Raising the Mind, Warming the Heart

By Blessed Seraphim Rose of Platina

Raising the Mind, Warming the Heart

1. Faith and Reason

The writings of the Russian philosopher Ivan Kireyevsky contain some basic ideas which are very apropos for us today. The usual argument between faith and reason, he wrote, is not correct. Reason is such a thing that it must be raised up to a higher level, and this is what the Orthodox Church tries to give. By itself, reason does not offer any more than an understanding of this two-dimensional, corporeal realm, with which most of the critics and scholars of the West are occupying themselves. There is something, however, above this. According to Western thinking, if you go “above” this, you usually have to deny reason and “jump into the dark.” In Orthodoxy this is not so, for the reason itself is so exposed to Truth that it begins to be elevated above itself.

We will examine how this point relates to contemporary Orthodox Christians, and especially to missionary-minded converts.

2. Missionary Fervor

There is much discussion in the Orthodox world about the need for people in the West to be converted, for more services in English, for overcoming ethnicism in the Church. This positive missionary fervor is a very good sign (except, of course, when negative comments are made). In fact, as Archimandrite Constantine (of Jordanville) often said, the best time for missionary activity is right now, because the less Christian America becomes, the more the Orthodox mission increases. Our positive missionary fervor, however, must be guided by an awareness of the times in which we live, so that we will know how to save our souls and save others.

It is natural for those who are in the Church of Christ, realizing what it means to be Orthodox, not to be satisfied with just having it for themselves. Knowing that Orthodoxy is the Truth for all peoples, they want it for others: for their own friends and relatives, and for whoever may have their heart open to it. Yet, as we look about us today, we see the Orthodox Church so hemmed in by Communist persecution in one place and by worldliness in another. The situation is, of course, worse in the West, which is occupied by worldliness. Under Communism, one can suffer for Christ and at least bring something good out of that; whereas, under the influence of worldliness, Orthodox Christianity loses its savor and the believers become just like anybody else. In the latter case, many Protestants put many Orthodox to shame, since they have fervor and love for Christ without even knowing what the Church of Christ is.

These situations, however, should not cause the slightest difference in our missionary fervor. (And the same may be said for the situation, faced by many English-speaking converts, of having to attend services in a foreign language.) We must remember that Christ expects from us not missionary fervor, but a changed life and a warm heart. The missionary fervor is on a secondary level, on the external side. We see numerous examples of people with great missionary fervor who did not place first the internal side of changing themselves, warming their hearts and raising their minds to a higher level, as Kireyevsky describes. These people became “burnt out” and fruitless, and some of them even left the Church.

3. Setting Priorities

How does one begin to place first things first? We can learn from problems in contemporary Orthodoxy which show the results of setting wrong priorities.

Our Brotherhood is in contact with many people in Greece, and we receive very heartfelt letters from them. They tell us important things about the present state of Grcece, where, since the 1920’s, there has been a division between the new calendar Church, which goes the way of the world, and the old calendar Church, which wants to he faithful to the Holy Fathers. Lately, the old calendar Church has been getting some influential converts, and they have a fervent missionary spirit similar to that of our young Americans who want to open up Orthodoxy to their fellow countrymen.

Where can this fervor lead? In Greece, fervor for the canons and the Holy Fathers has produced some extremely unpleasant, bad results. Group after group begins to cut themselves off because they consider the others not fervent enough. Each one accuses the others of not emphasizing the right things, of not having the proper relationship with other Orthodox Churches, etc.

There is one tragic case of a very sophisticated Greek theologian who left his jurisdiction because, in the altar of one of its churches, there was an icon of the Holy Trinity showing God the Father as the Ancient of Days. “Uncanonical, ” he said, “the canons are against it!” His action indicates that something was not being placed first. It is strange not only because this man was very learned, but also because he was living in a country that had been Orthodox for nearly two thousand years. What chance do we have in America, which is almost pagan and not enlightened by Orthodoxy, if advanced people in Greece are like that? *

4. Human Opinions

We have a friend on Mt. Athos who has been observing for many years the situation in Greek monasteries. He goes to places where, for example, someone has become a famous elder and has many disciples. Having observed these elders, he often concludes that the people are imagining and creating fantasies, just like anyone else. They have opinions which they put into the air and surround someone with them, and suddenly he becomes a “holy elder” and they all flock to him. Actually, there is no reason for this—there are many holier people that they pay no attention to. On Mt. Athos this can be seen in the case of an elder named Theodosius, a very holy man who wrote a diary about how he prayed the Jesus Prayer on a very advanced level. No one knows anything about him, while everyone knows about certain others because someone has “put them into the air” and everyone follows that particular opinion.

Among us Western converts to Orthodoxy, this tendency—to find an opinion someone has put into the air and begin to run after it—is very strong. This, however, is not what we should be doing. We should be using our minds, trying to raise our hearts to a level where we can feel more deeply about Orthodoxy. It is required of us in these times to be extremely discerning.

5. Recent Fathers

The pitfalls mentioned thus far, which in Greece have led to schisms among people who have been Orthodox all their lives, are caused by an absence of that which Kireyevsky was writing about and trying to promote. The particular clergyman whom we know on Mt. Athos, after observing all kinds of factions, fights, “holy elders ” and so forth among the Greeks, says that there is something basic missing in them: they did not have, in the 19th century, Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov and Bishop Theophan the Recluse. [l]

These two figures were living witnesses of what Kireyevsky was writing about. They were recent Orthodox Fathers in Russia who were thoroughly steeped in the spirit of the Holy Fathers. They spoke to people in the language of their times, a period very close to our 20th century. All the temptations of our times were known to them, especially to Bishop Ignatius, who read all the Western writers, was himself an engineer and knew all the latest theories of mathematics and calculus. Knowing the present situation and the whole of modern Western wisdom, they set forth the Orthodox teaching for these times and answered all kinds of arguments. Bishop Ignatius, for example, wrote a volume on hell and the state of the soul after death, elucidating Orthodox teaching in a way that can be understood by Western man.[2] These Fathers, as well as others who have read them and followed them, hand down Orthodoxy to us in a very accessible way.

6. External Wisdom

If the authentic spirit of Orthodoxy is not transmitted to us like this, there is a temptation for us to be following “external wisdom,” the wisdom of this world. We will then, in coming to Orthodoxy, go after external things: good icons, beautiful Church services according to the Typicon, just the right kind of chanting, tithing, having beautiful churches…. All these things are wonderful and good, but we can approach them without placing first a warm, Christian heart and a struggle with ourselves whereby we are made humble. If we neglect this essential priority, then all these wonderful external things can, as the philosopher Vladimir Solovyev describes, be put in a museum of Orthodox antiquities—and the Antichrist will love this.

The Antichrist must be understood as a spiritual phenomenon. Why will everyone in the world want to bow down to him? Obviously it is because there is something in him which responds to something in us—that something being a lack of Christ in us. If we will bow down to him (God forbid that we do so!), it will be because we will feel an attraction to some kind of external thing, which might even look like Christianity, since “Antichrist” means the one who is “in place of Christ” or looks like Christ. In such a way we will entirely lose our salvation, going after he who is in place of Christ, and who will lead us away. The Antichrist can come, of course, only after the whole world has heard of Christ; therefore, the final choice is made between Christ and the Imposter, and almost the whole world will follow after the Beast.

How do we keep from doing this, from following “external wisdom”? We can be caught up in it, it should be noted, even if we become caught up in exalted ideas. It is in the fashion now to learn about the Jesus Prayer, to read the Philokalia, to go “back to the Fathers.” These kinds of things also will not save us—they are external. They may be helpful if they are used rightly, but if they become your passion, the first thing you are after, then they become externals which lead not to Christ, but to Antichrist.

If you get all excited about having the right kind of icons and begin saying, “There’s an icon of the wrong style in your church! ” you must check yourself and be more careful, because you are again placing all your emphasis on something external. In fact, if there is a church with nothing but icons of the latest “approved” style, one might justifiably regard it with suspicion. There is a case (one of many) in which a church had old, original Russian icons—some good and some in rather poor taste, painted in a relatively new style—and a zealous person took them all out and put in new, “traditional” style paper icon prints. And what was the result? The people there lost contact with tradition, with the people who gave them Orthodoxy. I they removed the original icons which believers had prayed before for centuries.

An icon is first of all something to be prayed before. This was once affirmed by Archbishop John (Maximovitch) [glorified as a Saint in 1994 by the Russian Church Abroad—webmaster], who was the president of a San Francisco icon society dedicated to the restoration of old icons. One member, who was very zealous for the old icon style, wanted the Archbishop to make a decree in the diocese that only old style icons are to be allowed, or at least to make a decision that this was the officially approved position. In a way, this man’s intention seemed good. Archbishop John, however, told him, “I can pray in front of one kind and I can pray in front of another kind of icon.” The important thing is that we pray, not that we pride ourselves on having good icons.

So far we have been citing contemporary examples of “external wisdom” in Orthodoxy, but there are profitable illustrations of it in the past as well. One of these is found in the spiritual counsels of Abba Dorotheos, a 6th-century desert Father from Gaza. “I knew a man, ” writes Dorotheos, “who came to a miserable state. From the beginning, if one of his brethren said anything to him, he used to say, ‘Who is he? He is not Zosimas or one of his lot.’ Then he began to cheapen them and to say, ‘There is no one of any importance but Macarius,’ and after a little while, to say, ‘Who is Macarius, anyway? There is no one any good, except perhaps Basil or Gregory.’ And then in a short while he began to debunk them, saying, Who is Basil? Who is Gregory? There is no one who counts but Peter and Paul.’ And I said to him, ‘Really, brother, you are going to despise these soon.’ And believe me, after a short time he began saying, ‘Who is Paul? Who is Peter? There is no one but the Holy Trinity!’ And so at last he lifted himself up against God—and there he gave up!” 

This monk ended as he did because he began with self-love in his heart and did not really want to change himself; he wanted to follow after some kind of external thing. We see this same attitude nowadays, expressed something like this: “Everybody knows St. Symeon the New Theologian. Oh, yes! We’ll run after him. St. Gregory Palamas. Yes! Oh, he’s all the rage! Yes! And all the hesychast Fathers…. Hesychasm! and Jesus Prayer,” and other advanced subjects—all this is on an external level.

7. Being Linked with the Past

Such considerations should cause us to value even more the Fathers of recent centuries (not that we should make them a fashion, too!), who transmit Orthodoxy to us and teach us how to soberly approach the Fathers of earlier times. We have to look at ourselves: if we see that we have zeal for Orthodoxy and yet are not “linked” with the line that goes back to Ignatius Brianchaninov and Theophan the Recluse, there is a danger that we might not be linked to all the Fathers. [5] There should be a continuous line.

We may still find “ordinary” parish priests, some of them from the Old World, who would never think of making schisms and factions, or of excommunicating someone over questions of strictness, who are extremely longsuffering, who often do not say much and are therefore criticized or overlooked. These criticisms are superficial: we ourselves must be looking deeper to find something in these pastors and in the Church, something that is not too obvious outwardly —this very “link” with the past.

You will not find many people who will explain it in detail like this. You have to, wherever you might be, try to receive those things which cannot necessarily be communicated in words. These things are the very characteristics which come from a warm, loving heart: longsuffering, patience, fervor (but not of such a kind that it begins to be critical of others).

As soon as you begin making such statements as, “These people aren’t doing this as they should,” you have to stop and warn yourself. Even if it is true—as is often the case to some degree—this critical attitude is a very negative thing which will not lead you anywhere. In the end, it may get you right outside the whole Church. Therefore, you have to remember not to judge or think yourself so wise that you “know better.” On the contrary, try to learn, perhaps without words, from some of those people whom you might be critical of.

Our zeal and enthusiasm must be tempered by wisdom that comes down to us through Ignatius Brianchaninov and Theophan the Recluse, perhaps even through the simplest parish priest, in ways which we have to be subtle and refined enough to discern, even if we are not told.

8. Overcoming Hard-Heartedness

What Kireyevsky says is very important: we should start developing within ourselves an Orthodox philosophy of life. It is all there in the Holy Fathers, but we must have the right reason for turning to them. You can open the Holy Fathers and have the same problem you have with the Scriptures: you need someone to interpret them because you find something unclear, or you don’t have the whole context, or you don’t know how to understand what one Father said as opposed to another Father and you think they might disagree, and so on.

There can be a whole realm of confusion in the Holy Fathers, and thus we have to approach them not with our ordinary rationalistic minds. We must be trying to raise our minds up to a higher level; and the way to do this is to soften the heart and make it more supple. There are many examples in the Protestant world where people have very soft hearts and are, out of love for Christ, kind to other people. We should not, as Orthodox, think that we can be hard and cold and correct and still be Christians. This is not basic Christianity.

A pre-Christian philosopher in China named Lao Tzu taught that the weakest things conquer the strongest things. There is an example of this here at our monastery: the oak trees, which are very hard and unbending, are always falling down and breaking their limbs, while the pine trees, which are more supple, fall down much less often before they are actually dead.

We can see the same thing in human life. The person who believes in something so passionately that he will “cut your head off” if you disagree with him, shows his weakness. He is so unsure of himself that he has to convert you to make sure that he himself believes. The contemporary forms of “super-zealotry” in the Church which are propagated by people who want so desperately to be on the right side, are in fact bowed up with weakness and insecurity.

The need to be “right” is again on the external side of Chritianity. It is important, but not of primary importance. The first priority is the heart, which must be soft and warm. If we do not have this warm heart, we must ask God to give it, trying ourselves to do those things by which we can acquire it. Most of all, we have to see that we have not got it—that we are cold. We will thereby not trust our reason and the conclusions of our logical mind, with regard to which we must be somewhat “loose”. If we do this, entering into the sacramental life of the Church and receiving the grace of God, God Himself will begin to illumine us.

9. Simplicity

Although all the perils we have mentioned may sound frightful, they are actually not. The question is an extremely simple one. Because we are so complex, with our modern, cold minds, we think we have to find the answer some place and point it out with our fingers. Complexity enters in when we think of ourselves as, smart.

The one thing that can save us is simplicity. It can be ours if in our hearts we pray to God to make us simple; if we just do not think ourselves so wise; if, when it comes to a question like, “Can we paint an icon of God the Father?” we do not come up with a quick answer and say, “Oh, of course it’s this way—such-and-such Council said so-and-so, canon number so-and-so.” And so either we, “knowing” that we must be right, have to excommunicate everyone else—in which case we have “gone off the deep end”—or else we have to stop and think, “Well, I guess I don’t know too much.” The more we have this second attitude, the more we will be protected from spiritual dangers.

Accept simply the faith you receive from your fathers. If there is a simplehearted priest near you, give thanks to God. Consider that because you are so complex, “intellectual” and moody, you should be able to learn much from him. The more you grow in Orthodoxy by reading and exposure to Church and contact with Orthodox people, the more you will be able to “feel your way” in the whole realm of Orthodoxy. You will begin to see the wisdom behind things and people you had dismissed before. You will begin to see that even if the people who are the “links” to the past are not consciously “wise,” nevertheless, God is guiding the Church. We know that He is with the Church until the end; there is no reason to “go off the deep end,” to fall into apostasy and heresy.

If we follow the simple path—distrusting our own wisdom, doing the best that we can, yet realizing that our mind, without warmth of heart, is a very weak tool—then what Kireyevsky talked about will begin to happen: an Orthodox philosophy of life will begin to be formed in us.

We are confronted with the same obstacles Kireyevsky faced, only to an even greater degree. Living in the midst of Western culture, we have to try to assimilate a philosophy and theology which has come from almost 2,000 years ago and has become totally estranged and foreign to the world. Our Orthodox philosophy must not become part of some kind of cult or sect, but rather part of our daily life. By taking one small step at a time and not thinking that in one big leap we are going to get anywhere, we can walk straight into the Kingdom of Heaven—and there is no reason for any of us to fall away from that.

Editor’s Note: The following text was transcribed from a tape of a a “table-top discussion” at the St. Herman Monastery, Platina, California, in 1977. Since Fr. Seraphim’s talk was impromptu and informal, a transcription of it is of course more “colloquial” and less “polished” than his carefully composed writings. This talk also differs from the main body of his writings in that it was directed to a specific group of people: young American converts who wanted to dedicate their lives to serving God, some of them as Orthodox missionaries.

Webmaster’s Note: The Preceeding Text was taken from “The Orthodox Information Center” – Please visit and support their website, They have many great Orthodox articles, and a large selection of articles which are especially for enquirers on the Orthodox Faith.

http://deathtotheworld.com/articles/other-articles/raising-the-mind-warming-the-heart/

Μία ακόμη εικόνα για τον άγιο Blane της Σκωτίας

Ο άγιος Ninian θεραπεύει τα μάτια ενός βασιλιά

Ο άγιος Ninian θεραπεύει τα μάτια ενός βασιλιά



Κάποτε ο άγιος Ninian θεράπευσε τα μάτια ενός βασιλιά ο οποίος είχε τιμωρηθεί από τον Θεό με την τύφλωση λόγο της υπερηφάνειας του και λόγο του ότι είχε εναντιωθεί στον άγιο. Αφού θεραπεύτηκε έγινε ένας μεγάλος υποστηρικτής του αγίου Ninian. Το όνομα του βασιλιά ήταν Tuathal.

Αγγλικό κείμενο Kalendars of Scottish saints σελ 423

Μετάφραση Orthodoxy-Rainbow

Έπος του '40.Θειές Λειτουργίες κάτω από τις βόμβες

Από το νεανικό περιοδικό Προς τη Νίκη

Περίοπτη θέση μέσα στην πολλαπλή προσφορά της Εκκλησίας στον Αγώνα του ‘ 40 κατέχει ή δράση τών στρατιωτικών ιερέων στο μέτωπο.

Δεκάδες ιερείς φορώντας το χακί διέσχισαν τη γραμμή του πυρός, παρηγορώντας τους τραυματίες και σκορπώντας τόν ενθουσιασμό μέ τά φλογερά τους κηρύγματα. 

Εξομολογούσαν πολλές φορές ολόκληρο τό στράτευμα και τόνωναν τήν πίστη τών στρατιωτών. 

Και λειτουργώντας αδιάκοπα, πολλές φορές και σέ ώρα βομβαρδισμού, χάριζαν ώρες πνευματικής ανάτασης στους γενναίους πολεμιστές μας.

Άπό τις μαρτυρίες πού υπάρχουν, ξεχωρίζουμε δύο, χαρακτηριστικές γιά τήν ατμόσφαιρα στό μέτωπο.

 *Γράφει ό στρατιωτικός ιερέας Αρχιμανδρίτης π. Χρυσόστομος Δεληγιαννόπουλος1 ότι κατά τήν Εαρινή επίθεση του Μουσολίνι, τό Σύνταγμα όπου υπηρετούσε βαλλόταν άπό οβίδες. 

Ό συνταγματάρχης απελπισμένος του είπε ότι δεν έπρεπε νά γίνει Θεία Λειτουργία, γιατί ήταν επικίνδυνο. Εκείνος όμως του απάντησε ότι γι’ αυτόν ακριβώς τό λόγο έπρεπε νά γίνει!Καί πράγματι έγινε.

Στή διάρκεια της Λειτουργίας ό τόπος αυλακωνόταν άπό τις οβίδες. Μιά οβίδα έγλειψε τόν τοίχο του μικρού δωματίου πού τους χρησίμευε ώς ναός, αλλά δεν έσκασε. 

Μιά άλλη είχε βυθισθεί πιό πέρα στό χώμα, χωρίς κι αυτή νά κάνει ζημιά.

Μιά τρίτη όμως έσκασε λίγο πιό κάτω άπ’ τό δωμάτιο, μέσα σ’ ένα αμπρί2. 

Καί αύτη σκότωσε τέσσερις άνδρες καί τραυμάτισε άλλους τρεις, πού πήγαν εκεί νά φυλαχθοΰν καί δεν έμειναν στή Θεία Λειτουργία… Τό απόγευμα τους διάβασε τή νεκρώσιμη ακολουθία.

Τήν ίδια εκείνη μέρα ό ιερέας έγραψε μέ συγκίνηση στό ημερολόγιο του:

«Τά αεροπλάνα νά μουγγρίζουν… καί ατάραχοι νά τελούμε τήν Θείαν Λειτουργίαν. 

Ποιον θάρρος μας έδινες, Κύριε, τότε!».

Ό Ανθυπολοχαγός του Πυροβολικού Γεώργιος Παυλίδης καταθέτει καί τή δική του μαρτυρία γιά τή δράση του ίδιου ιερέα:

«Πρό της επιθέσεως τών Ιταλών της 9ης Μαρτίου 1941 είχαμε καταυλισθεί λίγο πιό κάτω άττ’ τό χωριό Τόσκεσι… Κάναμε τεχνητή άπόκρυψη τών σκηνών καί τών πυροβόλων μέ κλαδιά δέντρων.

Μιά βραδιά είχε βρέξει καί δεν ρίξαμε κλαδιά στή σκηνή μας.

Τό πρωί ερχόταν ένα αναγνωριστικό (ιταλικό) αεροπλάνο… έπαιρνε φωτογραφίες καί αν άνακάλυπταν παραλλαγή του χώρου, έρχονταν και βομβάρδιζαν.

Έτσι και τήν ήμερα εκείνη ήλθε, βρήκε τή σκηνή χωρίς καμουφλάζ, τή φωτογράφισε και μετά μιάμιση ώρα… ήλθαν 15-20 στούκας, που κατέβηκαν στά 3Ο-35 μ. χαμηλά… και άρχισαν νά σπέρνουν βόμβες.

Τρέξαμε νά κρυφτούμε…Έγώ χώθηκα σε ένα σωρό από τσουβάλια…

Οι κρότοι ήταν εκκωφαντικοί…Είχε καλυφθεί από καπνούς όλος ο καταυλισμός…

Όπως ήμουνα ξαπλωμένος (ανάσκελα), έβλεπα καθαρά τό αεροπλάνο, τόν αεροπόρο… τά χέρια του, τις βόμβες. 

Είπα μέσα μον: Τώρα πιά, «νυν άπολύεις τόν Δουλον σου, Δέσποτα». Επιτέλους, κάποτε …τά αεροπλάνα εφυγαν…

Με δισταγμό σηκώθηκα… Δεν ακουγόταν κανένας θόρυβος. Ησυχία θανάτου. Μονολόγησα: «Έγώ μόνο ζώ».

“Ομως, σιγά σιγά έβλεπα νά σηκώνονται μερικά κουρέλια… Λίγο λίγο γέμισε ο τόπος…

Ζητωκραυγές, σταυροκοπήματα παντού.

Ό Διοικητής διατάσσει προσκλητήριο. 

Και τό θαύμα: Μέσα σ΄αυτή τή φωτιά του σιδήρου δέν είχαμε ούτε ενα στρατιώτη… νεκρό ούτε και πληγωμένο…

Ό Διοικητής… δέχθηκε τήν πρόταση μου νά κάνονμε μιά ευχαριστήρια Θεία Λειτουργία. Κοντά μας ήταν ο στρατιωτικός Ιερέας… Συγκεντρωθήκαμε και αποφασίσαμε νά γίνει πρώτα εξομολόγηση… Πράγματι… εξομολογήθηκαν αξιωματικοί και οπλίτες και τό πρωί σε μιά μεγάλη σπηλιά ο π. Χρυσόστομος λειτούργησε.

Πρίν άπό τή Θεία Λειτουργία μας μίλησε…

Και στό «Μετά φόβου Θεού»… κοινωνήσαμε όλοι.

Δέν θά λησμονήσω εκείνη τή Θεία Λειτουργία. Καθώς προσέρχονταν οί στρατιώτες γιά νά κοινωνήσουν, έκλαιγαν. Και τά δάκρυα τους έπεφταν στην άγια λαβίδα. Ετσι τό Σώμα και τό Αίμα του Χρίστου αναμειγνυόταν μέ τά δάκρυα των στρατιωτών… “Εκείνες τις μέρες περπάτησε ο Θεός ανάμεσα μας…».

Στόν πόλεμο του ’40 μέ ενθουσιασμό προχώρησαν οί φαντάροι μας στή μεγαλειώδη τους επέλαση. 

Ούτε οι βόμβες και η φρίκη τού πολέμου, ούτε οί στερήσεις ή τό κρύο μπόρεσαν νά τους ανακόψουν.

Γιατί οί ιερείς τής Εκκλησίας μας τους κάλυπταν μέ τό τιμημένο ράσο τους. 

Ζέσταιναν τά παγωμένα τους κορμιά. Καί τόνωναν τίς φοβισμένες τους καρδιές, σταλάζοντας μέσα τους πίστη και θάρρος.

1. Μετέπειτα Μητροπολίτης Αργολίδος

2. Υπόγειο χαράκωμα γιά στρατιώτες της πρώτης γραμμής

3. Μετέπειτα Μητροπολίτης Νικαίας Πηγή

Ί. Μ. Χατζηφώτη, Ή Εκκλησία στόν αγώνα τοΰ Σαράντα, Έκδ. «Ατλαντίς», Αθήναι, σ. 98-99,154-155.

https://proskynitis.blogspot.de/2017/10/40.html#more

Ο άγιος Blane της Σκωτίας, Επίσκοπος (επίσης γνωστός σαν Blaan, Blain)

Ο άγιος Blane της Σκωτίας, Επίσκοπος (επίσης γνωστός σαν Blaan, Blain)



Ημέρα μνήμης 11 Αυγούστου

Ο άγιος Blane του Bute της Σκωτίας ήταν γιος της Ertha, αδερφής του αγίου Cathan. Έμεινε εφτά χρόνια στην Ιρλανδία όπου μορφώθηκε από τον άγιο Comgall και τον άγιο Kenneth. Επέστρεψε μαζί με την μητέρα του, με μία βάρκα χωρίς κουπιά, στην πατρίδα του όπου τον δέχτηκε εγκάρδια ο άγιος Cathan και αφοσιώθηκε στην υπηρεσία του Θεού. Ένα βράδυ μια φωτιά που άναψε ο άγιος έσβησε και ο άγιος την άναψε ξανά με φλόγες που βγήκαν από τις άκρες των δαχτύλων του. Έγινε επίσκοπος και έπειτα πήγε στην Ρώμη και αφού έλαβε την ευλογία του πάπα επέστρεψε πίσω με τα πόδια μέσα από την Αγγλία όπου σε μία βορεινή πόλη επανέφερε ένα αγόρι στη ζωή. Διέδωσε το ευαγγέλιο στους Πίκτους.  Ίδρυσε ένα μοναστήρι στο  Kingarth. Πολλοί ύμνοι και άλλα πνευματικά κείμενα αποδίδονται σε αυτόν. Στο Dublane της Σκωτίας (όπου είναι θαμμένος) φυλάσσεται η καμπάνα χειρός του.

Αγγλικές πηγές Kalendars of Scottish saints και εδώ

Μετάφραση Orthodoxy-Rainbow

Fr. Seraphim Rose: on the "christian" goals of the Bolshevik and Nihilist revolutions (video)

Το θαύμα με το σώμα του αγίου Baldred της Σκωτίας.

Μετά την κοίμηση του (του αγίου Baldred), οι τρεις εκκλησίες που είχε χτίσει διεκδικούσαν όλες το σώμα του και επειδή οι άνθρωποι δεν μπορούσαν να συμφωνήσουν μεταξύ τους για το ποιος θα πάρει το σώμα προσευχήθηκαν στον Θεό να τους δώσει κάποιο σημάδι. Το πρωί βρήκαν τρία σώματα ξαπλωμένα (τρία σώματα του αγίου) και η κάθε μία εκκλησία πήρε από ένα σώμα και μετέφεραν τα σώματα στις εκκλησίες με λαμπρές πομπές.

για τον άγιο κλικ εδώ 

Αγγλικό κείμενο Kalendars of Scottish Saints σελίδες 273-274

Μετάφραση Orthodoxy-Rainbow

Ο Θεός δεν χρειάζεται τις προσευχές μας!

Ο Θεός δεν χρειάζεται τις προσευχές μας! Εκείνος γνωρίζει τι έχουμε ανάγκη και πριν Του το ζητήσουμε. Προσφέρει πλούσια το Έλεός Του ακόμα και στους ανθρώπους που δεν Του το ζητούν.
 Εμείς χρειαζόμαστε την προσευχή! Γιατί η προσευχή ενώνει τον άνθρωπο με τον Θεό. Δίχως αυτήν, ο άνθρωπος είναι χωρισμένος από τον Θεό.
Όσο περισσότερο προσεύχεται, τόσο Τον πλησιάζει.

Άγιος Ιγνάτιος Μπριαντσανίνωφ.

https://proskynitis.blogspot.de/2017/10/blog-post_480.html

The Orthodox Worldview

By Blessed Hieromonk St. Seraphim Rose

Before beginning my talk, a word or two on why it is important to have an Orthodox world-view, and why it is more difficult to build one today than in past centuries.

In past centuries—for example, in 19th century Russia—the Orthodox world-view was an important part of Orthodox life and was supported by the life around it. There was no need even to speak of it as a separate thing—you lived Orthodoxy in harmony with the Orthodox society around you, and you had an Orthodox world-view provided by the Church and society. In many countries the government itself confessed Orthodoxy; it was the center of public functions and the king or ruler himself was historically the first Orthodox layman with a responsibility to give a Christian example to all his subjects. Every city had Orthodox churches, and many of them had services every day, morning and evening. There were monasteries in all the great cities, in many cities, outside the cities, and in the countryside, in deserts and wildernesses. In Russia there were more than 1000 officially organized monasteries, in addition to other more unofficial groups. Monasticism was an accepted part of life. Most families, in fact, had somewhere in them a sister or brother, uncle, grandfather, cousin or someone who was a monk or a nun, in addition to all the other examples of Orthodox life: people who wandered from monastery to monastery, and fools-for-Christ. The whole way of life was permeated with Orthodox kinds of people, of which, of course, monasticism is the center. Orthodox customs were a part of daily life. Most books that were commonly read were Orthodox. Daily life itself was difficult for most people: they had to work hard to survive, life expectancy was not great, death was a frequent reality—all of which reinforced the Church’s teaching on the reality and nearness of the other world. Living an Orthodox life in such circumstances was really the same thing as having and Orthodox world-view, and there was little need to talk of such a thing.

Today, on the other hand, all this has changed. Our Orthodoxy is a little island in the midst of a world which operates on totally different principles—and every day these principles are changing for the worse, making us more and more alienated from it. Many people are tempted to divide their lives into two sharply distinct categories: the daily life we lead at work, with worldly friends, in our worldly business, and Orthodoxy, which we live on Sundays and at other times in the week when we have time for it. But the world-view of such a person, if you look at it closely, is often a strange combination of Christian values and worldly values, which really do not mix. The purpose of this talk is to see how people living today can begin to make their world-view more of one piece, to make it a whole Orthodox world-view.



Orthodoxy is life. If we don’t live Orthodoxy, we simply are not Orthodox, no matter what formal beliefs we might hold.
Life in our contemporary world has become very artificial, very uncertain, very confusing. Orthodoxy, it is true, has a life of its own, but it is also not very far from the life of the world around it, and so the life of the Orthodox Christian, even when he is being truly Orthodox, cannot help but reflect it in some way. A kind of uncertainty and confusion have also entered in Orthodox life in our times. In this talk we will try to look at contemporary life, and then at Orthodox life, to see how better we might fulfill our Christian obligation to lead other-worldly lives even in these quite terrible times, and to have an Orthodox Christian view of the whole of life today that will enable us to survive these times with our faith intact.
Life today has become abnormal

Anyone who looks at our contemporary life from the perspective of the normal life lived by people in earlier times—say, Russia, or America, or any country of Western Europe in the 19th century—cannot help but be struck by the fact of how abnormal life has become today. The whole concept of authority and obedience, of decency and politeness, of public and private behavior—all have changed drastically, have been turned upside down except in a few isolated pockets of people—usually Christians of some kind—who try to preserve the so-called “old-fashioned” way of life.

Our abnormal life today can be characterized as spoiled, pampered. From infancy today’s child is treated, as a general rule, like a little god or goddess in the family: his whims are catered to, his desires fulfilled; he is surrounded by toys, amusements, comforts; he is not trained and brought up according to strict principles of Christian behavior, but left to develop whichever way his desires incline. It is usually enough for him to say, “I want it!” or “I won’t do it!” for his obliging parents to bow down before him and let him have his way. Perhaps this does not happen all the time in every family, but it happens often enough to be the rule of contemporary child-rearing, and even the best-intentioned parents do not entirely escape its influence. Even if the parents try to raise the child strictly, the neighbors are trying to do something else. They have to take that into consideration when disciplining the child.

When such a child becomes an adult, he naturally surrounds himself with the same things he was used to in his childhood: comforts, amusements, and grown-up toys. Life becomes a constant search for “fun” which, by the way, is a word totally unheard of in any other vocabulary; in 19th century Russia they wouldn’t have understood what this word meant, or any serious civilization. Life is a constant search for “fun” which is so empty of any serious meaning that a visitor from any 19th-century country, looking at our popular television programs, amusement parks, advertisements, movies, music—at almost any aspect of our popular culture—would think he had stumbled across a land of imbeciles who have lost all contact with normal reality. We don’t often take that into consideration, because we are living in this society and we take it for granted.
Some recent observers of our contemporary life have called the young people of today the “me generation” and our times the “age of narcissism,” characterized by a worship of and fascination with oneself that prevents a normal human life from developing. Others have spoken of the “plastic” universe or fantasy world in which so many people live today, unable to face or come to terms with the reality of the world around them or the problems within themselves.



When the “me generation” turns to religion—which has been happening very frequently in the past several decades—it is usually to a “plastic” or fantasy form of religion: a religion of “self-development” (where the self remains the object of worship), brainwashing and mind-control, of deified gurus and swamis, of a pursuit of UFO’s and “extra-terrestrial” beings, of abnormal spiritual states and feelings. We will not go into all these manifestations there, which are probably familiar enough to most of you, except to discuss a little later how these touch on the Orthodox Christian spiritual life of our days.

It is important for us to realize, as we try ourselves to lead a Christian life today, that the world which has been formed by our pampered times, makes demands on the soul, whether in religion or in secular life, which are what one has to call totalitarian. This is easy enough to see in the mindbending cults that have received so much publicity in recent years, and which demand total allegiance to a self-made “holy man”; but it is just as evident in secular life, where one is confronted not just by an individual temptation her or there, but by a constant state of temptation that attacks one, whether in the background music heard everywhere in markets and businesses, in the public signs and billboards of city streets, in the rock music which is brought even to forest campgrounds and trails, and in the home itself, where television often becomes the secret ruler of the household, dictating modern values, opinions, and tastes. If you have young children, you know how true this is; when they have seen something on television how difficult it is to fight against this new opinion which has been given as an authority by the television.

The message of this universal temptation that attacks men today—quite openly in its secular forms, but usually more hidden in its religious forms—is: Live for the present, enjoy yourself, relax, be comfortable. Behind this message is another, more sinister undertone which is openly expressed only in the officially atheist countries which are one step ahead of the free world in this aspect. In fact, we should realize that what is happening in the world today is very similar whether it occurs behind the Iron Curtain or in the free world. There are different varieties of it, but there is a very similar attack to get our soul. In the communist countries which have an official doctrine of atheism, they tell quite openly that you are to: Forget about God and any other life but the present; remove from your life the fear of God and reverence for holy things; regard those who still believe in God in the “old-fashioned’ way as enemies who must be exterminated. One might take, as a symbol of our carefree, fun-loving, self-worshipping times, our American “Disneyland”; if so, we should not neglect to see behind it the more sinister symbol that shows where the “me generation” is really heading; the Soviet Gulag, the chain of concentration camps that already governs the life of nearly half the world’s population.

Two False Approaches to Spiritual Life

But what, one might ask, does all this have to do with us, who are trying to lead, as best we can, a sober Orthodox Christian life? It has a lot to do with it. We have to realize that the life around us, abnormal though it is, is the place where we begin our own Christian life. Whatever we make of our life, whatever truly Christian content we give it, it still has something of the stamp of the “me generation” on it, and we have to be humble enough to see this. This is where we begin.

There are two false approaches to the life around us that many often make today, thinking that somehow this is what Orthodox Christians should be doing. One approach—the most common one—is simply to go along with the times: adapt yourself to rock music, modern fashions and tastes, and the whole rhythm of our jazzed-up modern life. Often the more old-fashioned parents will have little contact with this life and will live their own life more or less separately, but they will smile to see their children follow after its latest craze and think that this is something harmless.

This path is total disaster for the Christian life; it is the death of the soul. Some can still lead an outwardly respectable life without struggling against the spirit of the times, but inwardly they are dead or dying; and—the saddest thing of all—their children will pay the price in various psychic and spiritual disorders and sicknesses which become more and more common. One of the leading members of the suicide cult that ended so spectacularly in Jonestown four years ago was the young daughter of a Greek Orthodox priest; satanic rock groups like Kiss—”Kids in Satan’s Service”—are made up of ex-Russian Orthodox young people; the largest part of the membership of the temple of satan in San Francisco, according to a recent sociological survey—is made up of Orthodox boys. These are only a few striking cases; most Orthodox young people don’t go so far astray—they just blend in with the anti-Christian world around them and cease to be examples of any kind of Christianity for those around them.

This is wrong. The Christian must be different from the world, above all from today’s weird, abnormal world, and this must be one oft he basic things he knows as part of his Christian upbringing. Otherwise there is no point in calling ourselves Christian—much less Orthodox Christians.

The false approach at the opposite extreme is one that one might call false spirituality. As translations of Orthodox books on the spiritual life become more widely available, an the Orthodox vocabulary of spiritual struggle is placed more and more in the air, one finds an increasing number of people talking about hesychasm, the Jesus Prayer, the ascetic life, exalted states of prayer, and the most exalted Holy Fathers like St. Symeon the New Theologian, St. Gregory Palamas, and St. Gregory the Sianite. It is all very well to be aware of this truly exalted side of Orthodox spiritual life and to have reverence for the great saints who have actually lived it; but unless we have a very realistic and very humble awareness of how far away all of us today are from the life of hesychasm and how little prepared we are even to approach it, our interest in it will be only one more expression of our self-centered, plastic universe. “The me-generation goes hesychast!”—that is what some are trying to do today; but in actuality they are only adding a new game called “hesychasm” to the attractions of Disneyland.



There are books on this subject now that are very popular. In fact, Roman Catholics are going in very big for this kind of thing under Orthodox influence and themselves influencing other Orthodox people. For example, there is a Jesuit priest, Fr. George Maloney, who writes all kinds of books on this subject and translates St. Macarius the Great and St. Symeon the New Theologian and tries to get people in everyday life to be hesychasts. They have all kinds of retreats, usually “charismatic”; people are inspired by the Holy Spirit, supposedly, and undertake all types of these disciplines which we get from the Holy Fathers, and which are far beyond the level at which we are today. It is a very unserious thing. There is also a lady, Catherine de Hueck Doherty (in fact, she was born in Russia and became a Roman Catholic), who writes books about Poustinia, the desert life, and Molchanie, the silent life, and all these things which she tries to put into life like you would have some fashion for a new candy. This, of course, is very unserious and is a very tragic sign of our times. These kind of exalted things are being used by people who have no idea of what they are about. For some people it is only a habit or a pastime; for others who take it seriously, it can be a great tragedy. They think they are leading some kind of exalted life and really they have not come to terms with their own problems inside of them.

Let me re-emphasize that both of these extremes are to be avoided—both worldliness and super-spirituality—but this does not mean that we should not have a realistic awareness of the legitimate demands which the world makes upon us, or that we should cease respecting and taking sound instruction from the great hesychast Fathers and using the Jesus prayer ourselves, according to our own circumstances and capacity. It just has to be on our level, down to earth. The point is—and it is a point that is absolutely necessary for our survival as Orthodox Christians today—we must realize our situation as Orthodox Christians today; we must realize deeply what times we live in, how little we actually know and feel our Orthodoxy, how far we are not just from the saints of ancient times, but even from the ordinary Orthodox Christians of a hundred years or even a generation ago, and how much we must humble ourselves just to survive as Orthodox Christians today.

What we can do

More specifically, what can we do to gain this awareness, this realization, and how can we make it fruitful in our lives? I will try to answer this question in two parts: first, concerning our awareness of the world around us, which as never before in the history of Christianity has become our conscious enemy; and second, concerning our awareness of Orthodoxy, which, I am afraid, most of us known much lass than we should, much less than we have to know if we wish to keep it.

First, since whether we wish it or not we are in the world (and its effects are felt strongly even in a remote place like our monastery here), we must face it and its temptations squarely and realistically, but without giving in to it; in particular, we must prepare our young people for the temptations facing them, and is it were inoculate them against these temptations. We must be aware that the world around us seldom helps and almost always hinders the upbringing of the child in the true Orthodox spirit. We must be ready every day to answer the influence of the world by the principles of a sound Christian upbringing.

This means that what a child learns at school must constantly be checked and corrected at home. We cannot assume that something he is going to learn at school is simply something that is profitable or secular and has nothing to do with his Orthodox upbringing. He may be taught useful skills and facts (although many schools in America today are failing miserably even at this; many school teachers tell us that all they can do is keep the children in god order in class without even teaching them anything), but even if he gets this much, he is also taught many wrong attitudes and philosophies. A child’s basic attitude towards and appreciation of literature, music, history, art, philosophy, even science, and of course life and religion—must come first of al not from school, for the school will give you all this mixed up with modern philosophy; it must come first from the home and Church, or else he is bound to be miseducated in today’s world, where public education is at best agnostic, and at worst, openly atheistic or anti-religious. Of course, in the Soviet Union all this is forced upon the child, with no religion whatsoever and an active program of making the child an atheist.

Parents must now exactly what is being taught their children in education courses, which are almost universal today in American schools, and correct it at home, not only by a frank attitude to this subject (especially between fathers and sons—a very rare thing in American society), but also by a clear setting forth of the moral aspect of it which is totally absent in public education.

Parents must know just what kind of music their children are listening to, what is in the movies they see (listening and seeing together with them when necessary), what kind of language they are exposed to and what kind of language they use, and give the Christian attitude to all this.

Television—in households where there is not enough courage to throw it out the window—must be strictly controlled and supervised to avoid the poisonous effects of this machine which has become the leading educator of anti-Christian attitudes and ideas in the home itself, especially to the young.

I speak about the raising of children because this is where the world first strikes its blows at Orthodox Christians and forms them in its image; once wrong attitudes have been formed in a child, the task of giving him a Christian education becomes doubly difficult.

But it is not only children, it is all of us, who are facing the world which is trying to form us in anti-Christianity, by means of schools, television, movies, popular music, and all the other influences that pound in upon us, most of all in the big cities. We have to be aware that what is being pounded in upon us is all of one piece; it has a certain rhythm, a certain message to give us, this message of self-worship, of relaxing, of letting go, of enjoying yourself, of giving up any thought of the other world, in various forms, whether in music, or in movies, television, or what is being taught in schools, the way subjects are emphasized, the way the background is given, and everything else; there is one particular thing which is being given to us. It is actually an education in atheism. We have to fight back by knowing just what the world is trying to do to us, and by formulating and communicating our Orthodox Christian response to it.



Frankly, from observing the way Orthodox families in today’s world live and pass on their Orthodoxy, it would seem that this battle is more often lost than won. The percentage of Orthodox Christians who retain their Orthodox identity intact and are not changed into the image of today’s world, is small indeed.

Still, it is not necessary to view the world around us as all bad. In fact, for our survival as Orthodox Christians we have to be smart enough to use whatever is positive in the world for our own benefit. Here I will go into a few points where we can use something in the world which seems to have nothing to do directly with Orthodoxy in order to formulate our Orthodox world-view.

The child who has been exposed from his earliest years to good classical music, and has seen his soul being developed by it, will not be nearly as tempted by the crude rhythm and message of rock and other contemporary forms of pseudo-music as someone who has grown up without a musical education. Such a musical education, as several of the Optina elders have said, refines the soul and prepares it for the reception of spiritual impressions.

The child who has been educated in good literature, drama, and poetry and has felt their effect in his own soul—that is, has really enjoyed them—will not easily become an addict of the contemporary movies and television programs and cheap novels that devastate the soul and take it away from the Christian path.

The child who has learned to see beauty in classical painting and sculpture will not easily be drawn into the perversity of contemporary art or be attracted by the garish products of modern advertising and pornography.

The child who knows something of the history of the world, especially in Christian times, and how other people have lived and thought, what mistakes and pitfalls people have fallen into by departing from God and His commandments, and what glorious and influential lives they have lived when they were faithful to Him—will be discerning about the life and philosophy of our own times and will not be inclined to follow the first new philosophy or way of life he encounters. One of the basic problems facing the education of children today is that in the schools they are no longer given a sense of history. It is a dangerous and fatal thing to deprive a child of a sense of history. It means that he has no ability to take examples from the people who lived in the past. And actually, history constantly repeats itself. Once you see that, it becomes interesting how people have answered problems, how there have been people who have gone against God and what results came from that, and how people changed their lives and became exceptions and gave an example which is lived down to our own times. This sense of history is a very important thing which should be communicated to children.

In general, the person who is well acquainted with the best products of secular culture—which in the West almost always has definite religious and Christian overtones—has a much better chance of leading a normal, fruitful Orthodox life than someone who knows only the popular culture of today. One who is converted to Orthodoxy straight from “rock” culture, and in general anyone who thinks he can combine Orthodoxy with that kind of culture—has much suffering to go through and a difficult road in life before he can become a truly serious Orthodox Christian who is capable of handing on his faith to others. Without this suffering, without this awareness, Orthodox parents will raise their children to be devoured by the contemporary world. The world’s best culture, properly received, refines and develops the soul; today’s popular culture cripples and deforms the soul and hinders it from having a full and normal response to the message of Orthodoxy.

Therefore, in our battle against the spirit of this world, we can use the best things the world has to offer in order to go beyond them; everything good in the world, if we are only wise enough to see it, points to God, and to Orthodoxy, and we have to make use of it.
The Orthodox World-view

With such an attitude—a view of both the good things and the bad things in the world—it is possible for us to have and to live an Orthodox world-view, that is, an Orthodox view on the whole of life, not just on narrow church subjects. There exists a false opinion, which unfortunately is all to widespread today, that it is enough to have an Orthodoxy that is limited to the church building and formal “Orthodox” activities, such as praying at certain times or making the sign of the Cross; in everything else, so this opinion goes, one can be like anyone else, participating in the life and culture of our times without any problem, as long as we don’t commit sin.

Anyone who has come to realize how deep Orthodoxy is, and how full is the commitment which is required of the serious Orthodox Christian, and likewise what totalitarian demands the contemporary world makes on us, will easily see how wrong this opinion is. One is Orthodox all the time every day, in every situation of life, or one is not really Orthodox at all. Our Orthodoxy is revealed not just in our strictly religious views, but in everything we do and say. Most of us are very unaware of the Christian, religious responsibility we have for the seemingly secular part of our lives. The person with a truly Orthodox world-view lives every part of his life as Orthodox.

Let us, therefore, ask here: How can we nourish and support this Orthodox world-view in our daily life?

The first and most obvious way is to be in constant contact with the sources of Christian nourishment, with everything that the Church gives us for our enlightenment and salvation: the Church services and Holy Mysteries, Holy Scripture, the Lives of Saints, the writings of the Holy Fathers. One must, of course, read books that are on one’s own level of understanding, and apply the Church’s teaching to one’s own circumstances in life; then they can be fruitful in guiding us and changing us in a Christian way.

But often these basic Christian sources do not have their full effect on us, or don’t really affect us at all, because we don’t have the right Christian attitude towards them and towards the Christian life they are supposed to inspire. Let me now say a word here about what our attitude should be if we are to obtain real benefit from them and if they are going to be for us the beginning of a truly Orthodox world-view.

First of all, Christian spiritual food, by its very nature, is something living and nourishing; if our attitude towards it is merely academic and bookish, we will fail to get the benefit it is meant to give. Therefore, if we read Orthodox books or are interesting in Orthodoxy only to gain information—or show off our knowledge to others, we are missing the point; if we learn of the commandments of God and the law of His Church merely to be “correct” and to judge the “incorrectness” of others, we are missing the point. These things must not merely affect our ideas, but must directly touch our lives and change them. In any time of great crisis in human affairs—such as the critical times right in front of us in the free world—those who place their trust in outward knowledge, in laws and canons and correctness, will be unable to stand. The strong ones then will be those whose Orthodox education has given them a feel for what is truly Christian, those whose Orthodoxy is in the heart and is capable of touching other hearts.

Nothing is more tragic than to see someone who is raised in Orthodoxy, has a certain idea of the catechism, has read some Lives of Saints, has a general idea of what Orthodoxy stands for, understands some of the services, and then is unaware of what is going on around him. And he gives his children this life in two categories: one is the way most people live and the other way is how Orthodox live on Sundays and when they are reading some Orthodox text. When a child is raised like that he is most likely not going to take the Orthodox one; it is going to be a very small part of his life, because the contemporary life is too attractive, too many people are going for it, it is too much a part of reality today, unless he has been really taught how to approach it, how to guard himself against the bad effects of it and how to take advantage of the good things which are in the world.

Therefore, our attitude, beginning right now, must be down-to-earth and normal. That is, it must be applied to the real circumstances of our life, not a product of fantasy and escapism and refusal to face the often unpleasant facts of the world around us. An Orthodoxy that is too exalted and too much in the clouds belongs in a hothouse and is incapable of helping us in our daily life, let along saying anything for the salvation of those around us. Our world is quite cruel and wounds souls with its harshness; we need to respond first of all with down-to-earth Christian love and understanding, leaving accounts of hesychasm and advanced forms of prayer to those capable of receiving them.



So also, our attitude must not be self-centered but reaching out to those who are seeking for God and for a godly life. Nowadays, wherever there is a good-sized Orthodox community, the temptation is to make it into a society for self-congratulation and for taking delight in our Orthodox virtues and achievements: the beauty of our church buildings and furnishings, the splendor of our services, even the purity of our doctrine. But the true Christian life, even since the time of the Apostles, has always been inseparable from communicating it to others. An Orthodoxy that is alive by this very fact shines forth to others—and there is no need to pen a “department of missions” to do this; the fire of true Christianity communicates itself without this. If our Orthodoxy is only something we keep for ourselves, and boast about it, then we are the dead burying the dead—which is precisely the state of many of our Orthodox parishes today, even those that have a large number of young people, if they are not going deeply into their Faith. It is not enough to say that the young people are going to church. We need to ask what they are getting in church, what they are taking away from church, and, if they are not making Orthodoxy a part of their whole life, then it really is not sufficient to say that they are going to church.

Likewise, our attitude must be loving and forgiving. There is a kind of hardness that has crept into Orthodox life today: “That man is a heretic; don’t go near him;” “that one is Orthodox, supposedly, but you can’t really be sure;” “that one there is obviously a spy.” No one will deny that the Church is surrounded by enemies today, or that there are some who stoop to taking advantage of our trust and confidence. But this is the way it has been since the time of the Apostles, and the Christian life has always been something of a risk in this practical way. But even if we are sometimes taken advantage of and do have to show some caution in this regard, still we cannot give up our basic attitude of love and trust without which we lose one of the very foundations of our Christian life. The world, which has no Christ, has to be mistrustful and cold, but Christians, on the contrary, have to be loving and open, or else we will lose the salt of Christ within us and become just like the world, good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden underfoot.

A little humility in looking at ourselves would help us to be more generous and forgiving of the faults of others. We love to judge others for the strangeness of their behavior; we call them “cuckoos” or “crazy converts.” It is true that we should beware of really unbalanced people who can do us great harm in the Church. But what serious Orthodox Christian today is not a little “crazy?” We don’t fit in with the ways of this world; if we do, in today’s world, we aren’t serious Christians. The true Christian today cannot be at home in the world; he cannot help but feel himself and be regarded by others as a little “crazy.” Just to keep alive the ideal of other-worldly Christianity today, or to get baptized as an adult, or to pray seriously, is enough to put you into a crazy house in the Soviet Union and in many other countries, and these countries are leading the way for the rest of the world to follow.

Therefore, let us not be afraid of being considered a little “crazy” by the world, and let us continue to practice the Christian love and forgiveness which the world can never understand, but which in its heart it needs and even craves.

Finally, our Christian attitude must be what, for want of a better word, I would call innocent. Today the world places a high value on sophistication, on being worldly-wise, on being a “professional.” Orthodoxy places no value on these qualities; they kill the Christian soul. And yet these qualities constantly creep into the Church and into our lives. How often one hears enthusiastic converts especially, express their desire of going to the great Orthodox centers, the cathedrals and monasteries where sometimes thousands of the faithful come together and everywhere the talk is of church matters, and one can feel how important Orthodox is, after all. That Orthodoxy is a small drop in the bucket when you look at the whole society, but in the great cathedrals and monasteries there are so many people that it seems as though it is really an important thing. And how often one sees these same people in a pitiful state after they have indulged their desire, returning from the “great Orthodox centers” sour and dissatisfied, filled with worldly church gossip and criticism, anxious above all to be “correct” and “proper” and worldly-wise about church politics. In a word, they have lost their innocence, their unworldliness, being led astray by their fascination with the worldly side of the Church’s life.

In various forms, this is a temptation to us all, and we must fight it by not allowing ourselves to overvalue the externals of the Church, but always returning to the “one thing needful”: Christ and the salvation of our souls from this wicked generation. We needn’t be ignorant of what goes on in the world and in the Church—in fact, for our own selves we have to know—but our knowledge must be practical and simple and single-minded, not sophisticated and worldly.

Conclusion

It is obvious to any Orthodox Christian who is aware of hat is going on around him today, that the world is coming to its end. The signs of the times are so obvious that one might say that the world is crashing to its end.

What are some of these signs?

—The abnormality of the world. Never have such weird and unnatural manifestations and behavior been accepted as a matter of course as in our days. Just look at the world around you: what is in the newspapers, what kind of movies are being shown, what is on television, what it is that people think is interesting and amusing, what they laugh at; it is absolutely weird. And there are people who deliberately promote this, of course, for their own financial benefit, and because that is the fashion, because there is a perverse craving for this kind of thing.

—The wars and rumors of wars, each more cold and merciless than the preceding, and all overshadowed by the threat of the unthinkable universal nuclear war, which could be set off by the touch of a button.

—The widespread natural disasters: earthquakes, and now volcanoes—the newest one forming not far from here near Yosemite Park in central California—which are already changing the world’s weather patterns.

—The increasing centralization of information on and power over the individual, represented in particular by the enormous new computer in Luxembourg, which has the capacity to keep a file of information on every man living; its code number is 666 and it is nicknamed “the beast” by those who work on it. To facilitate the working of such computers, the American government plans to begin in 1984 the issuance of Social Security checks to persons with a number (apparently including the code number 666) stamped on their right hand or forehead—precisely the condition which will prevail, according to the Apocalypse (ch. 13) during the reign of antichrist. Of course, it doesn’t mean that the first person to get himself stamped 666 is the antichrist, or the servant of antichrist, but once you are used to this, who will be able to resist? They will train you first and then they will make you bow down to him.

—Again, the multiplication of false Christs and false Antichrists. The latest candidate just this summer spent probably millions of dollars advertising his impending appearance on world television, promising to give at that time a “telepathic message” to all the world’s inhabitants. Quite apart from any occult powers that might be involved in such events, we already know well enough the opportunities for presenting subliminal messages by radio and especially by television, as well as the fact that this can be done by anyone with the technology for breaking into normal radio and television signals, no matter how many laws there might be against it.

—The truly weird response to the new movie everyone in America is talking about and seeing: “E.T.”, which has caused literally millions of seemingly normal people to express their affection and love for the hero, a “saviour” from outer space who is quite obviously a demon—an obvious preparation for the worship of the coming Antichrist. (And incidentally, the movie editor of the official Greek Archdiocese newspaper in America, an Orthodox priest, has heartily recommended this movie to Orthodox people saying that it is a wonderful movie which can teach us about love, and everyone should go see it. There is quite a contrast between people who are trying to be aware of what is going on, and those who are simply led into the mood of the times.)

I could go on with details like this, but my purpose is not to frighten you, but to make you aware of what is happening around us. It is truly later than we think; the Apocalypse is now. And how tragic it is to see Christians, and above all Orthodox young people, with this incalculable tragedy hanging over their heads, who think they can continue what is called a “normal life” in these terrible times, participating fully in the whims of this silly, self-worshipping generation, totally unaware that the fool’s paradise we are living in is about to crash, completely unprepared for the desperate times that lie just ahead of us. There is no longer even a question of being a “good” or a “poor” Orthodox Christian; the question now is: will our Faith survive at all? With many, it will not survive; the coming Antichrist will be too attractive, too much in the spirit of the worldly things we no crave, for most men even to know that they have lost their Christianity by bowing down to him.

Still the call of Christ comes to us; let us begin to heed it. The clearest expression of this call today is coming from the enslaved atheist world, where there is real suffering for Christ and a seriousness of life which we are rapidly losing or have already lost. One Orthodox priest in Romania, Fr. George Calciu, is now near death in a communist prison for daring to challenge young seminarians and students to put off their blind allegiance to the spirit of the times and come forward to labor for Christ. After speaking of the emptiness of atheism, he tells today’s young people: “I call you to a much higher flight, to total abandonment, to an act of courage which defies reason. I call you to God. To the One that transcends the world so that you might know an infinite heaven of spiritual joy, the heaven which you presently grope for in your personal hell, and which you seek even while in a state of non-deliberate revolt… Jesus has always loved you, but now you have the choice to respond to His invitation. In responding, you are ordained to go and bear fruit that will remain. To be a prophet of Christ in the world in which you live. To love your neighbor as yourself and to make all men your friend. To proclaim by every action this unique and limitless love which has raised man from the level of a serf to that of a friend of God. To the prophets of this liberating love which delivers you from all constraint, returning to you your integrity as you offer yourself to God.”

Fr. George, speaking to young people who had little inspiration to serve Christ’s Church because they had accepted the worldly opinion (common also among us in the free world) that the Church is only a set of buildings or a worldly organization, calls them to a deeper awareness of Christ’s Church and of how our “formal membership” in it is not enough to save us.

“The Church of Christ is alive and free. In her we move and have our being, through Christ Who is her Head. In Him we have full freedom. In the Church we learn of truth and the truth will set us free (John 8:32). You are in Christ’s Church whenever you uplift someone bent down in sorrow, or when you give alms to the poor, and visit the sick. You are in Christ’s Church when you are good and patient, when you refuse to get angry at your brother, even if he has wounded your feelings. You are in Christ’s Church when you pray: ‘Lord, forgive him.’ When you work honestly at your job, returning home weary in the evenings but with a smile upon your lips; when you repay evil with love—you are in Christ’s Church. Do you not see, therefore, young friend, how close the Church of Christ is? You are Peter and God is building His Church upon you. You are the rock of His Church against which nothing can prevail… Let us build churches with our faith, churches which no human power can pull down, a church whose foundation is Christ… Feel for your brother alongside you. Never ask: ‘Who is he?’ Rather say: ‘He is no stranger; he is my brother. He is the Church of Christ just as I am.”



With such a call in our hearts, let us begin really to belong to the Church of Christ, the Orthodox Church. Outward membership is not enough; something must move within us that makes us different from the world around us, even if that world calls itself “Christian” and even “Orthodox.” Let us keep and nourish those qualities of the true Orthodox world-view which I mentioned earlier: a living, normal attitude, loving and forgiving, not self-centered, preserving our innocence and unworldliness even with a full and humble awareness of our own sinfulness and the power of the worldly temptations around us. If we truly live this Orthodox world-view, our Faith will survive the shocks ahead of us and be a source of inspiration and salvation for those who will still be seeking Christ even amidst the shipwreck of humanity which has already begun today.

Reprinted from The Orthodox Word
Vol. 18, No. 4 (105) July-August, 1982

http://deathtotheworld.com/articles/the-orthodox-worldview/

Exorcisms in Russia: From an Eyewitness

By Nun Cornelia
Originally Printed in Issue 6, 1995

No Orthodox Christian in Russia doubts the existence of Demons, and that they wage brutal war against people. Neither do they doubt that Christ is stronger than demons; that He has won the war and continues to conquer. Why are they so sure? Because they see it with their own eyes. They see the pitiful victims of demonic possession who come to church to find relief but are tormented by the demons for doing so. Anywhere we go in the world we can see the result of diabolical hatred—violence, lewdness, profanity, coldness of heart—however, we fail to see the cause. But in the presence of the power of God, they are unmasked and revealed. The curtain is withdrawn that hides the puppeteer behind the puppets.

When I was in Russian, I stayed near a monastery where a priest lived who performed exorcisms. The rite of exorcism in the Orthodox Church is a formal service that has been the same for centuries. It includes generous amount of holy water, and is highlighted by the reading of the Gospel passages wherein Christ drives the demons out of people and demonstrates His authority over them. Just as the demons in the Gospels wail and lament when Christ appears, so they wail during these services.

Once the services are in full swing, the demons being to show themselves. One woman rages in a male voice, another person shakes violently, another shrieks in fear, yet another is thrown to the floor, losing consciousness. They scream their hatred for the priest, vowing to have their revenge as he douses them with holy water. Some demons make jokes some sound like dissatisfied customers (“I don’t have to take this!”), others are just raw anger and hatred. But the loudest noise always seems to be that of animals: mooing, crowing, and especially barking and growling.

Not all of the victims were adults. I saw one young girl being dragged and carried up to the priest. She was flailing and howling and wailing. When the priest finally came close enough to douse her with holy water, she moaned in a ghostly voice, which trailed off as she stopped her thrashing, finally collapsing. I saw another boy, held in his mother’s arms, who has the appearance of a poor, special ed. Child. He looked as though he was in distress and pain, just before he vomited on the floor.

Everywhere wailing, moaning, barking, convulsions, shrieking. It was a vision of hell. “Yes, you may attend,” the priest permitted me after I asked to witness and exorcism, “But stand near the icon of the Mother of God, and say the Jesus Prayer (‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner’).” This is not something to be taken lightly. It is not a horror film, not a ghost story, but pure evil tormenting real human beings.

Naturally, I could not help but wonder why these people are possessed. But it is not right to inquire—they are sufferer and it is not for me to judge. But there are cases when the demon itself provides the answer. One woman was being exorcised when, to the priest’s astonishment, the demon informed him that God Himself does not will that she be released, “She killed three babies in her womb,” the demon revealed, “I am here to punish her.” Very many ended up in their pitiful state after going to “psychic healers.” They had turned to these so-called healers with some physical illness, or simply in search of pseudo-spirituality, and received some relief of fulfillment. But then they became demonically possessed, for the “healing” or “experience” was made possible solely through the psychic’s own pacts with demonic powers. These people, however, were impossible to help if they were not prepared to abandon the pseudo-spirituality and embrace the spiritual life of the Church, putting their trust in Christ.

But what about the children? What had they done to deserve this? Usually they have nothing. Their parents had brought this catastrophe upon them by their own unwholesome lives. This may sound strange and unfair, but we all acknowledge that a mother who smokes puts smoke into her child’s lungs, and a mother who drinks nurses her child with alcohol. When a father curses, he puts curse words into his child’s vocabulary. So is it really so surprising that parents who immerse themselves in the forces of darkness being those forces down upon their children?

The service concludes and I am in awe. The priest’s countenance us one of intense concentration, authority and sternness. Throughout the service he held the holy water sprinkler like I mighty whip; now he holds the cross as an invincible shield and a trophy of victory. His long, grey hair is a bit tousled, and sweat glistens on his forehead. Those poor people kiss the cross and clamor desperately to receive his blessing, then gradually leave the church. They feel better. In spite of the demon’s torment during the service, they now feel relieved and strengthened. They can go on, they are no longer overcome by despair.

Some people come to the exorcisms thinking that they are possessed, but they are not—it is a sort of spiritual hypochondria. Others speak blasphemies against God and man, not realizing whose mouthpiece they are being, and therefore will not even consider going to church. But wonders never cease. Once when the Communists were in power, some top party members were “touring” the monastery, laughing at its out datedness. One of these happened into the church where an exorcism was taking place. You can imagine the confusion that ensued when she began crowing involuntarily, like a rooster. She realized her great mistake in denying God, and became a Christian.

Still others have chronic, seemingly incurable illnesses that bring them to the monastery in search of healing, and there they encounter the power of Christ, which exposes the demon inhabiting them. Then the battle begins—fasting, praying, repenting, suffering. These are their “medicines.” But what is the doctor’s scalpel? Humility. I cannot forget one incident related to me by a possessed woman herself. At her exorcism, the demon in her reviled the priest, saying that he would spit on him. “Go ahead,” the priest answered, “Spit. It will make me humbler.” At this the demons shrieked as if seared by a blowtorch. But this is not surprising. Jesus Christ, by Whose authority this Orthodox priest, and indeed all those apostles, saints and righteous ones before cast out devils, was also spat upon, reviled, even crucified. But the devil’s rage was his own defeat.

http://deathtotheworld.com/articles/exorcisms-in-russia-from-an-eyewitness/

Will there be animals in the world to come? (video)

If you acquire this knowledge, you will never judge anyone (video)

God Never Leaves

From the evergetinos:

A brother was beset by the demon of lust. It so happened that the brother once passed by a village in Egypt and saw a beautiful woman, who was the daughter of a pagan priest.  On seeing her, he was wildly aroused and, under the influence of his passions, went to the father of the girl and said: “Give me your daughter as my wife.”

“I cannot give her to you,” the pagan priest answered, “without asking my god. Wait a bit.”

Indeed, the pagan priest went to his god’s oracle (through which, as we know, the Devil speaks) and asked: “A monk came to my home and wants my daughter as his wife. Shall I give her to him?”

The demon hidden in the oracle answered him: “Ask him if he will deny his God, his baptism, and the vows he made as a monk.”

When the pagan priest returned, he said to the monk: “Will you deny your God, your baptism, and your monastic vocation?” Indeed, the monk accepted his terms. But immediately he saw something bright come from his mouth and, like a dove, go up into the heavens.

Right away, the pagan priest ran to the demon and said: “Behold, the monk did all that you asked.” Then the demon said to him: “Do not give you daughter to him as a wife, for his God has not departed from him, but is still helping him.”

So once again, the pagan priest went to the monk and told him: “I cannot give my daughter to you as a wife, since your God continues to remain near you and help you.”

On hearing this response, the monk was deeply moved and said within himself: “Even though God in His singular goodness has bestowed upon me so many good things, I–wretch that I am–have denied Him, His Holy baptism, and monastic vows. But despite my denial, God has not departed from me, though I have so greatly betrayed him, and continues to help me. After that, do I not have duty to run to Him, grounded in the surety of His boundless goodness?”

Having now recovered from the dizziness of passion, the brother left immediately for the desert and went to his Elder, to whom he confessed his denial, as well as all of his thoughts.

With kindness the Elder told him: “Brother, remain with my in my cave and fast for two days at a time for three weeks: that is you can fast strenuously for two days and on the third relax the fast. And I will ask God to forgive you.”

The Elder did indeed grieve for the brother and entreated God with earnestness: “My God,” he would say, “Give me the soul of this monk and receive his repentance.”

God, as merciful as he is, heard the sincere and fervent prayer of the Elder, especially since it came forth from genuine love. When the first week of the cloistered monk’s penance had been fulfilled, the Elder visited him and told him: Have you perhaps beheld something?”

“Yes,” the monk answered, “I saw a dove hight in the heavens in front of my head.”

The Elder said to the repentant monk, “Take care for yourself and ask God with the whole of your soul, without cessation, to forgive you.” With these recommendations, the Elder once again departed.

As soon as the second week had passed, the Elder came again to the cave where the monk was cloistered: “How is it going, Brother? Perhaps you have seen something again?” he asked with fatherly concern and care.

“Yes, Elder, I saw a dove next to my head.”

The Elder, having advised him anew to pray with earnestness and to stay in a state of vigilance in his soul, took leave. When at last the third week had elapsed, the Elder we to the cloistered monk and said to him: “Have you seen anything more?”

With joy, the monk answered: “I saw the dove come and perch on my head. So, when I stretched out my hand with joy to grab him, he flew into my mouth.”

When the Elder heard this answer, he thanked God and said to the repentant monk: “Do you see, my brother? God has accepted your repentance. Therefore, be careful with yourself from now on.”

Crying, the emotion filled brother answered the Elder: “From now on and ever after, Father, I will remain near you, and shall not leave you until I die.” And indeed the monk remained with the Elder and never left.

http://deathtotheworld.com/articles/god-never-leaves/

Να ζητάς από τους Αγγέλους και τους Αγίους...

Να ζητάς από τους Αγγέλους και τους Αγίους να μεσιτεύουν στο Θεό για σένα, όπως θα ζητούσες κάτι από τους ζωντανούς.
Να στέκεσαι πρόσωπο προς πρόσωπο απέναντί τους, πιστεύοντας πως και εκείνοι στέκονται πρόσωπο προς πρόσωπο απέναντί σου.
Άγιος Ιωάννης της Κρονστάνδης.

https://proskynitis.blogspot.gr/2017/10/blog-post_55.html

Μονάχα ή προσευχή είναι βράχος ακλόνητος

Ή σκέψη είναι πάντοτε μια καρφίτσα: πάνω της δεν μπορείς ποτέ σου να σταθής. Μονάχα ή προσευχή είναι βράχος ακλόνητος επάνω στον όποιο μπορώ ολόκληρος να στέκομαι και να επιβιώνω.

Άγιος Ιουστίνος Πόποβιτς

https://proskynitis.blogspot.gr/2017/10/blog-post_40.html

On Forming the Soul

By Blessed Fr. Seraphim of Platina

The soul that comes to Orthodoxy today often finds itself in a disadvantaged or even crippled state. Often one hears from converts after some years of seemingly unfruitful struggles that “I didn’t know what I was getting into when I became Orthodox.” Some sense this when they are first exposed to the Orthodox Faith, and this can cause them to postpone their encounter with Orthodoxy or even run away from it entirely. A similar thing often happens to those baptized in childhood when they reach mature years and must choose whether or not to commit themselves to their childhood faith.

From one point of view, this is a result of the deep commitment required of those who are serious about the Orthodox Faith–a commitment that is quite different in kind from that of those who merely join a new denomination. or sect. There are many denominations with their various interpretations of Christian life, but only One Church of Christ which lives the true life in Christ and the unchanged teaching and practice of the Apostles and Fathers of the Church.

But from a more practical point of view, the problem lies in the poverty of our modern soul, which has not been prepared or trained to receive the depths of true Christian experience. There is a cultural as well as a psychological aspect to this poverty of ours: The education of youth today, especially in America, is notoriously deficient in developing responsiveness to the best expressions of human art, literature, and music, as a result of which young people are formed haphazardly under the influence of television, rock music, and other manifestations of today’s culture (or rather, anti-culture); and, both as a cause and as a result of this–but most of all because of the absence on the part of pa rents and teachers of any conscious idea of what Christian Life is and how a young person should be brought up in it–the soul of a person who has survived the years of youth is often an emotional wasteland, and at best reveals deficiencies in the basic attitudes towards life that were once considered normal and indispensable:

Few are those today who can clearly express their emotions and ideas and face them in a mature way; many do not even know what is going on inside themselves. Life is artificially divided into work (and very few can put the best part of themselves, their heart, into it because it is “just for money”); play (in which many see the real meaning of their life), religion (usually no more than an hour or two a week), and the like, without an underlying unity that gives meaning to the whole of one’s life. Many, finding daily life unsatisfying, try to live in a fantasy world of their own creation (into which they also try to fit religion). And underlying the whole of modern culture is the common denominator of the worship of oneself and one’s own comfort, which is deadly to any idea of spiritual life.

Such is something of the background, the “cultural baggage,” which a person brings with him today when he becomes Orthodox. Many, of course, survive as Orthodox despite their background; some come to some spiritual disaster because of it; but a good number remain cripples or at least spiritually undeveloped because they are simply unprepared for and unaware of the real demands of spiritual life..

As a beginning to the facing of this question (and hopefully, helping some of those troubled by it), let us look here briefly at the Orthodox teaching on human nature as set forth by a profound Orthodox writer of the 19th century, a true Holy Father of these latter times–Bishop Theophan the Recluse (+1892). In his book, What the Spiritual Life Is and How to Attune Oneself to it (reprinted Jordanville, 1962)*, he writes:



”Human life is complex and many-sided. In it there is a side of the body, another of the soul, and another of the spirit. Each of these has its own faculties and needs, its own methods and their exercise and satisfaction. Only when all our faculties are in movement and all our needs are satisfied does a man live. But when only one little part of these. faculties is in motion and on]y one little part of our needs is satisfied–such a life is no life…A man does not live in a human way unless everything, in him is in motion …. One must live as God created us, and when one does not live thus one can boldly say that he is not living at all” (p. 7).

The distinction made here between “soul” and “spirit” does not mean that these are separate entities within human nature; rather, the “spirit” is the higher part, the “soul” the lower part, of the single invisible part of man (which as a whole is usually called the “soul”). To the “soul” in this sense belong those ideas and feelings which are not occupied directly with spiritual life-most of human art, knowledge, and culture; while to the “spirit” belong man’s strivings towards God through prayer, sacred art, and obedience to God’s law.

From these words of Bishop Theophan one can already spot a common fault of today’s seekers after spiritual life: Not all sides of their nature are in movement; they are trying to satisfy religious needs (the needs of the spirit) without having come to terms with some of their other (more specifically, psychological and emotional) needs, or worse: they use religion illegitimately to satisfy these psychological needs. In such people religion is an artificial thing that has not yet touched the deepest part of them, and often some upsetting event in their life, or just the natural attraction of the world, is enough to destroy their plastic universe and turn them away from religion. Sometimes such people, after bitter experience in life, return to religion: but too often they are lost, or at best crippled and unfruitful.

Bishop Theophan continues in his teaching:

“A man has three layers of life: that of the spirit, of the soul, and of the body. Each of these has its sum of needs, natural and proper to a man. These needs are not all of equal value, but some are higher and others lower; and the balanced satisfaction of them gives a man peace. Spiritual needs are the highest of all, and when they are satisfied, then there is peace even if the others are not satisfied; but when spiritual needs are not satisfied, then even if the others are satisfied abundantly, there is no peace. Therefore, the satisfaction of them is called the one thing needful.

“When spiritual needs are satisfied, they instruct a man to put into harmony with them the satisfaction of one’s other needs also, so that neither what satisfies the soul nor what satisfies the body contradicts spiritual life, but helps it; and then there is a full harmony in a man of all the movements and revelations of his life, a harmony of thoughts, feelings, desires, undertakings, relationships, pleasures. And this is paradise!” (p. 65).

In our own day, the chief ingredient missing from this ideal harmony of human life is something one might call the emotional development of the soul. It is something that is not directly spiritual, but that very often hinders spiritual development. It is the state of someone who, while he may think he thirsts for spiritual struggles and an elevated life of prayer, is poorly able to respond to normal human love and friendship; for If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar; for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God Whom he hath not seen.” (I John 4:20)

In a few people this defect exists in an extreme form; but as a tendency it is present to some extent in all of us who have been raised in the emotional and spiritual wasteland of our times. This being so, it is often necessary for us to humble our seemingly spiritual impulses and struggles and be tested on our human and emotional readiness for them. Sometimes a spiritual father will deny his child the reading of some spiritual book and give him instead a novel of Dostoevsky or Dickens, or will encourage him to become familiar with certain kinds of classical music, not with any “aesthetic” purpose in mind–for one can be an “expert” in such matters and even be “emotionally well-developed” without the least interest in spiritual struggle, and that is also an unbalanced state–but solely to refine and form his soul and make it better disposed to understand genuine spiritual texts.

Bishop Theophan, in his advice to a young woman who was preparing in the world for monastic life, allowed her to read (in addition to other non-spiritual books) certain novels which were “recommended by well-meaning people who have read them” (What the Spiritual Life Is, p. 252): With this in mind, this new column in “Orthodox America” will recommend and introduce certain works of literature and art (not excluding the modern art form of the movie) which can be of use in forming souls, especially of young people, in basic human attitudes and emotions which can dispose them to understand and pursue the higher things of the spiritual life.

+Fr. Seraphim (Rose) of Platina, Forming the Soul – Spirit, Soul and Body

http://deathtotheworld.com/articles/on-forming-the-soul-father-seraphim-rose/