The Community of the Desert and the Loneliness of the Cities

Toward the end of the eighteen century, St. Kosmas Aitolos foretold that a time would come when a person would have to travel for days to meet another person whom he could embrace as a brother. We are living in an age where this is already happening. Contemporary man, in his loneliness, experiences pathological anxiety, anguish and suffering. He is tormented and, in turn, torments others. Why? This essay will attempt an answer by bringing the fragrance of community found in the desert to the loneliness and the desolation found in cities. CONTEMPORARY LONELINESS Loneliness is the absence of communication and relationship the inability to develop and maintain associations with others. Contemporary culture and the structures of society, the mass media reflecting prevailing ideologies, even children's games, lead to social alienation, political estrangement and personal isolation. The individual person begins, early on, to be possessed by an overwhelming feeling of inadequacy, to lose the meaning and purpose of life, to live without principles and discipline, to be constantly suspicious and in doubt. Alone and insecure, anxious and disorderly, modern man and particularly the contemporary young person attempts to build bridges, to raise flags, to shout slogans. But without a guide or with bad guides he is readily disillusioned and becomes hard and aggressive, a plaything for political exploiters and powerhungry anarchists. The desire for freedom becomes the bitter death of his freedom. The young, who earlier had declared that they would never compromise with anyone, are now themselves compromised. They take refuge in demonstrations and sit-ins, becoming rebellious in an effort to relieve themselves of the weight of their loneliness, not realizing that they are thrusting themselves into an even more unbearable slavery. It is particularly unfortunate that all this is happening where least expected even with young people of good education, exceptional intelligence, energy and talent. Unsatisfied with material prosperity and disillusioned by the hypocrisy of their elders, these young people struggle for simpler life, for quality in life, for a better way of life but unfortunately they do not manage to make the right beginning. Modern art is a good example of the spiritual alienation that we see. Instead of shedding light and opening windows toward others and toward heaven it tends to shut us in an to plunge us, ever deeper, into obscurity and darkness. It is not long before isolated man begins to talk to himself, to the irrational animals, to the shadows that surround him, and to the dead. By now he is seriously sick. Melancholy, phobias, suspicion and mistrust have made him a psychopath. A most appropriate observation characterizes our time as the century of the psychiatrist. According to World Health Organization statistics for 1985 there are more than 400 million people in the world suffering from deep depression, with about 400,000 committing suicide each year. And these statistics refer only to the developed countries. In his isolation man is plagued relentlessly by egotism and pride which are the natural parents of his loneliness. HUMILITY AN ANTIDOTE TO LONELINESS If egotism and pride foster this kind of loneliness, then true humility even though the term is misused

and loses meaning among those who merely talk about it produces the climate in which this loneliness is not permitted to thrive. Behold how the desert that good mother, excellent philosopher and theologian speaks about holy humility, silence and peace. The humble person, according to Abba Poimen, is comfortable and at peace wherever he may find himself. Abba Isaac tells us that he who makes himself small in everything will be exalted above all. And his discerning voice continues: Hate honor and you will be honored indeed. He who runs after honors causes honor itself to be banished from him. But if you merely disdain yourself hypocritically in order to appear humble, God will reveal you. In the Gerontikon, which contains a wide variety of spiritual writings from the Fathers, it is repeatedly made clear that the humble-minded and lowly in heart is not the one who cheapens himself and talks about humility, but the one who endures joyfully the dishonors which come from his neighbor. In another place the Gerontikon states that the person honored more than he deserves is actually harmed, while the person who is not honored at all by his fellow human beings will be honored in heaven by God. Abba Poimen gives us this advice. Every possible sorrow that comes to you can be overcome with silence. Abba Isaiah agrees with him: Until your heart is at peace through prayer, make no effort to explain anything to your brother. In studying the writings of the holy fathers of the desert, one can easily observe a common mind, a common noble spirit, a humaneness, an understanding, a wisdom. These are dew drops of the Holy Spirit, which fall in the arid desert after long struggles, which make fragrant flowers grow among the communities of faithful committed totally to God, and which make fragrant the souls of those who truly thirst for God. Abba Isaiah, that great mind, notes with particular grace and subtlety: He who humbles himself before God is capable of enduring every insult. The humble person is not concerned about what others say about him. The person who bears the harsh word of a rude and foolish man for the sake of God is worthy of acquiring peace. Abba Mark, on this important topic our relationship with ourselves and with others, in which we find ourselves stumbling on a daily basis goes on to note the following: When you become aware of the thought in your mind dictating human glory, you should know for sure that this thought is preparing you for shame. And if you discern someone praising you hypocritically, expect also his accusation some time soon. And with the daring precision of a surgeon of the soul, the holy Abba continues: When you see someone crying over the many insults he has received, you should know that, because he was overcome by vainglory, he is now unknowingly reaping the crop of evils in his heart. He who loves pleasure is grieved by accusations and abuse. On the other hand, he who loves God is grieved by praises and other superfluous remarks. The degree of our humility is measured by slander. Don't think that you have humility when you cannot forbear even the slightest accusation. Abba Zossima goes even further: Remember the one who has ridiculed you, who has grieved you, who has wronged you, who has done evil to you, as your physician, your healer. Christ sent him to heal you; don't remember him with anger. Evagrios considered those who spoke badly of him as benefactors. The divine wisdom of these physicians of the desert has tremendous significance to our topic. It has been said that these remarks are addressed by monks and for monks, but this is a superficial view. The epidemic of loneliness and depression that we are discussing results from proud minds lacking in humility, from failed interpersonal relationships, from unsatisfied egotistical aspirations, from self-aggrandizement, praiseseeking and self-love. This loneliness is strong enough to weaken a person and to make him sick. But love is

stronger, capable of healing and regenerating the whole world. Man has an irrepressible need to communicate, but communication must be properly developed. Initially, we must strike up a conversation a sincere, honorable and courageous conversation with our unknown self. We must rediscover in the very depths of our soul the hidden innocence of our childhood years. Next we must learn to have unmasked face-to-face conversation with the only, true living friend our heavenly Father and God. Only then will we be able to effectively communicate with others, whoever they are the worst, the best, the neighbors, the distant, our brothers and sisters in Christ. In this manner the webs of loneliness are removed, the inaccessible and sunless dungeons of the heart are illumined, the shell of our ego is broken. When we have rejected the loneliness of miserable, self-centered egotism we can begin to rejoice, to be free, to breathe, to live. NATURAL LONELINESS: A SANCTUARY OF KNOWLEDGE OF SELF AND OF GOD There is another type of loneliness natural loneliness which is not pathological but creative, lifegiving, full of grace. It is exemplified by the natural separation of monastics from the world. It is a loneliness to which we all should devote much time. We must be able to withdraw ourselves from the noisy crowds which are so superficial, so distracting, and so counterproductive in a withdrawal which is healthy, beautiful and good. It is important that we learn to shut off the constant communication with the many, which does not allow us to be alone with our self and as a consequence, we are not able to be with the One who is always waiting, the incarnate Logos of God. We must make the time and find the way for this other kind of sacred communication of natural loneliness. And we must pursue this knowledgeably, with an orderly, disciplined program. Please keep in mind that we are not talking about those who seek to escape from the preoccupations with the world in order to find rest, to view beautiful sunsets, to gaze at star-studded skies. Such activities are not spiritual. Neither are we talking about those who seek to meditate using techniques of doubtful origins to achieve dubious results. Nor are we discussing those who devote fleeting moments to superficial daydreams and who presume to have repented when they fell sentimental emotions as they remember indiscretions of their past. And we certainly are not talking about the well-meaning but nave who think the spiritual life of sacred quietude consists of strolling at the seashore with a komboschoini (prayer beads) in hand. Furthermore, we are not referring to the spiritual tourists who visit holy places and converse boldly with holy persons, but who do not deny their ego nor sacrifice their will. Activities such as these are only superficial attempts to escape from life, through shallow daydreaming and capricious imagination. What we are talking about is sacred quietude achieved with ascetic effort which liberates us from the loneliness of the world, even though we find ourselves in a noisy city or a disorderly household. We are talking about the persistence and the patience which help us probe the deepest roots of our existence and understand its limits, and which dispel the darkness that tires and discourages us. We need to learn to pray. We nee vigils constant vigilance in a posture of immobility and calmness. When I am near God what do I have to fear? He has guided me to where I may be guided by Him. Despairing of friends and acquaintances sorely disappointed with the arts, the technologies, the ideologies disenchanted with social chatter and vacuous etiquette I come to the privilege of ultimate despair. I become aware that, in my nakedness, God Himself is there to vest me with authentic hope. And in this miracle the blessed Panaghia and all the saints are present to lend their support. In this natural loneliness this divine loneliness I find relief. The actor's masks which I had felt obliged to put on or which had been put on me have been discarded. It had been a dreadful state. Every night I needed to go to another gathering, to be part of another group, for I had to be included somewhere. I

was constantly changing my mask. Now, however, by turning inward I begin to live, to become aware that I am a child of God, to unveil my unique and irreplaceable identity, my face, my person. I begin to observe the activities of the passions. I can see my strengths and my limitations. I am redeemed from errors, fantasies, excesses, and languid apathy. A firm resolve helps guide our steps to this lonely sanctuary of knowledge of self and of God. In this sanctuary the loneliness the aloneness which had been feared becomes a delight. For the person who is with God can never be alone since his is in dialogue with himself and with God. Here we find ourselves with less individualism, and greater love for others. We find tears for the pain and suffering of our brothers and sisters, and strength for greater efforts that will help them. For the voice which arises from the depths of the lone person cuts through the clouds and reaches the Triune God, who always listens and always responds. THE DIVINE LONELINESS OF MAN IN COMMUNION WITH GOD The man in communion with God knows how to make his voice more fervent and to rejoice while standing in second place. He knows how to be a friend even with the stranger and to be satisfied with little. Moreover, he knows how to become tired in his diligent efforts and how to wash with tears those who are grasping and prodigal. And he knows how to do these things without complaint or dissatisfaction, even if abandoned by relatives, friends, colleagues. Far from the tumultuous crowds and the confusion of public arena, in the privacy of your room, choose freely and without coercion. It may appear that you are not offering anything to others and that you are being self-centered, particularly when others are saying that they need you, as they suffer from painful loneliness. This loneliness which you have chosen for yourself is an arduous task, requiring great strength, heroism, persistence. It is a long and endless undertaking. And sometimes it can be preparation for a return to those whom you have left out of your life, although this should never be the purpose of your ascetic commitment. All the saints of our Church, the most fervent and active missionaries, even the Lord Himself in His earthly life, experienced the mystery of divine loneliness. Remember those great personalities, the prophets of the Old Testament Moses, Elijah, Isaiah and John the Forerunner. Returning to our century, we find it tragically alone, in despair, pessimistic. In spite of efforts to the contrary, the world is in conflict with everyone and everything countries, governments, races, colleagues, parents, friends, children, books, lessons, work. And being in conflict with itself it is also in conflict with God, to whom it never speaks, never says anything. The most painful loneliness is to be next to your spouse and yet be unable to transmit your inner feelings, even as external messages are transmitted instantaneously from one hemisphere to another. It is painful loneliness for married couples to keep secrets from each other for years. It is painful when dialogue is non-existent between children and parents, between children and teachers, between children and clergy. There is no more cruel loneliness than for a family to sit for hours in front of the television without speaking a word among themselves. We live in a difficult time. Loneliness is at an all-time high. Man is lost. God is silent. In this loneliness, in this desolation of the cities, I this apparent absence of God, man is called to gather his thoughts, to come to his senses, to put aside his many worldly preoccupations and to retire to his place of prayer speechless, naked, a child so that God may speak to him, clothe him, and endow him with spiritual maturity. Then his loneliness will become the divine loneliness of liberation and he will achieve a sense of fullness. Only such radical loneliness leads to a fundamental understanding and experience of God, destroying every hesitation, doubt and torment. In this sacred loneliness man finds himself face-to-face with his existential poverty and the fear of death which it provokes. Yet, even here, there is the danger that he may choose procrastination as a solution and, for

a time, set his panic-stricken self at ease. He may resume running back and forth endlessly, expanding social activities, and seeking a variety of entertainments a program of extreme busyness. Other people, other things, work and extensive involvements may serve as a cover for his spiritual impoverishment for a time. And he may continue wandering aimlessly, driven by circumstances, tormented, flirting with one thing and another, fighting, being torn and finally annihilated. A life of work without the liberation of communion with God is slavery. The struggle for excessive wealth is an incurable, tormenting disease. Fear of the future can stimulate greed, miserliness, hoarding. And God can be easily forgotten. Here is what Abba Markos says, on how man can avoid the slavery of misguided work and instead become a free servant of God: The one who casts off anxious cares for ephemeral things and is freed from their every need, will place all his trust in God and in the eternal good things. The Lord did not forbid the necessary daily care for our physical well-being; but He indicated that man should be concerned only for each day. To limit our needs and cares to what is absolutely necessary is quite possible through prayer and self-control, but to eliminate them altogether is impossible. In the discerning remarks of Abba Markos which continue, let me call your attention to a subtle point which applies to many faithful. The necessary services which we are obliged to carry out, we must of course accept and carry out, but we must let go of those other purposeless activities and prefer rather to spend our time in prayer, particularly when these activities would lead us into the greed and luxury of money and wealth. For the more one can limit, with the help of God, these worldly activities would lead us to gather his mind from such anxious wanderings. If again someone, out of weak faith or some other weakness, cannot do this, then, at least, let him understand well the truth and let him try, as much as he can, to censure himself for this weakness and for still remaining in this immature condition. For it is far better to have to give an account to God for omissions rather than for error and pride! A drama is played out in man wherein he continuously and intently seeks peace and knowledge externally. But when he comes to his senses he realizes that true hospitality exists in an unexpected place. For it is precisely within himself that he discovers and experiences the particularity of his personhood. It is here that the divine loneliness of liberation, based on the knowledge of his individual personality, is to be found. It is here, in mystical quietude, that he measures, decides, and takes on his responsibilities. Achieving the mystical experience of what we are, what we should seek, and what we can do, involves troublesome effort which, nevertheless, is critical. It is within us that we rescue ourselves from the loneliness of ego and where we find the way to the light and joy of communion. Much of the world is governed by sophistry, wisdom has been ostracized, and decency has been lost. Lies and deception abound, revisionism has made history counterfeit, the Gospel is misinterpreted, schoolbooks are political tools mouthing the ideologies of those in power. There is a tendency to mimic false western ideologies, including sentimental pietism and painless social neochristianity. The life of the Church and its life-giving Sacred Traditions are ignored. The only refuge is for each of us to set up our own sanctuary wherever we can. To a world which considers deception to be intelligence and honor to be weakness, we must dare say Do not touch me! We must choose to remain voluntarily and responsibly alone, even though such aloneness requires great courage in a society which aggressively seeks our applause and urges us into amalgamation. The weariness over vanities, bitterness, constant motion and joyless joys that has filled our lives helps us come to the realization that this is the best for of resistance to the general disorientation. By restoring our inner world, we increase our resistance, and in time become invincible to, the organized attacks of evil. By placing our whole life at God's feet and seeking the authentic life he wants us to live we begin to have a foretaste of immortality, where we are never alone but in the company of Christ and His

saints. All loneliness is dispelled by inner self-sufficiency. And it may help you to know that there are many, out of sight, who are assisting you with their prayers. These are the monastics, dedicated totally to God, who keep vigil. Even though you have not met them they pray for you, with arms raised and with knees and knuckles callused by their prostrations. THE SUPREME LONELINESS OF BELIEVERS TODAY It has been said that each person carries his own loneliness. The mentally unbalanced individual has a dangerous loneliness. The sick person has an agonizing loneliness. One who has unjustly accumulated wealth has a bitter and ugly loneliness. But the believer carries a permanent, incurable and supreme loneliness, the loneliness of the way to salvation. We have become accustomed to referring to the loneliness of late evening, of mourning, of living abroad. And each of us deals with our own individual circumstances as best we can. But, how long will we continue to go around in circles, examining the subject externally yet never entering its reality? Standing, before the eternal enigma of existence, when will we the sons and daughters of God by grace and participation, created in His image and likeness, the children of light when will we dare to cast aside worldly ideas and discussions and, standing face to face before God, make the decision to fundamentally change our lives? Our movements remain uncertain. We talk about God, yet God remains someone we do not really know. We desire to be with God, we advance toward Him, yet at the last minute we find an escape route and evade Him. We love ourselves excessively, beyond measure. We are unwilling to bear God. We are afraid of Him, and we try to deceive Him although in fact we only deceive ourselves with excuses which appear to be convincing. We have come to love our deceptions to the point of no longer being ashamed of them. And yet God Himself never tiers of seeking us out discreetly, reminding us of His presence in our sufferings and in our joys, in our mistakes and in our victories. It is necessary for believers to begin again the way of the Lord. Let us abandon the crowds and their excited shouting; let not their words entice and influence us. The way of the Lord is narrow, uphill, demanding. Lonely, but it is also salutary, as He Himself has promised us. The believer must at last attach himself with love to what is essential to his personal existence, setting aside decisively and irrevocably the secondary and superfluous. The message of the Book of Revelation is truly awesome. The lukewarm believers will be spewed out of the mouth of God (Rev. 3.15-16) The term used is most expressive of God's dissatisfaction with those who are indecisive and ambiguous, neither hot nor cold. To be in the company of God is both a joy to God and the greatest liberating blessedness to man. But reconciliation with God cannot be detached from reconciliation with ourselves and with our brothers and sisters. These always go together the friend of God is a friend of himself and of others. The relationships that result have no room or conceit or isolation. Love of God must never degenerated into pharisaism, nor love of neighbor into sterile duty. Openness in three direction toward self, God and neighbor is achieved symmetrically, with balance, with knowledge, with freedom and with love. The great fourth century teacher of the desert, Abba Isaiah, reminds us that the pathological love of self and of others is an obstacle to our relationship with God. Cicero used to say that a great city is a great loneliness! This loneliness produces boredom, lack of appetite, pessimistic bitterness, a constant looking to the future and doing nothing today, dissatisfaction, a desire to escape, cowardice. These conditions, collectively referred to by the ascetic literature as accidia, mercilessly plague many, including the careless monastic.

Here is how St. Maximos the Confessor, the great Byzantine theologian, speaks about accidia: All of the powers of the soul are enslaved by accidia, while almost all of the other passions are also and immediately aroused by it, because, of all the passions, accidia is the most burdensome. St. John of the Ladder, who knows profoundly even the most subtle movements of the soul, described accidia to monks who inquired with characteristic harshness: Accidia is the breakdown of the soul, the disorientation of the mind, negligence of ascetic practice, hatred of monasticism, love of worldliness, irreverence toward God, forgetfulness of prayer. Evagrios mentions that this unbearable condition of the soul devastates its victim, who does not know what to do anymore, seeing the time not passing and wondering when the mealtime will come which seems delayed. Antiochos, who lived in the seventh century, is even more vivid and precise in his definition of accidia: This condition brings you anxiety, dislike for the place where you are living, but also for your brothers and for every activity. There is even a dislike for Sacred Scripture, with constant yawning and sleepiness. Moreover, this condition keeps you in a state of hunger and nervousness, wondering when the next meal will come. And when you decide to pick up a book to read a little, you immediately put it down. You begin to scratch yourself and to look out of the windows. Again you begin to read a little, and then you count the number of pages and look at the titles of the chapters. Finally, you give up on the book and go to sleep, and as soon as you have slept a little you find it necessary to get up again. And all of these things you are doing just to pass the time... St. John of Damascus says that this struggle is very heavy and very difficult for monks. St. Theodore of Studion says that the passion of accidia can send you directly to the depths of Hades. Dostoyevski, who had a patristic mind, offered a solution to this problem when he had the Starets Zossima tell us we mus make ourselves responsible for the sins of the whole world: This understanding of our salvation through others helps us to realize that love is not exhausted only in doing good, but in making the agonies and the sufferings of others our very own. The monks pray daily for the salvation of the whole world. Created in the image of God, we are all His, we are all brothers, His children. Loneliness is abolished in God. We are all 'members of each other' according to St. Paul. Thus, our sins and our virtues have a bearing upon the others, since, as we have said, we are all members of one body. Accidia provides a reason for more fervent prayer, and the difficulties are an opportunity for spiritual maturity and progress. Let me repeat. Separation from the world, maligned by some as desertion, is courageous and necessary, a resistance to the general leveling of all things. Man finds his authenticity, the beauty of his uniqueness, within the sacred silence of quietude, standing apart from the crowd. His suffering in solitude prepares him to return to the common and familiar, revitalized and ready for whole-hearted service. Abba Alonios once said: Unless a man can bring himself to say to his heart that he alone and God are present in this place, he will never find peace and rest of soul. St. John Chrysostom said: Quietude in solitude is no small teacher of virtue. Elsewhere he also said: no matter where you are, you can set up you sanctuary. Just have pure intentions and neither the place, nor the time will be an obstacle, even without kneeling down, striking your chest or raising your arms to heaven. As long as your mind is fervently concentrated you are totally composed for prayer. God is not trouble by any place. He only requires a clear and fervent mind and a soul desiring prudence. St. Makarios of Egypt, in his spiritual homilies, becomes a little more affectionate: Even if you find yourself poverty stricken of spiritual gifts, just have sorrow and pain in you heart for being outside of His kingdom, and as a wounded person shout to the Lord and ask Him to make you also worthy of the true life. Further on, he ways: God and the angels grieve over those who are not satisfied with heavenly nourishment. Finally, St. Makarios makes this significant and remarkable observation: Everything is quite simple and easy for those who desire to be transfigured spiritually. They need only to struggle to be a friend of God and

pleasing to Him, and they will receive experience and understanding of heavenly gifts, an inexpressible blessedness, and a truly great divine wealth. Being inexperienced in these more profound spiritual conditions, I should simply work in the beloved desert to uproot my passions. But there is a need to speak of men I have seen and heard, who live on the peaceful mountain sides of the sacred Athonite peninsula, who experience the mysteries of God. They are charismatic monks consumed by heaven, bearing Christ in their hearts and loving God, devotees of quietude, of solitude, thunderous workers of silence, alone but without loneliness, who, in their solitude, remember the loneliness of the whole world. While some in the world suffer involuntarily sleeplessness and other spend their nights without love in strange places, the monks of Mt. Athos keep a voluntary vigil, praying for the health, mercy and salvation of the whole world. An amazing book by a contemporary hermit, which circulated recently, describes the famous ascetic of Mt. Athos, Hatzi-Georgis, as a faithful friend of quietude in the caves of the desert, an honorable and noble fighter, a great faster who found his rest in vigils, in prayer and in solitude. The desert did not make him wild and harsh like itself. On the contrary it refined and beautified him his reverend biographer writes as follows: Hatzi-Georgis had much innocent love for all. He was always peaceful, tolerant and forgiving. He had a great heart and that is why he had room for everything and everyone, just as they were. In a sense he had been rendered incorporeal. Living the angelic life on earth he became an angel and flew to heaven, for he held on to nothing neither spiritual passions nor material things. He had thrown everything away and, consequently, flew very high. The Elder Gerasimos, the hesychast from Katounakia, remained for seventeen years, as noted by his fellow ascetic, at the peak of Prophet Elijah struggling, with demons and the elements. He remained an immovable pillar of patience. His tears were flowing constantly. He completed his carefree and quiet life in the sweetness of the constant vision of Christ. Another hesychast from Katounakia, Fr. Kallinikos, loved pain, toil and quietude beyond measure. He bathed in his tears and perspiration. The last forty-five years of his life he passed in seclusion, praying without ceasing. His face attained the grace of shining like that of Moses when he descended from Mt. Sinai. The spiritual Father Ignatios had the peculiar habit of closing the shutters of his cell so that he would not notice the coming of the new day, but could continue his prayers. It was his custom to beseech his visitors in this manner: Love God who has loved you! He would sometimes forget to wash, to comb himself, to eat, but prayer beads were always in his hand and prayer always on his lips and heart. When he lost his eyesight, he became even brighter. He was fragrant in life and he was also fragrant after falling asleep in the Lord. The remarkable priest and father confessor, Fr. Savvas, from the Little St. Anna, drew his strength from the daily Divine Liturgy which he celebrated in tears. During Liturgy, and during his all night vigils, he wold take hours to commemorate thousands of names. This is the nature of the community of the desert silent, praying, serene, blessed. This is the life of the desert. If a monk does not possess an intense spiritual life and a constant vigilance, he will certainly fall into a myriad of temptations. Accidia will lead him to a barren isolation when, mocked by angels and demons, he will become the worse of the worst, and the loneliness of the desert will become unbearable for him. SUMMING UP THE PARADOXES The cities become more and more desolate and they will continue in this direction, while the deserts will become inhabited and will again blossom. No one who remains unrepentant will be able to block the repentance of the willing, the prayer of the faithful, the supplication of the poor. No one can prevent the mystery of the living God. This miracle is experienced in martyrdom and in humility, where the Orthodox way

of life always blossoms in quietude, in silence, in anticipation. We are called to experience the transcendence of Christianity, which is not so much the abolishment of evil as it is the honorable acceptance of ourselves and of others, living the wealth of poverty, the health of illness, the blessing of tribulation, the power of weakness, the joy of patience, the victory of defeat, the honor of dishonor, the freedom of seclusion, the majesty of meekness, the resistance to death, the incarnation of God, the deification of man. And we should expect all these spiritual realities, not from the authority of the leaders of this world, but from the authority we exercise over ourselves, and from the creation of healthy and bright spiritual hearths which we call parish, family, cell, workshop, office, auditorium, room. In this way, though the desolation and loneliness of the cities will continue to exist, it will not penetrate into our hearts. In this way the world can be changed, not from without, but from within and from above. Do not consider great the missionary to Africa or the significant inventor. Great is the little person who forbears the madness, the injustice, the persecution, the pain of his neighbor and of his own life. According to Abba Isaac, the person who recognizes and overcomes his passions is greater than the person who raises the dead. All who seek redemption from pathological anxiety, from sorrow and sadness, from emptiness and loneliness are invited to a rendezvous with themselves and with God. And when you do meet, remember the humble person who has offered these thoughts.

Jesus Christ: The Life of the World

WHO IS CHRIST? Two thousand years have passed since the coming of Christ, yet Christ still remains unknown to the world because the world has a false understanding of Him. This regrettable fact has serious impact on the Christian communities themselves. The impression prevails that Christ is simply a god among the gods, who now dwells in heaven, very far away from us that the religion He founded is a beautiful religion, perhaps the best ever and that His moral teaching, although impeccable, may be a bit austere. Christ is of course an historical person, but He is much more than this. He is a great, beneficent and significant teacher, whose message has enriched the world, and whose presence marked a turning point in the flow of history. But, again, He is not only this. Jesus Christ our Lord and God, the Redeemer and Savior, the God-Man (Theanthropos), the Second Person of the All-Holy Trinity, the One above every name, the Son without mother from the Father and without father from the mother, of one essence and co-unoriginate with the Father, the revealed God Word of the Father, the Incarnate, Crucified, Resurrected and Ascended is the Way, the Life of the world, the Light, the truth and the Resurrection. He is not the traditional, customary, historical and religious god, but my Father, my Life, the Life of all mankind. He is the one who renewed life and rejuvenated mortal man. He is the one who created man and who constantly watches over him paternally, as Creator, Provider and All-Wise. CHRIST AND THE BELIEVERS The connection of the believer with Christ is not achieved on an intellectual, sentimental or even

psychological level, but rather on the realistic, that is, the existential level. Christ is a stance and a way, a style and a manner of life. The faithful today have distanced themselves from this sense and understanding of life, which is the real relationship with the living God. Christ is no longer at the center of life. The approach to Him is rather guarded. But, through the sacramental life of the Church, our existential experience of Christ will be restored. With the Mysteries (Sacraments) of our Holy church we can feel the presence of God in our lives here and now. Through Baptism we become members of the one and undivided body of Christ. We are vested with a garment of light and gladness, and we receive Christ Himself in an eternal relationship. With the mystery of Chrismation the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us. We thus enter into a new and holy community, that of the sons and daughters of God, and we receive new life. This new life is nourished and constantly renewed through the Holy Eucharist. We eat and drink the body and blood of Christ unworthy and ungrateful though we are as the source of eternal life, the greatest gift of God to mankind. Our life draws its existence from this divine food and drink. A significant contribution to the connection of the believer with Christ is made through the study of Sacred Scripture, particularly the New Testament, on a very regular basis and in a prayerful manner. This provides not only information but spiritual transfiguration. Christ is not simply a good ideologist, but the unique Theologian. He is the only one who can speak of heaven from which He descended. Moreover, Christ is not the successful miracle-worker, but the one who is sacrificed for the life of the world. Christ does not simply change the world; He gives it life in a vital way. Christians are not members of a society with rights and responsibilities, or adherents of a particular political party, gathered, grouped and herded together, but rather free sons and daughters of God, invited to the heavenly banquet, whose foretaste clearly begins from this life, as the Fathers of the Church reassure us. The entire cycle of dominical holy days is for the souls of the faithful. It is not merely a reminder of ancient events but a reenactment, an experience of those events in the depths of our hearts. The Fathers say that Christ dwells in our hearts through faith. He becomes incarnate in us when the pain of asceticism bends and cuts the passions. And He is resurrected when the Christian, freed from sinful passions, experiences spiritual visions, ascents and delights. Christ offers true and real life to His friends. Without Christ life is dark, joyless, despairing. As the twentieth century draws to a close and as life gallops toward new conquests in space, we have an amazing diminution of distances and instantaneous knowledge of what is taking place in the four corners of the earth. Yet, more than any other time in history, we are restless, insecure and pathologically anxious. Nuclear, atomic and chemical weapons, totalitarian governments of every type, accidents with many victims, ecological catastrophes, and economic and social disasters weave the fabric of modern man's anxiety. At the same time one can also observe a great spiritual movement with new philosophical trends, political theories, deviant expressions of art, cultural manifestations and a variety of heresies. Is it possible that this contemporary crises can become an impetus for authentic spiritual regeneration? Is it possible that utopia is to be found in man's attempt to bring heaven down to earth? Could the tragedy of our time be found in the willful ignorance of, or at least in the inability to believe in, the existence of eternal life? Can out of despair and decay come the privilege of hope and the flowering of real joy? We shall not attempt to answer these difficult questions, but to introduce an atmosphere from within which can come divine help, or at least the problematic and the intimation of another way of life that has no end.

CHRIST AS THE GIFT OF LIFE AND SELF-KNOWLEDGE I shall share with you here the words of a great contemporary starets of the North, who began his spiritual journey on Mt. Athos. In a recent book he writes that, after the breakout of the First World War, my youthful dreams were devastated. But at the same time, a new vision of the world and its significance appeared before me. Next to the destruction I gradually formulated my rebirth. I saw that there was no tragedy in God. The tragedy was only in the life of the people, whose vision never extended beyond earthly boundaries. Undoubtedly, not even Christ Himself depicted a tragedy in his passion. Nor were all His sufferings on earth of a tragic nature. And the Christian who has accepted the gift of the love of Christ, even though he recognizes that he is not yet fulfilled, can escape the nightmare of death that destroys everything. The love of Christ, for the entire duration of His stay here on earth, was indeed a fearful tribulation (Fr. Sophronios). During His earthly sojourn, Christ did not cease to endure the disbelief of our perverse nature weeping at the grave of His friend Lazaros, embittered with the Jews who would be killers of prophets, deeply saddened in the garden of Gethsamane, and thus partaking fully in the tragedy human of the human condition. It is this fallen and suffering nature that Christ bends and raises, granting it peace, courage, fearlessness, love and eternal life. The stubborn refusal of a great part of mankind to accept Christ as the only true God deprives it of the redemptive light of eternal life. For it is our willingness to freely align ourselves with the company of the disciples of Christ that transfers us beyond this present pain and suffering, and introduces us into the graceful intimation and foretaste of the unwaning light of Christ. Self-condemned in the prison of selfish individualism, strongly secured in the pleasure of our ideas, emotions, preferences and idiosyncrasies, we isolate ourselves from others, toward whom the Gospel wants us to b e open, to be available, and to have good intentions. Thus, we are unable to accept our neighbors and, consequently, to love them and to pray for them. For it is with prayer that this tragic isolation is overcome, we become united with others, and we meet Christ Himself. It is thus, dear friends, that man begins to be called spiritual when he begins conscientiously to be preoccupied with himself; when he is aware of sin within him; when he ceases to scrutinize others; when he repents and begins to pray. For one to see and acknowledge his real condition requires strong willpower, and also powerful divine help. Christ exists for such moments, to hasten to us and to help, significantly and effectively, as long as we continue to truly want His help. For it is often enough that we begin something but are unable to finis. It is in such instances that the danger is readily at hand, due to fear of what we shall encounter. The continuous and difficult struggle that is required for our labors to be fruitful, and the temptation which introduces thoughts of cowardliness, are in themselves impediments of considerable power. As we come to know ourselves, we also know God. It is thus that our person is revealed to us. By loving God, we gradually become aware of the magnitude of His love. It is thus that God is known and thus that He is revealed primarily as love. Illumined by divine love, man transcends space and time intrepidly, fearlessly, joyfully, becoming a sojourner who is vitally interested in the purpose of his journey the heavenly kingdom without neglecting the present life, but giving it only the importance that it deserves. As we have said, to this knowledge are guided all the souls who humbly pray, discretely struggle and sincerely repent. Christ finds it impossible to dwell in darkness. And sin is but darkness. Let us not seek to justify our sins, for we thus grieve the Lord and become transgressors of His commandments. Christ will leave us in our darkness if we prefer to remain there, but He will always and in every circumstance anticipate our repentance. Oftentimes, a so-called misfortune of life illness, bankruptcy, the illness or death of a relative or friend will lead someone closer to Christ. It also often happens that, as soon as the problem passes, Christ is

forgotten. As you well can understand, this is not the Christian way. Christ is not only for the moment of need. But, if one does not make the resolve, and take the necessary effort, to anchor himself permanently at the feet of Jesus, the waves of contemporary influences will likely sweep them away. In a world of deception, despair, violence and abuse, it is no longer fashionable to hear words of love, nobility and grace. But when founded upon the immovable rock of faith in Christ, we become strong and invincible, receiving as His children the inheritance of His victory. The time of loquaciousness has passed and the world today anxiously seeks authentic life and example. Many times the most thunderous message is given in silence, as the Fathers of the desert have said. A message without the manner and the style of authentic and pure experience becomes tiresome, without consequence or continuity. This is why many young people are helped only by silence, by the sacred services of worship in the Church, or the measured words of the monks of Mt. Athos. A wise man of recent history has said the following words, which are both significant and need to be carefully observed: I love Christ, but the Christians I do not love because they do not resemble Christ (Ghandi). I think he is right. Many times, more than the so-called atheist, it is we Christians who denigrate the name of Christ and provoke with our inconsistencies the blaspheming of His holy name. In the life of the great martyr George it is noted that fellow soldiers, seeing his face shining with joy, asked what it was that made him so happy. He answered that it was the fact that he was a Christian that made him so happy and joyful. They in turn responded by saying that if their own lives were to become so beautiful and joyful, then they too would like to become Christians. This is the best way to preach the Gospel truth. It is the pure life of the martyr. Someone said that to be a Christian means to be joyful. Christians of today are far from this true joy. In the present fickle world, which you know better than I since you live it on a daily basis, man is easily influenced and sometimes swept away. His conscience has been blunted to the point where his mind and his heart are constantly accepting notions which alter his Orthodox ecclesial principles, his genuine Orthodox beliefs, and even the basic principles of his ethics. Today most Christians are indistinguishable from the rest of society. With all the decadence that is seen and heard, hardly anyone reacts with indignation. And if someone manages to break loose from the evil intrigues of the world, arrives broken and hurting at the doorway of the Church, and finds no doorkeeper there, it is truly tragic. But even more tragic is to find the church's doorkeeper there, but unprepared, tired, superficial, preoccupied with many other things, and struggling to justify a rapid departure. And this while the returning prodigal so of God stands before him. I would like to conclude this parenthetical remark by repeating what was said by a famous physician: If we had good spiritual guides we would not need psychiatrists and psychoanalysts (Jung). As we continue, please give your attention, not to me, but to the word of God, which leaves no one uninformed, without rest, without consolation. I would like to assure you, supported by the assurance provided us by our other brothers, the saints, that there is no wound or disease that Christ cannot heal. No matter what our individual history or condition, let us never be afraid. It does not matter that one was born at a difficult time under adverse conditions; that life was accompanied by poverty, ignorance and hardships; that he was swept away by the easy life. No matter what the problems of life or of character, if there is repentance, Christ comes and wipes everything clean, makes everything new. We see this many times among monks of Mt. Athos, whose repentance guided them, b varied paths, to the Garden of Panaghia. After their conversion there is no indication of former evil and sins. They have been visited by the grace of God. When the mind of the Christian is filled with the memory of Christ, a condition that each monk seeks, this proves in the final analysis to be extraordinarily pleasant and beneficial. Through the remembrance of Christ every event of the day takes on a different character. Whether circumstances are pleasant or unpleasant let us say: Glory to You, O God! St. John Chrysostom expired during his exile in Armenia, praying on the floor of a deserted chapel, with the words: Glory be to God for all things!

The blessing of a consciousness continuously focused on Christ anoints man and makes him Christlike. This blessing enables man to see, to touch, to understand and to interpret the world in a different way. The Christian is then able to go through this life with respect, patience and love, and with the spirit of acquisition, exploitation and greed no longer present. To be able to approach the world in this manner is an enormous freedom and a beneficent ease. Spiritual ease is not necessarily associated with material luxury. Often we meet people who have everything but lack the serenity of sweet sleep, the fearlessness of the believer, and the roominess of simplicity. The believer, by giving his first thoughts to Christ, as well as his hopes and his programs, and by giving very little if any concern to what people will say, will surely gain that serenity with which Christ rewards His true friends. By being more concerned with ourselves and to a lesser degree with others, we can be easily spared many anxieties. This, of course, does not mean that we will be careless about others or that we will ignore the possibility of scandalizing them with our words and actions, but rather that our love for them, while remaining undiminished, will not degenerate to pathological anxiety. Our love will not depend on their love. The existence of the love of others must not necessarily be taken for granted in order for our love to be manifested. We are called, therefore, to revolt for a spiritual independence that will be subjugated to the Orthodox tradition and will naturally have nothing in common with any form of isolation. Perhaps in this way we may not be popular with the many, but then again this is hardly our goal. If we should desire to have the praises of all, this can only mean that we do not really desire the praise of Christ. In order to have all the people on our side, we must necessarily become sophists, diplomats, flatterers and politicians, compromising, retreating and behaving obsequiously, in an undignified manner that is not consistent with our Christian identity. Let not these remarks be taken as a prideful stance, because Christ Himself in the praetorium, when unjustly slapped by the servant, asked for an explanation, while on another occasion He suggested that when slapped we should offer the other cheek as well. Also, on Golgotha the garments of Christ were divided among the soldiers, not so that the executioners may have a talisman, nor even for the prophesies to be fulfilled, but rather to indicate for us a manner and way of life. Christ had only one valuable garment, woven and seamless from top to bottom. With this single garment Christ is teaching us the virtue of simplicity and frugality, sobriety and dignity. Once a monk was wearing a worn cassock full of holes and a very discreet ascetic who saw him remarked: Through the holes of your cassock I see your great pride! There is great significance in the way we behave. The spiritual man is not obvious at the good times of regular church attendance and of required acts of charity, but during the whole day and night. Our spirituality is judged at each and every moment. Our mirror is Christ and His word. Imitation of Christ means to have a profound delight in His Gospel, to be buried with Him and to be raised with Him, adorned with the evangelic virtues. Let us not confuse humility with wretchedness. CHRIST AND OUR CHRISTIAN IDENTITY Our Christian identity wants us to be strong, courageous, noble and direct. If we are pleasing to Christ it should not matter to us if the world considers us unworthy of its favor and appreciation. But it is virtually certain that if we are truly pleasing to Christ there will be no serious person who will not appreciate our Christian attitude. Of course, it is not easy to reach this degree of freedom. There is need for a responsible struggle, for fervent prayer, for an active sacramental life, and for corresponding spiritual community. I believe you will agree that it is easy to be influenced by the nature of our conversations and occasional encounters with other

people. It is natural in a world of lies and deceptions for some to be easily influenced. It is, therefore, most useful to cultivate beneficial friendships which will support us in times of suffering, mourning and affliction. The best company, however, is our friendship with Christ, especially in times of prayer. He is indeed the friend who never betrays, but who is always betrayed. st. John Chrysostom proceeds even deeper and remarks in his homily: From indolence comes evil and from effort comes virtue. Virtuous people become better even when they find themselves living among those who would impede their right living and seek to draw them to their side. Christ has permitted evil persons to exist so that the good may become more virtuous. The benefit, of course, is not derived from the evil, but from the courage and the effort to resist it. Let nothing, therefore, get in the way of spiritual progress. Let even the negative things become occasions for contrition and repentance. Many are those, satiated with emptiness of the world, who seek to find a way out of the impasse. Are they afraid of, or do they simply ignore, Christianity? They fear the struggle of which the Gospel speaks, and ignore the redemptive essence of Christianity, which cannot be known and experienced painlessly. The fatigue and the indolence of contemporary men, their ignorance and hurry, leads them, unfortunately, to the prescriptions of other religions, often enough inspired by demons, or to the easy solutions of clever heretics animated by the deception and dangerous elements of error. My beloved brothers, the Masonic lodges, the temples of eastern religions, the auditoriums where charismatic Protestants preach, have increased in our country. The land of heroes and saints, the land enriched by the martyrs, our beloved Greece, has been reduces to a dangerous inn, offering hospitality to all manner of deceivers and unworthy characters, in the name of some vague notion of freedom, which undermines the foundations of the Nation, the Church, our tradition and our history. As we approach the year 2000, we find Greece unprepared to face the onslaught of Europe. Christ remains unknown even to the Christians. There is an urgent need to re-evangelize the Christians. There is need for intense effort and struggle. The pain of the struggle is an indispensable element. Pain exists in our life to soften our stone hearts, to humble our pride, to make us prudent, to heal our souls. When we do not offer pain to ourselves, in the form of asceticism, or when we do not endure it, as with an illness or some other problem, Christ comes discreetly to give us as much as we can bear and always for our spiritual edification. If we only knew the beneficial power of pain, all the tribulations of life would be accepted as tests of healing for our soul. No temporal success can bring about real rest. Most people today do not have the necessary spiritual courage to undertake the journey upon the road of asceticism, required by the Gospel. This courage can only be given by Christ. Many times it is necessary to despair over the world in order to overcome it, and to receive the hop of our salvation from above. Starets Leo of the Optina Monastery used to say: Temptations are not stronger than the gifts of God. With the power of the Name of our Savior Jesus, who empowers us, everything is possible. The following truth is always applicable to the believer: If you have an ailing faith, even a speck of dust seems like a mountain. But if you have a strong and healthy faith you can lift up and remove whole mountains of temptations. The blessed starets is absolutely right. I recall a recent visit to our kalyvi on Mt. Athos by a professor of theology, who discussed with great facility such topics as the revision of the Gospel and the superfluousness of asceticism. He argued that, since the life of contemporary Christians in large cities is so suffocated by loneliness, anxiety, noise, pollution, fatigue, these in a sense can substitute for asceticism, and therefore fasting, lengthy services of worship, ascetic prostrations and vigils are no longer needed at all. I tried to follow his thoughts, to pay attention. I wanted to understand him. But I observed a certain impertinence and conceit in his words, not toward me, but toward the divine commandments of Sacred Tradition, which discreetly and constantly speak about the necessity of ascetic struggle in Christian life. This asceticism, of course, is to be practiced to the degree which is possible for each person living under various conditions and circumstances, and according to the blessing and guidance

given by the spiritual father. As I turned my head toward the window in the room where we were talking, I could see the cell where the life of st. Arsenios the Cappadocian had been written. His biographer, among other things, has written the following: Fr. Arsenios proclaimed Orthodoxy appropriately with his Orthodox way of life. He literally melted down his body in ascetic endeavors because of the warmth of his love for God, and he transformed souls by the divine grace which emanated from him. He had a strong faith and he healed many, both believers and unbelievers. He had few words, many miracles. He experienced much and hid much. Inside his apparently rough shell, he kept his sweet spiritual fruit. He was a very austere Father for himself, but very paternally loving to his children. He did not strike them with the law to discipline them, but rather with the love of honor (philotimo), with the meaning of the law. As a liturgical celebrant of the Most High, he did not touch the earth, and as a concelebrant he was truly resplendent upon the earth. If we truly humble ourselves before Christ, we shall indeed be liberated from the bondage of the passions. We must descent before we can ascend. This fall into the abyss is an indication of our trust in God. In the Person of Christ, God Himself comes to lift us and to raise us up to heaven. Disillusioned by the powerful of this world, we choose rather to have Christ as the Lord of our life, and life receives a new propensity and duration. The more painful this spiritual regeneration and the journey which leads to it, the greater the grace and the blessings it provides. Without suffering no one can attain a life in Christ. When the tribulations cease and the grace of peace arrives, we shall surely be grateful and consider blessed those days of grief, which now are seen as the most fruitful. CHRIST AND THE EVIL IN THE WORLD A considerable number of people justify their unbelief or their disbelief by pointing to the presence of extensive and senseless suffering in the world. They consider it proof of the absence of God or, at least, the absence of His compassion. The deaths of countless children from famine or illness, innocent victims, automobile accidents with entire families killed, and so many other similar events of suffering, leave people in doubt. Of course, a satisfactory answer can only be given to someone who is sincerely and appropriately predisposed. God who respects with absolute integrity the historical life of mankind does not interfere arbitrarily to overthrow it. God is helpless, we may say, to save those who under any circumstance simply do not want to be saved, and who knowingly and consciously have utterly rejected God. God points to the ways of perdition and to salvation, and allows man to choose freely. God's involvement in the evil of the world is simply non-existent. God is creator only of the good. The results of the rebellion, the impudence, the insults and the pride of man bring about this intensification of evil, which victimizes even the innocent. Also, it often happens, as is well known, that in an externally fearful and inexplicable, sudden and violent accident, there is hidden the providence of God, even for those who are unjustly lost, as well as for those around them. Usually the concessions for such great suffering are given for general repentance. Divine providence never ceases to be active above and beyond all of these accidents. For the believer all of these things are clear and easy to comprehend. Jesus Christ permits and allows pain to come for a time into the life of man, and it is He who removes it and redeems man. The duration of pain corresponds to the degree of repentance. Christ Himself suffered; He feels compassion for us, and He understands us. Christ is the One sent to us to redeem us from pain and suffering. The great and sacred symbol of the ineffable pain of Christ is the Cross. The wood of dishonor, the painful crucifixion became a source of healing and redemption, the central aspect of the Gospel, the point of foolishness for the Greeks, the point of scandal for the Jews. Christ came to give light and life and the people preferred darkness. And now they attempt to justify their position by insulting the Church and the clergy, and

by rationalizing their moral and spiritual indolence. Like the Gerasenes of the Gospel story, such people pretend to be of noble disposition and they ask Christ to bypass them and to leave them alone in their deadness. Even worse are those who, with the deceptive mask of art, seek to present Christ the savior as having shameful carnal desires, at the time of His sacrifice for the life of the whole world (N. Kanzantzakis). It is an awful shame, irreverence and sin. All those who attempt to explain everything with finite logic make a serious mistake, distort the image of God they bear within themselves, and are troubled by the heavy anxiety of rationalism, which brings about a wearisome boredom. The same fate is suffered by the captives of unbridled imagination, who are even considered successful writers. Christ, who united divinity and humanity, the God-Man, is the Light (Jn. 7.17), the Truth (Jn. 14.16), Love (Jn. 8.31) and Wisdom (1 Cor. 2.7). he answers our questions and provides solutions. Christ who is above and beyond reason is rejected by those who are irrational. They choose to leave Him upon the Cross and to continue cursing Him with works of art. It is a terribly tragic thing that is happening in the world. The world prefers little pleasures and ephemeral honors instead of eternal glory. One wonders: what makes us so cowardly and foolish to refuse an abundant eternity for a poor temporality? What makes us so faint-hearted that we ignore our divine calling? Only steadfast faith in Christ can make us victorious over the worldly spirit. It was Christ who first overcame the world, and His victory is our victory, but this should never give us cause for pride. The greatest victory is to overcome sin. Such victors are not at all few, in the Church of the past and of the present. The labors of battle for this victory become insignificant when one contemplates that he joins and is numbered among those who have entered the eternal kingdom of God. CHRIST AND HIS VISITATIONS INTO OUR LIFE Christ returns frequently into our life if we ask Him and permit Him. And He comes primarily as a physician, to heal. His visitations are usually personal and of a mystical nature. Christ never does miraculous deeds for the purpose of impression and enthusiasm, in a spectacular and public manner. Most of the miracles of the Lord were done among a limited number of spectators, and at certain times only with the sick person. Christ has no desire to convince anyone in an oppressive manner, to create commotion and disturbance, or to win delirious followers. The miracles are signs of the love of God for suffering man, and they are done within the sacred realm of faith, of silence and of quietude. So many miracles are done daily in life, and people see them but do not see them, they hear them and do not hear them, because they do not possess the eyes and the ears of faith. Others mock, doubt, ridicule, speak with irony and boastfulness, reaping nothing but the fruits of their doubt. They continue to exile Christ from their life. During His entire life on earth Christ was persecuted, and He is used to it. True Christians also were and are persecuted, not understood; for they are children of Christ and not born of this world, and this is the reason why the world hates them. There is a psychological interpretation of the commotion caused by that crowd of people bent on insulting the Church and its founder. They strike out so as not be struck and censured themselves. But the voice of conscience cannot be lulled so easily. And even if there are mistaken representatives of the Church, this does not mean that I am permitted to abandon the Church and deny Christ. The insidious powers of darkness and the heretics are working very systematically toward this goal increasing scandals and creating new ones. Thoughtless people then can follow them readily. Dostoevsky, the friend of truth and great author, writes: There is nothing more good, more profound, more sympathetic, more rational, more noble and more perfect than Christ...If someone could prove to us that Christ is far from the truth and the truth far from Christ, I would definitely prefer to remain with Christ rather than the truth. The friend of Dostoevsky and great theologian of our century, Fr. Justin Popovic, continues in

the same vein: Without our sweetest Lord Jesus not only this brief span of earthly life is terrible and without meaning, but even more so the infinite and endless immortality. Where death exists there can be no real joy. In other words, where Christ is not present, there can be no real joy. In the delirium of sin, in the inebriation of sinful pleasures, people proclaim many things to be the joy of life, all of which are insignificant and foolish. And everything that separates man from Christ is truly insignificant and foolish, everything that does not bring about for him the holiness and immortality of Christ. The blessed elder Avvakum of the Great Lavra Monastey used to say: I have emptied myself for Christ! I have nothing but Christ! Nothing but Christ and joy. Poverty is beautiful because it makes one light and buoyant. One must be empty for Christ to enter. When Christ is with me joy is within me... The learned monk Gerasimos of St. Paul Monastery wrote the following: I cannot find appropriate words to thank our Lord, who rescued me from the vanity of this world, even though I have yet to respond accordingly to the great beneficence of the All-holy God. The daily thought of the Elder Athanasios of the Iveron Monastery was this: What gift can man offer to Christ in return for His love toward us? And more generally, how can the entire universe thank the Son of Mary? There is nothing worthy of Christ, unless we could have another Christ similar in everything to the One born in Bethlehem, whom the whole creation could offer to him. St. Silouan of Mt. Athos also writes: On the first year of my life in the monastery my soul came to know the Lord in the Holy Spirit. The Lord loves us so dearly! I learned this from the Holy Spirit, given to me by the Lord in His great mercy. I have grown old and am preparing for death, and for the sake of the people I am writing this truth. The Spirit of Christ, given to me by the Lord, desires that all be saved, that all may come to know God. The Lord gave paradise to the thief, and He will give paradise to every sinner. I was worse than a wretched dog because of my sins, but I began to ask forgiveness from God. And He gave me not only forgiveness but also the Holy Spirit, and with the Holy Spirit I came to know God Himself. Do you see what manner of love God has for us? And who could possibly describe such compassion? O my beloved brother, I fall down upon my knees and beg you: believe in God! The poor writer of these lines is simply transmitting the spiritual wealth and Orthodox beauty of Mt. Athos to a people thirsting for it, in spite of their present vicissitudes. He is carrying out willingly the obligation of porter and repeats once again: Without an Orthodox anthropology, without true interpersonal relationships, we cannot have an Orthodox theology, we can never be christocentric, formed in the likeness of Christ, and speaking of Christ as the Life of the world. These introductory thoughts are concluded with hope for our essential re-connection with Christ, the life of the world. In place of an epilogue please accept the prayer which is read everyday at the First Hour: O Christ, the true light, Which enlightens and sanctifies every person Coming into the world, Shine upon us the light of Your face, That we may see in this light the unapproachable light. And guide us in our life To observe Your commandments, Through the intercessions of Your immaculate Mother And of all Your Saints. Amen.

The Holy Spirit in the Life of the Faithful

MONASTICISM: GIVE BLOOD AND RECEIVE SPIRIT St. Makarios of Egypt once reported that Father Logginos said to Father Akakios: The soul realizes that it has received the Holy Spirit when the passions cease to act upon us. Give blood and receive spirit! Only those who have given blood through asceticism can express something about the mystery of sanctification both in monasticism and in the Orthodox spiritual tradition in general. The way of sanctification is the fruit of self-offering to God, and intense personal struggle with the synergy of divine grace. Monasticism, moreover, is an ecclesiastical institution, a fruit of the Holy Spirit, a gift to the Church, and only the person imbued with Christ can understand and interpret its inner nature. The Holy Spirit illumines and inspires the way of asceticism. The relationship of the Holy Spirit with monks and the faithful is a subject of great interest in the life of the Church and in the practice of theology. As one of the ways of sanctification, monasticism emphasizes the presence of the Holy Spirit in the contemporary life of the Church, and of monks in particular. The presence of the Holy Spirit, made fully conscious, creates the appropriate sensitivity of the soul and offers the best renewal, both of the inner and external person. The liberation of man from the bondage of sin was realized in Christ once, for all. Our living connection with the Holy Spirit gives the absolute certainty and personal conviction of this supreme victory. It is the dwelling of the Holy Spirit in the pure heart that makes this unquestionable victory of the past an essentially active element of the present and the future. The saints live and move in Christ by living constantly the blessed freedom which He gave when he destroyed the bonds of death. From the All-holy Theotokos, St. John the Forerunner, St. John the Theologian, St. Paul and St. Symeon the New Theologian, all the way to St. Seraphim of Sarov, St. Silouan of Mt. Athos and the present people of God, known and unknown by name, the Holy Spirit can be seen as an essential presence in the basic christological elements of their lives, from which purification, illumination and deification flow. It is the Holy Spirit, ever the same, that enriches, renews and enlivens the experiences of the saints throughout the ages, and informs the faithful that they are indeed in Christ and Christ is in them. St. Gregory Palamas refers to the All-holy Theotokos as the first monastic, dedicated in the temple of God from her third year of life, who became the Mother of God by divine will and because of her humility, purity and simplicity. This is what the Church teaches, always guided by the Holy Spirit. The position of Panaghia in the Church defines the relationship of all monastics to her Son. In their humility and purity, in their asceticism and obedience, the monastics become bearers of God (theotokoi). This is why monks and nuns, in their struggle, have the Blessed Theotokos as their prototype. This is why they have great reverence for her. This is why Mt. Athos has been named The Garden of the Panaghia. This is why the whole of Greece is distinguished by its warm and genuine affection for the Theotokos, as indicated by the presence of her innumerable miraculous icons throughout the country. Like the Theotokos, a monk attains perfection in quietude. The need to be removed from the world becomes, in the final analysis, a gain for the world; monastic seclusion is undertaken on behalf of the world. It is not isolation of difficult persons. Rather, true monastic isolation is undertaken freely by those seeking personal perfection through sacrifices and struggles, as a contribution to the suffering world. St. John the Forerunner, last of the Old Testament prophets and the first witness of the New Testament, is a fragrant flower of the desert, another prototype of monastics, and the protection of monastic

orders. The name of St. John the Forerunner in Greek means one who is a gift from God. ( Theodoretos). True monastics are gifts from God to the Church and the world, for whose arrival many have labored in prayer. Elizabeth, guided by the Holy Spirit, gave a good interpretation of what she felt when visited by her cousin the Panaghia (Lk. 1.39-45). As far as the world is concerned, monastics appear as foolishness, and are appreciated and received only by those who would obey the invitations of the Holy Spirit. St. Paul, who speaks clearly about the gifts of the Holy Spirit in his tremendous letters, St. John the Theologian, the virgin friend of the Lord, Evangelist and guardian of the Theotokos, St. Symeon the poet and hymn writer, the Starets of the north, St. Seraphim of Sarov, overshadowed by the light of the Holy Spirit, who said that the gradual and certain acquisition of the Holy Spirit is the purpose of our spiritual life, St. Silouan of Mt. Athos, who declared that the Holy Spirit teaches us to love everyone these and many, many others shed light on the way of monastics and the faithful. The saints bow before the all-powerful Holy Spirit and learn by fixing their gaze on God, as if by a supernatural magnetism. They are inspired, they are taught, they are informed, and they receive the peace sought by the most profound being, by the inner-most recesses of the heart. It is the Holy Spirit which gives meaning to all of existence. As friends of the Holy Spirit, the saints give themselves completely to God, keeping nothing, not even the slightest morsel, for themselves. They obey most willingly and identify their will with the will of God, with His truth and His love. As friends of the saints, the monastics follow faithfully in their footsteps, while the faithful laity, guided by the light of the monks, which, according to St. John of the Ladder, they receive from the angels, in turn follow them. Unlike the world which is usually external, selfish, and carnal, the monk is disciplined daily to crucify the flesh with self-renunciation and a willing deprivation of every carnal pleasure. Thus, cutting off the selfcentered will, he can accept and love poverty as a liberation that ennobles and enriches him. The Gospel is clearly a way of poverty, renunciation, giving and sacrifice. Of course, the Gospel is also a proclamation of joy, but this joy blooms after discrete effort and abandonment of everything superfluous under responsible spiritual guidance. At the time of his or her monastic tonsure, the monastic vows to observe the three virtues obedience, chastity, poverty for life. St. Silouan of Mt. Athos says this about obedience: The prototype of obedience is Christ Himself who obeyed the heavenly Father completely and to the end. The obedient person sees evil but evil does not touch his soul, precisely because the grace of the Holy Spirit is with him. The Holy Spirit loves very much the soul of the obedient person, and this is why it will not be long before such a soul comes to know the Lord. The grace of the holy Spirit enters into the soul of the obedient person unhindered, giving him peace and joy. Ascetic effort without obedience results in vanity. Obedience protects the monk from pride. The gift of prayer and the grace of the Holy Spirit are given in return for obedience. This is why it is often said that obedience is greater than fasting and even prayer itself. Chastity, which is pleasing to God, is not limited only to the purity of the body, which does not express an offering of love. Such virginity is spiritually infertile. True chastity is a revelation of the total surrender of the monastic to God. This is an angelic, an eschatological condition. Chastity is connected and cultivated in an ascetic atmosphere and state of mind, which presupposes effort, and is followed by the consolation of the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit. Certainly, this consolation is not the purpose of chastity, but merely an aid toward the union with God. Chastity is an expression of great love for Christ. It is the oil which was missing from the foolish virgins of the Gospel. St. Cassian writes to Castor that St. Basil the Great once said: I have no wife, and yet I am nonetheless chaste. The monastic virtue of poverty provides great ease, freedom and a sense of not being bound by the demands of matter. These, together with quietude and silence, give us a foretaste of the future age, a transition into the kingdom of God; they permit us to move freely, to converse with God.

Monastic persons, because of their virtue of poverty, become passionate lovers of God, according to St. John of the Ladder, high-flying eagles, according to St. Ephraim the Syrian, and communicants of the Holy Spirit, according to St. Athanasios the Great. The whole person is able to turn to God. Such a person lives, moves and exists for God. He is in communion with God, and every other bond, friendship and love which may diminish, blunt, or even slightly impede this total dependence upon his central focus, his Lord and God, is abolish. When such communion with God is realized, the faithful monastic becomes deified by divine grace and by participation in the divine nature, as iron which falls in the fire itself becomes fire, according to both St. John Chrysostom and St. Symeon the New Theologian. THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE LIFE OF THE FAITHFUL COMMUNITY Here it must be emphasized that this relationship with God, of the saints and the monastics who follow them, as well as of the laity who possess an inner monasticism, is not limited merely to a constant orientation toward God, however profound. It is also extended to another dimension and condition, which indicates and explains that the Holy Spirit is actively present to delineate and illustrate the union of man with God in the Holy Spirit. And, of course, the stance of the faithful in this struggle for the ascent of virtues and for meeting with God is by no means static, passive, passionless. It is not the stance of a spectator but, rather, a living relationship where one's personal talent, love, heroism, daring, persistence, sacrifice, freedom, and humility are constantly judged and severely tested. A monastic community, and particularly one which is truly communal ( koinobetic), can become an upper room of Pentecost. If the gifts of the Holy Spirit are imparted to each baptized faithful, they are certainly imparted no less to each struggling monastic. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are meant for all the monastics. The gift is hidden only from those who harbor animosity. As on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit makes it possible for the faithful person to experience the gift of unity in all of his or her days. The many are one body in Christ. Individuals become persons who understand each other and who are mutually reciprocal, interpenetrating each other, without confusing personalities into an impersonal crow. The first Christian community had everything in common, and the multitude of believers possessed a common mind, a singular soul. This too is the sign which marks every authentic monastic community in Christ, every ecclesiastical parish, every Christian family. The direct activity of the Holy Spirit in the Orthodox community is revealed by the presence of the spiritual father, the Spirit-bearing elder. The Holy Spirit has given to the elder, after many years of ascetic effort, obedience and prayer, the gift of discretion, even of discernment and vision, to guide souls. In the lives of the saints we often see the gift of healing of souls, accompanied by bodily health, which follow intense prayer. One true elder can replace thousands of books and offer essential help to invigorate a soul. He gives what he himself has received from the Holy Spirit, as St. Seraphim of Sarov used to say. A man who accepts no spiritual guidance is a proud man, self-condemned to constant suffering and deprivation. In his prayer life the faithful person stands before God as a conquered victor. He stands not as one who is emaciated, utterly exhausted and humiliated in the wrong sense, but as one who, n the sacrifices and the toils of the intense day and night struggle of anticipation, has indeed found the pristine beauty without the wrinkles of blame; he is one who has found the delight of paradise before the fall, the innocence of childhood blessed by the Lord. He is the one who for years endured the heat of the day and the chill of the night, upon the pillar, upon the rock, upon the tree, in the cave, in the dens of the earth, isolated and in silence, anchorite and transient who burns and abandons his shelters (kavsokalyvitis). He is the person who has spent his intelligence trying to find ways to please God, who has never tired of seeking to see God face to face, as David the psalmist put it. He stood alone in the endless winters of the steppes, the virgin forest of the north, the arid desert of the

east, the rough plains of the west, the dangers of the south. The storms at sea, the storms on land, the difficulties of the times did not in any way terrify or discourage him until he had found a place of rest. Having nothing yet possessing everything, as St. Paul the Apostle expressed it, he would go patiently from one place to another, wherever the Spirit would lead him. Sometimes he would even feign insanity and be a fool for Christ's sake. Thus, seeking greater humility, fasting, enduring exposure and chains, and in silence, he would enter the bosom of God, never ceasing to yearn for new struggles and for new ways to glorify the name of God and of His Church, and to benefit the passengers of his shit that is never overcome by the waves of adversity. Yes, it is true, the person who prays, monk or lay person, does not reach the harbor of God in a state of utter exhaustion. He has put to death carnal disposition, the spirit of this world, demonic vainglory, those three ancient enemies of man which impede his conversation with God. This happens with the power and the grace of the Holy Spirit. Ascetic efforts hardships, frugal and simple diet, little sleep and long vigils, voluntary poverty and the simplest dwelling place do not seek to kill the body of the ascetics, but rather their passions, as the most discerning Father Poimen has declared, and as Theodoretos of Kyros writes: For He did not say that we ought to kill the body, but rather the acts of the body. The struggle of monks can serve as an inspiration, intensifying spiritual efforts of faithful brothers and sisters living in the world. The power of the Holy Spirit gives us certain assurance that the results of our efforts will be positive. And it cannot happen in any other way. The power of the Holy Spirit is unique. It only remains for us to ask for His cooperation, intently, to the point of pain, persistently, beseechingly, humbly. Thus, the weak become all-powerful, and are not afraid of the desert, the loneliness, the creeping creatures and beasts of the earth, and the demonic assaults. The illiterate become wise, to theologize, to teach, to write, to admonish and to interpret. The poor become wealthy and consider narrowness a great expanse, ill health a blessing, and consider narrowness a great expanse, ill health a blessing, and the lack of glory a joy, while poverty becomes freedom and ease. The true believer is beautified, especially in prayer, where he learns to endure slander, accusations, persecution, martyrdom, and even death. A remarkable transformation can be observed in man when he participates in the synergy and constant cooperation of the divine power in the Holy Spirit. That we are friends, disciples and sons of Christ is revealed by our decisions and preferences. THE HOLY SPIRIT AND OUR NEARNESS TO GOD THROUGH PRAYER Christians, as faithful friends, obedient disciples and virtuous sons of the Lord, proclaim most eloquently the truthfulness of their inseparable friendship, their free discipleship and their real son-ship with a concrete and continuous obedience, with a fervent, contrite and tearful prayer, and with an obliging submission and obedience to the commandments of the Holy Spirit. When we speak of submission or obedience we do not mean a condition of slavery lacking in freedom, or a condition of fear burdened with gloom of sterile dutifulness. The relationship of man with God in the Holy Spirit is cultivated to bloom in an atmosphere of love. God is the father, the kinsman, the loved one, the friend, my very own, and consequently a stranger to everything strange, horrible, fearful and inaccessible. This sweet feeling of familiarity and nearness to God this encounter with Him as one encounter his own friend face to face, as the prophet Moses who saw God expressed it this vision of the uncreated light, which is the participation of man in the uncreated energies of God, as explained by St. Gregory Palamas the hesychast on Mt. Athos, who for years remained in a cave of the Athonite desert and prayed fervently Lord, give light to my darkness! this salutary nearness to God is attained in pure prayer. It is in such pure prayer that man, in his poverty becomes aware of the wealth of sonship which he receives from the magnanimous God. Supreme and ineffable joy fills a bursting heart and the eyes pour forth abundant sweet tears, flowing from the heart without interruption, without compulsion, and certainly not sentimental or pathologically abnormal. The same light which overshadowed the three disciples

on Mt. Tabor comes from time to time to new disciples of Christ, as ascetic writings describe and contemporary fathers of Mt. Athos explain. The eyes of the believer who prays worthily are opened by the Holy Spirit, or they are transfigured by the good transformation and they are enabled to see supernaturally. The vision of the glory of the Father, in the Son, through the Holy Spirit is a present reality that exists in the spiritual transcendences of the faithful since the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit reveals to those who pray the things of Christ and of the Father, and the insignificant ones, imbued by the Spirit, become theologians par excellence, who participate in the divine experience of the Transfiguration, the Resurrection and Pentecost. The uncreated grace of God is received through the Mysteries of the Church. With the Mysteries we receive divine grace and become partakers of deification. Through Baptism, man becomes an ecclesial being, and through the Holy Eucharist he receives nourishment for life eternal. The so-called Jesus Prayer Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner is the cry of fallen man and the invocation for divine mercy and light. It is also the friendly and familiar expression of man as God's creation. It is the language which God loves to hear. Our relationship with the Holy Spirit becomes even more intimate through spiritual prayer. We make supplications in our prayer and the Holy Spirit makes supplications for us to the Father, and once again consoles us. At some point in prayer the question is posed: Is it now that prayer begins or is it now interrupted? Is it now that we have the inexpressible sighs, the exclamation of Abba, Father! the vision, the divine visitation, the cessation of work on the seventh day, the foretaste of the graces of the future age? It is here indeed that human flesh ceases to speak; it is here that we have absolutely calm weather; it is here that description becomes impossible, and where experience is primary and not our poor and weak words. It is an experience capable of providing encouragement for a lifetime. It is here precisely where the most beautiful, most intimate and most sacred relationship blooms. The Father speaks and the son listens. And the son dares to ask and the Father condescends to respond. Indeed, it is here that we have the search for the lost sheep, the finding of the lost coin, the return of the prodigal and the healed leper, the offering of the widow's penny, the multiplication of the talent, the acknowledgment, the acceptance, the absolute confidence, the warm familiarity, the perfection of the mystery of the Incarnation of the divine Logos, the deification of man, the great and ineffable miracle... As children of God, monastics pass their present life as sojourners, as pilgrims. They live with constant anticipation of the last things, and it is this that witnesses to the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives. They do not hate the flesh and the world, as some so readily imagine, but rather honor them, to the degree they deserve and as is proper to their nature. Their strong desire to meet the resurrected Christ is just, appropriate, authentic, and the very best that the man of God can seek. It can be said that the Holy Spirit excites these fervent dispositions and anticipations of the monks. The anticipation of the last things flows from our relationship with the Holy Spirit. It is not the hope of the monk to be glorified and to reign with God that makes him struggle in this life for a mere reward and compensation. For, as a contemporary ascetic tells us, the saints would still love Christ selflessly, even if there were no paradise, even if we were to suppose that all the places of paradise had been already claimed... We can see, therefore, what wonderful and true ways the activity of the Holy Spirit opens for those who are burning with the love of God. Salvation for the believer is at certain times confirmed by the Holy Spirit. It is an invincible hope, a significant strengthening for the struggle which does not permit him to be discouraged but to continue the struggle humbly until the grave. And even though the conviction of ultimate salvation is there, the believer prays for life to be extended so that he may repent more completely. This, in effect, is an expression of a healthy and authentic humility and by no means a confidence in our own works, which in themselves can never justify us.

We observe that the vibrant relationship of the Holy Spirit with the faithful is direct, life-giving and redemptive to an extraordinary degree. It constitutes a marvelous connection of love, with incomparable gifts for ma. We may say anthropomorphically that the Holy Spirit struggles, suffers and acts for the salvation of the most honored human person, and truly seeks to remove fears and hesitations and to place him permanently in the security and peace of the bosom of God the Father. As the Holy Spirit spoke in the hearts of the saints, when it became necessary for them to bear witness, to preach, or to write, so also will the Spirit speak in the heart of each, when necessary, as long as one truly desires it. The Holy Spirit, Who provides for all things, will not leave any suppliant uninformed and empty. THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE LIFE OF THOSE WHO SUFFER The presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the saints and the faithful in no way means the removal of temptations, tribulations, suffering and problems. Does not the Holy Spirit console and encourage those in prison, the sick, the exiled, the homeless, the slandered and the poor? The blessed Forerunner, the leader of the anchorites according to St. Jerome, was beheaded for upholding the truth. His apparent failure became his success as the greatest of prophets. st. John the Baptist left this world as he entered it: he came as a gift of God and he departed as a sacrifice to God. St. John Chrysostom insisted in the defense of justice, as a result lost the throne of Constantinople, and died in exile. Nonetheless, he remained, the beacon of the Triune God, the great ecumenical teacher. Christians have become accustomed to not fearing apparent failure. Full of the Holy Spirit, as St. Stephen the First Martyr, all those who follow the Lamb of God have received the blessed conviction of asceticism and martyrdom. The Holy Spirit provides strength in particular for those who, in a variety of ways and circumstances, are persecuted for the sake of truth. An expression of St. Makarios of Egypt, in Spiritual Homilies, puts it in these words: Wherever the Holy Spirit is there also follows, inevitably, like a shadow, persecution and conflict. In bitter times of persecution let our attention turn to the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, and He will remind us of all the things the Lord has spoken to us. The Spirit will secure us in the truth, as St. Cyril of Alexandria assures us in his interpretation of the Gospel of St. John. Everything will be revealed to the saints by the Holy Spirit. St. Basil the Great, in the homily on faith from his ascetic works, reassures us that the Holy Spirit, guiding in all truth, confirming all the faithful in certain knowledge, precise witness and devout worship of God the Father that is spiritual and true, is indeed the One Who will bring liberation. St. Athanasios, moreover, in his third book, Against Arians, emphasizes: Without the Holy Spirit, we are strangers and far from God, but, with our participation in the Spirit, we are united with God Himself, and our being in God the Father is no of our doing but of the Holy Spirit Who is in us and abides in us. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit to use the benediction of the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom are poured upon all souls, but particularly upon those who are totally dedicated. It may be said that the souls of monastics, and of prophets, who are often monks as well. Priesthood, mission, prophesy is a particular gift, an exclusive and personal calling, constantly under the shadow, the protection and the concern of the sacerdotal and All-holy Spirit, Who does not cease to be concerned even with the details of these gifts. When the priest conducts the Mysteries of the Church, when the missionary brings souls to Christ, when the righteous man prophesies and preaches repentance, the presence of the Holy Spirit, we can assert, is particularly dynamic.

MORE ON THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT The gifts of the Holy Spirit are varied and abundant, familiar and well-described, usual and manifest phenomena in the life of the saints and the faithful in general. They are gifts of God to pure souls, who are strengthened and consoled by them, as well as their brothers and sisters. A gift is given form above, but no one who is prudent ever seeks gifts. The reception of gifts is not the purpose of our spiritual life. It is a matter of the will of God toward one who humbly struggles. The wealth and the variety of these gifts has its source in the Holy Spirit, who never diminishes and never ceases. The spiritual pastures of these gifts belong to the love of the heavenly Father, who knows our situations better than we do. The faithful who are blessed with these gifts do not have the factions of the Christians in Corinth, who were justifiably reprimanded by St. Paul. It is a fact that all these gifts have the same source. We are all given to drink from the same water, and this has great significance. Let us permit our life to be directed by God. According to the appropriate exclamation of the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, we are called to commit our whole life to Christ our God. Let this be done intelligently, realistically and joyfully, without compulsion. Today when a spirit of love for monasticism is flowering even in our cities, the joy of the Church is exceptional. It is a great blessing to see that hesychasm, or sacred quietude, is being recognized as necessary for the renewal of the Church, and for its pastoral work in the world. Perhaps a fruit of this renewal is the presence and growth of love for monastic life. The significance of the rediscovery of the value of sacred quietude, of the message of the desert, is indeed great. The monastic way of sanctification, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is one of the indicators of the Church, which has to deal with a world that is loveless, anxious, noisy and confused. In a contemporary world of religious and ideological pluralism, the Orthodox monastic tradition is a call to all the faithful, baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity, for an urgent journey toward our inner being, whose purity can prepare us for prophetic witness and action, and even to die for our brothers and sisters in the name of Christ. Monasticism has accumulated a wealth of experience that can be drawn upon by the societies of the world for their edification. I believe the monks, enclosed in their cells, have a hidden power to open the doors and windows of the hearts of people to the gentle breezes of the Holy Spirit, all the faithful, monastics and laity, live in a community of love with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In our Baptism we vowed to live a life according tot he Gospel. It is this very journey that we have all undertaken, either in the desert or in the city. The Holy Spirit enlightens the hearts of all and helps us understand, accept, endure and hope. Monasticism is truly a great power in the hands of the Church and, because of this, you can be sure, dear brothers and sisters, that it will always be persecuted. The presence of the Holy Spirit will be manifest in the lives of the faithful as long as they continue to live with a difficult spouse, to thank God even in poor health and professional difficulties, to glorify God for any success, achievement or ascent in life. Unfortunately, I am not a true monk nor a truly praying person so that I can theologize, as St. Neilos of Sinai says. Forgive, therefore, the simplicity and incoherence of my words. I have attempted to speak briefly about a few aspects of a tremendous and inexhaustible subject. I chose to follow the directive of St. Vincent of Louvain to be with the help of God a faithful copyist and not a prideful author, to write what the Fathers delivered to us with the fewest words, to limit myself to essentials, and with simple words to attempt to describe our tradition, no to interpret it. I conclude my remarks with an invocation to the Holy Spirit made long ago by St. Symeon the New Theologian, one of the most brilliant monks of our Church: Come, O Solitary One to the one who is also alone!

Come, for You Yourself are the very desire found within me! Come, O my breath and my life! Come, O consolation of my humble soul! Come, my joy, my glory, my endless delight!

Sanctification and Holiness

THE SAINTS AND HOLINESS Holiness is the purpose of human life. The Lord God Himself declared: Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I the Lord your God am holy (Lev. 20.7). in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed to the heavenly Father for His disciples: Holy Father...keep them in Your Name...sanctify them in your truth (Jn. 17.11, 17). The lives of the saints are very helpful for the attainment of this purpose. Being human, bearing the same flesh, and subject to the same passions as we, saints serve as models, examples of those who overcame the flesh and evil of this world and who attained the award of victory sanctification. The saints adorn the life of the Church and strengthen the journey of each believer. They are the ones who, after being cleansed of evil passions and enlightened by the Holy Spirit, defined the sacred doctrines and set the sacred canons to serve as the rudder of the Church. Saints are the ones who struggled mightily to proclaim and establish Christian truth, and to defend this truth. Oftentimes they signed their faith with their own blood. Saints helped formulate ecclesiastical worship, so that devout believer can transcend, through its symbolic formulations, to the essence of what is said and done, and make the spiritual ascent to heaven. Moreover, saints are friends, ambassadors, mediators, father, mothers, teachers, and prototypes of sanctified life throughout the ages. The most beautiful lives of saints are the ones written by saints. Usually it is a saint who can best speak about another saint. For example, we have excellent lives of saints written by St. Athanasios the Great, St. Basil the Great, St. Jerome, St. Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain. The purpose of these lives is to spiritually edify those who read them, or who hear them in church or in the monastery. In early Christian centuries, the lives of the saints were read at the graves of martyrs, where the Divine Liturgy was also celebrated. The day of martyrdom, or the day of falling asleep in the Lord, was considered a birthday. It was the day of ascent into heaven, a day of joy and thanksgiving. Various collections of lives of saints menologia, leimonaria, synaxaria, lausiaca, and gerontica constitute didactic material that has been instructive and beneficial for the souls of thousands of monastics and lay people throughout the centuries. A saint is one who has been sanctified one who is blameless, undefiled, pure, separated from sin, totally dedicated and consecrated to God, a faithful observer of God's commandments out of love. A saint is one who by grace partakes of the holy nature of God who alone is truly Holy, absolutely holy, holiness itself. God the Father is holy, God the Son is holy, God the Spirit is holy, the Trinity is holy. Angels are also holy, as well as prophets, apostles, martyrs, saintly monastics, those equal-to-the-apostles, ordained martyrs, monastic martyrs, neo-martyrs, confessors, and the righteous. God is by nature holy, while man becomes holy only with the help of God. Holiness is a free gift of God, available to all without exception. Holiness is poured out as abundant light, which some accept with gratitude and joy, while others reject, out of fear, hesitation or ignorance. Receptiveness varies with each person. Progress in sanctification is attained through the Mysteries Baptism, Chrismation, Repentance and the Holy Eucharist. Perfection comes with constant awareness of the presence of God, the memory of God, the fear of God. This ongoing, beneficial fear of God reminds the soul of God's abiding providence, His righteous

judgment, and His great love. Sanctification precedes holiness. Sanctification is the way, holiness is the goal, the ultimate purpose. Sanctification is the beginning of the attribute given to us when we are created in the image of God. Holiness is the achievement of the ultimate goal to be in the likeness of God. The first Adam was deceived and he went about seeking to reach this goal in a rash and unlawful manner. The new Adam -Jesus Christ became incarnate to restore to man the ability to ascend, with Christ's help, from where Christ descended, and thus to be deified (St. Gregory the Theologian). THE WAY TO HOLINESS The way to holiness is traveled by those who struggle strenuously and responsibly against demonic activity and sinful passions. This struggle is catharsis, cleansing. It is followed by adornment of the soul with the virtues. Another struggle begins at this point to embed the virtues permanently in the soul, to guard them, and to simultaneously maintain a healthy sense of humility. Cleansing of the passions purifies a person, while the achievement of virtue in his life makes him pleasing to God. But neither one of these is the purpose of our spiritual life. The struggles are motivated by man's desire to share in holiness. But, it is the works of man himself. This spiritual truth is emphasized by all the Fathers of the Church. Entrance into the realm of holiness, the condition of dispassion, ascension toward greater things, the sweet and blessed transformation, the blessedness of peace, union with God, the condition before the Fall, the angelic way of life, deification all these patristic expressions seeking to describe and define the saint the person united with God. The saint is not the rare exception, standing aloof, especially destined for sanctification. The saint, rather, is a person who, through personal struggle, helps himself to succeed in his purpose the purpose that stands always under the shadow of divine grace. The saint is a simple, social, gracious, joyful, authentic, unaffected person who exemplifies heart-felt, honorable and sincere relationships with other people, with other saints, and with God. The presence of the saint is a blessing, a transmission of peace, a source of joy, and an occasion to glorify God. The saint possesses harmonious relationships with people, and his over-abundant love extends even to the non-rational creatures of God, which the saint helps, heals and directs while they in return serve, protect and watch over the saint. The saint, living in the condition of grace that existed in Paradise before the Fall an undisturbed relationship with God attains liberation from the carnal passions, patience, fearlessness, endurance of climatic change, and a healthy unconcern about what he shall eat, what he shall wear, or where he shall stay. Nor is he concerned, for example, with how to cross over river currents, great distances, open seas or how to pass the darkness of night. There are many narrative stories in the synaxaria about saints who were hosts to wild beasts in the cells or caves of their ascetic endeavors (St. Gerasimos of the River Jordan, St. Seraphim of Sarov), who walked on water as if on land (St. Mary of Egypt, St. Gabriel Iverites, St. Lawrence of Salamina), who delayed the setting of the sun (St. Bessarion), or who flew as if they had wings (St. Maximos the Kavsokalyvitis). Particularly marvelous in the lives of the saints is the profound and harmonious unity and symphony that can be observed in all of them. The perfect love and divine light of the Holy Spirit removes contradictions and oppositions from their lives and teachings. This is a significant indication of authenticity. The saints are gifted, possessing the varied charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit. They are healers of souls and bodies. They are also prophets, seers and visionaries, full of discernment. The particular gifts vary from person to person all saints do not possess all gifts. The charismata are awarded to saints to help them in their

struggles of love with the fallen and suffering nature of fellow human beings. The godly lives of saints are characterized mainly by love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness and temperance the fruit of the Holy Spirit described by St. Paul the Apostle in his letter to the Galatians. The saints love obscurity, silence, quietude. Reticence accompanies virtue which, if selfproclaimed, ceases to be virtue. The saints, reluctant to emerge from their silence, never seek to demonstrate their charismata, as contemporary heretics readily do. The greatest tragedy, worse even than any sin, is boasting over false holiness. The security of holiness is humility and the discernment to attribute it only to the all-holy and all-perfect God. THE SANCTIFICATION OF BODY AND SOUL IN THE SAINTS In Orthodox spiritual tradition, sanctification of the soul is cultivated simultaneously with sanctification of the body. In the future life we shall receive our bodies without signs of corruption, as depicted in Orthodox iconography which expresses deified human nature. In heavenly life we shall all be of an average age, yet fully able to recognize each other. Biological needs and functions will not exist. Our relationships will be determined by the distance of our vision of God. The sanctification of bodies is vividly expressed in icons. Divine light shines in their faces of saints (Prophet Moses, St. Sissoes, St. Pamvo, St. Basil the Great, St. Alexios the Man of God, St. Seraphim of Sarov), and even their garments or other objects are sanctified (the sacred belt of the Theotokos, the monastic cowl of St. Michael Meleinos, the cross of saintly Athanasios of Mt. Athos). They transmit through touching, kissing and pious reverence grace, blessing, fragrance, sanctification and healing. This is also true of the sacred myrrh-bearing relics (St. Demetrios of Thessalonica, St. Symeon, St. Simon, St. Neilos and St. Theophilos of Mt. Athos), of the sacred incorruptible relics (St. Spyridon, St. Gerasimos, St. Dionysios, St. Patapios), and is witnessed by the many miracles that occur during the commemorations, litanies and prayers of the faithful. The saints are the true servants and devotees of Christ. They love Christ above everything and they reveal their love in word and deed. Christ loves them all the more for their love for him. The saints resemble Christ mainly in the degree of their love. In this life they loved us, and now that they are near Christ - the utmost desire of their heart they love us even more. This is why they assist us in our distress. According to St. Basil the Great, the saints are the nobles of the earth, the ones who have been glorified, the magnanimous, the robust, the authentic, the pure, the beautiful, the strong - the ones who deserve God because they became his friends through love. Among the innumerable saints, some are distinguished by particular charismatic attributes of their lives, such that they attain a special popularity among people according to age, gender, character, profession or other particularity. Some of the saints are young persons (St. Mamas, St. Nestor, St. Elpida), some are children (St. Kerykos, St. Agapi, St. Kionia), some are parents (ST. Basil and St. Emelia, St. Efstathios and St. Theopisti, St. Xenophon and St. Maria), some are elderly (St. Haralampos, St. Kyriakos), some are soldiers (St. Demetrios, St. George, St. Theodore), some are physicians (Sts. Anargyroi, St. Panteleimon), some are clerics (St. Stephen the Deacon, St. Theodore of Studium the Presbyter and Abbot, St. Polycarp the Bishop and Martyr of Smyrna), some are great pastors of their people (St. Spyridon, St. Myron, St. Nikephoros), and still others are local saints of a particular region. There are saints from all areas of the earth, of all occupations, and of all type and characters. The spirit of struggle and energy was exemplified in the preaching of the Gospel by St. Paul the Apostle. That same spirit was demonstrated by St. John Chrysosotom, who would not hesitate to censure the imperial family. The multi-faceted, learned in all the sciences, and richly endowed with charismata, St. Basil the Great ascetic, orator, author, philanthropist, bishop, confessor, theologian and ecumenical teacher, ill and humble

monk, fearless before the threats of tyrants is a true model in the brilliant firmament of holiness. St. Gregory the Theologian, pressed by St. Basil the Great, went to Constantinople, but after a storm of controversy, left for the quiet of Pontos, where he wrote theological poems in the Homeric dialect. Contemporary commentators dare to refer to him as melancholy. Yet everyone, combative and social, melancholy and quiet, is able to reach God. Christian Orthodoxy is not a single type or form. It is not monolithic, antiquated or inflexible. Even in our own century the Holy Spirit gives new life and new saints (St. Nektarios of Pantapolis, St. Arsenios of Cappadocia, St. Savvas of Kalymnos, St. Methodia of Kimolos, St. Silouan of Mt. Athos, and contemporary saintly fathers of Mt. Athos such as Fr. Jerome Simonopetritis, Fr. Isaac Dionysiatis, Fr. Savva Micragiannanitis and Kallinikos the Hesychast). THE SAINTS AND US The saints show their love for us by their constant prayers to the Lord in our behalf, and by their miraculous interventions into our lives. Our love for them is shown when we study their lives, tell their story to our friends and relatives and for those of us who can preach their messages on their feast days. The holy Fathers have left us with stirring homilies, panegyric eulogies, beautiful hymnal services, and spiritual teachings which honor the saints. We honor beloved saints on their feast days with Divine Liturgies and the offering of pure gifts bread, candles, incense, oil, icons, vigil lamps, kollyva, etc. We also honor them by dedication churches in their names, painting their holy icons, offering icon stand and reliquaries, etc. Honoring saints is an ancient practice of our Church. Rejection of this practice is tantamount to rejecting Christ, since it is taught in the Gospel and by the Apostolic tradition. Many contemporary heretics reject the practice of honoring saints with an animosity that reveals the extent of their error. They destroy icons of saints as new iconoclasts. The Seventh Ecumenical Council condemns them, and all who do not honor the saints and ask for their intercessory prayers. The Orthodox Church, unlike the Western Church, does not proclaim saints. Rather, it recognizes saints. This somewhat newer tradition, is followed to avoid misleading the faithful into honoring as saints those who are not. As faithful of the Orthodox Church we have the unshakable certainty that the Church possesses the whole unadulterated truth, inspired by the Holy Spirit. The synodical Church does not err. This is why one Synod does not refute a previous one, but only confirms it. The Church has never made a mistake in the recognition of a saint. Where martyrs are concerned, the day of martyrdom is the day of their very first commemoration, and the process of recognition is not applicable. For other saints, the Church patiently awaits heavenly signs indication the presence of divine grace overshadowing the deified person. Saints are revealed by God, not by human effort. This requires a considerable time to pass after their falling asleep in the Lord, so that relatives may be out of the way, and reports of witnesses who knew, heard or had concrete evidence of the presence of saints through visions, appearances of light, miracles, supernatural fragrances, etc. may be ascertained and confirmed. Many of our saints were honored by the devout faithful long before official recognition by the Church, which subsequently came, as a loving mother, to reward, secure and confirm the faith of her children. The saints are characterized by the correctness of their lives, their faith, their teaching and their writings. No one can doubt the decisions of the Church and not honor all the saints. All who are good will not necessarily be saved, and all who are saved will not necessarily become saints. The tendency to have continuous, group proclamations of saints, after many centuries or even a few years, require great vigilance, prudence and discernment. If someone is a saint and is to be made known, the all-holy God will in time reveal him. It would be a blessing for the number of saints to increase in our evil days. The saints bring much consolation and encouragement to the souls of the faithful. And it must be remembered that

even today there are many saints in the deserts and in the cities. Holiness is the great void in the world, and when holiness disappears altogether, the world itself will disappear. It is the prayer of the saints that continues to support the world. The intercessory prayers of the more-than-holy Theotokos, the Mother of God, the Panaghia, the EverVirgin, the much lauded and most glorified, the mediations of the bodiless servants of God, the holy angels, the petitions of the honorable, glorious Forerunner and Baptist St. John, the prayers of the prophets and apostles, of the martyrs and of all the saints, are a tremendous help and consolation to the faithful who appeal to them and beseech them. They are the experienced, knowledgeable ones illumined by God, the charismatics, those who are ready and willing to be teachers, benefactors and indefatigable servants of philanthropy and charity. They are the ones who have fought and won, and they help us to fight and win also, and to attain our blessed destiny. The whole world is not as valuable as holiness, even though the world needs holiness, which is the answer to its problems. The value of holiness is incalculable, priceless. Holiness is primarily the faith and forbearance of saints, not a theoretical condition. The faith of saints is what makes them hate every worldly glory and reject every earthly comfort and accommodation. The forbearance of saints makes them obliging in the struggle, patient in the difficulties,m and always full of hope, as they anticipate only heavenly delight. OUR SANCTIFICATION IN CHRIST Christ reveals divine life through sanctification. Life is a gift of God that achieves its true purpose only in a close relationship with God. By having been sent into the world, Christ revealed the redemptive and sanctifying power of God. Christ invites the faithful to a fundamental repentance and spiritual renewal, to a constant martyrdom of love and witnessing by giving, as exemplified by all the saints. Faith in Christ sanctifies man through the energies of divine grace. The sanctification of each faithful person increases according to the degree of his or her faith. The more man is sanctified the more his mind is dedicated to eternal life, which he increasingly desires. Our union with Christ makes our life holy, providing a complete awareness that we are eternally bonded to Him as beloved sons and daughters. Fr. Justin Popovic says it clearly and beautifully: The lives of the Saints are nothing other than the life of Christ the Savior, repeated in every saint, more or less, in one manner or another. Or, put more precisely, they are the life of Christ extended and prolonged in time and space through the saints. It is this divine life of the incarnate Logos of God, Jesus Christ, the God-Man, incarnate for this very reason, that is given and transmitted to us. And this is done to sanctify and immortalize and eternalize with His life our own human life upon this earth. The Orthodox life of Christians is defined by the Gospel and lived by the saints. To become saints is the purpose of our calling. It is the commandment of God, and is both realistic and attainable, as demonstrated by the multitude of saints. Christ always provides us the resources necessary for the good fight. It is from Christ that saints receive the strength to live out their faith in His name, to do miracles, to do even greater things than these. Thus, the relationship of Christ to His saints provides everything useful, necessary, and indispensable for life and soul. Yet, even though we have everything that we need, we nonetheless feel poor, deprived, disadvantaged and alone. Even though science and technology have made tremendous advances, we feel insecure, unprotected and helpless. Disease, old age, problems of all kinds can break our spirit. However, the steadfast and enlightened journey on the road of holiness will remove all these obstacles and beautify our days. We shall

see the world with different eyes, the eyes of the saints who do not fear change. Love puts fear afar off. We follow Christ out of selfless love, as did the saints, for He loved us first, and no matter what we do we can never reach His love. According to St. Nicholas Kabasilas, The saints loves, not what he himself prefers personally, but what Christ wants. The saint abandons himself and runs to Christ. He forgets his poverty and places his hopes on the wealth of Christ. For the power of love is what makes those who love to share the good things they have. The will and the desire of the saints is totally consumed in God. According to a contemporary theologian, an excellent interpreter of St. Nicholas Kabasilas, The saints rejoice with what Christ rejoices; they are saddened by what saddens Christ; and they express and activate in history the will of Christ. They speak as the mouths of Christ to reveal the truth. They work as the hands of God in the world and they do miracles (P. Nellas). THE UNIQUE SOURCE OF HOLINESS IS GOD ALONE The history of saints is but the experience and the expansion of the Gospel, an experience the we can only attempt to describe by living it, as did the saints. Let us keep silent and examine our unknown self, beseeching the saints and prayerfully reading the Sacred Scriptures. As we attempt to imitate our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we become a spiritual family, a warm and friendly company with the saints. Christ gave us His all-holy Mother, His disciples and friends, and all the saints, for the times of our needs, for the hours of loneliness, grief and despair. As long as we struggle, the experience of the saints will also be our experience. Let us not be discouraged. The saints rejoice in their personal encounter with Christ, and their joy is a gift for the whole Church. MORE THOUGHTS ON THE SAINTS AND US When you know a spirit-filled contemporary ascetic, he may confide in you divine mysteries, divine revelations, personal and unique. He does not do this out of pride or to project himself. Rather, he wants to help you, to tell you what he saw and heard himself, when he groped for as he lived profoundly in quietude and silence. Once a monk asked an ascetic brother: How does one feel who has the gift of vision into the future? The ascetic answered simply and spontaneously: He feels himself quiet the same as one who has the gift, who realizes it, and who indeed lives by it. His purpose is to transmit his joy to us, for his gift is wealth for the whole Church; it is not a personal acquisition, but one that is used soteriologically for the benefit of all. We too, therefore, eat bread from the toils of the saints; we live and have our being out of their inexhaustible love and compassion. They accompany us in our present passage and they dire3ct us to our permanent fatherland in heaven. It is important for us to knead and bake our own bread with the tears of prayer, with the toil of asceticism, and with the seal of humility. And if, as St. John of the Ladder says, we find it difficult to attain the state of dispassion, certainly our reconciliation with God and our assurance of salvation is quite easy. The saints take us by the hand and teach us to walk in life, to pray, to overcome difficulties. They want us to be centered on Christ and moved by the Spirit; they want us to be philanthropists, in the broad sense of true love for our fellow human beings; they want us to be merciful, as the saints themselves were in this life. They also teach us to be joyful with what we are and have, and not to be caught up with excuses and with a

desire to escape from the present. Moreover, they teach us patience and forbearance in times of difficulties, temptations and problems, which usually become a way of sanctification, opened up by God Himself for those who love Him. With their examples, the saints show us how to love the very specific person the spouse, the friend, the neighbor, the colleague not some abstract love for the unknown crowd, an ideology, a particular system or an organization. The saints expect us to be complete and selfless, generous, joyful, impartial and unbiased, satisfied with our kenosis, deeply knowledgeable of ourselves and to change daily boredom into stepping stones that lead to the kingdom of God. They offer us lessons in Orthodox character and style of life, and in Orthodox instruction and education. Albert Einstein once made a rather appropriate characterization of our century. He said: The twentieth century is the period in time of perfected means but of confused purposes. Yet, the purpose of creation remains the same sanctification and holiness, communion with God, deification. According to St. Gregory of Nyssa, the purpose of a virtuous life is to become similar to God. According to St. Maximos the Confessor the unique purpose of creation is that we become communicants of the divine nature and partakers of God's eternity. If, therefore, we want to thank the saints for their many graces and Christ their leader, we should, of course, imitate them. We should imitate them in two main characteristics of their lives repentance and prayer. Let us repent for moving away from God and our friends to a cold isolation and estrangement, and let us humble ourselves by loving sincerely. Prayer is the constant delight of the saints their permanent concern, joy and freedom. By praying, we are guided readily and easily to the gathering of the saints, to their company and to their blessed peace. Before we conclude, let us remember that holiness, even by the sound of its name, frightens us and makes us imagine that it is something distant and elusive something that exists, but not for us. Perhaps this fear is justified because of error in our educational system. The kerygmatic sermon of the Church has lapsed into superficial moralism. Orthodox teaching has been forgotten. The teaching and lives of saints have been replaced by the sayings of scientists and artist. Only a few painless sayings of the saints have been retained for occasional repetition. As your younger brother, I would like to express, with much love, a few final words that seek to remind us of the perspective of our existence, the purpose of our creation, and the direction of our journey. Sanctification and holiness are possible only in the Church of Christ. Sanctification always exists in a continuous self-emptying of love, which regenerated and transfigures the whole person, elevates him, and unites him with all his brothers and sisters. By living one learns, and by creating one acquires. Let us try it, let us attempt it, let us will it. We shall certainly give joy to heaven and to earth, and meaning to life. Angels will come to our assistance, so will the saints, and Christ Himself, who is always hurrying to anticipate all of us his disorderly, unruly and energetic children. Even in our flights from Him and in our shame, we do not cease to seek Him, for we cannot live without Him, for this is how He has created us, and we are in a sense condemned to love him freely, as those who are absolutely free love Him, those who love perfect love, that is, all the saints. May the intercessory prayers of all the saints ever overshadow us and assist us all the days of our life, especially the prayers of the all-holy Theotokos and of the holy and God-bearing Fathers of Mt. Athos.

The Life Of Prayer

PRAYER AS AN IMPORTANT ASPECT OF OUR SPIRITUAL LIFE The life of prayer, which we shall discuss, is one part of a much broader topic spiritual life in general the life in Christ, spiritual ascension, the way to sanctification and deification. Combined with personal inner purification and a regular sacramental life, a life of prayer will help significantly in the regeneration of the faithful during this difficult period in which we live. The content of this discussion is not the property of the author. It consists primarily of material borrowed from the abundant resources bequeathed to us as an inheritance by the holy Fathers. Also included are precious morsels gathered eagerly from the spiritual dinner table of contemporary elders of Mt. Athos. There are many stations or steps in the journey of prayerful spiritual ascent. We shall briefly address some of the more significant ones related to our topic. Study is one of the very first steps. In the austere monastic rule of St. Pachomios one of the canons requires that novice monks be taught reading and writing by older monks, to assist them in their study of Sacred Scripture. Father Theodoros of Thebes, a disciple of St. Pachomios, made the following observation about his monastic life: Neither in our heart nor in our mouth had we anything other than the word of God alone, and we did not feel that we were living on earth but were celebrating in heaven. The mind learns that with which it is preoccupied. If one is preoccupied during the entire day with the lives of others, he derives no benefit for himself. Through unbridled curiosity and idle discussion, particularly where the sins of others are addressed with satisfaction and interest, we stimulate and arouse our own passions. It has been observed that people who are scandalmongers, who gossip, and who defend morality by accusing others, usually have very serious problems themselves. Preoccupation with vain things and malicious conversations are to be avoided; they can totally incapacitate the spirit of prayer. Study will help in our effort to pray by arousing our forgotten powers, by strengthening and invigoration us. In this vein Father Isaias instructs us: When you arise in the morning, before you begin your work, study the words of God. When you have the words of God as your constant companion, you will not be preoccupied with worldly matters, you will no be troubled, you will not sin. St. Ephraim the Syrian, who incidentally was described by St. Gregory of Nyssa as having Sacred Scripture as his only nourishment, adds this: The words of god refresh the heat of the soul. Suckle the words of God like an infant so that you may grow. For one who desires to live this life of prayer daily nourishment from Sacred Scripture is indispensable. Study of the Bible expedites the intervention of God in our life. And it is good for such study to precede prayer. In addition to Sacred Scripture, particularly Psalms, the life of the saint of the day and a selected ascetic text from the Fathers can provide relief from the confusion and distress of the day, and help us prepare to surrender to God. And let it be emphasized that God is not to be dealt with in a few minutes out of the entire twenty-four hour period. God is for the entire day. His abiding presence should accompany us continuously so that all our activities are a preparation for the sacred hours when we embrace God. And, in turn, these sacred hours of prayer will strengthen us for the struggles that follow.

Everything flows calmly under the watchful eye of God, who blesses and sanctifies us. And if we transgress he may intervene austerely to bring us back t our senses. Let us, therefore, always remember Him. Liturgical books the horologian, psalter, menaia, triodion, pentekostarion, parakletiki are not only for the lectern in church but also for the prayer room in our home. These books offer great assistance to our spiritual life. It is a beautiful thing when one comes to love these books and makes them daily companions even if only for an abbreviated Orthros or a few hymns for Vespers, the Compline, or the Salutations to the Theotokos. The Church has designated particular prayers for important events in our lives such as birth, sickness, engagement, marriage and death, as well as for various other occasions, such as the opening of a home, the beginning of a business, or the start of a professional career. The Church has also designated prayers for prescribed hours of the day. St. John Chrysostom, commenting on prayer before and after meals, notes that among the reason for these prayers are the following: that we also remember the nourishment of the soul; that we avoid intoxication and over-indulgence; that we develop the discernment of moderation; and that we express our gratitude to God for His gifts. At prescribe times the Church gathers in common prayer and worship. The prayers of many faithful who have gathered are more readily received and heard by God He is particularly attentive to such petitions. To help us receive the full benefit of ecclesiastical gatherings let us pay close attention to these words of St. Symeon the New Theologian: Stand in church as if you are in heaven together with the angels, and consider yourself unworthy to be praying together with your brothers. And be vigilant not to be looking back and forth to observe the brothers and sisters, how they are standing or chanting, but observe only yourself, you chanting and your sins. St. Paul noted that he who is happy should sing. Psalmody spiritual song is not only for church services, but for any circumstances that permit. We can chant aloud or silently, individually or as a group, before and after prayer, and even during intermissions. According to Diadochos, bishop of Photiki, in addition to the familiar ecclesiastical psalmody, we also have another psalmody which comes from an overflow of joy, powerful and moving, with a prayerful disposition. This psalmody, when moved by the Holy Spirit, is accompanied by delight of the heart, spiritual tears and incredible joy. Returning to the preparatory aspects of prayer, let us note the words of St. Athanasius in his treatise on virginity: The believer who is dedicated to God must be found with the Book in his hands when the sun rises. He also provides instructions for the hours of the day and night, and how the faithful must stand before God. It is well established that books are beneficial, but they do not always lead to prayer. And it is to be noted that a greater teacher than books is prayer itself. Innumerable ascetics have learned to pray without any books at all. Books and church gatherings cannot always be with us, bu we can always learn by the inner work of prayer, which can be with us at all times. The soul of each one who truly prays becomes a temple of God and a sacred place of sacrifice. All prayers are good audible prayers, book prayers, public prayers, silent prayers of the heart when practiced carefully and attentively. As there is no healthy plant without roots, there can be no life of payer without the sacraments, especially Holy Eucharist. For, as Abba Apollos says, He who withdraws from communing the Sacred Mysteries, causes God Himself to withdraw from him. It is customary for monks to complete prayers begun in their cell when they have gathered in church. And common prayers started in church are completed in their cells. The sacrament of Holy Eucharist, in which they participated during Divine Liturgy is continued on the sacred altar of their hearts with ongoing prayer.

THE NATURE OF PRAYER What, after all, is the nature of prayer? Is it worth the toil, concern and effort that goes into it? Let us examine the words of the holy Fathers for insight. St. John Chrysostom says: Prayer is a harbor in the storms of life, an anchor for those who are stormtossed, the treasure of the poor, the security of the rich, the healing of the sick, the preservation of health. Prayer banishes evil things, and preserves the good. And the God-bearing ecumenical father continues: Prayer silences the passions of the soul, assuages the rebellion of anger, dismisses envy, dissipates evil desire, withers the love of worldly things, and brings great peace and serenity to the soul. The essence of prayer becomes clear from what it offers. St. John of the Ladder says that prayer is the means which unites man with God. The most ascetic St. Gregory of Sinai, who wanted to traverse the universe to teach everyone the benefits of prayer, penetrates the matter more deeply proclaiming: Prayer is a pleasant fire for beginners, 'a light made fragrant when activated' for the advanced. Prayer informs the heart; it is the hope of salvation, the sign of purification, a symbol of holiness, the knowledge of God, the engagement of the Holy Spirit, the joy of Jesus, the gladness of the soul, the mercy of God, the sign of reconciliation, the seal of Christ, the ray of the intelligible sun, the confirmation of Christianity, proof of angelic life. Serious obstacles to prayer are too much sleep, too much food, too much talk, and luxurious living. These contribute to forgetfulness of God and a sluggish body, while making vigilance and exaltation of the spirit difficult. They do not help in purification and they confuse mind, heart and judgment, which should be calm, peaceful and in quietude during prayer. How should I pray? When should I pray? How extensive should my prayer be? Questions such as these reveal an absence of fervent and continuous prayer. For the one who loves prayer intensely there are no bounds. He will simply pray at every opportunity. Today's prayer is a continuation of yesterday's. And today's prayer will be continued tomorrow. It is said that a holy man never used the dismissal prayer - Through the prayers of our holy Fathers... - because his prayer life had no end. Difficulty in making prayer a daily experience is indicative of a serious weakness in our spiritual life. But, with recognition and acknowledgment of this weakness, we should not be disheartened. Rather, we should let it be a stimulus to intensified and more persistent efforts. We can learn to pray virtually anywhere we may be, whenever we think of it. But there should be special times, in addition to church services, when we conduct our individual prayers. And, as Abba Isaac suggests for each monk within his cell, we must seek the most quiet place available for our prayers. Once Abba Makarios of Egypt was asked how we should pray and he answered in this way: It is not necessary to babble foolishly at great lengths, but to extend your arms and to say: 'Lord, have mercy on me as You desire and know best.' And if there is a war about to break out, say: 'Lord, help me,' for he knows what is best for us and provides His mercy. We have prayer with words, and we can also make our entire life a prayer, a sacrifice of consecration to God, a prayer without words, which is perhaps the strongest and greatest prayer. Let us sit, patiently, tirelessly, as permanent disciples listening to God speak. Ignorant, innocent, humble, poor, dumb before the all-merciful Father, let us beseech His mercy, His salvation and His salutary help with ineffable sighs. With a silent humble prayer, let us allow God to speak in our life. Let us allow Him to do whatever he desires with us, that we may become similar to the saints, His ever obedient children, and be restored to our pristine and original beauty, making His life truly our own life.

Abba Isaac says that when you approach God to pray, think of yourself as an insignificant ant, a creeping creature of the earth, a leech, a stammering infant. Abba Serapion says that the stance of people in prayer must be like that of soldiers standing guard, constant, vigilant, in a state of emergency and courageous readiness. That great teacher of prayer, St. John Chrysostom, whose entire life was a petition, has this to say: We must pray with ever vigilant attention. And this will be possible if we understand well with whom we are conversing, and that during such time we are His servants offering sacrifice to God. We must pray with contrition, with tears, with reverence, with serenity and great calmness. Our sins should not stop us from prayer. We should be ashamed of our sins, but they should not keep us from our prayers. Even though you are a sinner, approach God with prayer, that you may be reconciled with Him; give Him an opportunity to forgive your sins, which He will, in order to reveal His love for mankind. And the holy Father continues: If you are afraid to approach God because of your sins, you are actually hindering Him, to the extent, at least, that is dependent upon you, from expressing His goodness and the wealth of His providential care. Remove afar, therefore, every hesitation and doubt about prayer because of sin. HOW TO PRAY Compressing lengthy, beautiful and comprehensive homilies of St. John Chrysostom on prayer, we offer the following salient points to help the praying person. Prayer must be a systematic and regular practice in our life, with a pious and reverent stance, and with absolute attention. To pray as we should, with the reverence appropriate to conversation with God, we should be aware of the great benefit of prayer, independently of knowing whether there have been specific responses. The person whose prayer is truly a conversation with God is transformed into an earthly angel. God does not ask that we converse with Him using beautiful words, but that what we say emanates from a beautiful soul. Prayer does not need mediators, formalities, or appointments at prescribed hours. God's door is always open and He awaits us. If we are withdrawn from God that is something totally dependent upon us. He is always near. We need no particular eloquence. He hears us no matter how softly we speak. He understands us completely even if we say little. All hours are appropriate and all places good. And prolonged instruction in the art of prayer is unnecessary. It is sufficient that we want to pray; then learning becomes rapid and effortless. It is the manner of prayer that is significant. We must pray with perspicacity and contrition seeking spiritual progress, forgiving others and asking their forgiveness, being truly humble. Our prayers will be received and heard if we are praying as God wants us, if we persist in our prayers, if we see what is profitable to our souls and the souls of others, if our motives are pure, and if we avoid focusing exclusively on material things. And please note that all the prayers of the Prophet Moses and St. Paul were not heard by God, simply because it was not expedient. It cannot be overemphasized that when we pray, our efforts should not focus exclusively on the idea of receiving. The objective of making our soul better is necessary and this too is accomplished through prayer. The one who prays with this objective becomes stronger than the force of worldly things and is able to fly high above them all. We mentioned earlier that prayer is obstructed by much sleeping, much eating, much talking and luxury. If these are obstacles to effective prayer, then certainly vigils, fasting, silence, quietude and asceticism are the wings which make our prayers fly higher. Vigils are inseparable from the life of prayer. As there is no bird without wings, there cannot be a life of

prayer without vigils. A night without the memory of God is like a garden without flowers, a tree without fruit, a house without a roof. The prayers best loved by God are those of the night: before we sleep, after we sleep a little and arise at midnight, and early in the morning, before dawn. In this way we dedicate the night not only to bodily rest, but also to the well-being of the soul. By sacrificing some of our sleep, we give something of our own to God who sacrificed His Son for our sins. Nocturnal prayer makes our sleep sweeter because the words of prayer continue to be active and stimulate beautiful dreams. It is said that St. Arsenios the Great would begin his prayer each Saturday night just as the sun was setting in the west. He would conclude just as the sun arose to shine in his face on Sunday morning. That is how he measured his time of prayer! A simple and frugal diet of fasting gives clarity to the mind and vigilance to the soul. A person who has eaten to satiety cannot pray, nor can one pray who is starved. One should eat just enough not to be hungry, perhaps a little less. Silence is the adornment of the people of God who measure their words and do not use their tongue as a lethal weapon. The person who is easy-going with words may find it difficult to pray effectively. Loquacity confuses, tires and obscures. Silence concentrates the mind, gives rest to the spirit, and keeps it in constant readiness. Monks persistently search for the most quiet corner possible to set up their sanctuary. The objective is to have external quietude penetrate into the soul, for without inner silence and peace, external quiet is of no avail. When the serenity of the soul is accompanied by gratitude toward God, great results can be achieved. According to St. Makarios of Egypt, guarding our thoughts and praying with much quietude and peace are fundamental to prayer. And, according to St. Ephraim the Syrian, the one who prays purely will burn and banish demons, while he who prays carelessly will become the demons' laughing stock. OBSTACLES TO PRAYER An elder of Mt. Athos used to tell young monks: Do not strike up a conversation with your thoughts and imaginings! Another elder said: Above my cell many birds will fly. I cannot forbid them. But that which I can do is to disallow them to make their nest on my roof! St. John of the Ladder says: Even if your mind is constantly distracted from your prayer, you must struggle unceasingly to recall it. We shall not be condemned because our attention was distracted in prayer, but rather because we did not attempt to bring it back. The thoughts and imaginings of which the first elder spoke trouble many of us a great deal and can be serious obstacles to prayer. A long and difficult struggle may be needed to cut them off completely. This is so because, in many cases, even though these thoughts and imaginings are foreign to our true nature, they have nonetheless become very familiar. They have established their lairs in us. We have become accustomed to them and, as a matter of course, consider them quite natural. When they come to disturb our prayer, concentration can be quickly lost. And these thoughts may not leave us when we want them to go away, especially if they correspond to our uncontrolled desires, if they are indicative of a weakness in our will. As we said, the struggle can be long and difficult. Let us be honest and not try to hide or justify our weakness. There are many other and varied obstacles to prayer. There is hesitation, anxiety and pain related to nonexistent illness. There is ill disposition, hunger, thirst, sleepiness, impatience, remembrances, weariness. We may recall details that we thought had been relegated to oblivion telephone numbers, sayings of elders, irritations and annoyances of the past. All these can be problems to beginners, but they should not dishearten us. In addition, there are imaginings and demonic fears that usually trouble those who are advanced in prayer, and sometimes beginners to a lesser degree. More fundamentally, we can say that the devil uses our negligence and our inattention to leave the heart unenlightened by the life of prayer, bringing a myriad of vain thoughts and imaginations to draw us away from the essence of prayer. But we must keep in mind that which is exclaimed in the Divine Liturgy: The

doors, the doors; in wisdom, let us be attentive! The doors of the mind and of the heart must be well guard, so that the originator of evil will not control them and be able to enter freely. It is most difficult to guard our thoughts and protect them from evil theories, demonic deceptions, false visions. Very particular attention is needed here. The purpose of prayer is not the vision of God, but the pouring out of his mercy. A strong desire to see God may be the beginning of error. Let us live as unworthy and incapable, as we certainly are, and if God should will to appear to us, then all well and good. But this should not be our agonizing purpose. There was once an ascetic who was praying in the desert and a temptation came to disturb him. Humbling himself as usual, the ascetic was tempted with the presence of a false light. Deeming himself unworthy to look upon the divine light, and wanting to shun false lights, he buried his face in the sand. The temptation disappeared and an inexpressible peace filled the heart of the ascetic. This story illustrates how very much aware and sober we must be. Let us therefore guard against obstructions. Let us stand courageously, like the ascetic mentioned by St. Neilos the Ascetic, who had been bitten by a snake while praying. He did not move until he had completed his prayer. And he who loved God more than himself was not harmed at all. A similar incident is mentioned by Palladios about a certain monk called Elpidios. He was bitten by a scorpion but did not move from his position of prayer either. A characteristic of contemporary man, who is easy-going in some ways, is a strong sense of hurry, and great impatience. He expects a great deal quickly and without much toil. The impatience which possesses him makes him want to hurry in prayer; he wants instant results, here and now. He wants to reap fruit before even sowing. Without a drop of sweat, he expects miracles, visions and revelations. Such pure but nave desires of contemporary man, who in spite of his folly does not cease desiring God, are frightfully and dangerously exploited by the many wolves in sheep's clothing, who have infiltrated the spiritual fold of Christ. THE ANSWER TO OUR PRAYER The delay in seeing our prayer requests fulfilled, in having our questions answered, is yet another point on which our life of prayer is tested. It is neither a matter of God not hearing our prayers nor of His being indifferent our suffering. God does not want us to be troubled and tormented, but to be in constant communion with Him with our fervent prayers, which should increase if not immediately answered. We should thank God whether He gives us what we ask for or not, since in either case He is acting for our own good. We should not be discouraged and disillusioned when we do not receive what we ask for in prayer. God may be testing our persistence. Let us not tire easily. If we do not receive what we seek we should thank God, nonetheless, as if our prayer has indeed been answered, since He knows our true needs of the present hour better than we do. It may be that our hope does not materialize because what we desire is not essential, even though it may seem indispensable to us at the time. If something is truly indispensable God will provide it instantly. Therefore, even in the case of apparent rejection, St. John Chrysostom reassures that in essence we have succeeded. Any failure that brings benefit to our life is in fact not a failure but success. But Father, I am asking for spiritual things that are good for me, why is it that I do not receive them? you may ask. Perhaps because your zeal for them is insufficient. Perhaps because the requests are not truly from your own heart, but contrived from other sources or motives. Perhaps you are not worthy to receive them at this time. It is not possible that God, who takes care of the birds, the irrational animals and the plants of the earth, and whose compassion for human beings far surpasses any paternal bond of kinship ignores us without reason.

Our drowsy yawning, our flight even from very first disappointment when everything seems to bother us, our indifference, accompanied by much carelessness and doubt, indicate quite clearly that in the final analysis we do not really know what we want and what we seek. There are times when it is clear, as when we do not ask today when we were asking just yesterday, that we do not really need what we pray for. The illness of constant change in our desires, easily understood psychologically, can affect and torment our life of prayer. Essential changes in the way we pray come from mystical experiences, divine breezes, subtle whispers of the Holy Spirit in humble, peaceful and understanding hearts. As our hearts improve, so does our attitude in prayer. St. John Chrysostom asks rhetorical questions and provides answers which summarize the matter well: Are you in a state of calmness and serenity? Then, beseech the Lord to make more permanent this joy in your heart. Are you troubled by the onslaught of tribulations and temptations? Beseech the Lord to calm the storm in your life. Has your prayer been hear? Thank God. Have you not been heard? Persist in your prayer until you are heard. To thank God for pleasant things that come our way is natural. But to be able to thank God even for the unpleasant events that happen in our life is remarkable, and when this really happens in our lives, we truly bring delight to God and shame to the devil. Sorrow changes to spiritual joy. No one is more holy than the person who can be grateful to God in his suffering. St. John of the Ladder says that effective prayer is characterized by two main elements: sincere thanksgiving and contrite confession. He clearly tells us that our requests in prayer are sometimes not fulfilled for one of the following reasons. We may be asking before the appropriate time, we may not be worthy, or we may be seeking out of a sense of vainglory. Another possible reason is that, if we do receive what we pray for, we may fall into sin of pride. Also, having received what we ask, we may fall into the other sin of negligence. CONTRITION AND COMPUNCTION IN PRAYER According to the same holy Father, St. John, who authored the famous spiritual book, The Ladder, true prayer is both mother and daughter of tears. Contrition and compunction are its regular companions. Compunctious prayer is based on an attentive life attentive to the ever-presence of God in our life, to the purity of our heart, to the genuine humility of our spirit, and to the mystery of death which we must ever remember and contemplate. As it is impossible for fire and water to live together, it is similarly impossible to mix compunction with a life of luxury. And if we could only direct our awareness to the many salutary interventions of God in our life, our eyes would fill with tears of joy for His abundant blessings. Orthodox hymnology is replete with such sweet tears tears of gratitude combined with tears of compunction, which in ascetic terminology refer to harmolypi (joyful sadness). Should our prayers be favored with such tears, let us be careful not to lose this blessing because of pride. Mark the Ascetic informs us that with these tears Christ has visited us and has opened our eyes. The memory of our sins in general, and not necessarily specific sines, is sufficient for compunction. St. Barsamouphios says that compunction will come when we tame our will such that we are able to abandon our non-spiritual rights and our love for worldly popularity. It is important to distinguish true compunction from the tears of superficiality, vanity and sentimentality. And we must be careful. Compunction can be wiped out by a careless tongue. Prayer without compunction is like a meal without taste, according to Elias the Elder. The saintly Theognostos tells us that compunction can be gained in prayer by temperance, vigilance and humility. And Niketas Stethatos observes that compunction begets humility and humility compunction.

UNCEASING PRAYER OF THE HEART The present author is insufficiently prepared for an adequate discussion of the next stage in this topic the unceasing, spiritual prayer of the heart, marked by a single unwavering thought otherwise known as the Jesus Prayer. The topic of spiritual sobriety and vigilance, spiritual contemplation and action is every advanced and extremely difficult. I shall limit my efforts to the mentioning of a few applicable comments found in the inexhaustible treasury of the holy Fathers. St. John of the Ladder instructs that if the mind wants to pray united with the heart and is unable to achieve this, then the prayer should be said with the mouth, while the mind holds and attends to the words of the prayer. In time the Lord will bless us with the prayer of the heart when we will be able to pray withou8t constraints and distracting imaginations. This charisma is given, as are all charismata, to the simple and humble soul, in accordance with the austere and precise spiritual order. To the one who is simple, humble and temperate in all things, Christ Himself will bestow the prayer of the heart. The so-called Jesus Prayer is simply the repetition of the phrase: Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me a sinner. there are some minor variations in the wording. The power of this prayer is unlimited. The very name of Jesus banishes the demons, as St. Anthony the Great tells us. This prayer and the name of Jesus is repeated by many saints. st. John Chrysostom says that the acquisition of the prayer of the heart is not a matter of one or two days, but involves much time and effort, until the enemy is banished and Christ comes to dwell in our heart. According to St. Neilos the Ascetic, the best defense against the enemies is the name of Jesus. And who are the enemies? Burning desires, sinful delights, diabolical schemes and the like. As to how to say the Jesus Prayer properly we have instructions in the book called Philokalia. The unceasing prayer comes from great love. It is lost of course when one becomes inattentive, idle and critical. Our love for God cannot be impeded by the work we do. The person of God, no matter what he or she is doing, can have a constant remembrance of God, a constant doxology, a constant thanksgiving. God loves us all, but He loves even more those who love Him. Our prayer reveals the measure of our love for Him. The infinite love of God for man has provided for prayer, so that, at any moment one so desires and all the days of his life, one can have conversation with God. All the saints kept their life of prayer unceasing. Abba Poimen, the great father of discernment, says that there are three most useful principles: fear of God, unceasing prayer, and love for our neighbor. The disciple of Abba Bessarion, Abba Doulas, mentions in the Gerontikon that he found his elder praying continuously with his arms raised for fourteen days. Only after he lowered his arms did the disciple disturb his elder. St. Basil the Great says that unceasing prayer means to so unite yourself with God, through the manner of your whole life, that your very life becomes and unceasing prayer. Abba Isaac says that unless the grace of the Holy Spirit abides in our heart, perfection in this prayer cannot be attained. When the Holy Spirit dwells in our heart, prayer is not interrupted even when we sleep. And Niketas Stethatos calls this unceasing prayer a spiritual reflection, a remembrance of God with persistent contrition. One of the elders on Mt. Athos related to us that he had received a letter from a simple woman in which, among other things, she wrote: Father, I am a widow with two children and am working to raise them, etc. Please pray for me because I do not have enough time and I pray only eight hours... Yes, you read correctly, eight hours, and she did not consider it enough. Apparently she was practicing the spiritual prayer. The person who is dedicated to God does not measure, does not calculate, does not give in order to receive. He or she is offered completely to God and God gives Himself completely in return.

CONCLUDING REMARKS ON PRAYER Dear friends, let our prayer be regular, but not out of custom and duty; let it be with a program, but not for the sake of the program. In this way our prayer can be expected to have sweet warmth and inspirational variations and graces. In a mystical yet certain way, God will inform us if our prayer is true and pleasing to Him through the joy and peace which will fill our soul. For many, temptations, difficulties, misfortunes, dangers, deaths, losses have been stimuli which led them to the art of prayer. These difficulties have helped them to more fervent and stronger prayers which earlier had not been achieved, even with persistent effort, because they were not whole-hearted or lacked sincerity. The true art of prayer is taught to the person who prays by God himself. Customary prayer, without a spirit of contrition, of compunction is not pleasing to God. A soul who loves god cannot live without prayer. God draws the soul to Himself through prayer. Only to the humble person will god give the taste of the sheer sweetness of prayer. Only the prayer of the humble person can be pure. In the final analysis, my dear brothers and sisters, whoever you are strong or weak, warm or cold, young or old, educate or uneducated, wealthy or poor, clergymen or laymen know that not even a single word of our prayers is in vain. They are all heard, all of them. For this reason do not forget, during those sacred hours, to mention my unworthy person, since God also loves prayers for others, particularly for those who have so much need...

The Power Of Prayer

Prayer, our subject, is as known as it is unknown. I shall attempt to discuss the sources of this deifying activity and particularly its beneficent power in the life of the faithful. St. John Chrysostom writes on the power of prayer: The greatest weapon of the Christian is prayer. No particular place can hinder prayer from being practice. It is the adornment of the Christian, the safe harbor of the ship in many storms of life, the treasury-house of every good, the abundant wealth that no one can ever take from us. Prayer is a good and strong ally in our daily dangers and frequent difficulties. Prayer is medicine for every illness, and especially for every sin. Prayer is consolation for the grieving, the weary, the ill. The spouse of prayer is virtue, which in turn is cared for and provided for by prayer. This is the power of prayer which we will discuss. BIBLICAL SOURCES OF PRAYER The first person to pray was Adam. Prayer was his daily conversation with god, until the time of his fall. According to a contemporary elder of Mt. Athos, prayer in Eden, was a prayer of joy, gratitude, worship, love, eros, unceasing praises and doxologies that poured forth from hearts that had not tasted sin. It was prayer of angels, a song of original creation, a movement of holy souls and immaculate minds in whom divine glory was reflected. It was an uninterrupted Hallelujah of joy. The original prayer of Adam was not contrite and mournful, a prayer of affliction and a request of mercy, as it was after the fall. It was not an effort to eliminate

the passionate powers of the soul dispersed in the world through senses (Monk Theoklitos Dionysiatis). After the fall of the progenitors, prayer changed. Unceasing doxology was transformed into continuous lamentation. The prayer of gratitude became supplication for mercy, since the children of God had become children of wrath and the immortal had become mortal. The fall of Adam is a result of disobedience, the beginning of error, unbelief in God, deception, and loss of community with God. Poor Adam is an example to be avoided. The deceptive demon struck Adam in his Achilles' heel, his weak point. Satan exploited the fervent desire for deification of the first humans and led them to their fall. Satan's saying, You will be like God, was the bait which led Adam and Eve to their fall. The very same serpent returns again, often more severely, to be transformed in various ways, to artfully deceive many throughout the ages, right up to our own times. After the fall prayer becomes a problem, and the cause of this problem is, of course, not the Creator but the creature. The Creator had clearly forewarned Adam and Eve of the danger. Yet, fallen from his original condition in paradise, Adam suffers but does not humble himself. He struggles but does not surrender. He is distressed but does not confess his mistake. He only hesitates, feeling shame and fear. He hides and tries to justify himself by placing the blame elsewhere. His relationship with the loving god has become broken and problematic. Prayer becomes struggle. Petitions appear to go unheard, while God seems distant, silent, unresponsive. Do we not often meet ourselves in the person of Adam? In the pastures of the Old Testament the sojourner will meet great personalities, praying individuals who have many significant secrets to tell us. The first is the Patriarch Abraham. In all his life, without the slightest hesitation, Abraham walked as the Lord God had spoken to him. Abraham asked and God gave. God indicated and Abraham ran without hesitation or question. It was the Lord God who was speaking to him. Abraham was not fussy, resistant or calculating. God said I shall not hide whatever I do from my son Abraham, and Abraham responded I am but earth and ash. God told him I shall be with you in all that you do, and Abraham kept the words of God in mind. Abraham did not resist god, even in the great test, the sacrifice of his only son given as a divine promise in his old age. He did not even ask one Why? These are the kind that God seeks, those who keep nothing for themselves, who do not hold back, who do not keep consolations in secret drawers for a future need. Isaac, his son, followed faithfully in Abraham's footsteps. God said to him: I shall be with you and bless you... I shall fulfill my promise which I made to Abraham your father. God kept His promises. The same way was followed by Jacob, who saw the heavenly ladder and heard God say to him: I shall be with you to protect you in all the ways that you shall go. Jacob was the one with whom a man wrestled until the morning, and who used the singular expression: I will not let You go unless You bless me. And he was blessed and he say God face to face. The same God, responding always to the petitions of saints, was with Joseph as well, and he poured mercy upon him. Why do we not have the courage of patience, so that our prayers may be fulfilled by divine mercy and the blessing of God? The Prophet Moses, the greatest personality of the Old Testament, the beloved friend of God, had his first meeting with God in the burning bush that would not be consumed. What God asked of Moses was perhaps greater than what he asked of Abraham. God asked Moses to become the leader of a people. In his humility, Moses rightly asked: Who am I that I should go? only to hear: I will be with you. God is not hindered because His servant is not eloquent but slow of speech and of tongue. God wants heart, faith, purity, virtue. I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak... what you shall do, God told Moses. This was the beginning of an amazing conversation between God and Moses which endured for eighty years. Moses transmitted the complaints, the petitions, the tribulations of a difficult people to God. God answered him directly and the prophet reported the responses to the people. Thus, through the

supplications of a single person, God saves an ungrateful people, giving them everything they needed manna, fowl, water, even a cloud to guide them by day and night. For forty years in the desert their garments did not wear out, and their whole life passed within a continuous miracle. From the bitter slavery of Egypt they were led to freedom, to the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey. And yet, not a day would pass when they would not express resentful discontent with the man of God, the righteous and humble Moses, or would not miss the food of Egypt. Were there no graves in Egypt that you brought us out here in the desert to die? they would complain. But Moses endured unperturbed. The story of the journey of the people of Israel from the land of slavery to the land of freedom is the story of every soul, from the life of sin to the joy of liberating repentance, to the blessedness of the children of god. We remain always the same, stiff-necked, uncircumcised in the heart, ungrateful, resentful, unhappy that we do not sin even more. In spite of all difficulties, the Prophet Moses never ceased to invoke the live, justice and faithfulness of God, and to emphasize His glory. This is precisely what all the saints do, as does our mother, the Church. Two lines, repeated many times in the Book of Exodus, are these: And the Lord did as Moses had said. The Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as one would speak to his friend. This is how God spoke with His prophets. This is how the saints speak with God. It happened on one occasion that the faith of the great prophet was tested, and this doubt cost him the Promised Land, which he was not permitted to enter but only to see from afar. (The life of Moses is most edifying reading. It provided the honored name given to my unworthy self at the time of my monastic vows.) In the Book of the Psalms of David, the great prophet-king and preacher of repentance, we have the most beautiful prayers ever written. They are the very words of God on our own lips, the words He loves to hear, telling us the way He wants us to follow. God Himself said of the Prophet David, I have found a man according to my heart. And He illumined David, his elect, to write these beautiful prayers. In the 150 Psalms the marvelous acts of God are revealed His commandments, His prophesies, His wisdom. Everything is summed up in this golden crucible. That is why Abba Philemon considers the Psalms to encompass all Sacred Scripture. That is also the reason why so many of our holy Fathers have preoccupied themselves so extensively with Psalms. The Psalms reveal the confidence of man in God. They nourish our hope and offer us a presentiment of this gift. They give joy, gladness, peace, because, by prayerfully reciting the Psalms, we feel ourselves under the overshadowing protection of God. One of our neighboring elders, of over seven decades on Mt. Athos, often had the Book of Psalms in his hands when we visited him. He told us: This is the most beautiful book in the whole world! Before receiving Holy Communion, on days of no work, and on Sundays, he would read the entire Book of Psalms. We have only mentioned a few of the personalities of the Old Testament, but all of the other righteous people and prophets of the Old Testament followed similar ways of prayer. They impress us by their outspokenness, their faith, their responsibility and their courage. CHRIST AND PRAYER Christ is the preeminent teacher of prayer. At central position in His teaching is the familiar Our Father. He God is presented as Father and we are His children. Prayer is directly given the color and fragrance of love. The great Christian author, Dostoyevski, writes the following: Similar and identical to the joy of a mother, when she happens from time to time to look upon her child and to notice its very first smile, similar

and identical is the joy of god whenever He looks from above and sees a sinner falling on his knees to pray... This was said by a peasant woman... and it was such a deep, such a subtle and religious thought... It expressed all at once the whole essence of Christianity, that is, the whole idea of God as Father who gave us life, the whole understanding of the joy of god who sees man as His child and this is the basic idea of Christ!... The essence of religious emotion cannot be contained in any logic, and it is inaccessible to every atheism ( The Brothers Karamazov). But before I can call God Father, it is necessary to have faith and love. Faith makes me glorify Him and love moves me to do His will. Need makes me ask for my daily bread. The need for peace and concord makes me seek reconciliation with my brothers. My own repentance makes me readily offer forgiveness to those whose sins have wronged me. My humility makes me seek divine power and grace so that I may not fall into temptations. A presupposition of this prayer, and of every prayer, is the forgiveness of our brothers. This helps us realize that we do not pray alone, but in unity with the entire triumphant and militant Church. The acute awareness of our sinfulness is the very fertile ground in which our prayer can blossom. Commenting on the Lord's Prayer, St. John Chrysostom tells us that, by expecting man to call and have God as his Father, which He is, we remember His many blessings the forgiveness of sins, the abolition of punishment, the justification, the sanctification, the redemption, the sonship, the heavenly inheritance, the brotherly relationship with His only-begotten Son, and the grace of the Holy Spirit. By instructing us to say, our Father, rather than my Father, the Lord is also teaching us to pray with others and for others. In this way enmities are dissolved, love reigns and inequalities are removed. We are all children of one and the same Father, and we share His blessings in common. This noble descent, our common heritage, does not permit differentiation or belittling among us, no matter who we are. God, of course, is not restricted to heaven, but the person who prays must yearn to be in heaven, leaving behind earthly things. Hallowed be Your name, means the name of God is to be glorified. Your kingdom come, is an expression of gratitude by the Son, who desires that the kingdom of the Father prevail in the world, and that the faithful orient themselves toward heaven. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, means that the divine will is to be done in the whole world, so that errors are eliminated and truth and virtue prevail. Give us this day our daily bread, teaches us to be content with few things and a simple diet. We must seek sufficient food, not luxury the necessary, not the superfluous simplicity, not variety and abundance. Moreover, this line of the Lord's Prayer inspires faith and trust in the providence of God, and joy when we receive our daily bread. The next line speaks about forgiveness of sins and repentance. The basic precondition of our forgiveness is our ability to forgive the mistakes of our brothers. In this way we are all grounded and humbled, whether sinners or righteous. The testing by temptation mentioned at the end of the prayer will be overcome and defeated with the help of God. During bitter hours of temptation that come upon us, let us avoid extreme risks, but with prudence and courage, sensibility and decisiveness, let us fervently seek divine assistance. And it shall be given to us. A great contemporary elder, living in a cave in an isolated part of Mt. Athos, used the Lord's Prayer as his only continuous prayer for many years, obviously because he experienced its profound and powerful meaning. We have noted that the best teacher of prayer is Christ Himself. Christ often left His disciples and the people to pray alone, even when they felt they needed Him and sought Him persistently. Christ did not simply keep company with His Father, but spoke to Him about His mission and the need to strengthen His disciples. Jesus spent forty days in the desert preparing Himself for His public preaching. How much do we need

to prepare? The prayer of Christ was sorely tested on the Mount of Olives, but He eventually yielded without reservation tot eh will of the Father. We seem to be halting and hesitating in our prayer, and perhaps this is why we do not often receive. We are demanding when it comes to our own will, but have reservations regarding the divine will. This is why heaven is not open to us. And angel visited Christ during His prayers. Angels will come to help us, if we prepare ourselves and yield to God's will, as they came to help the saints. Through the Mystical Supper of Holy Thursday Christ teaches us to pray more profoundly. He instructs us to make our petitions in His name. This means that we are to see a very close relationship with Him. It also means that we should want what He wants. And what does he want? That they be one. He wants us to be united. And He wants us to faithfully observe the commandments out of love for Him, out of a desire to honor His name. Love, therefore, is both the beginning and the end in prayer. God will give us everything when we are reconciled, united with one another, peaceful, serene. PRAYER IN THE EARLY CHURCH In observing the life of the early Church, we see the Apostle Peter praying during the sixth hour. With the Apostle John, he goes to the Temple on the ninth hour. With prayer the eleven Apostles elect Mathias to replace Judas Iscariot. The seven deacons are elected by prayer. After intense prayer Peter is released from the prison, as are the apostles Paul and Silas. The Apostle Paul speaks often about prayer with particular warmth. He says that prayer should be unceasing, that we should pray at all times. This is emphasized when he notes that the time of prayer is both day and night. To receive the blessing of seeing the Thessalonians, St. Paul prayed more than abundantly. For his personal illness, he petitioned the Lord three times. What could be the meaning of this three times? It may refer to three long periods of persistent and fervent prayer. Or it may relate to repeated prayers, as suggested by his interpreters, that were answered with the affirmation that one is strengthened and perfected through suffering. The humility of the great apostle makes him ask for the prayers of others as he finds himself in various needs. When St. Paul began the tremendous struggle of his public preaching he used to say: I am the least of the faithful, and at the end of his ministry, he would say: I am the first of sinners. Throughout his letters one encounters his constant prayerful thanksgiving for the abundant blessings of God. In the Acts of the Apostles it is reported that when the first Christians prayed together they raised their hands, they knelt, and they sang psalms. Communal prayer is far more powerful than personal prayer, as affirmed by St. John Chrysostom, because God wants to hear the petitions of many who pray together in the name of Christ. Together during Church services we can attract the mercy of God more effectively than as individuals. There we are joined in the bond of love and gathered for the same reason - to pray and to be heard more quickly by god. And our prayers are particularly effective when faith and virtue adorn us, the faithful, laity and clergy united in Christ, in one indivisible body the Church. The prayers of others are particularly helpful when we too participate. We should not expect significant results from the prayers of others if we ourselves are not actively involved. Prayers for others are appropriate and should be offered, especially when requested of us. And we should ask for the prayer of the saints, but we should be prepared to exert ourselves as well and not to expect everything from them. Holiness is not contagious in a passive way. The saints both censure us and strengthen, but their prayers will be more decisive as we participate more fully.

THE MATURE FRUIT OF PRAYER The power of prayer is to be found in its mature fruit, increasingly savored by the believer as he persisted in long struggle. Abba Neilos says that prayer is protection against sadness and discouragement, which means that prayer protects the soul from the sins of dispirited sadness, despondency, oppression and despair. And he adds: It is prayer which blossoms the spirit of meekness and peacefulness. These virtues are fruits of prayer, not acquired by momentary action, but requiring continuous fervent effort. The most discerning St. John of the Ladder refers to prayer as the source of virtues, the nourishment of the soul, the enlightenment of the mind, the weapon which cuts off despair, the overcoming of grief, the reduction of wrath, the mirror of progress, the indicator of moderation, and the true reflection of our spiritual condition. In a similar spirit, St. John Chrysostom says basically the same thing. For the faithful, prayer is their fortress, their invincible weapon, the purification of their soul, the forgiveness of their sins, the source of their innumerable blessings. Nothing is equal to or stronger than prayer. If anger is boiling in man, prayer can pacify it. If evil desire is burning within him, prayer can put it out. If envy has taken hold of him, prayer can dispel it. All irrational and beastly passions of the soul are overcome, if we pray fervently, attentively, clearly. Not only are the passions dispelled, but the devil himself as well. It is the power of prayer to heal, to do miracles, even to open the closed heavens. The Gerontikon tells the story of Abba Moses the Ethiopian, the amazing person of God living in an arid, isolated place, who heard a voice say to him: Enter into the cave and have no care. Obediently he entered without care or concern. When the small amount of water ran out, Abba Moses went out of the cave and in again, beseeching the Lord to provide some for him. God heard his prayer and sent a cloud over the cave which filled his containers with water. Other fathers of the desert, who had noticed from afar that Abba Moses was going in and out of the cave, asked him what he was doing. I had a trial with God, he said. He brought me to this cave and there was no more water for his servant to drink, so I pleaded with Him by going in and out of the cave until He sent me some. The power of prayer is such that it brings the grace of God, empowering saints to do miraculous and amazing deeds deeds which transcend logic and yet are neither irrational nor mythological. Such miraculous deeds are the fruit of great faith, profound reverence and intense love. Doulas, the disciple of Abba Bessarion, traveling with his elder, told him that he was very thirsty. The elder prayed, blessed the water of the sea, and the disciple drank sweet water. He decided to put some in a container for the rest of the trip, but the elder censured him: God, who does miracles here, is everywhere! The same God who spoke with the great personalities of the Old Testament, and did miracles for them, continues to be active now, doing great and marvelous deeds for his saints. Once when the need arose, Abba Bessarion crossed the River Chrysorroa by walking on it as if on dry land, as St. Mary of Egypt did on the Jordan River. At another time this same elder was going to visit a brother and the sun was about to set. He prayed that the sun would not set until he had arrived at his destination, and the setting of the sun was delayed until the elder arrived. When Abba Ammonios was going to St. Anthony the Great, he lost his way and prayed to God for help. He saw a human hand in the sky directing him to St. Anthony's cave. St. Maximos the Kavsokalyvitis, after praying at the top of Mt. Athos, would descend to his kalyva by flying through the air.

A contemporary monk on Mt. Athos who was seriously ill went to the icon of the Panaghia to pray. As is well known, Panaghia appeared to the first known monk of Mt. Athos, St. Petros the Athonite. She assured him that she would be protectress, nurse and doctor of whoever endures the pain of asceticism in this life, and intercessor and mediator for his salvation in the life to come. With these promises of the Theotokos in mind the ailing ascetic went to pray: Make me well, Panaghia, as you promised St. Petros. I know no other doctor. If you have any complaint with me, tell me. I have been serving you for forty years. If you do not make me well, I will not leave this place... He had hardly finished his prayer when he became well. Another father of Mt. Athos who used the prayer of the heart, as told to us by a fellow ascetic who was with him, attained the point where the Uncreated Light made him resplendent and night was changed to day, while he himself was thoroughly washed in tears and his heart lived an ever present Pascha. Moreover his mind was also illumined, and he considered this to be the natural condition of all the monks. When he fell asleep in the Lord his face shone in a supernatural way. Neither many hours, nor even many days, would suffice to narrate the results of prayer, by ancient and contemporary saints, which reveal its miraculous power. These few have been mentioned, not to amaze us, but to make point that, since these marvelous thins happen to people who share our nature, our petitions can also be heard, accepted and fulfilled. THE POWER OF PRAYER IN OUR LIFE And so, my beloved, let our prayers be constant and unceasing. And, as we pray, let us be forbearing, enduring and joyful. Prayer is a tremendous support in difficult times, and particularly in our own. Prayer is the instructor of the soul. But we must be careful not to limit ourselves only to asking, but also to pray that we may attain the delight of giving. Prayer brings us to the embrace of God, that is, into the depths of His love. We are always God's children, no matter who or what we are even if we are disorderly and mischievous, careless and sluggish, hesitating and frighte4ned. Let us recognize and admit that we do not know how to pray, that we have not yet come to love prayer. If this were not the case, then our life would certainly have changed. Prayer is God's greatest gift to fallen man. Indeed, it is man's greatest power, which he can use to rediscover and restore the original beauty of his nature. The power of prayer is so great that it can overcome deep emotional emptiness, inexorable anxiety, bodily affliction, soul-destroying sorrow, grief, persecution, unbearable accusations, defamation, offense, insult, shame, hypocrisy, pettiness, impudence, envy, illness, pain, fear, death. Prayer displaces the cold loneliness, the animosity of hatred, the cunning of egotism. Prayer brings peace, joy, exhilaration, forbearance, consolation, fearlessness, freedom, blessedness. As prayer has strengthened all the saints, so it will also strengthen us. The one you love is the one you think about. Love of God bears prayer. If you do not think of god, you do not pray. But without prayer you cannot have His presence, His company, His love, the grace of the Holy Spirit. Prayer protects a person from sin, from the snares of evil. The praying person, whose mind and heart is attached to God, leaves no space or time for sin, and any well set intrigues of the devil are destroyed. Prayer constitutes the nervous system of the soul. With prayer we approach God, God approaches us, and humility, patience and every other virtue become more complete. The Lord pours out His joy abundantly and makes us pray with fervent tears for those who may be our enemies, who persecute and slander us, as noted by Elder Silouan of Mt. Athos. This gift, this weapon, this power of prayer must be used correctly, with prudence. Otherwise we will have results contrary to those anticipated, and we shall be obliged to mourn over those who have fallen victim to prideful conceit.

Prayer must be frequent and regular, but not a sterile formality. For then prayer loses its grace and freshness and becomes drudgery, a chore, an imposition. No methodology in prayer can ever force the presence of God. God appears by looking deeply into our hearts, without regard to our stated intentions, our formulations and our petitions. God's grace is given freely and is not determined by any particular programmatic effort on our part. The position of the body is not as significant as the condition of the soul. It is not the technique but what is in the heart that counts. It is not the duration but the fervency of prayer that makes a difference. Sometimes the specific words used are of little significance. For even when the words of a prayer are said incorrectly by a pure, simple and pious soul, they can still lead to miracles. Quality of prayer is achieved by concentration of the mind, through silence, which means that fewer words used in prayer can bring one closer to perfection. Observe the brevity of the Jesus Prayer. Of course, because we are weak, we need help. Particularly in the beginning we need a degree of imposed discipline and steadfast austerity. The blessing and guidance of a spiritual father, necessary for every faithful person, is indispensable for the beginner. When unaccustomed to the activity of the divine energies, one has frequent attacks of temptation. It is not always easy to know if the joy we experience is from God,. The elder Silouan says that one who wants to pray without a guide, one who in his pride wants to imagine himself capable of learning everything from books, is already half way into error. But the humble person will be protected by God when there is no experienced elder to guide him. For, since in his humility he is prepared to accept spiritual guidance, God will look over him. Prayer for others, regardless of who they are, is prayer that is particularly loved by God. Here we observe a paradoxical phenomenon. In a sense, God becomes our debtor. He rejoices in such petitions and is prepared to repay us for what we give to others. Prayers of love offered by the saints for our brothers and sister, both the living and those who have fallen asleep in the Lord, have great effectiveness. We should persistently ask for their intercession, for their active prayers are able to greatly amplify our feeble efforts. Sometimes prayers we consider to be fervent are the worst. Prayers with sentimental tears, nervous tension, a mad effort in self-concentration, and obstinate coercion can lead us to error. Experiences, life influences, divine consolations, signs and revelations are, of course, available, but they are given to the worthy, to those capable of preserving them, to the humble. They are gifts of God and He knows the opportune times when they are to be given. Gifts are from above, we do not give them to ourselves. The only things we do is prepare and adorn our home to be receptive and worthy of these divine treasures. A objective of prayer, above all else, is to love everyone, but that love must not be abstract, indefinite and general. It must be concrete, focused and personal. For as Dostoyevski put it, In the indefinite love for humanity as a whole, one almost always loves only himself! St. Isaac the Syrian tells us that the heart of the praying person is burning when he pours warm tears from his own sins, for the various needs of his fellow human beings, and even for irrational animals and unrepentant demons. The person who prays can be detected from a distance, standing apart, sober, undisturbed, joyful, humble, caring, maturely beautiful. But let it be noted that these things are stated so that they may turn them inward, not to encourage us in the curious and useless scrutinizing of others. We must each of us look at our own work and our own self, for that is where the final accounting required of us will focus. And may the words of St. Makarios make us more prudent: The brothers are required to do whatever they do with love and joy. And he who works should be able to say about the one who is praying: 'The treasure he gathers through prayer is also mine, since it is a common treasure.' But the one who is praying must not judge the one who is working for not praying. Nor should the working person judge the brother who is praying. No matter what each one of us is doing, we must always do it 'for the glory of God.' We all need each other. The holy fathers encourage us

to blend together harmoniously. Let us give ourselves the opportunity to celebrate daily, to work responsibly in the positions given us, as sojourners to transcend current conditions through prayer, and to enjoy a foretaste of eternity. In the hours of voluntary silence and isolation, we can acquire the ability to live through any difficulties that might come our way. This is attained by the power received in the sacred hours of conversation with God, which empower us to say with St. John Chrysostom: Glory be to God for all things!, with St. Gregory Palamas: Give light to my darkness!, and with a contemporary Elder of Mt. Athos: Come, Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner! Since we began with St. John Chrysostom, let us end with something else he wrote: Prayer dispels every type of sadness, is the cause of joy, the provider of constant delight, and the mother of true philosophy. Prayer is such a powerful force that it can overcome the power of fire, it can tame the wrath of lions, it can cause wars to cease, it can stop storms, it can expel demons, it can open the gates of heaven, it can beak the bonds of death, it can heal sickness, it can stop the earthquake of a city. The insidious plots of men, and all forms of evil disappear because of prayer.

Ways Out of Loneliness for Young People

THE PRESENT PREDICAMENT Let me remind you of certain important thoughts, whose sources are in forgotten test of divine wisdom and love, through a brief description of the situation in which you live. It will give me great joy if I can inspire you, and show you a way out of the loneliness that ravages so many young people. I want to convince you of the truth, but I also want to respect your divinely endowed free will. So, let us attempt to open a window through which we can look at the world together. You live in a noisy, impersonal world with many faces. Dialogue has been replaced by a myriad of voices proclaiming contradictory messages. Intoxicated by its massive conglomerations, the world has lost its personality and seems to be controlled by an overwhelming sense of herd mentality. In an apartment building occupants do not know each other. The sense of neighborhood, where people shared things and doors were open, is now lost in huge urban housing complexes. Personal relationships have been reduced to an indifferent greeting in elevators and to a formal and hurried smile. People bump into each other in the streets, in buses they are crowded together, in entertainment clubs one cannot find a seat. In school, at home, in the store everywhere people carry their boredom and annoyance with them, often without being conscious of it. This condition has become so familiar that it no longer draws our attention. The daily routine of endless preoccupation does not allow people to be alone with themselves or with God. Personal isolation and loneliness cannot be overcome by prescriptions of psychologists, sociologists, authors and preachers. It requires personal struggle, an inner ordering of the self, a face-to-face confrontation with our existentially unknown identity. It also requires a courageous inner probing to find the pristine beauty of our souls and a humble reverence for God who will teach us and help us. Moreover, we must go out of ourselves, sincerely and honorably, to meet others in a spirit of sacrifice, understanding, acceptance, and a sense of mutual self-fulfillment. In this way our bitter loneliness can be transformed into a fertile resource, producing refreshing waters of incomparable attractiveness and activity. With our whole being thus deepened and

fulfilled, we discover our hidden powers and the authenticity of our person, created in the image and likeness of God. Only the person whose inner life is well-balanced and well-ordered can have healthy relationships with others. These relationships begin with the help of God. They give us the potential for real conversation with ourselves and with others. Other people become concelebrants in the mystery of life where we partake of each other, through prayer, friendship, marriage and mutual consolation in the turbulent journey of life. THE FIRST STEPS Are you afraid? Think of God. Go to church and sit quietly in a corner. God can redeem you from your fears. Forgive me for not being more explicit but I do not believe it is necessary. You must understand that your relationship with God is a personal matter. Even though it is very difficult, one must seek a good spiritual father to serve as a guide. It is not easy to open your soul to anyone. The soul of a man is an unfathomable mystery. One will be most fortunate to find a spiritual guide to respect, love, and trust whose guidance can be followed with joy. The sooner this happens the better. The first place in our heart is, of course, reserved for God. Those who lead us to Him serve as mediators. They act with boldness, experience, knowledge with the discernment they have of the ways which lead to God and with the light shed upon those who call upon God. But Father, who is this God? you may ask. We have not seen Him. We have not heard Him. We do not feel the need for Him. He seems so far away. Does He really care about us? Can't our life go on without Him, as do the lives of millions who ignore Him? These are human questions customarily asked by young people. In the Roman Catholic tradition the existence of God is demonstrated using natural reason. Because of this doctrine alone I could never be a Roman Catholic. If God were someone like me, but outside of me, and simply a far superior individual, I would be obliged to forget Him. If God acted like a prison guard, a tax collector, a vengeful old man of wealth, as He is presented to us by relatives, teachers and clergymen I would consider it my duty to disregard Him completely. But God is not like that. Is it not true that while many do not really want to be with the Living God, neither can they live without Him? Two young men came to Mt. Athos not long ago with unusual hair cuts and clothing. Finding themselves out of place among a group of pilgrims who were being offered hospitality, the two you men stood aside and waited discreetly to talk to us at the end. These are exactly the first remarks of our dialogue. May we ask you something? Of course! If someone said that there is no God, what you do to him? What would I do to him? Yes Is this your own question, perhaps? And if we say that it is our own question? And what if I say that it is also my own question? Your question? A monk? Yes. I do not believe in a God who has not appeared to us a God who is a mere statue, a stranger, distant, inaccessible... We remained and talked for hours. When the two young men left the next day, they said: And we had always imagined otherwise... It is true. Many people imagine things to be other than what they are. It is dishonorable to speak about

something one does not know, to condemn the light, the life, the truth, to live in darkness and deception. It is narrow-mindedness. But this narrow-mindedness can be healed the moment you recognize it as such. However, as long as you consider it to be intelligence, freedom and glory, it will continue to torment you. It is true that others have distanced us from God, often those who are called to gather us close to Him. These are deplorable, dishonorable hypocrites who do not believe what they say, nor live by what they teach. But responsibility rests on many heads, and is not far from our own. Each of us will have to render an accounting for our personal actions. What has happened in the past can be corrected today. Everyone talks about air pollution hanging over our cities but no one seems to be doing anything about it. Is it ignorance? Cowardice? Fear? What is indeed happening? THE CHALLENGE OF THE ORTHODOX SPIRITUAL TRADITION The Orthodox spiritual tradition has a legacy of holiness and, when followed authentically, exhibits a way of life that is dangerous. It does not promote the endless discussions of the scholastics, the definitions of the rationalists, and the pompous teachings of the moralists. The Orthodox spiritual tradition provides cool, refreshing water for the fields of our hearts, quenching our real thirst. The asceticism and profound humility of Orthodoxy lead us to the firing range, the launching pad. Orthodoxy is not the faithful observation of obligatory rules and regulations, nor is it exemplified by a liturgical guide to be scrupulously memorized. Rather, we are advised to keep silent and remain motionless. We should not speak for the sake of speaking, not even about God. Rather, we should seek to acquire a different way of life and let our new life speak for itself. Accepting and understanding others is one of the ways we restore the image of God in our nature and abolish loneliness. I know that everyone desires this even if it is not expressed. We must put aside generalities and uncertainties. Alexander Papadiamnatis has noted that every generality is rendered ridiculous by a particular reality. Another contemporary thinker wisely noted that If you attempt to see everything, you will probably see nothing (L. Wittgenstein). Let us be more concrete, more concentrated, more attentive, simpler. Let us understand the importance of simplicity. Let us discipline our self and be satisfied with a disciplined self. According to St. Paul, we are die on a daily basis. This really means that each of us must discipline our self to do what we want our self to do, not what our self wants of us. This is the true freedom. This is the solution to the impasse. This issue is a very significant one. Think of it. Daily death means that my disciplined self is to be pleasing to God. I am not to seek being marveled at by other people. It is not necessary to understand everything all at once. When we do not understand something, let us place our reliance on Sacred Scripture and on the honorable struggle of holy men and women, and let us be satisfied to leave it incomprehensible. It will not be long before we will be illumined and will understand. But to distort or pervert meanings to make them correspond with our won ideas is egotistical pride the beginning of error and heresy. No one joins the army to have a good time. Similarly, spiritual life the life in Christ is a constant struggle, agonizing effort. It is man to man combat, where you may be wounded or even killed, in order to be resurrected. And this can happen slowly or quickly, according to the loving will of God. God is constantly challenging man to give himself time, to calm down, to think, to stop living in a whirlwind. For God it will suffice if a person recognizes and accepts his own difficult character, if a husband dedicates himself to his ailing spouse, if a teacher loves and tries to help students who appear incapable of improving, if a son understands his demanding and peculiar mother. It is difficult to be satisfied with little. Most people think that only great and unusual events give us

prestige and recognition. They imagine that only the scientist or the missionary to Africa is a benefactor to society. They cannot see that Christ leaves the ninety-nine sheep and goes out to the precipices to find the lost one. They imagine that God demands a great deal from us. In fact, He only demands that which we can do but do not. He will not seek to harvest where He has not planted. God will not ask the stammerer why he did not become a preacher, the lame person why he did not become a long-distance runner. We will be held responsible for exactly what we could do but, for whatever reason, failed to do. In our ongoing efforts we will make mistakes, we will stumble, we will fall but we must always get up again. Our holy Orthodox Church has such room, such spaciousness. In the warmth of here embrace there is a place for everyone. To stumble and fall is human not to get up is demonic. There is no sin that cannot be forgiven, no wound that cannot be healed. All that is need is desire to truly want it to happen. OUR RESPONSE TO THE CHALLENGE A most important element in our meeting with God is the purity of our life. God unites Himself only to those who are pure. St. Gregory the Theologian reminds us that we must first be purified before we can speak with God. Abba Isaac emphasizes the need to be free of the bonds of materialism for union with god. As long as the mind remains careless and impure God will not offer His mercy. With gradual cleansing a sadness comes over our heart for our transgressions. At the same time, however, the heart begins to experience joy because the soul now has started to breath and to realize certain divine consolations. Prayer, of course, is most helpful in this spiritual cleansing, particularly the Jesus Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner. It must be emphasized that the ascetical tradition of the Orthodox Church places great emphasis on purification of the heart, and that this is not attained by simply restructuring our external life. It is foolish to believe that one has restored a relationship with God simply by living an honorable life and avoiding sin if passions remain undisturbed and well-rooted in the depths of the soul. The holy Fathers recommend concrete therapeutic measures for liberation from the passions. If you accept the miracle that God became Man, all other difficulties are diminished. God descended to earth so that man may ascend to heaven. God opened the way for man. It has now become relatively easy. With the Resurrection of Christ death was defeated. Faith empowers the believer to mock the devil, death, evil and every loneliness. Only the true man of God thinks about his immortal soul. He rejoices in giving. He does not anticipate any repayment. He has one purpose to be saved. He loves because he is wide awake and intelligent. He harbors no laziness, divisions, hesitations, anxiety or doubts. He enjoys obedience. He does nothing half way. He understands and keeps silence. He is genuine and sincere. Of course, at any time, God could intervene dynamically in our lives and make us be good, whether we want to or not. But this approach is not in the plan of God's love. Holiness is not given. Opportunities are given constantly but we must take advantage of them. With every step we take, God takes ten. But we must take the first step. God does not intervene in a dictatorial manner. He is unimaginably noble and sensitive. But the subjective element in our approach to Him is imperative. Our contribution to the struggle for salvation is necessary for getting started. Selfish love for our neighbor, a bad love of our self, approaching others to avoid our own existential questions all intensify our loneliness until it becomes a virtual prison. The vulgarity of the world rests on the fact that it lives for nothing, and this brings tears to every person who has turned to God. It seems that I have allowed myself to fall into what I previously criticized generalities. When one comes to the monastery, one of the first realizations is that his entire previous life has been but a punch in the stomach of God, which God simply caresses. When this is realized, nothing is left but constant weeping.

No one can talk about God and convince others. God is not demonstrated and proven to others. God reveals Himself mystically in the hearts of people, at times and in places we least expect. God speaks. In quiet places God speaks loudly. In noisy places He speaks very softly, and this may be the reason we rarely hear Him there. Perhaps, however, it is that we do not really want to hear Him. Let us be careful not to diminish the significance of things we do not understand. Everything is difficult before the revelation, the new way of life. Acquaintance with God is truly a miracle, tremendous yet simple. It is a miracle of light that makes us forget our earlier darkness. From a leper we become healthy. From an ignorant person we become wise. We acquire wings, a new vision, a new sense of hearing. But we must not forget Icarus the strong light that blinds and the thunderous silence that deafens. SOME PRACTICAL PRINCIPLES Please forgive my attempt at poetic expression. There is a great peace in silence. Speak comfortably with others without compromising your principles. According to Abba Isaac, we are to be a friend as well as a stranger to everyone. Express your opinion without imposing it. Listen to the others even when they sound boring and foolish. They too have their pain, their story to tell, and Christ has shed His precious blood for them as well. Abba Isaiah warns us not to compare ourselves with others; it is a dangerous game. If you say you are better than another, you fall into pride. If you say you are worse, you fall into fatalism, inferiority, despair. Be vitally concerned with progress in your studies and your work, but also be aware that everyone a cobbler, a street cleaner can be a hero and a saint. See to it that you are who you actually are. Do not pretend to be good for it is a burdensome illness that leads to death. At the same time do not fall into cynicism where love is concerned. Do not hurry and do not delay. Be as gentle and polite with yourself as you are austere and demanding. Do not idle away your time and do not tire yourself with programmatic endeavors that cannot be sustained. Weariness and loneliness can quickly destroy health. Be reconciled with God. Be reconciled with yourself. Be reconciled with others in your life, and no one will ever be able to take away the peace from your heart. St. Seraphim of Sarov declared: Find peace in your heart and thousands will be saved around you. One seen as offering little to society can, with this peace alone, acquire endurance and show signs of transfiguration, capable of transforming much evil and ugliness in the world. Certain elderly monks on Mt. Athos teach us by their very appearance. Their serenity, calmness and peace are a thundering sermon particularly to the young visitors on Mt. Athos who, by the grace from God, can discern the authentic, the wholesome, the pure. You may be good but you can become better. You may be few but do not fear. A single person can keep and protect the truth, as we know from Church history. The power of the spirit does not depend on numbers. It is truly sad to see many young people today disoriented, unfocused, inconsistent. Yet they have the potential to accomplish a great deal. It is a shameful pity to see them overwhelmed by a spirit of laziness and indifference, with an attitude that says Never mind! I don't care about anything! To have one opinion about everything, to know only the half of many things, to say to all yes or no to everything these are signs of confusion, indecisiveness and spiritual bankruptcy. When you become tired of all these, when you begin to be preoccupied with the One - with God, with yourself, with others then it becomes possible for something significant to begin. In closing, I would like to offer thoughts of two holy Fathers on the subject we have been discussing. St. John Chrysostom advises that it is not good to be too bold or too despairing. To be rashly daring makes us fall. To be overly despairing when fallen does not allow us to get up. Abba Dorotheos often speaks about the gift of balance and measure, of peace and of humility. He advises us to be constantly seek peace. With peace in our hearts, he tells us, we can help others. And, he

continues, we should always strive to maintain a state of calmness and peace, so that our hearts are neither blurred nor confused. Let us keep the shutter of the window, which we opened together, always open. The world is, unfortunately, no longer an adornment, but fallen and confused. Nevertheless, we can break the crust of this fallen world and help it breath more freely. It is possible to transform its loneliness through self-knowledge, remembrance of God and His creation, and may the world be a garden where this becomes reality. These, then, are a few thoughts, offered with love, as a bouquet of flowers from Mt. Athos, the Garden of the blessed Theotokos.

ATHONITE FLOWERS: SEVEN CONTEMPORARY ESSAYS ON THE SPIRITUAL LIFE Monk Moses of Mount Athos; Translated & Edited by Fr. Peter Chamberas HOLY CROSS ORTHODOX PRESS, Brookline Massachusetts, 2000