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.

The Jesus Prayer

July 1, 2013 | Uncategorized, Wisdom

By Fr. Steven Peter Tsichlis
Source: http://www.goarch.org/ourfaith/ourfaith7104

Prayer is the basis of our Christian life, the source of our experience of Jesus as the Risen Lord. Yet how few Christians know how to pray with any depth! For most of us, prayer means little more than standing in the pews for an hour or so on Sunday morning or perhaps reciting, in a mechanical fashion, prayers once learned by rote during childhood. Our prayer life – and thus our life as Christians – remains, for the most part, at this superficial level.

THE CHALLENGE OF ST. PAUL

But this approach to the life of prayer has nothing to do with the Christianity of St. Paul, who urges the Christians of first century Thessalonica to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17). And in his letter to Rome, the Apostle instructs the Christian community there to “be constant in prayer” (Rom. 12:12). He not only demands unceasing prayer of the Christians in his care, but practices it himself. “We constantly thank God for you” (1 Thess. 2:13) he writes in his letter to the Thessalonian community; and he comforts Timothy, his “true child in the faith” (1 Tim. 1:2) with the words: “Always I remember you in my prayers” (2 Tim. 1:3). In fact, whenever St. Paul speaks of prayer in his letters, two Greek words repeatedly appear: PANTOTE (pantote), which means always; and ADIALEPTOS (adialeptos), meaning without interruption or unceasingly. Prayer is then not merely a part of life which we can conveniently lay aside if something we deem more important comes up; prayer is all of life. Prayer is as essential to our life as breathing. This raises some important questions. How can we be expected to pray all the time? We are, after all, very busy people. Our work, our spouse, our children, our school – all place heavy demands upon our time. How can we fit more time for prayer into our already overcrowded lives? These questions and the many others like them which could be asked set up a false dichotomy in our lives as Christians. To pray does not mean to think about God in contrast to thinking about other things or to spend time with God in contrast to spending time with our family and friends. Rather, to pray means to think and live our entire life in the Presence of God. As Paul Evdokimov has remarked: “Our whole life, every act and gesture, even a smile must become a hymn or adoration, an offering, a prayer. We must become prayer-prayer incarnate.” This is what St. Paul means when he writes to the Corinthians that “whatever you do, do it for the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31).

THE JESUS PRAYER

In order to enter more deeply into the life of prayer and to come to grips with St. Paul’s challenge to pray unceasingly, the Orthodox Tradition offers the Jesus Prayer, which is sometimes called the prayer of the heart. The Jesus Prayer is offered as a means of concentration, as a focal point for our inner life. Though there are both longer and shorter versions, the most frequently used form of the Jesus Prayer is: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” This prayer, in its simplicity and clarity, is rooted in the Scriptures and the new life granted by the Holy Spirit. It is first and foremost a prayer of the Spirit because of the fact that the prayer addresses Jesus as Lord, Christ and Son of God; and as St. Paul tells us, “no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3).
THE SCRIPTURAL ROOTS OF THE JESUS PRAYER

The Scriptures give the Jesus Prayer both its concrete form and its theological content. It is rooted in the Scriptures in four ways:

• In its brevity and simplicity, it is the fulfillment of Jesus’ command that “in praying” we are “not to heap up empty phrases as the heathen do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them . . . (Matt. 6:7-8).
• The Jesus Prayer is rooted in the Name of the Lord. In the Scriptures, the power and glory of God are present in his Name. In the Old Testament to deliberately and attentively invoke God’s Name was to place oneself in his Presence. Jesus, whose name in Hebrew means God saves, is the living Word addressed to humanity. Jesus is the final Name of God. Jesus is “the Name which is above all other names” and it is written that “all beings should bend the knee at the Name of Jesus” (Phil. 2:9-10). In this Name devils are cast out (Luke 10:17), prayers are answered (John 14:13 14) and the lame are healed (Acts 3:6-7). The Name of Jesus is unbridled spiritual power.
• The words of the Jesus Prayer are themselves based on Scriptural texts: the cry of the blind man sitting at the side of the road near Jericho, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me” (Luke 18:38); the ten lepers who “called to him, Jesus, Master, take pity on us’ ” (Luke 17:13); and the cry for mercy of the publican, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luke 18:14).
• It is a prayer in which the first step of the spiritual journey is taken: the recognition of our own sinfulness, our essential estrangement from God and the people around us. The Jesus Prayer is a prayer in which we admit our desperate need of a Saviour. For “if we say we have no sin in us, we are deceiving ourselves and refusing to admit the truth” (1 John 1:8).

THE THREE LEVELS OF PRAYER

Because prayer is a living reality, a deeply personal encounter with the living God, it is not to be confined to any given classification or rigid analysis. However, in order to offer some broad, general guidelines for those interested in using the Jesus Prayer to develop their inner life, Theophan the Recluse, a 19th century Russian spiritual writer, distinguishes three levels in the saying of the Prayer:

• It begins as oral prayer or prayer of the lips, a simple recitation which Theophan defines as prayers’ “verbal expression and shape.” Although very important, this level of prayer is still external to us and thus only the first step, for “the essence or soul of prayer is within a man’s mind and heart.”
• As we enter more deeply into prayer, we reach a level at which we begin to pray without distraction. Theophan remarks that at this point, “the mind is focused upon the words” of the Prayer, “speaking them as if they were our own.”
• The third and final level is prayer of the heart. At this stage prayer is no longer something we do but who we are. Such prayer, which is a gift of the Spirit, is to return to the Father as did the prodigal son (Luke 15:32). The prayer of the heart is the prayer of adoption, when “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit that cries ‘Abba, Father!'” (Gal. 4:6).

THE FRUITS OF THE JESUS PRAYER

This return to the Father through Christ in the Holy Spirit is the goal of all Christian spirituality. It is to be open to the presence of the Kingdom in our midst. The anonymous author of The Way of the Pilgrim reports that the Jesus Prayer has two very concrete effects upon his vision of the world. First, it transfigures his relation ship with the material creation around him; the world becomes transparent, a sign, a means of communicating God’s presence. He writes:

“When I prayed in my heart, everything around me seemed delightful and marvelous. The trees, the grass, the birds, the air, the light seemed to be telling me that they existed for man’s sake, that they witnessed to the love of God for man, that all things prayed to God and sang his praise.”

Second, the Prayer transfigures his relationship to his fellow human beings. His relationships are given form within their proper context: the forgiveness and compassion of the crucified and risen Lord.

“Again I started off on my wanderings. But now I did not walk along as before, filled with care. The invocation of the Name of Jesus gladdened my way. Everybody was kind to me. If anyone harms me I have only to think, ‘How sweet is the Prayer of Jesus!’ and the injury and the anger alike pass away and I forget it all.”

ENDLESS GROWTH

“Growth in prayer has no end,” Theophan informs us. “If this growth ceases, it means that life ceases.” The way of the heart is endless because the God whom we seek is infinite in the depths of his glory. The Jesus Prayer is a signpost along the spiritual journey, a journey that all of us must take.

APPENDIX

The purpose of this pamphlet is merely to introduce the practice of the Jesus Prayer. The Jesus Prayer cannot be separated from the sacramental life of the Church and asceticism. The following books are recommended for further study:

• The Art of Prayer edited with an introduction by Kallistos Ware (Faber and Faber: London) 1966
• The Power of the Name by Kallistos Ware (SLG Press: Oxford) 1974
• The Way of a Pilgrim translated by R. M. French (Seabury Press: New York) 1965
• Christ is in our Midst by Father John of New Valaamo (St. Vladimirs’ Seminary Press: New York) 1980
• The Jesus Prayer by Per-Olof Sjogren (Fortress Press: Philadelphia) 1975
• Prayer of the Heart by George A. Maloney (Ave Maria Press: Notre Dame) 1980

Resist Not Evil

June 28, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Fri­day. [Rom. 2:14–29; Matt. 5:33–41] But I say un­to you, That ye re­sist not evil (Matt. 5:39); in oth­er words, al­low your­self to be a vic­tim of hu­man self­ish­ness and mal­ice. But how can one live like that? Do not wor­ry. He who gave this com­mand­ment is our Pro­vid­er and Guard­ian. When you de­sire to live like this with com­plete faith from your whole soul, to not re­sist any evil, the Lord Him­self will ar­range a life for you which is not on­ly bear­able, but joy­ful. Fur­ther­more, re­sis­tance in fact can ir­ri­tate an ag­gres­sor even more and mo­ti­vate him to in­vent new trou­bles, where­as a yield­ing de­mean­our dis­arms him and hum­bles him. Thus, if you would just suf­fer the first on­slaught of mal­ice, peo­ple will take pit­y on you and leave you alone, while re­sis­tance and re­venge kin­dle mal­ice, which is pass­ed on from the in­di­vid­u­al to his fam­i­ly, and then from gen­er­a­tion to gen­er­a­tion.

Whosoever looketh on a woman

June 27, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Thurs­day. [Rom. 1:28–2:9; Matt. 5:27–32] Who­so­ev­er looketh on a wom­an… hath com­mit­ted adul­tery with her already (Matt. 5:28). Living in so­ci­e­ty, one can­not help look­ing at wo­men. What to do? A man does not com­mit adul­tery sim­ply by look­ing at a wom­an, but by look­ing at her with lust. Look if you must, but keep your heart on a leash. Look with the eyes of a child — pure­ly, with­out any evil thoughts. One must love wo­men as well, for they are not ex­clud­ed from the com­mand­ment a­bout love of neigh­bour — but with love that is pure, which bears the soul and spir­i­tu­al as­pect in mind. Just as there is nei­ther male nor fe­male be­fore God in Chris­tian­i­ty, so it is in the mu­tu­al re­la­tions of Chris­tians. But this is very dif­fi­cult, you will say. Yes, it does not hap­pen with­out a strug­gle; but strug­gle pre­sup­poses a lack of de­sire for evil. The Lord counts as pu­ri­ty the un­lust­ful de­sire of the mer­ci­ful.

Outward Behavior

June 26, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Wednes­day. [Rom. 1:18–27; Matt. 5:20–26] Ex­cept your righ­teous­ness shall ex­ceed the righ­teous­ness of the scribes and Phar­i­sees, ye shall in no case en­ter in­to the King­dom of Heav­en (Matt. 5:20). Char­ac­ter­is­tic of the scribes is knowl­edge of the law with­out con­cern for life ac­cord­ing to the law. Char­ac­ter­is­tic of the Phar­i­sees is cor­rect­ness of out­ward be­hav­iour with­out par­tic­u­lar con­cern for cor­rect­ness of thoughts and feel­ings in the heart. Both at­ti­tudes are con­demn­ed to re­main out­side of the heav­en­ly king­dom. Let ev­ery­one re­ceive from this the les­son he needs. If you want to learn the Gos­pel law, do so — but in a way that en­ables you to es­tab­lish your life ac­cord­ing to this knowl­edge. Try to be cor­rect in your be­hav­iour, but keep your in­ner feel­ings and dis­po­si­tions cor­rect at the same time. If you have gained some knowl­edge, do not stop there, but go fur­ther and un­der­stand the de­mands such knowl­edge makes of you — then act ap­prop­ri­ate­ly. Let your be­hav­iour show that your feel­ings and dis­po­si­tions are not the re­sult of externals, but such that your ex­ter­nal be­hav­iour pro­ceeds from your feel­ings and dis­po­si­tions, and ac­tu­al­ly expresss them. If you gear your­self this way, you will be higher than the Scribes and Phar­i­sees, and the doors of the king­dom will not be closed to you.

Temptations

June 25, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Tues­day. [Rom. 1:1–7, 13–17; Matt. 4:25–5:13] Af­ter the Lord’s bap­tism, when the Spir­it de­scend­ed up­on Him in the form of a dove, He was brought down in­to the wil­der­ness to be tempt­ed. Such is the path com­mon to all. Saint Issac the Syr­ian notes in one place that as soon as you taste grace-fill­ed con­so­la­tion, or re­ceive some gift from the Lord — a­wait temp­ta­tions. Temp­ta­tions con­ceal the bright­ness of grace from one’s own eyes which usu­al­ly con­sume ev­ery good with self-opin­ion and self-ex­ul­ta­tion. These temp­ta­tions are some­times ex­ter­nal — sor­rows, humiliation; and in­ter­nal — pas­sion­ate thoughts, which pur­pose­ly are re­leased, like beasts un­chain­ed. There­fore, we must heed our­selves and strict­ly sort out what oc­curs with us and in us, to see why it is hap­pen­ing, and what ob­li­ga­tions it brings.

Pilgrimage to Holy Mountain, Greece, and Serbia

June 24, 2013 | News & Events, Uncategorized

When: June 24, 2013
Where: Holy Mountain, Greece, and Serbia

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Ask of the Father

June 20, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Thurs­day. [Acts 25:13–19; John 16:23–33] Ver­i­ly, ver­i­ly, I say un­to you, What­so­ev­er ye shall ask the Fa­ther in my name, he will give it you (John 16:23) the Lord said, even con­firm­ing the point: Ver­i­ly, ver­i­ly, I say un­to you. What a shame for us that we do not know how to make use of such a true prom­ise! It would be al­right if were on­ly the shame this caus­es; but a shad­ow is cast al­so over the prom­ise it­self, as though it were too great and im­pos­si­ble. No, the guilt lies en­tire­ly on us, main­ly be­cause we rec­og­nize that we are not faith­ful ser­vants of Christ, and our con­science does not al­low us to ex­pect mer­cy from the Lord. In ad­di­tion it hap­pens that if some­one starts ask­ing God a­bout some­thing, he does it with di­vid­ed soul: he men­tions that thing in his prayer once or twice as if in pass­ing — and drops it, and then says lat­er: “God does not hear.” No, when ask­ing for some­thing in par­tic­u­lar, one must be per­sis­tent and in­de­fat­i­ga­ble in prayer, like the wid­ow who forced even the heart­less judge to sat­is­fy her pe­ti­tion by sim­ply not giv­ing him any peace. When true men of prayer ask for some­thing in prayer, they unite with it fast­ing, vig­il, all sorts of dep­ri­va­tion, and char­i­ty; fur­ther­more they ask not for a day or two, but for months and years. For this they re­ceive it. Im­i­tate them, if you de­sire to have suc­cess in prayer.

Vidovdan Celebration

June 16, 2013 | Children & Youth, Istochnik Choir, News & Events, Uncategorized

When: June 16, 2013
Where: 2148 Michelson Drive, Irvine, CA

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