Why we need to say everything to our spiritual father ( Saint Theophan the Recluse )

In our spiritual life we need to be careful about our own judgments, decisions and self-evaluations. Since there are evil powers at work, even with strong faith we can be misled. You should always be aware of this reality.

Saint Theophan writes,

Secretiveness in everyday life is not a bad thing; in spiritual life, however, it is most dangerous. It is indispensable to have someone with whom you may consult about everything that is going on outwardly, and more importantly, inwardly. ...There is some sort of evil power around us and inside us, which through various illusionary qualities leads us into deception and confuses our affairs, directing them to something vain or even bad... Your reasoning does not always work, because the enemy confuses it with his own advice (our elders have nicknamed this "add-vice"). We should keep a journal so that when we see our spiritual father we can relate our difficulties to him and in this way he can best help us. When we are making a big decision, especially those that impact others, in addition to prayer, we should discuss our reasoning with him also. He will not tell you what decision to make, but will help you see if you are being deceived in your analysis. Decision are always up to our own will. Never allow a spiritual father to make your decisions. Any advisor who would do this is not a true spiritual guide. Look to him for advice and not a decision.

For most people your local priest can serve as your guide. But as you progress spiritually you may need to find a new guide. These are often found at monasteries. Visit them and talk with the elders there. A guide always comes naturally when you ask and seek.

Saint Theophan the Recluse
Reference: The Spiritual Life, pp 277-280

Why don't we preserve the grace of baptism ( Saint Theophan The Recluse )

              

The reason why the grace of Baptism is not preserved is because the order, rules, and laws of an upbringing which is adopted to this end are not kept. The chief causes of this are:

1) Going away from the Church and its grace-giving means. This starves the sprout of Christian life, disconnecting it from its sources, and it wilts as a flower wilts when it is placed in a warm place.

2) Failure to pay heed to one's bodily nature. People think that the body may be developed in every way without harm for the soul, while actually in the bodily members is the seat of the passions, which develop together with its development, become rooted in and take possession of the soul. Penetrating the bodily members, the passions receive in them a place to settle, or they make out of them a certain unapproachable fortress and thereby secure power for themselves for all the time to come.
3) A development of the powers of the soul which is undiscriminating and is not directed towards a single aim. People do not see the aim ahead of them, and so do not see the path to it. From this, despite all the concern for the most contemporary education, people do no more than to puff up in themselves curiosity, self-will, and a thirst for pleasures.
4) Complete forgetfulness of the spirit. Prayer, fear of God, and conscience are seldom taken into consideration. If there is outward good order, the most inward side of life is always taken for granted and therefore always left to take care of itself. During the time of learning, the most important thing is covered over by secondary things, and the one thing needed is overshadowed by a multitude of others.
5) Finally, when one enters into the age of youth without first putting in place good principles and the determination to live in a Christian way. Further, when one does not restrain the attractions of youthful life in a proper order, but gives oneself over to all the thirst for impressions, through amusements, light reading, the heating of the imagination by fantasies, indiscriminate contact with those who are like oneself, and especially with the opposite sex, an exclusive concern for learning and giving oneself over to the world by means of fashionable ideas, rules, and customs, which are never favorable to the life of grace but always arm themselves hostilely against it and strive to smother it.
Each one of these causes, and even one of them, is sufficient to quench in a young person the life of grace. But it happens for the most part that they act together, and one unfailingly draws another in its wake; and they all together so obstruct the spiritual life that sometimes not even the slightest trace of it can be noticed, as if a man has no spirit at all and was created not for communion with God, does not have the powers foreordained for this, and has not received the grace which gives him life.


Excerpt from "The Path To Salvation" By Saint Theophan The Recluse .

Calling on God Throughout the Day ( Saint Theophan the Recluse )

Saint Theophan the Recluse gives us clear advice on Prayer in his four homilies on prayer. He encourages us to work hard at our prayer because its rewards are great. I like him particularly because he is not writing to monastics, but to us working folks. Yet, he holds for us the highest aims in our spiritual life. He talks about two kinds of prayer. The first is where we begin - our morning and evening prayers. Next, we need to reach out to call on God throughout the day. He sees this as two logical steps in the development of our life of prayer.


Saint Theophan writes:
Do not think that we are talking about something very lofty which is an unattainable state for living people. No. It truly is a lofty state, but attainable by all...


The work of prayer consists of a proper completion of the two types of prayer
...pious, attentive, and feeling completion of our usual prayers, and then
...training of the soul to frequently ascend to God through divine contemplation, turning of all things to the glory of God, and frequent crying to God from the heart.


We pray in the morning and the evening: there is a great distance between them. If we only turn to God at these times, then even if we pray whole-heartedly, during the day or night, everything will fall apart, and when it is time again to pray, the soul will feel cold and empty, as before. One can pray again whole-heartedly, but if you become cold and fall apart again, what use is it? This is just building and destroying, building and destroying; it is only labor.


If now we resolve not only to pray with attention and feeling in the morning and the evening, but also to spend every day in contemplation of God, doing all things to the glory of God, and frequently calling to God from our hearts with short words of prayer, then this long period between morning and evening prayers and from evening to morning prayers will be filled with frequent turnings to God and pure prayerful actions.


Although this prayer is not yet unceasing, it is still prayer repeated very frequently, and the more often it is repeated, the closer it comes to being constant. All of this work is towards this final and necessary goal....


From frequent calling out to God, or from frequent pious movements toward God in our hearts we will constantly call upon the name of God with warmth and love. When these three things: the fear of God, the remembrance of God, or walking before God, and this turning of the heart toward God with love (loving repetition of the sweet name of the Lord in the heart) then certainly the spiritual fire of which I spoke earlier will catch in the heart, and it will bring with it profound peace, constant sobriety, and living boldness. At that point, a man enters into that state where he needs no longer to desire anything greater or unnecessary on earth, and which is truly the beginning of the blessed state which awaits all in the future.


Saint Theophan the Recluse 

http://agapienxristou.blogspot.ca/2013/04/calling-on-god-throughout-day.html

The essence of prayer is the raising of the heart and mind to God ( Saint Theophan the Recluse )

The true path to union with God is one that involves the continual remembrance and God and always acting on the guidance of our conscience. It is only in this way that we can do as we pray in the Lord's Prayer, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." One of the most fundamental practices to make this a reality in ones life is prayer. Saint Theophan says prayer is "a spiritual barometer for self-observation." In prayer we find out how "high or low our spirit has gone." A sound prayer life involves regular morning and evening prayers. This is supplemented with the ongoing repetition in our minds of the Jesus Prayer so that we attain continual remembrance of God through unceasing prayer.


Saint Theophan offers us some advice about prayer.
He says,

The essence of prayer is the raising of the heart and mind to God...You must train yourself in remembrance of God, and the means for doing this... is short prayer, in which you continually repeat the thought, "Lord have mercy!" "Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner!"In addition we need to train ourselves to focus on pray and not to let our minds wander. Saint Theophan address this as follows:

Make this your rule: always be with the Lord in mind and heart; never allow the thoughts to wander, but when they do, call them back again and force them to stay at home in the house of the heart and speak with the most sweet Lord. Once you have made this rule, you must force yourself to carry it out faithfully.My own spiritual father gave me this simple advice when I discussed this common problem with him, "Just decide to reject them! When you do, they will stop." Prayer involves giving your full attention to God alone.


From my personal experience, the practice of the Jesus Prayer in conjunction with controlling the thoughts is the essence of a fundamental spiritual practice that will lead you continually closer to God. Everything will follow with ease once you have engaged in a regular practice of the Jesus Prayer. Once the mind has been conditioned to remember the prayer in all situation, then God will be in your presence and there is time for you to listen to your conscience and to act with wisdom instead of passion.

Interaction of Heart and Mind in Prayer ( Saint Theophan the Recluse )

" All these evil things come from within and defile a man." Jesus Christ (Mark 7:23)

Maintaing attention is a central part of prayer. Watchfulness is essential. We find our mind is continually influenced by thoughts which pollute our heart. These are not necessarily temptations that come from our external environment but are our reactions to external factors. The thing that we need to gain control over is our inward reactions that generate thoughts and bound up our heart


Saint Theophan says,

"The mind's thoughts are all directed toward this earth, and there is no way to raise them to heaven. Their object is vain, sensual, sinful. You have seen how fog drifts along the valley. This is a precise picture of our thoughts. They all crawl and drift along the earth. In addition to this downward drifting, they constantly seethe, not standing still in a single place; they jostle each other, like a swarm of mosquitoes in the summer. In addition, they are always in motion.


Beneath these there lies the heart. It is from the thoughts that blows are continually struck in the heart and corresponding actions of the heart. from this is joy, anger, envy, fear, hope, pride, despair––they arise in the heart one after the other. There is no stopping them; just as with the thoughts, there is no order whatsoever. The heart continually trembles from the emotions like an aspen leaf."
Our challenge in prayer is to cut off these thoughts.
 
Elder Nikodim says,


"When the mind is pure, then the heart will be pure. And when the heart is pure, then the mind will also be pure."

When we have mastered this we will find the mind becomes a true partner in our prayer.


Fr. Sophrony says

"The mind becomes all ears and eyes, and sees and hears every extrinsic thought approaching from without, before it can invade the heart. Praying the while, the mind not only refuses to admit extraneious thoughts into the heart but positively throusts them aside and preserves itself from association with them."

Knowing the interaction between the mind and the heart is an important discovery to make about our inner life.

See Christ the Eternal Tao pp 363-365.

http://agapienxristou.blogspot.ca/2013/03/interaction-of-heart-and-mind-in-prayer.html

Is Faith Instilled Through Education? ( Saint Theophan the Recluse )

 

Where does faith come from? 

Saint Theophan the Recluse tells us
"Faith in the existence of God and His almightyness is an inherent property of the spirit which is found in each person as soon as his aptitudes are developed." Education only develops faith and gives it a form so it can be continually nurtured through worldly activities. This is quite different than the faith we gain in society. Society instills faith in its norms through education. All norms of society come from the human mind and are made firm though laws and accepted practices of a given society. All this needs to be learned because they are not naturally inherent in ones being. They are external and the mind needs to be conditioned to learn these norms that lead to faiths like patriotism, political freedom and democracy.

Faith in God is a bit different than any faith we have in society. We are made in God's image. We do not have to learn from any form of education the nature of this image. It is in our make-up. To know God requires a different kind of knowing than we use to know the ways of society. Faith in God cannot be learned by study. It can only be gained though an inner opening of our heart to the reality that exists there.

There are many ways we can come to a knowledge of God which lead us to faith. We can find God through our experiences with His creation, especially if we spend time in wilderness areas where man has had no influence. There, all we see is the work of God and we experience its incredible beauty which opens our heart to what is within. God can send us a vision like He did to Saint Paul on his journey to Damascus. Such visions of the uncreated light and voice of God are immediately transforming but rare. We can read the Gospel which then turns on a light in our heart and we find it explains what we feel deep inside. It opens our heart to what is already there. We can be moved by a spiritual guide or friend who gives us an insight that unlocks these inner secrets. Faith will come not by formal education but but through insight, an experience that lets us know the reality of what we have already inside us.

What does this say about Christian education? Can we learn faith at school by forced prayer or forced Bible study? Can we gain faith though new laws? What is the value of Sunday school where we try to force feed our children information about how we speak and practice our faith? Are these efforts all in vain?

No, not entirely, as these attempts at education may for some awaken what they already have within. But for others. these activities can instill a rationalization that will lead to a rejection of God if it is based on the assumption that you can explain God and faith through rational discourse. Sound Christian education has to be that which inspires one to seek what is within. It needs to place an emphasis on what cannot be explained our understood by our rational mind. It has to encourage one to live in the mystery and to seek what is beyond the knowledge of society.

This is the basis of prayer and the Orthodox worship service. Properly guided the attendance in the Divine Liturgy should be more important and a few minutes in a Sunday school class room. The class room can only help us explain and share what we have gained from our inner experience. It gives us a language to share what is not really sharable.

In concluding, here is a thought from Saint Theophan,

If everyone has faith, it follows that the norm of the human life undeniably includes faith. consequently, he who does not have faith departs from this norm, and is a moral freak. All nonbelievers are of this order.

Reference: The Spiritual LIfe, pp 301-303

Understanding the Soul ( Saint Theophan the Recluse )

 I remember many years ago a spiritual teacher asking me this simple question, "Can you describe your soul?" This question haunted me for several years. So, what is the nature of our soul? How do we get to know it? Knowing soul is something that requires stillness in the mind. Our mind is continually in motion distracting us from a deep inner knowledge. Saint Theophan suggests that we divide the soul into different parts to know it –– intellectual, desiring and sensual.

Intellectual Aspect: You intellect stands about your memory and imagination; this intellect, among with intellectual labor, obtains for you definite concepts or cognitions about things.... This leads to thoughts, opinions and suppositions. Its business is to reason, think things over, and reach necessary conclusions.
But, normally our mind is filled with thoughts of all kinds. It is not still so we can make reasoned choices. We become driven by our passions.

Desirous Aspect: The faculty that operates here is the will... At its foundation lies zeal, or ardor––the thirst for something.... In a person who has lived for some time almost everything is done by habit.
Normally instead of using the will to do God's will we instead override it with our habits to meet the demands of our passions. So, not only do we have the confusion with the scattering of our thoughts but we also have a distorted inconsistent use of our desiring aspect seeking selfish desires.

Sensual Aspect: the Heart. Everything which enters the soul from the outside, and which is shaped by the intellectual and desirous aspects , falls to the heart; everything which the soul observes on the outside also passes through the heart, That is why its called the center of life... It constantly and persistently senses the condition of the soul and body, and along with this the various impressions from the individual actions of the soul and body... compelling and forcing man to furnish everything which is pleasant to its.
But it is most commonly tormented by the passions and it does not operate in peace. It then leads us to emotions and attachments that may not lead us to unity with God.

We can now begin to understand the nature of our spiritual life which is for our soul to regain its proper place so we can center our life on the will of God instead of the passions of our body. Of course it still needs to care for the body but as a secondary effort. The soul longs to be reunited with God, a unity broken by Adam and Eve, and a brokenness that Christ showed us how to heal, establishing His Church to help us in this effort.

Source: The Spiritual Life, pp 48 - 60

Prayer rule ( Saint Theophan the Recluse )

First one should have a prayer rule that you have developed with your spiritual father. Saint Theophan offers this advice,

Do not make a rule that is too long and drawn out for you. It is better to stand at prayer a little more often and to make a few prostrations during the course of the day, doing this frequently, so that the entire day is filled with prostrations.For those who already have a regular daily prayer routine and a prayer rule they follow and feel the need for more prayers, especially during the Lenten period or other fasting time, he offers this advice,

Pray a little more without the prayerbook, expressing your vital spiritual needs to the Lord in your own words. In the morning and evening, red no more than on ordinary days, but before the beginning of the recited prayer and afterward, pray your own prayers. In between the prayers that you read, insert your own prayer with prostrations, both from the waist and to the ground, and from a kneeling position.Then after you have completed your regular prayers is advises this,

Do some reading with meditation. You need to read, not to pack your mind with diverse information and ideas, but to receive edification and to understand how best to accomplish those things which are necessary for us us...

It goes without saying that he implies spiritual books for this purpose, Scripture, lives of the saints or books by well known spiritual fathers and elders.

Saint Theophan the Recluse

Humility is a Prerequisite for True Prayer ( Saint Theophan the Recluse )

  "Our soul is made to live in the mountainous world of God."

Saint Theophan says that "Before we can make the soul appeal to God ..., it first must be made to turn everything to the glory of God; to attribute to Him our every activity, large and small. He advises us that whenever we begin something we should say, "O Lord bless us." Then on completing any task we should say, "Glory to Thee O Lord." We do this not just with our tongue but from our heart with real feeling. When we fall into any kind of sin we should say, "Lord have mercy on me a sinner." He says, "do this as often as possible, always trying in every way to be sure that each appeal comes from the heart.... and this persistent repetition will end by forming in you the habit of conscious conversation with God."

This act of continually humbling ourselves by calling on our Creator places us in submission hearing to repress our proud ego.

Elder Paisios expresses the kind of humility needs when he says that we can pray for others with contrition "only if one considers, from humble-mindedness, that one is the cause of everything that befalls one's neighbor."

We also need to pray for our enemies, for those who hate us. Jesus says, But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. (Matt 5:44-45) Whenever we find our selves judging or condemning another person it is an act of pride. We should immediately do as Jesus commands and pray for that person.

Saint Theophan says,
"Our soul is made to live in the mountainous world of God. That is where it should always dwell, both in thought and in heart. But the weight of worldly thoughts and passions attracts it and draws it downwards."

Prayer demands a pure heart - one that is free of hatred, feelings of guilt from sin, and all forms of pride.

Quotes from The Path of Prayer by Saint Theophan the Recluse pp.13 - 19.

Saint Theophan's Advice on a Prayer Rule

The advice given below is specific advice Saint Theophan gave to one of His Spiritual Children. Therefore, one must be careful in simply adopting it as ones's own prayer rule. Always review your prayer rule with your spiritual father who will help you establish one that is appropriate for your current spiritual state. Just like we have different books in first grade than in 12th, there are different levels in prayer that are appropriate to our differing spiritual situations.

Saint Theophan advises in the following way:
One does not have to do many prayers. It is better to perform a small number of prayers properly than to hurry through a large number of prayers... I would consider the morning and evening prayers as set out in the prayer books to be entirely sufficient... Just try each time to carry them out with full attention and corresponding feelings... Prayer does not mean that we just recite prayers, but that we assimilate their content within ourselves, and pronounce them as if they came from our minds and hearts.
When you stand at prayer, be careful to keep your mind from drifting and your feeling from coldness and indifference... After you have recited each prayer make prostrations, as many as you like, accompanied by a prayer for any necessity that you feel, or by the usual short prayer...
You must also maintain prayerful attention towards God throughout the day... it is good, very good to memorize several Psalms and recite them while you are working or between tasks, and doing this instead of short prayers.
Go to bed with a short prayer on your lips and fall asleep with it or recite some song.
You may limit the entire prayer rule to just prostrations with short prayers and prayer in your own words. Stand and make prostrations, saying “Lord have mercy,” or some other prayer, expressing your need or giving praise and thanks to God. You should establish either a number of prayers, or a time–limit for prayer, or do both so that you do not become lazy.
The essence of prayer is the lifting of the mind and heart to God; these little rules are an aid. We cannot get by without them because of our weakness.
 
Reference: The Spiritual Life, pp 204-209

The Laws that Falsely Bind Us

Marcarius the Great says,

Do you feel that you are bound up by social norms? Do you find you schedule controlled by others? Are you driven by some external force to unending busyness? Do feel you have to dress in a certain way and adhere to certain social norms in your group? Is there a part of you that feels like you can't act the way you really want too? Do your Orthodox values and way of life seem to conflict with these other forces?

The children of this age have become like wheat poured into the sieve of this earth, and then scattered among the inconstant dreams of this world, in the presence of the unending turmoil of earthly cares, desires and maze of material concepts. Satan shakes the souls, and with the sieve, that is, the earthly cares, scatters the entire sinful human race. ...The more the wheat in the sieve is shaken about, turned over and cast up, the more the prince of darkness takes over all people with their earthly cares: he shakes them, agitates them and alarms them, forcing them to flee to vain thoughts, unclean desires, earthly and worldly bonds.... The prince of this world disturbs every soul which is not born from God, and he disturbs human ideas, which are like what constantly being shaken in the sieve leading everyone into uncertainty, and ensnaring them with worldly seductions, pleasures of the flesh, terrors and confusions." (Homily 5:1,2)Shaken in the Sieve of earthly cares, we must realize that the chains that seem to bind us are the very forces that are trying to keep you from a God pleasing life. Most of us find ourselves caught up in a life which is lived to satisfy the needs of a godless society that promotes a life based on pride and egoism. We want to be accepted according to others norms and values. The goals of others are impeding on our desire to live a life according to the Will of God. Even the so called good deeds are no more than acts done to satisfy social norms and our own egos.


Here is some advice from Saint Theophan the Recluse:

For you to shun everyone is, of course impossible; but refuse as much as possible to enter into this circle of worldly life. When it does pull you against your will, act as if you were not there; look, but do not see; listen but do not hear. Let what you see pass by your eyes, and what you hear pass by your ears. Outwardly behave like everyone else, be straightforward and sincere; but guard your heart from sympathies and attractions. The main thing is to guard your heart.This is our challenge: to live a live according to Orthodox values while acting in a world which is not based on these values. This requires a strong faith nourished by the Orthodox way of Life.

Source: The Spiritual Life p.39 - 44

Living an Orthodox Christian life ( Saint Theophan the Recluse )

To live an Orthodox Christian Life we must fulfill God's Commandments. We must love Him with our whole heart and love our neighbors as we love ourselves. This involves a life of repentance and humility. Key to our adopting an Orthodox Way of Life is the zeal we have been given. The Lord told us "I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!" (Lk 12:49) Paul continually reminds us to press toward the mark (Phil 3:24). The Church Fathers also remind us of this with words such as "seeking, proposing, fervor, diligence, warmth of spirit, burning, and simply zeal."


This zeal we are speaking of is one combined with love.

St. Nectarios of Aegina tells us,
"The zealot according to knowledge, motivated by the love of God and his neighbor, does all things with charity and self-effacement; he does nothing that might bring sorrow to his neighbor; such a zealot is enlightened by knowledge and nothing prompts him to deviate from what is morally right" (Self-Knowledge, pp. 135-136).


Saint Symeon the New Theologian says,
"For every pursuit and every endeavor involving great toil that does not end up in love and a contrite spirit is futile, and yields no profitable result" (Catechesis I, Sources Chretiennes, Vol. 96, pp. 143-145).


Saint Theophan emphasizes that preserving this zeal is our first priority.
The first job of the Christian ascetic should be the preservation of this zeal and fervor as the source of power for living a God-pleasing life.

Apostle Peter teaches,
"Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge self-control, and to self-control, perseverance" (2 Peter 1:5-6).

How do we do this? It requires an inward journey to the heart. Just like our awakening to Christ was transforming, we must continually transform our worldly view into a celestial one.


Saint Theophan advises as follows:
Whoever wishes to preserve an undying zeal should:
a) go within,
b) view the new world and
c) stand in those feelings and thoughts by which he ascend as on
the steps of ladder to the foot stool of the Lord's throne.



Be zealous, therefore, and repent! (Apoc. 3:19)


Ref: Path to Salvation, pp 221-222