­tial judg­ment and un­end­ing tor­ments, but we are not alarmed; it is as if we do not hear. Down­trod­den, we have lost all feel­ing of true self-preservation. We move as ones be­ing led di­rect­ly to de­struc­tion, and ha­ven’t a care for our des­ti­ny. We have lost heart, giv­en our­selves over to care­less­ness — what will be, will be! Look at our state! Isn’t this why sui­cides are so fre­quent? It is the fruit of mod­ern teach­ings and views on man and his [in]significance! There is prog­ress for you! There is en­light­en­ment! It would be bet­ter to be to­tal­ly ig­no­rant, but save your soul with fear of God, than, hav­ing at­tain­ed the ti­tle of an en­light­ened per­son, to per­ish un­to the ages, nev­er think­ing your en­tire life a­bout what will hap­pen af­ter death. Not a sin­gle jot shall pass from the word of God, which de­scribes both the heav­en­ly king­dom and hell — all will be as it is writ­ten. Take this to heart, ev­ery­one, as some­thing which touch­es you per­son­al­ly; and take care for your­self, with all your strength, and as long as time re­mains.

There is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed

July 11, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Thurs­day. [Rom. 8:22-27; Matt. 10:23-31] There is noth­ing cov­er­ed, that shall not be re­veal­ed; and hid, that shall not be known. Con­se­quent­ly, re­gard­less of how we hide in our sins now, it is of no use to us at all. The time will come — and is it far off? — when all will come to light. What should we do? Do not hide. If you have sin­ned — go and re­veal your sin to your spir­i­tu­al fa­ther. When you re­ceive ab­so­lu­tion, the sin van­ish­es, as if it nev­er was. Noth­ing will have to be re­veal­ed and shown. If you hide the sin and do not re­pent, you keep it in your­self, so that there will be some­thing to come to light at the prop­er time un­to your ac­cu­sa­tion. God re­veal­ed all of this to us in ad­vance, so that while still here we will man­age to dis­arm His righ­teous and ter­ri­ble judg­ment up­on us sin­ners.

Fear of death and judgement

July 9, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Tues­day. [Rom. 7:14-8:2; Matt. 10:9-15] The Lord al­so said to the a­pos­tles that if a city does not re­ceive them, and will not hear their words, then It shall be more tol­er­a­ble for the land of Sod­om and Gomorrha in the day of judg­ment, than for that city. And what will hap­pen to us for our not hear­ing the words of Di­vine Rev­e­la­tion? It will be im­meas­ur­ab­ly in­tol­er­a­ble be for us. To dis­be­lieve the truth of God af­ter so man­y tan­gi­ble proofs is the same as re­vil­ing the Ho­ly Spir­it, and blas­phem­ing. And yet we have no fear. The spiritists [and Hindus] say, “What judg­ment! We just have to be born a few more times.” The sci­en­tists say, “Whom is there to judge? Ev­ery­thing is made of at­oms; they will fly a­part and that will be the end.” But, my friends, the hour of death will come; these dreams will fly a­way like phan­toms, and we will all be faced with inevitability re­al­i­ty. What then?… What wretch­ed times we live in! The en­e­my has con­trived to de­stroy our souls. He knows that fear of death and judg­ment is the strongest means for so­ber­ing up a soul — and so he makes ev­ery at­tempt to drive this a­way; and he suc­ceeds. But ex­tin­guish the fear of death and fear of God will dis­ap­pear; and with­out the fear of God the con­science be­comes mute. The soul be­comes emp­ty, it be­comes a wa­ter­less cloud, car­ried by any wind of teach­ings and var­i­ous fits of pas­sions.

Why His disciples did not fast

July 5, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Fri­day. [Rom. 5:17–6:2; Matt. 9:14–17] The Lord was ask­ed why His dis­ci­ples did not fast. He an­swered that the time for them has not yet come. Then in a par­a­ble he show­ed that in gen­er­al, the strict­ness of out­er as­cet­icism must be in keep­ing with the re­new­al of in­ner pow­ers of the spir­it. First kin­dle the spir­it of fer­vour, and then take on austerities; for then there will be a new in­ner pow­er ca­pa­ble of enduring them profitably. If you take them on with­out first hav­ing this fer­vour, be­cause you were ei­ther im­pressed by the ex­am­ple of oth­ers, or want­ed to make a show of your own as­cet­icism, then it will bring no prof­it. You will sus­tain this aus­ter­i­ty for a bit, and then you will weak­en and drop it. And you will be worse off than be­fore. Aus­ter­i­ty with­out the in­ner spir­it is like a patch of new lin­en on an old gar­ment, or new wine in old wine­skins. The patch will fall off and the rent made even worse; and the wine will burst the wine­skin, and the wine will be lost, and the wine­skin ruined. This, by the way, does not mean that aus­ter­i­ty is bad, but on­ly sug­gests that one must be­gin it in the prop­er or­der. The need for it must come from with­in, so that it might con­tent the heart, and not just press from the out­side like a weight.