A Hymn of the Theotokos

O Lord, Thou Who art more than good, through the prayers of Thy Mother and of the Fathers who convened the Seven great Councils, establish and build up the Church and make firm the holy Faith; show us all forth as partakers of the Kingdom of Heaven when to earth Thou returnest to judge the whole of creation. [The Theotokion of the Exapostalaria of the Sunday of the holy Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council, October 11-17 trans.from “The October Menaion”, Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Boston Mass.]

Foreword

The following article is a critique which will be sectioned into four posts. Although critiques are not my prime desire for this blog site yet in asking advice I was encouraged to do so. I was actually told I should feel obligated to do so. My hope is that in setting forth the Orthodox teaching on certain points of Christology and Mariology the readers will have an increase of gratitude to our Lord for His saving work for us, and love for both Him and His most-pure Mother.

The Theology of Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko: Orthodox or Opinion?

Our Lord questioned the Apostle Peter: “Simon son of Jona lovest thou Me?” And when the apostle replied affirmatively our Lord said, “Feed My sheep.” And so, the motivation of this article is concern for the flock of Christ, the faithful of the Church. This is a critique of certain points expressed by Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko. This will be done in two parts, one being on Christology the other on Mariology, the latter will be dealt with first. Each of these parts will be sectioned off into more than one post.

I have been personally acquainted with Fr. Hopko since the late 1980’s. I have admired his committed sacrifice for his spiritual children. He has a great physical stamina which he used for others in spending long hours counseling those who came to him for help. Some of his spiritual children have also spoke of him as having a photographic memory and likened him to a walking encyclopedia and he put these good qualities to use. However, it is quite sad to see that in some of his instructions he has gone off on tangents from the teachings of our Orthodox Church. Therefore, reminding myself of the responsibility of the priesthood to perpetuate the truth “once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3), I feel compelled to write this critique. Although I lack qualification for this task yet trusting in the assistance of a number of highly qualified theologically trained acquaintances in the Church I hope to accomplish something useful.

I believe it was a total of four times, once quite recently, and several times in the past, that questionable teachings of Father Thomas were brought to my attention. Twice this concerned Christology and twice the Mariology. Since that time I have had correspondence with Father Thomas on several occasions. Once it concerned a critique I was about to write and he encouraged me to state what I believe and why. Another time I questioned some things he expressed and he replied, “I can only say what I believe to be true”. I was a bit surprised by such answers because in neither of them was the need to stay within the parameters of the Church or to support one’s self with the Holy Fathers mentioned. We need to be obedient to the Church; we need to be in harmony with the Church. We have the responsibility teach nothing new, but to reiterate that which has been handed down to us. So, before going on to a critique, I will repeat the title: The Theology of Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko: Orthodox or Opinion?

So let us now, speak about our holy Lady Theotokos. When, in our Holy Orthodox Church we call the Theotokos Ever-Virgin, what do we indicate? Does this only mean that Mary, the Mother of God, conceived as a virgin by the Holy Spirit, or does it signify something more? It definitely signifies something more, for our Lady Theotokos experienced a supernatural birth, she continued a virgin in giving birth, and remained so afterwards. This was testified to by one of the midwives who entered the cave of the Nativity of our Lord a little after His birth. The Theotokos allowed the midwife to examine her, and this woman declared, “Lord, Lord Almighty have mercy on us! It has never been heard or thought of, that anyone should have her breasts full of milk, and that the birth of a son should show his mother to be a virgin. But there has been no spilling of blood in his birth, no pain in bringing him forth. A virgin has conceived, a virgin has brought forth, and a virgin she remains”. [From the Apocryphal Gospel attributed to St. Matthew, “Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 8”, pp. 374-5] Therefore she is the Ever-Virgin Mother of God.

It is unfortunate, quite unfortunate that we have seen the opposite expressed by Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko. This then, leads us to a brief examination of one chapter in his book The Winter Pascha, and a brief survey of what of our holy Orthodox Church says regarding this topic. It is one chapter entitled, “The Purification of Mary”, and primarily one paragraph that we must take into consideration. First of all one must raise the question: How can an Orthodox Christian write of “the purification of Mary”? Here Fr. Thomas is using the terminology of the Western Christians with which—sad to say—he agrees. But did she need purification? Let us consider this question before going on to that which Fr. Thomas expresses.

What does the consciousness of the Church tell us? She was neither unclean nor in need of purification. Just as her Son our Lord Jesus Christ went to baptism with no need for it but rather to “fulfill all righteousness” (Matt. 3:15), so too, His most pure Mother, although she was not in need of purification, submitted to the Law. Perhaps a question could be raised based on the Gospel narrative concerning this event. Did it not say: “when the days of her purification according to the Law of Moses were fulfilled” (Luke 2:22)? Since the Gospel says “her purification”, could not one conclude that this must indicate she needed it? However, the King James Version is being quoted here, and it is this or the New King James Version which are used in most of our parishes. This latter also uses the term, “her purification”. Unfortunately it is a mistranslation, the original Greek is plural; it says, tou katharismou auton, the pronoun is plural (the last “o” is an omega), it would be properly translated as “their purification”, and not “her purifi- cation”. Yet the Law of Moses, which she came to fulfill, does use the singular, and refers specifically to the woman who gave birth, it states: “And when the days of her purifying are fulfilled” (Lev. 12:6). But by changing the pronoun to the plural, St. Luke is referring to the purification of the Jews prescribed by the Law of Moses to which the Mother of God submitted although she had no need—the collections of the lives of saints from the Greek, Romanian, Russian and Serbian all agree with this.

But let us go on to further establish this point by listening to what the traditional collection of the lives of saints of the Church says about this. On the feast of “The Meeting”, we read:

Fulfilling the Law of the Lord, the Mother of God came into the Temple of the Lawgiver. She came to purify herself, although she had no need of purification since she was undefiled, without offense, uncorrupted, most pure. For she who conceived without a man or desire, and gave birth without pain or violation of her virginal purity, was not tainted by the impurity common to women who give birth according to the law of nature. For how could impurity touch her who gave birth to the source of purity? Christ was born of her like fruit from a tree. And as the tree producing its fruit is neither harmed nor defiled, in the same manner at the birth of Christ—the Blessed Fruit—the Virgin remained unharmed and undefiled. Christ proceeded from her as a ray of the sun that passes through glass or a crystal, a sun-ray does not break up or damage it, but illumines it even more. And Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, did not harm the virginity of His Mother. And the door of natural birth was sealed in purity and preserved in virginity not being defiled with a flow of blood as is common to women. But having passed through her supernaturally, He increased her purity, having sanctified and enlightened her with the light of Divine grace by His proceeding from her. Any purification was absolutely unnecessary for her who gave birth without defilement to God the Word. But in order not to break the Law, but to fulfill it, she came to purify herself having all-perfect purity and without any blemish. At the same time, filled with humility, she was not proud of her uncorrupted purity, but she came as if unclean to strand with the unclean women in front of the doors of the Temple of the Lord, and besought purification, not disdaining those who were unclean and sinful. [“Lives of the Saints, In the Russian Language, Book Six”, Moscow, Moscow Synodal Press, pp.23-4]

Thus does our Church honor our All-holy Lady Theotokos.

to be continued…

A hymn to the Theotokos

From thy virgin womb the Light that was before the sun, even God who has shone forth upon us, took flesh ineffably, coming to dwell among us in the body. Thee, then, O Blessed and all-holy Theotokos, do we magnify (The Irmos of the ninth Ode in the Matins Canon for the Synaxis of St. John the Baptist, trans. from “The Festal Menaion”, p. 401)

Baptism

Since, this month we are celebrating the Baptism of our Lord which we usually call Theophany or revelation of God, it seems to me that speak about the Sacrament of Baptism is quite appropriate. I do not want to say much myself but to turn immediately to a pair of eleventh century saints whose writings are recorded in the Philokalia: Sts. Callistus and Ignatius. What do they teach us about the Sacrament (or Mystery) of Baptism? In the fifth chapter of their writings which is entitled, “The glory of the grace of Holy Baptism, what dims and what restores it”, they tell us:

What this grace is and how we acquire it, what dims and what purifies it, will be explained to you better than all gold by St. John Chrysostom, shining in word and soul who says (All quotes of St. John Chrysostom are as found in the writings of Sts. Callistus and Ignatius): “‘But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image’ (IICor. 3:18). This was more clear for the believers in the times of the Apostles when miraculous gifts occurred. Still, it is not hard, even now, for a man who has the eyes of faith to understand it. When we are being baptized, our soul, purified by the Spirit, becomes brighter than the sun; not only then are we able to look at the glory of God, but we ourselves take on something of its radiance. As polished silver, illumined by the rays of the sun, so a soul purified by the Divine Spirit, becomes more brighter than silver; it both receives a ray of the Divine glory, and from itself reflects the ray of this same glory. Therefore the Apostle says: ‘But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory’, that is, from the glory of the Spirit to our own glory, which fills us and which should be ‘even as by the Spirit of the Lord'” (IICor. 3:18).

As examples of such grace manifest in believers Chrysostom tells us:

Think of Paul, whose very garments had a miraculous effect. Remember Peter, whose very shadow manifested miraculous power.

Continuing he says,

Do you wish to see how their inner light penetrates even through their bodies? “And looking steadfastly on Stephen, they saw his face as it had been the face of an angel” (Acts 6:15).

Then, a little later, he mourns the infirm condition of the faithful:

But alas! We ought to groan bitterly; for, though granted such noble rank, we do not even understand what is said about it, because we quickly lose it and incline to the sensory. This ineffable and terrible glory remains in us one or two days, after which we extinguish it, bringing in the storm of worldly affairs and their thick clouds as repulse its rays. [These quotes are from, “Writings from the Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart”, pp. 166-7]

Sts. Callistus and Ignatius go on to comment:

Do you see how much it lies in our power to increase or to diminish this supernatural grace, that is, to show it forth or to obscure it? What obscures it is the storm of worldly cares, and the ensuing darkness of passions which attack us like a whirlwind, or a wild torrent and, flooding our soul, give it neither rest nor possibility to look at the truly good and blessed things for which it was created. Instead it is mauled and tortured by the waves and smoke of sensory lusts, it is plunged into darkness and dissoluteness. Conversely, grace is manifest by that which is reflected from the Divine commandments, in the souls of those who walk not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. [Ibid. p. 167-8]

Continuing on this topic in the next chapter the saints write:

In the Divine womb, that is, in the Holy Font, we freely receive perfect Divine grace. If after this we cover it over with the fog of passions, either through abuse of temporal things, or through excess of cares for worldly activities, it is possible, even after this, to regain possession of it, to restore its supernatural brightness and to see quite vividly its manifestation, by repentance and the fulfillment of commandments whose action is Divine. Grace manifests in proportion to each man’s zeal in remaining faithful to faith, but above all through the help and benevolence of our Lord Jesus Christ. St. Mark [the Ascetic] says: “Christ as perfect God, gave to those baptized the perfect grace of the Holy Spirit, which receives no increase from us, but merely reveals itself and manifests in us in accordance with our keeping the commandments, and gives us increase in faith ’till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ’ (Eph. 4:13).” Therefore, whatever we may bring after our regeneration in Him, must previously have been concealed in us by Him and of Him. [Ibid. p. 168]

In order to further illustrate how one rekindles this grace of Baptism I would like to refer to a conversation I had with a highly educated Athonite monk, Fr. Luke of Philotheou. Fr. Luke was a university professor before becoming a monk. This conversation took place in the early 1990’s, at that time many Charismatics claimed to be experiencing what they called a “Baptism in the Holy Spirit.” They would sometimes refer to St. Symeon the New Theologian who wrote of a second Baptism in the life of a Christian. However, they do take St. Symeon out of context, for this saint speaks of a Baptism of repentance or a Baptism of tears which is a long process of purification. Just as Bishop Basil Krivocheine once commented in a talk: “For the charismatics Baptism in the Holy Spirit is in the beginning, but for St. Symeon it is something in the end.” Bishop Basil authored a book on St. Symeon the New Theologian called, In the Light of Christ. So here are the notes of my conversation with Fr. Luke:

We spoke about the grace received in original Baptism and what some of the Fathers say about the grace of a second Baptism of repentance—a Baptism of tears. In summary concerning this he said:

We are like a glass that we must clean once again. We have the grace of Baptism but we are like a dirty vessel which has to be cleansed. When the process of cleansing takes place, then it is as though one has had a second Baptism. So what we call the “second” is greater than the first only in conscious awareness. The second is greater than the first because the second is done through a synergy of God and man. A synergy of God’s grace and man’s repentance, of man’s finally overcoming sin and becoming to a certain degree immune to the sickness of sin and then he receives this second Baptism. The second Baptism is not something different from the first but it is the complete manifestation of the first, that is, in manifestation of the grace itself acting in a person it is greater. It is in essence the same as the first, it is the uncovering of the first, but we say that it is greater because in it the manifestation of the grace in us becomes greater since we have struggled and become even more pure ourselves. We are able to receive the conscious awareness of the grace because of our repentance and struggling against sin and lulling the passions. Whereas in the beginning we were not able to receive the full impact and have this grace fully consciously active within us because of our state of separation from God.

A question to ponder: Can the experience of the Charismatics and Pentecostals or the “born again” Christians be compared to the “Second Baptism” spoken of by Fr. Luke?

A Hymn to the Theotokos

The shadow of the Law is passed away with the coming of grace; for as the bush was not consumed when it was burning, thus as a virgin didst thou give birth, and a virgin didst thou remain. In the stead of a pillar of fire, there hath arisen the Sun of Righteoussness; in the stead of Moses, Christ, the Salvation of our souls. (Dogmatic of Saturday Vespers Tone 2, trans. Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Boston Massachusetts 1990, p. 108)

St. Amvrossy of Optina on the Nativity

As we shall soon be celebrating the feast of the Nativity I have chosen to post a festal greeting of St. Amvrossy of Optina which is contained in his book: Collection of Letters to Monastcis.

Letter 2, 1870

To those who are wise in the Lord! By the mercy and the long-suffering of God once again we have reached the time of the yearly feast of Christ’s Nativity. In place of simple and usual congratulations, I want to say a few words about the great mystery of this holy feast. The Holy Church in her hymns already calls the faithful to contemplate with “uplifted” minds the travels of the Master, and with purified hearts, to be mysteriously delighted with the immortal supper in the poor cave. How has the Omnipresent One bowed the heavens and come down to earth without leaving the Father’s bosom? How has the Invisible been seen? How has the co-eternal Word and consubstantial Son of God become the Son of a Virgin? How is it that He, Who is pre-eternal and incomprehensible beyond all things, is born from a virgin today as an infant? How is it that He Who is inaccessible to all, is today, as an infant, embraced by the motherly virginal arms? How is it that He Who covers the heavens with clouds, is today – as an infant – wrapped in swaddling bands? How is it that He Who created everything in wisdom is today, as a swaddled infant, put into the manger so that He will free mankind from irrationality? How is it that He Who feeds everything is nourished as an infant, with a mother’s milk? O, the awesome mystery! O the incomprehensible wonder! Now God has indisputably become man so that He would make man into god as was foretold by the prophet: “I said that ye are gods and all of you are sons of the most High”. But, what about our human condition—“and we, as men, die”? What vanity is ours and neglect over the divine adoption! We have more love for the slavery of passions; and because of our evil will we voluntarily and involuntarily bend down our necks before the adversary! What blindness and distortion is ours! Blessed are the ears of those shepherds who heard the angels sing in the sky: “Glory to God in the highest”, and the announcement of peace on earth and God’s good will among men. Blessed are their eyes which saw, like a blameless lamb, Him Who was pastured in Mary’s womb. Blessed are those who are deemed worthy of God’s good will and peace which surpasses all understanding. Blessed are the wise men that came from afar to worship Him Who was born from the Virgin and who brought to Him worthy gifts: gold as to a King, incense as to God, and myrrh as to the Immortal dead man. Blessed are also all those who worship Him in the spirit and truth, bringing Him gifts, each according to his own capacity: one the righteous pennies of mercy—as though gold; another, as though the sweet smelling odor of incense—glorification and the many prayers of repentance and confession. Yet another, like the fine perfumed myrrh—the grateful memory of sufferings and the reverend worship of the life-giving wounds of Him Who became incarnate and was crucified in the flesh for our salvation. But what can we do, who are depressed and insensitive [among whom I am first] who cannot take delight in that immortal supper in the poor cave, not having an elevated mind (from earthly things) nor a cleansed heart? Humbling and reproaching ourselves, let us pay attention with reverence to the reading and singing in the Church. And let us receive from them, as from a source of life and of immortality, the comfort and instruction and salvation by the mercy and unutterable love for men of Him Who was incarnate for us—the Son of God. To Whom is due all glory and power, honor and worship together with His eternal Father and the most-holy and good and life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Do Thou Who wast unutterably born from the Virgin, have mercy on us who are full of shame, by the prayers of Thy most-pure Mother and all who pleased Thee!

A Hymn to the Theotokos

Saturday Vespers Aposticha Tone 1:
Behold, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled: Virgin, hast Thou brought forth and after, as before, hast Thou remained Virgin. For God it was Who was born, and the nature of ma was thereby restored. O Mother of God, despise not the supplications of thy servants that are offered to Thee in thy Church, but do Thou, who hast held in thine arms the compassionate Lord, be merciful towards us who serve Thee, and pray that our souls be saved. (The Octoechos, Saturday and Sunday Offices Tones 1-8, p. 3,—translation, Orthodox Monastery of the Veil of Our Lady, France)

Odds and Ends from Athos (continued)

In this continuation of conversations with various Athonite fathers I would like to touch upon the subject of the Sacrament of Confession and psychology. I believe it has probably been in the last fifty years that there has been such a growing interest in and trust in psychology, so that it has actually become blossoming field of study and a booming business. This has also had an effect upon the Church, with the result that there are many of our clergy who rely more on modern psychology than the experience of the Holy Fathers of the Church in functioning as a spiritual father. In like manner many of the laity would not even think of discussing any of their problems with a priest but run to a therapist without hesitation. This may be necessary in some cases, and the field of psychology can accomplish much good; but we need to remember what the Church has to offer us for the healing of the soul. So let us begin with some wise words from Athonite fathers.

First, a few words about Confession from a father, Geronta Macarius, who lives in a small monastic dwelling near the center of Athos. He first lived at a skete called Provata; however, he later moved with his elder, Geronda Ephraim and the rest of the brotherhood to Philotheou Monastery. He now lives with a few disciples in a kelli near Karyes which is the seat of the administrative body of the Holy Mountain. Kelli is the Athonite term used for a small monastic dwelling outside of the monasteries. It may consist of one small building with living quarters and a chapel, or it may contain several buildings with a small church. A kelli is independent in itself, whereas a skete consists of a number of such kellis grouped near each other with some interdependence. So Geronda Macarius had this to say about confession:

There is much Catholic influence in the way that this Sacrament is often performed in the Church today. Confession is not something done in order to justify one’s self before God or to satisfy the justice of God. This is legalistic and Catholic and not really Orthodox. But what does Confession mean? First of all, we must define sin. Sin in Greek is amartia; it is to miss the mark. And what is repentance? Repentance in Greek is metania. It is to change, it is to turn the mind back on the path to the mark; it is to be going straight ahead once again towards the mark. Confession is a process; it is a process of an unfolding a revelation of the inner man. In this way the spiritual father can help in the healing of a person’s soul. Through Confession we are being reconciled to the Church, we come back to the Church. We have offended the Church; we have sinned against the Body of Christ and now we are trying to reenter the Church—this is to come back into the body of Christ. So repentance is not something personal, but it is within the Church; it is with the Church and through the Church. Thus we seek to become healthy members of the Body of Christ and to have a continued growth in the likeness of God.

We often find, however, that our people are not seeking such a healing of soul and growth in life in Christ. Sometimes Confession is merely a preparation before Holy Communion, or it is limited to a clearing of the conscious without looking to what lies ahead. So then, such people are not looking for any direction from a spiritual father, and are not in the process of repentance as described above. So it is no wonder that such people do not even consider looking to the priesthood for counsel, but will run without hesitation to a therapist. So let us continue:

I posed the following question to an Athonite father who wished to remain anonymous: I have run across priests in the Orthodox Church who rely much on modern psychology in their counseling; is it possible for us to turn to psychology? The father (who had been a doctor in the world) answered:

The teachings of the Holy Fathers trace back to the fourth century but psychology only dates back to the 16th or 17th century in the non-Orthodox West. In psychology they do discover things which are useful, but our fathers knew these things for over a millennium before the advent of psychology. In the West there is an error in that it is believed that the thoughts and the mind are one. However, according to the teaching of the Orthodox Church the mind and the thoughts are not one but two; and the mind must be cleansed of the wrong thoughts which pass through it.

Psychology is the product of problems that existed in Western Christianity with regard to salvation. In the Catholic Church salvation is black and white: it is the systematic observance of rules and the performance of good works in which each has their own merit towards the salvation of one’s soul. In Protestantism salvation is simply the matter of a confession of faith and then your name is written in the Book of Life. But in Orthodoxy, in order to be saved we must work to cleanse the inner man. There are three stages of growth in grace: the first is that of cleansing, the second enlightenment, and the third perfection—which is rare. We must repent and become cleansed of our wrong thoughts and sins and then the mind can become enlightened by receiving thoughts of God.
Psychology has taken root in the West because Christians in the West do not understand the need for the cleansing of the thoughts. The thoughts that go through one’s mind can drive a person crazy, and so psychology tries to keep the mind occupied with other things in order to avoid this. Therefore psychologists can keep someone from going crazy, but they cannot heal the soul. Therefore psychology is useful to us only in the case of the related medicinal field of neurology.

A Father of Gregoriou Monastery told me the following story:

I became acquainted with a man who comes to visit here and who told me that he had an experience where he felt like he was in hell. So he went to a psychiatrist who, after hearing him, put him on medication. I told him that I believed he had a call to repentance, and that he must respond to this; but he ignored me. This man continued to see the psychiatrist and was given another medication. When he returned for another visit to the monastery, I again repeated my advice, and this time he did decided to follow my suggestion. Everything is now fine with him.

A deacon, who was a student at St. Tikhon’s Seminary, once told me the following which I thought I should include:

A friend of mine back home suggested that I read a book on psychology. He told me that there were many good points in the book, and also that there were things that were undesirable. I read the book and could see that he was very perceptive in his conclusions. However, I noticed a change in his way of thinking. He became very skeptical, and through deductive reasoning sought proofs and systematic explanations for matters of faith. He sought to analyze and give rational explanations for the mysteries of faith which cannot be analyzed and explained, and as a result his simple faith was harmed.

In conclusion, I would like to emphasize that in this post my purpose is not to totally declaim the field of psychology; however I simply wish to point out matters that may be of concern to Orthodox Christians, and pray that God will give us all discernment.

A Hymn to the Theotokos

O unwedded Virgin, whence comest thou? Who is he that begat thee, and who is thy mother? How bearest thou thy Creator in thine arms? How hath thy womb escaped corruption? In thee we behold great marvels, O all-holy one, and dread mysteries wrought upon earth; and we prepare beforehand thy worthy due O earth, we offer the cave; and we ask Heaven to provide its star. And the Magi come for the East of the earth unto the West, to behold the Salvation of mortals as a suckling Babe. (The hymn of the forefeast at the Vespers Aposticha of St. Nicholas of Myra, The Menaion Volume Four, The Month of December, p. 36, Translated from the Greek by Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Boston Massachusetts, 2005)

Odds and ends from Athos, Part 2

Here I will continue my conversations with Fr. Jeremiah. There will be a subject heading or question then his response.

The problem of recurring despondency.

This can have a lot to do with the way a person has been brought up and the character of a person. We all are particular persons with our own character traits and our environment has an affect on us. In the end we all have some particular Cross to bear. For one person it might be despondency, while another might have his temper—he gets angry; one person has this and another person has that. It’s a bit like St. Paul says, “The thorn in the flesh.” Sometimes God allows us to have some kind of a defect in character to become humble. But it’s a question of placing our faith in God and not to let it get the better of us. It helps when you’re living in some sort of community or a community of people rather than to be living on your own in isolation. When you’re living in some sort of community this can help to keep one on a moderate course, not to go out and to depart either to the right or to the left. It may be that some people allow particular things to get them down because of some type of a lack of faith. We are to place our faith in God and not to despair, as, St. Silouan used to say, “Keep your mind in hell and not to despair.” I think sometimes life might just seem like you’re going through hell, but we cling to faith in God and do not despair.

When one is offended or hurt by another again and again and there is resentment or fear in that relationship, how can one overcome?

I think there are a number of different things here. It is possible that there is someone with whom you just don’t have a good relationship. Yet this does not mean that you have to feel any evil against them or anger or hate. If we do, that shows that there is still some sort of egotism and self-centeredness. If someone has sort of written themselves off and consider themselves to be really nothing, then if someone does you some harm, or does something evil that’s not true or whatever, if you don’t consider yourself anything, sort of nothing, if you’ve written yourself off, you won’t get upset. What will it matter to you what other people think about you or what is your reputation—this can be just pride and vanity. Nor should we have any anger or hold anything against anyone, we should always give forgiveness even to people that do us harm and injury and our enemies. In a sense we should feel sorry for them, in the sense that they do this to us, because there is something not right with them and they are sick. If anything they need our prayers so that they can repent. If a person seems to be against us maybe there can be a break down in faith in that person. So if we say a prayer after the bad things they do or they say, we both help them and guard ourselves.

Some people, when they sin, get angry with themselves and are unable to repent; when they go to pray, there is no penitence but anger with themselves.

Well, this can be a certain pride or egoism. And this can get down into and affect the disposition of the heart. So the proud and egotistic heart is hard and can be depressed or angry at seeing its sinfulness. But if one considers himself to be nothing and, as I said before, has written himself off as nothing; then the heart would not be affected in that way. So one must strive to acquire humility with the help of their spiritual father, and this is a long process which really never ends.

What is the difference between a good healthy self love and self esteem and pride?

I think we can have pride or self-esteem when we sense that God, Christ, and the saints love us; and we sense their love and comfort and consolation. We have been able to establish a communication or link with Christ and all the saints. Basically, we can look to the saints for comfort and consolation and we receive help not only from others but from Christ, His most-pure Mother and the saints. It is in this that we exult and rejoice.

So if someone has faith and trust in Christ and the Mother of God and the saints, then that person lives in another world—the world of the Church. Then through the icons and the relics and services one enters into this world of the Church. Like in the services to Christ and the Mother of God and all the different saints, and through the reading of their lives and writings one actually senses that he has established some contact or communication with them. So the Church is in fact the place where we can transcend the barriers of time and space. And in the end I think this is what the icons signify, that is, that we can have this contact with holy people who lived in another time and in another place.

All this brings us back to something we touched on before, that is, relationships with others. When we are thus integrated into the Church and receiving help from Christ and the Mother of God and the saints, we can then give to other people without expecting anything in return. A saint or a holy person does not give on the basis of how he can profit, that is, “I give so much and I expect so much in return.” A holy person gives and expects nothing in return. That is why he can be on good terms or have good relationships with everyone. He doesn’t get upset or whatever when other people don’t show him respect or love or confidence, because he understands humanity and how human beings are disfigured by sin. And so, in relating to others, he is aware that people are imperfect and vulnerable to being hurt; we think differently from each other and problems do occur. Therefore he is patient and peaceably disposed towards others even in difficult circumstances.

I told Fr. Jeremiah about my intention of helping to build a skete together with another monk at my former monastery, so he spoke about establishing community life. Although this was spoken about monastic community, I believe it is easy to see how this can relate to a family community.

Fr. Vasileos is interesting in the line he takes concerning the ordering of the life of his monks. He does not like the idea of a hard fast set of rules that each monk must fit into. Fr. Vasileos is very flexible in respect to each monk, more or less to respect the character of each monk. For we are all a particular person with a distinct personal essence and so the way each of us develops a relationship with God is not exactly the same. So there needs to be a certain flexibility in respect to each person’s character or personality. Some monks have more of an ascetical impetus while others are less capable. Yet in a community we should be able to have confidence in each other, that everyone is well motivated and that all are sensibly trying to do the best they can. And we must not feel that asceticism is an end in itself, but rather a means to an end, that is, to acquire the virtues such as humility, contrition, purity, simplicity and genuine love. The important thing in a community is that there exists love and harmony and understanding among its members.

There are those who are obsessed with rules and believe they should build a community according to the textbook or even the way they want to. But this shows a lack of spiritual maturity: when people are trying to create something based on their own particular ideas. This is a fallacy or a basic delusion to think that because we are abbot or abbess that we are right or we’re infallible. Whereas the whole idea of a community in the Orthodox Church is that one person does not constitute a community or Church. It is always two people or more in relationship with each other. And these two or more people have to discuss and come to an agreement as to how the life of their community is put into effect. This is the way of the Orthodox Church, it is not run like a despotism where one person makes a particular decision and says that is the way it is going to be. For instance, Fr. Vasileos discusses problems to be solved with the elder fathers or sometimes the whole community. In the end he sees himself as really nothing, but he is only a facilitator of the good of the community.

A Hymn to the Theotokos

The Lord Who dwelt within thy womb, O pure One, hath both deified the whole of human nature and through sanctification hath drawn to Himself a multitude of the venerable.  (Theotokion of Ode 6 in the Matins Canon to St. Peter the Athonite—see June 12^th in the Menaion)

Odds and Ends from Athos

In this post I plan to begin sharing some excerpts from conversations that I’ve had with various monks from the HolyMountain.  This post will have conversations with a certain Fr. Jeremiah.  He will be introduced as I begin with my notes below:

Father Jeremiah appeared to be a genuine disciple of his elder, Vasileos.  Elder Vasileos was formerly the Abbot of Stavronikita Monastery, afterwards that of Iveron Monastery, and now is retired spending most of his time in solitude in a kelli (or cabin) outside of Iveron Monastery.  During our conversations, Father Jeremiah, often referred to his elder, and so I felt that I was receiving the teaching of Elder Vasileos through a true spiritual child.  Here, now, are some memories from our conversations:

The elder emphasizes the Liturgy as the center of our life.  This is in accord with the greatest commandments of the Gospel: the first, love of God, and the second, to love our neighbor as ourselves. To live the Liturgy is to live for others more than ourselves and therefore it is the fulfillment of this commandment.

In the Orthodox Church we have two ways of life: married and monastic.  If you do not have a monastic calling then normally you would marry.  The Church does not like to have unmarried people in the world because a Christian should be a part of a community.  The married life is a community life, and the monastic life is a community life.  Christianity is a life of sacrifice. In a community, whether monastic or a family, we sacrifice; we learn humility by cutting off our own will before others and serving them. An unmarried person in the world usually lives a self-willed and selfish life; he lives for himself, and this is not Orthodoxy. There are families which can actually be living an idiorythmic life and the same can be said for them, i.e., that they are not living in a true Orthodox manner.

In a monastery our work is called diaconima which is taken from the word deacon which means to serve.  We do not use the worldly term “work” because those who work in the world work primarily for themselves, for something they want which can be very self—centered.  In the monastery we use the word diaconima because we are working for each other and not ourselves; we are serving the community.  In this way even eating becomes a liturgical act because you are sustaining yourself in order to serve others.  Our program should not be to seek the things we want, or to have time for ourselves, but rather to help others without any resistance when we are asked. In this way we attain humility, that is, by serving the community.  By thus serving the community our diaconima becomes a prayer; whether that might be through physical work or speaking to a visitor who is in need, we are at the same time inwardly moved. And if anything we desire to undertake either disrupts the community or does not benefit the community in some way, but is done only for one’s self, then you only appear to be benefiting yourself but in reality you are not.  This is not in accordance with God’s will; and this is how we can tell if something is in accordance with God’s will: when you benefit others, you also benefit yourself.

Father Jeremiah spoke much about the monastery being a family and the importance of the elder being a living example of self-sacrifice in order to win the love and respect of the brotherhood.  This should not be by force or compulsion, but should come as a voluntary act on their part, a spontaneous response, a mutual exchange of love.

We also spoke about prayer. I said the services seem long and confining, and that I was told that if you cannot say the Jesus Prayer and listen to the services at the same time, then leave off the Jesus Prayer.  Fr. Jeremiah replied, “The Elder emphasizes the fact that everyone is an individual and has a different gift to offer.  One man serves in the altar, another sings, and another takes care of the ordering of the services.  One man stands in the front of the church and listens more to the service, while another stays in the back and attends more to the Jesus Prayer than the service.  But the person who attends to the services does not need to spend much time reading; he learns from the services and thus fulfills this need.  The elder emphasizes listening to the services with humility.  To some extent there is freedom to do what you desire but if what you are doing sticks out like a sore thumb or causes disruption in the community then it is self-centered.”

I asked Fr. Jeremiah if a monk should cut off his will before his spiritual father and in an impersonal way be given a rule of prayer to fulfill? He answered with an abrupt and firm, “No, the Elder does not do that, and he considers it wrong. Prayer cannot be forced, it must be a personal offering, something spontaneous; it must develop naturally. If a person does not have it within him to pray he cannot be forced.  One man prays more, another reads or writes, while another may serve the community by doing a little extra work.”

I learned the following about their schedule: At Midnight a bell is rung and they say the Jesus Prayer for one hour with prostrations and bows according to one’s strength. At one o’clock they begin services with Midnight office and finish with Liturgy at about 5 AM. Then, they rest in their cells; and at 7 AM they have their first common meal. At 2:30 PM they have Vespers, dinner and Small Compline which finishes about 4:30 PM.  From thereon until midnight they have time for sleep, prayer or reading without any rule.

Confession at Stavronikita Monastery is usually in the form of informal talks with the Elder, and the prayer of absolution is read once a week in the Church.  Fr. Jeremiah said, “Confession consists primarily in telling the Elder the things that create obstacles to prayer in order to make the mind free to pray.  In the beginning a person needs much guidance from his spiritual father; but, as he progresses and develops he is moved more and more by God as to the path he should take.  He is guided more by God and needs less guidance from his spiritual father.

When I mentioned to Fr. Jeremiah that I have often wondered why the Gospel which is so important takes up such a small portion of the monastic program while the psalms and even other portions of the Old Testament are read more, he answered: “That is true, but we do have a Gospel and Epistle reading every day. Yet the whole Gospel is contained in one reading.  There is much food for meditation in one reading and it is enough for one day.  The Elder emphasizes reading the Bible but he says it is better to pray than to read.  The Elder says that we should read the daily gospel and epistle again in our cells along with the tropar and kondak hymns of the day and meditate on them. Many of the services are commentaries on the Gospel.  In the dining hall we also read commentaries on the Gospel and the lives of the saints. The Gospel is the center of our lives. This is symbolized by how it is placed in the center of the altar.  It is brought out during the entrance in a procession and held up high; it is covered with gold, and rightly so.  The Elder says that our life must become a book; it must become a Gospel. The lives of saints are theology in action.  A theologian is one who lives according to the commandments of God.  Keeping these things in mind we can rightly say that reading the lives of the saints is like reading another gospel-a fifth gospel.  Fr. Jeremiah is moved at how on every page of the Gospel we see self-sacrifice and self-denial but always interwoven with joy and hope.

The Elder emphasizes cultivating the virtue of humility.  Though one man may live in solitude, pray long hours in his cell and fast strictly, he may easily become proud of it.  While another, who lives in a community, may eat more and pray less – yet if he has acquired humility – has progressed further.

The above notes were from conversations on my first visit to Athos in 1986.  On a return visit in the early 1990’s I spoke to this same father about functioning as a spiritual father.  This conversation is not only for priests, but has much for all to consider.

I said to Father Jeremiah that I had some questions concerning spiritual fatherhood and counseling which I wanted to ask.  He replied saying that he first wanted to speak in general and later on if I still wanted I could ask particular questions. And so he began:

In general, when I’m likely to be hearing confessions I like to emphasize that according to Orthodoxy the Gospels say that the main purpose in life is theosis, that is, to arrive at union with God; everything else in life is a consequence.  And that God came in the person of Jesus Christ so that man could become God, of course, by grace.  And just as all the saints who reached union with God can also be like Him, so we, too, should try to become like the saints and become holy.

As an example for us in life we have first of all Christ Who is in a certain sense the first saint—He deified our human nature, He enriched our human nature with His divinity.  Then we have all the saints after Him; divine, human beings.  In this sense they are examples of proper human beings, true and authentic and sort of spontaneous, genuine human beings.  Yet all of us are sort of far away from Christ and the saints.  We are all—to some degree—false; and in our relationships with other people we are false and we live in a society which is false.  And I think that a lot of people who are well disposed, who have a good disposition will understand this.  And when you look at the saints you see what holy people are; the saints are true authentic human beings and we all tend to be false.  I think that this falseness can be overcome within the Church.  We should not do something apart from the Church just because other people are –that is, not living as the Church teaches.  They live their life away from the Church and from the life of the Church; therefore they are only in a superficial way actually sensing the life of the Church.  In the Church we have contact or communication with Christ and with all the saints.  But we have to sense that the Church really is that place of communion with all the saints.  And the fact that we have this contact with Christ and the saints  should be for us a comfort and consolation.

I asked: If someone does not sense this, how can such a one participate in this?  Father answered:

That depends on the person’s disposition, the heart, whether they have a good disposition of heart.  And I think Christ talks a lot about this, that is, the heart—like in the parable of the sower.  He is talking about the heart, how some people have a hard heart and they can’t accept the word of God. As Christ also says to those who were concerned with tithing their herbage, they had a hard heart, and they would not allow the Word of God to penetrate it.  Other people might have a good heart and they can accept the word of God, but within their heart also there are the passions and the desires for worldly things and knowledge.  These things we have to uproot.   Then there can be a battle between the faith and the world, and sometimes desires can overtake their faith.  But there are other people who have a good heart and their heart is very receptive.  Then the Word of God takes root and grows.  So we don’t have to worry about anyone who has a good disposition for God will help them. 

And you can say, “Well why do some people have a good disposition or a better motivation than others?”  Well I think that’s a question we can’t answer.  In the life of Saint Anthony he once asked, “Why is it that some people will be saved and others won’t?”  He was basically told that you can ask if you like but you are not going to get the answer to the question.  Remember that even in the case of Christ Himself—Who is God and Who was true and genuine—there were some people who He could help and others He could not help, because He is the Truth, and Truth is a two edged sword. And when you say what is true or genuine or holy, it means that some people will love you and others will hate you just like with Christ.  You can see this exemplified in the Gospel: Christ had dealings with people who superficially or externally seemed to be sinful people like harlots and so on, yet they repented and became holy people.  On the other hand there were the so-called religious leaders who came to see Him, but this was just superficial.  Deep down in their hearts it was another story.  And as Christ said they were hardened in heart and because of that they did not want to receive the truth—the truth about Him.  And because pointed out to them their hypocrisy they wanted to eliminate Him and they wanted to kill Him.

In the end, the best way we can help other people is – as far as possible – we ourselves must be holy, that is, true and authentic.  If we are, then we will be able to help other people not just individually as spiritual fathers, but also in their relationships with wives, children, friends and whoever.  When you think of it, a lot of people probably have problems in their personal relationships due to a lack of spiritual depth or a lack of holiness.  More or less, it is a deficit of holiness.  And that in accordance with their lack holiness—that is, in the sense of being a proper human being, that means true and authentic, genuine and spontaneous and not being false or artificial—so too, in their personal relationships there is this deficit.  But just try and you will see that because many of us are already desolate and sha1low within the relationships that we build, these relationships are false and superficial and just based on physical appearance or things like that.

I will end here with this and continue on in the next post.

A Hymn to the Theotokos

In the Red Sea of old, the unwedded Bride was prefigured: There Moses divided the water, here Gabriel was a minister to the miracle.  Then Israel passed through the deep without getting wet, now Christ is born without seed from the Virgin.  After Israel’s passing the Sea remain impassible, after the birth of Immanuel the immaculate One remained undefiled.  O God Who doth exist and hath always existed, and revealed Thyself as man, have mercy on us. (Dogmatic at Great Vespers, Tone 5)    

The Jesus Prayer: How fast? What Form? The Imagination?

I will begin this post by saying something about the speed at which we recite the Jesus Prayer.  In reading about the Jesus Prayer we find that various authors suggest different rates at which one should say the Jesus Prayer.  For example, St. Ignatius Brianchaninov says that 100 prayers should take about half an hour.  Bishop Kallistos Ware also says the same in his introductioin to the book, The Art of Prayer. They suggest a slight pause after each prayer before going on to the next repetition.  But if we look at the book, The Way of a Pilgrim, we see something quite different.  In the beginning the pilgrim was instructed by his elder to say the prayer at first 3,000 times in a day; shortly afterwards this was increased to 6,000 and then 12,000 ties in a day.  This, of course, is a much faster rate than that advised by St. Ignatius or Bishop Kallistos.

So let me give an explanation by referring to conversations with some contemporary fathers.  During a conversation with the Elder Ephraim of Arizona he suggested a number of Jesus Prayers for a daily rule.   When I replied that the number he mentioned would be very difficult because I say the Prayer very slowly, he simply said, “Why do you say it so slow?  Say it faster”.  I had been influenced by reading St. Ignatius and Bishop Kallistos but I discovered that among the Greeks a much quicker rate was the norm.  For instance, a monk of Dochiariou Monastery told me that, as a normal rule, they say the Jesus Prayer 600 times in half an hour.  Some time later when I was speaking with a hieromonk of Philotheou on this subject I brought up what the aforementioned said.  This father told me, 600 times in a half hour is actually slow.  As we continued I told him that when I had visited the Monastery of St. John the Baptist in England where the JP is recited orally during the community services there was one old monk from Greece who said the Prayer very slowly while all the others said it at a much quicker rate.  In response this father commented: “When we are young and the passions are strong, they rage within us like a storm. And thoughts also, at times, will fly through our minds like a tornado. We are attacked fast and we must fight back fast. If we recite the Jesus Prayer too slow 500 thoughts can go through our minds before we pass from one word to the next.  But, as in the case of the old monk, when we advance in the spiritual life the passions are lulled, and there is a great calm within, the movement of thoughts is stilled and one can recite the Prayer very slowly. I once read in a book that Archimandrite Sophrony would spend all night in prayer and during that time he would spend 6 hours saying the Lord’s Prayer only once!  He would be wrapped in contemplation over every syllable.”

Why then did St. Ignatius suggest such a slow rate?  Because he was speaking out of his own experience and that was the way for him.  Archimandrite Sophrony once stated that Bishop Ignatius had the gift of tears and he prayed fervently with many tears.  St. Ignatius must have had a great capacity for prayer—a capacity that most of us do not have.  Inner fervent prayer must have come natural to him, and so he prayed very slow, with a pause between each prayer, and so, he suggested for others what came natural to him.

The way for St. Ignatius is not the way for everyone and I do not believe it is best for most of us.  Besides if we say the Prayer too slow we can have a tendency to think about Jesus rather than praying to Him.  We might be thinking about Jesus as Lord, Jesus as Savior, Jesus as the Christ and the Son of God.  Although this is not bad it is thinking about God rather than entering into communion with Him.  On the contrary, St. Seraphim advises, “In prayer take heed to yourself—that is, gather your mind and unite it with the subject of the prayer, and do not let it turn to any other thing.” (In the Footsteps of a Saint, p. 34) In this way each prayer consists of a single thought and so it can be repeated very quickly.

Next we should consider what form of the prayer to use. St. Ignatius in The Arena suggests the form, “ Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”.  This longer form seems to be prominent among the Russians, and the humble confession in the words, “a sinner”, may or may not be employed.  In his writings, Archimandrite Sophrony, also suggests this form and feels that this form contains a full dogmatic confession.  However, he does not demand that his monastics must use this form.  Again others prefer the short form: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me”.  This form is commonly used among the Athonite fathers.  The Elder Ephraim uses the shorter form and he has said that for himself this contains everything and the longer form was not necessary.  His spiritual child, Abbot Paisius believes that one should start with the short form and move on to the longer form if one was moved to do so.  Therefore what should each of us do?  We pray the form that we are moved to use and practice obedience.  In conclusion the Elder Ephraim has said, “The form of the Prayer is not essential, there must be purity in the disposition of the heart in which the prayer is offered”.

One last point to consider is the use of the imagination.  So let me pose a question: Is it possible to use the imagination during prayer?  And if so how? To begin with something should be said about the  imagination and its use. The imagination is from God for constructive use in this life and creative.  It is the ability of the mind to form a mental picture.  It has constructive use in this life, for instance, an architect uses his imagination in drawing up blueprints for a church building.  On the other hand a person may day dream about things unrealistic, and so, the imagination becomes damaging.  In addition the demonic powers can use our imagination to introduce fantasies of sinful things into our minds which are soul-destroying. 

Now back to the question at hand.  To respond to this I will refer to conversations I had with several elders.  I told the Elder Joseph the Younger of Vatopedi Monastery that during the Liturgy I like to picture in my mind the event of the Mystical Supper and I asked if this was wrong.  He answered, “Beginners in prayer can use different methods and even the imagination in order to help the attention.  But for those who have attained pure prayer it is a distraction.  During reading the Scriptures, chanting and at Liturgy, it is allowable to use the imagination; but when we are praying in our cells we must keep our minds free from all images”.

At another time I questioned the Elder Ephraim of Arizona as to what is meant by guarding the mind and he replied, “To help guard the mind you can think of the Crucifixion, the blessings of heaven or the torments of hell”.  And when I asked Archimandrite Sophrony if it were necessary to have thought while saying the Jesus Prayer he said, “Of course you must have thought; man is a reasonable creature.  You can’t just sit back and say Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”.  He repeated the prayer several times and as he did this he sat up erect as though imitating a robot.  Then he continued; “Think of your sins and say the Jesus Prayer”.

The imagination, then, can be used, but only like a spark to ignite a flame.  It can be used to arouse inner attentiveness and feeling.  We can picture momentarily in our minds the Lord, saints or things such as were mentioned by the elders just quoted when we begin a prayer or from time to time when we use short intercessions such as the Jesus Prayer.  But to dwell on these things is wrong, for it can be a distraction if we are praying as we should.  Because when we use the imagination the attention is in the head, but we are called to stand before God with the mind in the heart—the meeting place between God and man.

A Hymn to the Theotokos

Thy Nativity, O Theotokos Virgin, hath proclaimed joy to all the world; for from thee hath dawned the Sun of Righteousness, Christ our God, annulling the curse and bestowing a blessing, abolishing death and granting us life eternal.  (Tropar of The Nativity of the Theotokos, trans. Prayer Book, Holy Trinity Monastery, Jordanville, NY, p.157)   

Sermon on The Nativity of the Theotokos

Today we celebrate the birth of our Lady, the Theotokos.  She Who was to become the Mother of our God is born today; and thus today begins the preparation of the living Temple, or the living Ark of our God.  She was, of course, a Temple of God in the highest sense because she carried God within her in physically. Having been brought to the Temple of the Old Law she led a strict ascetic life from an early age.  She was sanctified far beyond all other created beings, and thus she was prepared to become the Tabernacle of God.  At the time of the Annunciation, she was found to be already full of grace; and in this way did the Archangel Gabriel greet her, calling her Full of Grace.

Each of us, too, is called to be a temple of God, and the Apostle Paul makes this pointing his first epistle to the Corinthians, when he writes. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (ICor 3.16)  But how can we have this as a reality in our lives, that is, to be a living temple of God?  How can this become something that we clearly perceive in our lives?  This is something which we shall try to answer today.

So I want to make some reference to a talk given by Archimandrite Zachariah of the Monastery of St. John the Baptist in England.  In speaking about how far we are from God he quotes the Prophet Isaiah (55.8-9) and says:

Our thoughts are as far from the thoughts of God, and our ways are as far from the ways of God as heaven is from earth; there is nothing common. This is why St. Paul says the same thing—that the Gospel of Christ is not by the measure of man, because it is not given by man, but by the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Gal. 1.11-12).  Therefore we must crucify our carnal mind in order to receive the mind of Christ, and this is the beauty of repentance.  When we repent and we practice the commandment of the Lord, we crucify our carnal mind and our self-confidence. We do not put our trust in ourselves, but in Him who is able to raise even the dead.

Fr. Zachariah then goes on to tell us something about the Hesychast tradition of the Church:

The hesychastic tradition is the heart of our tradition; that through the invocation of the name of Christ we can acquire perfect healing.

This initial comment of his is very unique and profound.  I have often heard the hesychastic tradition and the use of the Jesus Prayer presented as a means of acquiring grace, contemplation, and as an ascent to God; but never as the way to “acquire perfect healing”.  Continuing Father says:

In our normal fallen state our mind is diffused in all the created world. We must repent in order to bring the mind back to us and reunite it with the heart, so that we can find wholeness and completeness. When our mind is reunited with the heart, then we can turn our whole being to God, then we can reach the level demanded by the commandments of Christ—to love God with all our heart and all our being.  In our normal state we cannot fulfill this great commandment properly because we have one thought in our mind, another desire in our heart, another feeling in our senses; we are divided.  But when through repentance all our life is concentrated in our heart and from there turns to God, then we fulfill the commandments.

At the time when we return to our heart with our true repentance we become in control of our whole being.  Even in our ordinary life, in times of contrition, when we pray with contrition, no alien thought comes near us.  The whole of our mind is in the words we utter to God if we really pray with tears and contrition.  And the fathers say we rule over being, we possess our being, when our mind is reunited with our heart.  Then our heart becomes the very body of our body, that is to say, all our being is concentrated in our heart.  So when the mind is reunited with the heart we have found healing. We are then able to fulfill the commandments of God in a manner befitting Him.

So this is what our struggle should be: to have our mind in our natural state. St. Symeon the New Theologians says that salvation is to bring the mind into its natural state. There is a paradise within us, and we can enter into that paradise even in this life. St. Ignatius Brianchaninov says that before the fall the mind of Adam was united with his heart, and he insists that this is what paradise was.  But as a result of the fall this union of mind and heart was broken and man lost his free communication with God.

Therefore we need to cultivate this state, just as the Theotokos did when, as an infant she resolved to dedicate her whole life to God.  And I said “she resolved”, because it is written that when she was brought to the Temple by her parents she ran up the steps of the Temple without looking back at them.  This is something that surprised both the priests and her parents because it would have been natural for a child of that age to look back.  So, she then withdrew from the world and nourished her soul with the things of God, the Scriptures and the worship of the Temple.  She was not only a hearer, but also a doer of God’s word.  Thus she prepared herself to be a dwelling place of God.  But how do we move in this direction? 

Well, today, let us simply speak about things that can be counterproductive to such a state.  The Apostle Paul says, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit” (Eph. 4:3), and he instructs us, “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rom 12:2).  Furthermore, he warns us, “to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Rom 8:7-8)  Again he says “be renewed in the spirit of your mind; put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Eph. 4:23-4).  And the Apostle John the Theologian is more to the point and clear in writing, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1John 2:15).

So we need to take heed to ourselves, to be careful not to become a victim of this world, and a captive to its fascinations.  Since by so doing, we do not even allow God’s grace to become active within us.  And if we do happen to have had the experience of the grace of God, we will lose it.  We will grieve the Holy Spirit.  So let us be careful of becoming a victim of the world.  We need to listen to the words of the Apostle Peter: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (IPet. 5:8).

One of the prime ways in which the devil seeks to devour us was revealed to a disciple of St. Paisius Velichkovsky.  After the death of St. Paisius his disciple Sophronius succeeded him as abbot.  One morning, when he went to the main gate of the monastery a little before Matins, he saw a frightful looking demon.  The demon spoke of his warfare against the monks, and Abbot Sophronius asked him what was the greatest weapon he employed against the monks of this day.  The demon then answered that it was to keep them distracted from spiritual occupations such as prayer and the reading of spiritual books.  The demon said: “Why don’t you read my books?  They are spiritual, for I too am a spirit and I inspire men to write.” (see Blessed Paisius Velichkovsky by Schema-monk Metrophanes, Saint Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, Platina, CA 1976)

So we all need to examine ourselves and see how much of a hold the world has upon us.  How much time of ours is dedicated to Christ, and how much is spent upon the fascinating distractions of this world?  We need to begin chipping away at the things which distort our relationship with God and cast them off.  So then, calling to remembrance our all-holy, most pure, most blessed Lady the Theotokos, together with all the saints let us commit ourselves, one another to Christ our God.  Amen.    

A Hymn to the Theotokos

Open to me the gate of repentance, O Gate of Light; and close the entrance of the passions to my humbled soul, O Virgin. (The Theotokion of the Canon of Repentance from the Octoechos, Tuesday Matins, Ode Three)

Methods in Prayer

In this post I will continue to share things I have learned from contemporary monastics by speaking about methods in prayer.  So I want to concentrate on the strain of thought I was exposed to in two spiritual families, that is, the spiritual children of Elder Ephraim and those of the late Archimandrite Sophrony.

I believe it is of interest to first define the word method.  It is a technique, maybe a procedure or even systematic body of procedures and techniques characteristic of a particular field of discipline.  In applying this to the JP, as I said, I am going to speak of two spiritual families I have had some affiliation with and as a starting point I will refer to the “grandfathers” of these families.  So first I mention the names of St. Silouan the Athonite and the Elder Joseph the Hesychast. The Elder Ephraim of St. Anthony’s Monastery in Arizona has expressed the belief that these two fathers were the most important elders on Athos in the 20^th century, and he is, as we know, a disciple of the latter.

If we go to his monasteries, which are known for the practice of the Jesus Prayer, what is it that we find stressed in relation to this prayer?  There is a prayer rule assigned with a certain number of Jesus Prayers, a number of Prayers said making the sign of the Cross, and again a numbers of Prayers said with prostrations.   Also an oft repeated short intercession to the Theotokos is usually added.  On top of this there is the reading of spiritual books that support prayer, and one is also told to say the Prayer as much as possible during the day.  It is encouraged to do this latter orally. 

Breathing methods are often suggested while saying the Jesus Prayer in one’s cell.  One can say half the prayer while inhaling and the other half while exhaling or perhaps one complete prayer while both inhaling and exhaling.   Again there is a technique of breathing in and holding your breath while simultaneously saying the Jesus Prayer and then exhaling.  All this has a purpose, it helps one understand where the attention should be during prayer, which is in the upper part of the heart and so it can facilitate the union of mind and heart. 

I think there is a lot of talk about this, that is, union of mind and heart or prayer of the heart and the experience of grace through prayer.  This seems to be a goal stressed and sought after by many today and everything that has been mentioned about method up to this point is employed as an aid with this aim in mind.  There are some of the Holy Fathers who have made a science and art out of prayer and this is a major school of thought we see today.  When under proper direction this does bear much fruit.

Now I want to quote Archimandrite Sophrony:  In his book His Life Is Mine, in the Chapter entitled “The Jesus Prayer Method”, he writes:

I purpose to devote this chapter to setting out as briefly as possible the more important aspects of the JP and the commonsense views regarding this great culture of the heart that I met with on the Holy Mountain.

Year after year monks repeat the prayer with their lips, without trying by any artificial means to join mind and heart.  Their attention is concentrated on harmonizing their life with the commandments of Christ.  According to ancient tradition mind unites with heart through Divine action when the monk continues in the ascetic feat of obedience and abstinence; when the mind, the heart and the very body of the ‘old man’ to a sufficient degree are freed from the dominion over them of sin; when the body becomes  worthy to be ‘the temple of the Holy Ghost’ (cf. Rom. 6:11-14). However, both early and present day teachers occasionally permit recourse to a technical method of bringing the mind down into the heart. (p. 112)

After explaining a breathing method as has been mentioned above he continues:

This procedure can assist the beginner to understand where his inner attention should be stayed during prayer and, as a rule, at all other times, too. Nevertheless, true prayer comes exclusively through faith and repentance accepted as the only foundation.  The danger of psychotechniques is that not a few attribute too great significance to the method itself.  In order to avoid such a deformation the beginner should follow another practice which, though considerably slower, is incomparably better and more wholesome—to fix the attention on the Name of Christ and the words of the prayer.  When contrition for sin reaches a certain level the mind naturally heeds the heart. (p. 113)

Unless this path of mortification of the old man is achieved in some degree then whatever one may attain to, whatever grace or heart-prayer one may experience is more man-made than God-given and artificial and temporary rather than something real and lasting.  This is because the grace of God cannot take root in the passionate heart.  It can visit a man in some degree for a little while but it cannot take root.  Grace takes root in the heart in proportion to the mortification of the passions that one has undergone.

There is, however, another method which Fr. Sophrony alluded to in the last sentence quoted above, which is very productive and I think more sure. In order to explain it I need to go off on a bit of a tangent.

We are called to follow Christ Who is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life”.  Yet we are fallen and a consensus of the fathers tells us clearly that the essence of Adam’s sin is pride and disobedience.  Having come to heal us, Christ showed us above all the way of obedience and humility which are absolutely true and certain and lead to life.  Concerning the first He declares; “I came not to do mine own will but the will of Him that sent me” (John6:38).  In reference to the second I believe the dismissal of Holy Thursday is quite interesting: “May He Who in His surpassing love showed us the most excellent way of humility…”  So we must have in ourselves this mind which was also in Christ Jesus, “Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal to God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross” (Phil. 2:5-8)

We should add to this that Christ our God even went to hell for us as St. Paul points out in such manner: “When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.  Now that He ascended, what is it that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth” (Eph 4:8-9).  So having become man, before ascending back to heaven, He went to hell.  This is the one whom we are called to follow, and through following His way of humility we are healed and saved.

For us, to follow Christ is to offer Him a humble repentance, to humble ourselves as much as possible in repentance.  We must take up an interior Cross of looking at our sinful condition, mourning over it and the mistakes and sins we have committed which have led us into this condition.  This mourning must be coupled with hope because our sinful condition is primarily a thing of the past and something which God is in the process of healing.  This should be our aim and way of contemplation, this is our method of prayer, this is the way to unite the mind to the heart.  Fr. Sophrony has said, “Strive for tears for when there are tears the mind and the heart are united”.   And this is the essence of the words of our Lord to St. Silouan: “Keep thy mind in hell and despair not”.

One of Fr. Sophrony’s disciples—Fr. Symeon—wrote an article concerning St. Silouan in which he said that the Saint did not follow any techniques.  And continued to comment that in his path he had directed his efforts to the root of all sin which is pride.  And so the Saint followed the humble path of Christ to the utmost by sentencing himself to hell.  This crushes the heart and in this state the mind unites with the heart and bears fruit.  The mind unites with the heart, not in an effort of ours to ascend but in an effort to follow the descent of Christ.

To follow this path so intensely as St. Silouan could lead many to despair but another way to tread upon this path has been pointed out by another of Fr. Sophrony’s disciples, Fr. Zachariah: to increase one’s love for God by looking as all the blessings He gives—both to man in general and what he has given to one personally.  Then to thank Him with love and gratefulness and consider one’s self unworthy.

In summary, according to Fr. Zachariah, Fr. Sophrony does not like methods.  We could say, however, that his method is alluded to in all that has been said above and can be summed up in these words  of Fr. Sophrony: “Seek humility, the Holy Spirit loves the humble soul”.

A Prayer to the Mother of God

O good Mother of the Good King, most pure and blessed Theotokos Mary, do thou pour out the mercy of thy Son and God upon my passionate soul, and by thine intercessions guide me unto good works, that I may pass the remaining time of my life without blemish, and attain paradise through thee, O Virgin Theotokos, who alone art pure and blessed.—from the Orthodox Evening Prayers (Trans. Prayer Book, Holy Trinity Monastery, Jordanville, NY)

The Rule of Prayer

I would like to move on in this post to share what I have learned from various sources concerning one’s rule of prayer.  I will divide this into two categories by first saying something about a rule of prayer in action and then in essence.  So as a start a few general words must be said about praying.  Praying, this seems to be the one thing more than any soul profiting exercise that is shortened or totally neglected and put aside.  It is so easy to find people in the Church who will read and study a lot, and show great zeal in doing external works.  However, it is so hard to find people who will take time to struggle to pray. Why is this so?

The Elder Ephraim was once asked this question and immediate he said, “Yes, yes”; in this way confirming that this is absolutely true and then he went on to say:

Abba Pimen says that prayer is the most difficult of all virtues to acquire.  In prayer we free our minds from all the distractions of this world and we touch God with our minds.  In prayer we unite to God with our minds.  And the devil hates this therefore he does all that he can to stop us from accomplishing this.  In prayer we must concentrate on God, we must turn away from all thoughts and distractions and immerse our minds in God.

So prayer then, is a very profitable exercise, and an exercise in which we are directly renewed and strengthened by God.  Therefore the devil fights against us most at that time so then we must be persistent. 

Another Athonite monk was once asked, “How can one live a spiritual life in the world?”  And he replied that three things are needed:  “One must have a spiritual father to whom he practices obedience, one must pray and also be watchful.”  When he spoke about prayer he emphasized the need to spend much time in prayer.  He said several times that in order to gain the Spirit one must shed blood, that is, one must struggle very hard and suffer.

He said, “We give up to easy.  We like to eat and drink and sleep too much.  Or we feel tired or have a headache and we sacrifice our prayers.”  And as an example of perseverance he spoke of one of the present abbots of the HolyMountain (This conversation took place in the early 1990’s) who, when he had lived in a skete, had a rule of 10 hours a day in prayer.  As he concluded speaking about works and different callings in life, the following conclusion was drawn by one of those who was listening and thus commented:

Good works though they bring the grace of God remain ineffective without prayer.  The grace gained through works is preserved through prayer.  If we only have good works and do not spend much time in prayer we can only progress in the spiritual life to a certain degree and then our growth is stunted.  But through much prayer this grace gained through good works can blossom forth.  And prayer by itself brings the grace of God more than anything else.

The Athonite father agreed with this statement. 

So prayer is our life.  We must have some time set apart for prayer each day and be consistent.  If not we will wither like a branch that is cut from a vine.  If we do not pray though we go through outward motions of being a Christian our inner man will starve and die.  So in order to nourish ourselves in a life in Christ we need o set aside time for prayer on a daily basis and this period of time we commonly call a rule of prayer.  But what should we do about this time, about a rule of prayer? 

There are various traditions and a variety of stresses in rules that are given by different spiritual fathers or elders.  For instance some will insist on reading many prayers from books.  The written prayers of the Church do teach us—so-to-speak—the language of prayer.  They teach us the proper way to approach God which is primarily as humble penitents.  In Greek prayer books you usually see Nocturns and Small Compline while in the Russian books you see Morning and Evening Prayers.  In addition the Greeks often read the Paraklesis and Akathist to the Theotokos while Russians more commonly like to read a variety of canons and akathists.  Sometimes a lot of psalms are stressed, while some elders will have their spiritual children read little or no written prayers and concentrate more on the Jesus Prayer.  Often there is often a lot of stress on prostrations and making the sign of the cross with the Jesus Prayer.  Some elders will automatically assign a standard rule of prayer to those who inquire of him, while others will ask, “What are you now doing?”  Then they will build upon this.  To pick from the aforementioned, prayers that relate to your needs, and not to overburden yourself is perhaps a good way to start.

In order to speak about the essence of a rule of prayer I think it is best to say something about different levels of prayer.  According to St. Theophan the Recluse our prayer:

reflects our attitude to God, and our attitude to God is reflected in prayer.  And since this attitude is not identical in different people, so the kind of prayer is not identical either.  He who is careless of salvation has a different attitude to God from him who has abandoned sin and is zealous for virtue, but has not yet entered within himself, and works for the Lord only outwardly.  Finally he who has entered within and carries the Lord within himself, standing before him, has yet another attitude.  The first man is negligent in prayer just as he is negligent in life; and he prays in church and at home merely according to the established custom, without attention or feeling.  The second man reads many prayers and goes often to church, trying at the same time to keep his attention free from wandering and to experience the feelings in accordance with the prayers which are read, although he is very seldom successful.  The third man, wholly within, stands with his mind before God, and prays to him in his heart without distraction, without long verbal prayers, even when standing for a long time at prayer in his home or church.  Take away oral prayer from the second and you will take away all prayer from him; impose oral prayer on the third and you will extinguish prayer in him by the wind of many words.  For every rank of person, and every degree of drawing near to God, has its own prayer and its own rules.  How important it is to have experienced instruction here, and how harmful it can be to guide oneself. (The Art of Prayer, An Orthodox Anthology,  Igumen Chariton, pp. 6`1-2)     

St. Silouan the Athonite also speaks of degrees of prayer as follows:

We are given churches to pray in and in church the holy offices are performed according to books.  But we cannot take a church away with us, and books are not always at hand, but interior prayer is always and everywhere possible.  The Divine office is celebrated in church, and the Spirit of God dwells therein, but the soul is the finest of God’s churches, and the man who prays in his heart has the whole world for a church.  However, this is not for everyone.

Many use their lips to pray, and like to read prayers from books; and this is good and the Lord accepts their prayers and is merciful to them.  (St. Silouan the Athonite, Archimandrite Sophrony, p. 294)

Even though God accepts this last kind of prayer, the higher degree of prayer obviously has something more as Archimandrite Sophrony relates about St. Silouan:

‘The Lord gave us feeble children sung church services—we do not yet know how to pray properly but singing helps everyone when it is done in humility.  But it is a better still for our heart to become the temple of the Lord and our mind his altar,’ he wrote.  And went on:

‘The Lord is glorified in holy churches, while monks and anchorites praise God in their hearts.  The anchorite’s heart is a temple, and his mind an altar, for the Lord likes to dwell in the heart and mind of man.’

And he added that when unceasing prayer settles in the depths of the heart the whole world is transformed into a temple of God.  (Ibid. pp. 97-8)

Yet even this St. Silouan,who had attained such a blessed state, did not disdain the services of the church, as Archimandrite Sophrony tells us of him:

The Staretz was very fond of long church services, so infinitely rich in spiritual content… But for all the love he felt for the majesty, the beauty and music of the services, he would say that although they were instituted by the gift of grace from the Holy Spirit, in their form they did not constitute perfect prayer, and were according to the ‘company of the faithful’ as corresponding to everyone’s strength and need.  (ibid. p. 97)

In the thoughts cited above, this saint speaks of those who work “outwardly”—to use the expression of St. Theophan-and also of one who “enters within.”  For those who fall into these two categories a rule of prayer has quite a different meaning and so varies in the way it is put into action.  For the first, that is, those who work “outwardly”, there are many prayers of the Church to choose from and rules to follow.  However, for the second, that is, for one who has “entered within”, St. Theophan gives the following advice:

The principle monastic rule is to remain constantly with God in mind and heart, that is, to pray unceasingly.  To keep this endeavor alight and warm, definite prayers are laid down-the cycle of daily services performed in the church, and certain rules of prayer for the cell.  But the chief thing is to possess a constant feeling for God.  It is this feeling that constitutes our rule.  So long as this feeling is there, all other rules are replaced by it. (The Art of Prayer, Igumen Chariton, p. 86)

Keeping the above in mind we could say that rather than having a rule of prayer we ideally would reach a state where we say our rule is to pray.  Prayer should become a state of being; prayer should be the primary state of one’s soul.  Although most of us probably find ourselves struggling in the second stage spoken of by St. Theophan we still have some experience of the interior prayer he spoke of.  But our hope should be to experience it more often and to be more deeply immersed within ourselves—where we meet God.  So then, in the words of St.   John the Theologian we could say our rule of prayer should become: “Abide in me and I in you.”