A documentary on the Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer

On the Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer

October 9, 2011 in Orthodox Sermons & News, Spiritual Elders | Leave a comment

A documentary on the Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer

http://orthodoxword.wordpress.com/category/orthodox-saints-and-church-fathers/spiritual-elders/

reciting the Jesus prayer

Orthodoxy & reciting the Jesus prayer

Posted on 05/11/2012 by lucas

Children talking to their Father
Do not become led lost by external methods when committed in the inner Jesus Prayer.
For some people they are necessary,
but not for you.
In your case, the time for such methods has already passed.
You must already know by experience the place of the heart which about I speak:
do not bother about the rest.
The work of God is simple:
it’s prayer – children talking to their Father, without any quality of being.
May the Lord give you wisdom for your Salvation.
For someone who has not yet found the way to enter within himself, pilgrimages to Holy places are a help.
But for him, who has found it
they are a dissipation of energy,
for they force him to come out from
the innermost part of himself.
It is time for you now to learn more perfectly
how to remain within.
You should abandon your external plans.
Theophan the recluse
We repeat the Jesus prayer with our lips
while trying at the same time to focus
our attention on the words of the prayer.
The nous takes the Jesus prayer and says it noëtically.
Our whole attention is centered again in the words,
but is concentrated on the nous.
After the nous has rested,
we start again to concentrate our attention there.
Saint Neilos advises:
“Always remember God and your nous will become heaven“.
The Jesus prayer then descends into the heart.
Nous and heart are united.
The attention now is centered in the heart
and is immersed again into the words of the Jesus prayer,
and primarily into the name of Jesus which has an imperceptible depth.
The prayer now becomes automatic.
It is done while the ascetic is working, eating, discussing
or while he is in church or even while he is sleeping.
“I sleep but by heart wakes“[Song of Songs 5: 2],
is said in the Holy Scripture.
from “A Night in the Desert of the Holy Mountain“.
Keep away from methods
Saint Simeon and other writers in the Philokalia
suggest physical methods to be used in
conjunction with the Jesus Prayer.
Some people are much absorbed in these external methods
that they forget about proper work of prayer;
in others, prayer itself is distorted because of using these methods.
Since then, for lack of instructors
these physical techniques may be accompanied by harmful effects,
we don’t describe them.
In any case they are nothing but an external aid to the inner work and are in no way essential.
What essential is this;
to acquire the habit of standing with the mind in the heart
– of being within this physical heart of ours,
although not physically.
It is necessary to bring the mind down from the head into the heart
and to establish it there, as one of the Fathers put it,
to join the mind in the heart.
But how is this achieved? Seek and you will find.
The easiest way to achieve it is by walking before God,
and by the work of prayer, especially by going to church.
But we must remember that ours is only the labor;
the object itself, that is the union of mind and heart, is a gift of Grace,
which the Lord grants to us and when He chooses.
The best example is Maximos of Kapsokalyvia*.
[* Monk of mount Athos in the middle of the 14^th cnt, contemporary and friend of Saint Gregory of Sinaï.
For a long time he prayer to the Theotokos that
he might be granted with the gift of unceasing prayer:
then one day, as he stood in fervent prayer before her Icon,
he suddenly felt a particular warmth in his heart
– what Theophan elsewhere terms the ‘spark’of Grace
– and from that moment unceasing prayer never left him]
What Hesychast prayer actually signified to Maximos is revealed most fully in the long conversation
between him and Gregory of Sinaï…
Gregory, so we are told, having learnt about Maximos’ fame and wishing to meet him,
sent his disciples to seek out the hermit.
But Maximos was still in his nomadic phase; he had recently burnt his cell,
and no one knew where he had gone.
The disciples searched in vain for two days, suffering severely from the winter cold.
Eventually Maximos came out from hiding of his own accord,
and agreed to meet Gregory.
The Sinaïte pressed Maximos to tell him about his spiritual life.
Initially he refused, claiming that his wits were deranged: πεπλανημένος ειμί.
As ever, folly serves as a mask behind which to shelter, as a way of avoiding praise.
Under pressure he then consented to give a full answer.
He began by telling Gregory about his youthful experiences,
about his “feigned madness and folly“, his vision of the Mother of God,
and the Divine Light that encircled him then and on other occasions.
“Tell me“, asked Gregory, “do you possess inner prayer (νοερά προσευχή)?”
“Yes“, Maximos answered with a smile, “Ι have possessed it from my youth“.
And, stressing once more his special love for the Mother of God,
he went on to describe an experience
that had happened to him before he became a hermit.
He told his experience about the day he was praying
to the Virgin with tears for the Grace of inner prayer.
Growth in prayer has no end
You read the Philokalia?
Good. Do not let yourself be confused by the writings of Ignatios and Kalistos Xanthopoulos, Gregory of Sinaï, and Nikephoros.
Try to find whether someone has ‘the life of staretz Païssy Velichkovsky’.
It contains prefaces to certain texts in the Philokalia, composed by staretz Basil, and these prefaces explain about the place of mechanical techniques when reciting the Jesus Prayer. They will help you, too, to understand everything correctly. I have already told you that in your case these mechanical techniques are not necessary. What they would produce you already possessed from the moment you felt the call to practice the Prayer.
But do not come to the wrong conclusion that your journey on the path of prayer is already completed.
Growth in prayer has no end. If this growth ceases it means that life ceases.
May the Lord save you and have mercy on you!
It is possible to lose the right state, and to accept the mere memory of it as being the state itself. God forbid that this should happen to you!
You feel you suffer from wandering thoughts. Take care: that is very dangerous.
The enemy wants to drive you into some thicket and kill you there.
thoughts begin to wander when the fear of God decreases and the heart grows cool. The cooling down of the heart is caused by many things – chiefly by smugness and conceit. There are very close to your nature.
Beware of them and make haste to restore the fear of God and a feeling of warmth to your soul.
Theophan the recluse
“Remember, O my soul, the terrible and frightful wonder:
that your Creator for your sake became Man,
and deigned to suffer for the sake of your Salvation.
His angels tremble, the Cherubim are terrified, the Seraphim are in fear,
and all the Heavenly Powers ceaselessly give praise;
and you, unfortunate soul, remain in laziness.
At least from this time forth arise and do not put off,
my beloved soul, holy repentance,
contrition of heart and penance for your sins“.
“The enemy likes to hide the truth and to mix good with evil.
But how can one find out the truth?
God’s goodwill and all our intentions are
meek, full of good hope, and undoubting.
Not only in our good deeds, but also in our lawlessness,
God endures long with meekness and awaits our repentance.
And how can one distinguish the impulse of the enemy?
The enemy usually hinders us and turns us away from good.
However, if in anything which apparently is good,
the mind is disturbed and causes us disturbance,
banishes the fear of God, deprives us of calmness,
so that without any reason the heart aches and the mind wavers,
then know that this is an impulse from the enemy and cut it off”.
Saint Paisius Velichkovsky [feastday, November 15^th]
It’s not the words that matter, but
your love for GodIf your heart grows warm
through reading ordinary prayers,
than kindle its inner warmth towards God in this way.
The Jesus Prayer, if said mechanically, is valueless:
it is no more help
than any other prayer spoken by the tongue and lips.
As you recite the Jesus Prayer, try at the same time to quicken your realization that our Lord Himself is near,
that He stands in your soul and listens to
what is happening within it.
Awaken in your soul the thirst for Salvation, and
the assurance that our Lord alone can bring it.
And then cry out to Him whom in your thoughts you see before you:
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy upon me“, or:
“O, merciful Lord, save me in the way You knows“, or simply “Lord, have mercy“.
It is not the words that matter, but your feelings towards the Lord, our Savior.
The spiritual burning of the heart for God springs from our Love for Him.
It kindles from the Lord’s touch on the heart. Because He is entirely Love, His touch on the heart immediately kindles love for Him; and from love comes burning of the heart towards Him. It’s this which must be the object of your search.
Let the Jesus Prayer be on your tongue; let God’s presence be before your mind; and in your heart let there be the thirst for God, for communion with the Lord. When all this becomes permanent, then the Lord, seeing how you exert yourself, will give you what you ask.
Theophan the recluse
God’s sparkWhat do we seek through the Jesus Prayer?
We seek for the fire of Grace to appear in our hart, and
we seek for the beginning of unceasing prayer which manifests a state of Grace.
When God’s spark falls into the hart,
the Jesus Prayer fans it into flame.
The prayer doesn’t of itself produce the spark, but helps us to receive it.
How does it help? By collecting our thoughts, by enabling the soul to stand before the Lord and to walk in His presence.
This is the most important part – to stand and walk before God, to
call on Him out of your heart.
This was what Maximos of Kapsokalyvia did: and
those who seek the fire of Grace should do the same.
They should not worry about words and positions of the body,
for God looks upon the heart.
If anyone should ask me how to carry out the task of prayer,
I would say to him:
Accustom yourself to walk in the presence of God,
keep remembrance of Him, and be reverent.
To preserve this remembrance, choose a few short prayers and repeat them often with appropriate thoughts and feelings.
As you accustom yourself to this, remembrance of God will bring Light in your mind and warmth to your heart.
And when you attain this state, God’s spark, the rate of Grace,
will fall at last into your heart.
There is no way in which you yourself can produce it: it comes direct from God. When it comes, dwell in the Jesus Prayer alone, and with this prayer blow the spark of Grace into flame. This is the most direct way.
Theophan the recluse
“My child, . . . . . I’ll see you in My Kingdom!”
From our Baptism and our Chrismation, we receive Priesthood,
we are priests of God, but not with the same way as the ordained priests of the Church. When we use the prayer of the heart deeply,
we do a kind of continued Divine Liturgy in our heart.
MP3: “My Lord Jesus Christ, help me!” – [Coptic Monk's in the Californian desert]
tekst Pdf: Lord Jesus, help me
“Lord, have mercy, upon me, a sinner“.
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Praying with the body: the hesychast method and non-Christian parallels

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Jule, 11

Kallistos (Ware), Metropolitan

Metropolitan Kallistos addresses the question of whether there are parallels between the hesychastic method of prayer and other apparently similar techniques of prayer in Hinduism and Islam. Looking at the origins of hesychasm and the teachings of figures such as St Gregory Palamas, St Gregory of Sinai and Nikiphoros the Hesychast, Metropolitan Kallistos addresses the question: is the Jesus Prayer an essential and authentically Christian practice, or is it unnecessary and perhaps even harmful?

Remember God more often than you breathe.

St Gregory of Nazianzos

A ghost in a machine?

‘Glorify God in your body’, says St Paul (1 Cor. 6:19). But how in practice is this to be done? How can we make our human physicality an active participant in the work of prayer? This is something to which as Christians we need to give particular thought at this present time. For we are living in an age when, alike in philosophy, in physics and in psychology, it is proving less and less helpful to posit a dichotomy between spirit and matter, between soul and body. The statement of C.G. Jung is typical: ‘Spirit is the living body seen from within, and the body is the outer manifestation of the living spirit — the two beings really one.’[1] If writers on Chris ­tian spirituality continue to assume a sharp contrast between body and soul — as they have frequently done in the past — their words will seem increasingly irrele­vant to their secular contemporaries.

In reality a body-soul division of a Platonic type has no place within Christian tradition. The Bible sees the human person in holistic terms, and despite the heavy influence of platonism this unitary standpoint has been repeatedly reaffirmed in Greek Christianity. ‘Is the soul by itself the person?’ asks a text attributed to Justin Martyr (d. c. 165). ‘No, it is simply the person’s soul. Do we call the body the person? No, we call it the person’s body. So the person is neither of these things on its own, but it is the single whole formed together from them both.’[2] The contemporary Greek theologian Christos Yannaras insists in similar terms that the body is to be regarded not as a ‘part’ or ‘component’ of the person, but as the total person’s ‘mode of existence’, as the manifestation to the outside world of the energies of our human nature in its completeness.[3] I am not a ‘ghost in a machine’ but an undivided unity. My body is not something that I have but something that I am.read...

Personal Rule of Prayer

Personal Rule of Prayer

Written by Raouf Ibrahim

A spiritual and instructional guide to individual prayer.

Raouf Ibrahim (Raouf2430) is a servant and youth counsellor at St. Demiana Church, Solana Beach, California.

Home Icon Corner

Introduction

What is prayer? What is its essence? How can we learn to pray? What does the spirit of the Christian experience as he prays in humility of heart? All of these questions should occupy our minds and hearts as believers, for in prayer man converses with God, he enters, through grace, into communion with Him, and lives in Him. The Holy Fathers and saints of the church, based on their grace-filled experiences of practicing prayer, give answers to all of these questions.

What is Prayer?

Prayer is the raising of the mind and heart to God in praise and thanksgiving to Him and in supplication for the good things that we need, both spiritual and physical. The essence of prayer, therefore, is the spiritual lifting of the heart (i.e. the complete inner man), towards God. External prayer, whether at home or in church, is only prayer's verbal expression and shape; the essence of prayer is within a man's mind and heart.

The Need for Prayer

Why is it necessary to pray at home, and to attend divine services at church? The answer is simple. For the same reason that food and drink are essential to our physical health and well being, likewise, prayer is essential for the life of the soul.

The Fathers and saints of the church tell us that without prayer, regardless of how high our morality, regardless of much we serve the Church and each other, regardless of any other virtue we might attain, we cannot know God and live spiritually

The Two Kinds of Prayer

In general, we can say that there are two kinds of prayer; the Corporate prayer, which we also call the liturgical prayers of the church (liturgy means "public work"), and the Personal prayer, which each Christian makes alone.

Regarding the first, the Lord said, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them." (Matt. 18:20) Regarding the latter, Christ also says, "But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place." (Matt. 6:6) These two are in no way contradictory to each other, nor can one ever take the place of the other.

The Fathers teach us that the quality of one has a direct affect on the quality of the other. One who attends services frequently but neglects personal prayer is not experiencing the true prayer of the saints, and likewise, the one who only prays alone believing he is not in need of the liturgical prayers of the church is also not experiencing the fullness of prayer.

The elements of prayer that are expressed in both the corporate and personal prayers of the church are:

Thanksgiving – when we give thanks to God for our life, for bringing us from non-existence into being, for the world that He has made, "for every condition, concerning every condition, and in every condition" (the liturgy of St. Basil).

Contrition or Repentance – the prayer in which we recognize our sinfulness before God. "A broken and humbled heart God shall not despise" (Psalm 50).

Intercession or Petition – the prayer of asking God for something, whether it be for our salvation or the needs of someone else.

Adoration – is considered to be the highest kind of prayer where we worship and praise God for who He is. "We give thanks to you for Your great glory" (The Gloria from Matins and the 1st Hour).

How to Pray

Putting aside discussion of the liturgical prayers of the church for another, let us turn our attention to our personal prayers. How do we pray when we are not in Church? Is there a correct way to pray as Orthodox Christians? Are there specific levels of prayer and if so, how do I know where I should start?

The answers to the above questions are found in what we call "A Personal Rule of Prayer". Simply stated, a prayer rule is an established set of prayers that are consistently recited on a daily basis. The word "rule" comes from the Latin "regula" (where we get the word "regular") As the Lord had a routine of spending many hours a day in prayer to His Father, so we also, if we are to be in communion with the Lord, must practice prayer regularly (daily).

St. Theophan the Recluse writes:

It would seem that nothing could be more simple and natural for us than prayer in which the heart is turned towards God. Yet this is not always present in prayer, nor in everyone. It must be awakened, then strengthened; one must be educated even to achieve a spirit of prayer. The first step in this direction is to say prayers and to listen to prayers. If you say your prayers as you should, then you will inevitably awaken in yourself a rising up of the heart toward God – and this is the way to enter into the spirit of prayer.

Our prayer books contain the prayers of the holy fathers. As they were themselves filled with the spirit of prayer, they put words to what the spirit revealed to them, and then they passed it on to us. Thus a great power of prayer moves in their every prayer. By the law of reciprocal action, those who enter energetically and attentively into these prayers will taste the power of the original prayer to the extent that their spirit comes close to the spirit it contains.

The church, in her wisdom, as handed down to us the perfect prayers. These prayers are contained in the Agpeya, or the Book of Hours. If we attempt to pray on our own, our prayers will be completely guided by our state of emotions at the time. In doing this, we may praise God, and neglect to offer prayers of thanksgiving, intercession for others, and repentance. Or we may pray a prayer of intercession on behalf of a loved one and neglect to thank God for allowing us to pass this day in peace. Or even worse, we may not pray at all! The Agpeya, therefore, ensures not only that we include all elements of prayer when we lift our hearts to God, but also in words that have been prayed by saints before us who are now members in the church triumphant, and with our brothers and sisters in the church militant. Therefore, the whole Body of Christ is united in prayer with the Lord.

Let us briefly examine, following the pattern in the Agpeya, how it includes all the elements of prayer that we discussed above:

The Thanksgiving Prayer – In this one prayer, we thank God for His beneficence, mercy, protection, help, guardianship, acceptance of us as sinners, support. We thank Him for "bringing us to this hour". In short, we thank Him "for every condition, concerning every condition, and in every condition." This prayer also includes petitions for our peace, protection from envy, temptation, all the works of the Devil, our enemies, and to provide us with all "things which are good and profitable."

Psalm 50 – A prayer of repentance in which we acknowledge our sins from the time of our birth – "against You only I have sinned" – and our sorrow – "for I am conscious of my iniquity and my sin is at all times before me". It asks for forgiveness – "Turn away Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities" - and also expresses hope in God’s healing power – "You shall wash me and I shall be made whiter than snow". It petitions God for purity – "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit in my inward parts" – and the joy of salvation – "Give me the joy of Your salvation".

The Selection of the Psalms – A dimension to the Psalter that makes it considered to be the perfect collection of prayers is that the Psalms contain and express every human experience and emotion imaginable. Whether it is faith, trust, hope, glorification and adoration of God, repentance, acclamation, sorrow, desire (hunger and thirst for God), and despair is all to be found there. The Psalms contain the whole experience of God’s revelation to human beings as well as the whole human response in all its variations.

The Gospel Reading – The Scriptures, i.e. the Word of God, are the Heavenly food in which we encounter God. This encounter, if approached properly, becomes a perfect prayer in which God speaks to us and we respond.

The Litanies, the 41 Kyrie Eleisons, the "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord of Sabaouth..", the Lord’s Prayer, the Absolution, and the Conclusion of Every Hour (Have mercy on us, Oh God..) – These prayers are filled with the adoration of God, our petitions for Him and for the intercessions of His mother, the angels, and the saints, and expressions of repentance and thanksgiving. We also pray for others; the reposed and the living.

Commemorating the Life of Our Lord and His Works of Salvation Accomplished for us – 1st Hour (Resurrection), 3rd Hour (Pentecost), 6th Hour (Crucifixion), 9th Hour (Death of Our Lord and testimony of the thief at His right hand), 11th Hour (Removal of the Precious Body of Christ from the Cross and its Anointing), 12th Hour (Laying down of Christ’s Body in the grave – and recalling that our sleep is a temporary death).

The fathers and saints of the church teach us that the key to growing in our prayer life is constancy. That is, the prayer rule must be kept every day (preferably morning and evening) no matter what. This, of course, is very difficult as many problems will arise. The saints give us some suggestions to be more successful in our prayer rule.

A Place and Time for Prayer

Every Orthodox home should have a dedicated place for personal and family prayers. This place is often called the Icon Corner. The Icon Corner should include icons of the Lord and the Mother of God, as well as saints and angels that you have a spiritual bond with. Also helpful is a wall shelf just below the icons where one can place prayer books, vigil lamps, holy oil, holy water, etc…. This creates an atmosphere for worship, similar to that of the church. Just as it is important to have the proper atmosphere if one is studying for an exam, it is likewise important to have a place that is suitable and dedicated to prayer.

It is also helpful to have set times for your prayer rule. This will help you in keeping it at all times. For example, after you awaken in the morning and get dressed and just before you sleep.

Read the Prayers

Try to spend some time reading the prayers you will use during free time. St. Theophan says, Make sure you understand and feel every word so that you know beforehand what should be in your heart at each and every word. It is even better to learn all the prayers by heart. If you work in this way, it will be easier for you to understand and to feel when you are saying the prayers.

Prepare for Prayer

St. Theophan says, Although prayer is a habitual action for us, it needs preparation. For anyone who knows how to read and write, what is more usual than reading and writing? Yet if we sit down to read and write we do not do so suddenly, we first get ourselves into the mood for what we are going to do. This kind of preparation is all the more necessary before we start to pray, particularly if our occupation immediately beforehand was very different from prayer.

So, morning or evening, immediately before you begin to repeat your prayers, stand awhile, sit for awhile, or walk a little and try to steady your mind and turn it away from all worldly activities and objects. After this, think who He is to whom you turn in prayer, then recollect who you are; who it is who is about to start this invocation to Him in prayer. Do this in such a way as to awake in your heart a feeling of humility and reverent awe that your are standing in the presence of God. It is the beginning of prayer, and a good beginning is half the complete task.

Force Yourself to Pray

One of the obstacles to being consistent in our prayer rule is laziness and procrastination. This is especially tempting when we do not feel the desire to pray. Regarding the this, the saints teach us that we must force ourselves to pray, much like we force ourselves to attend to any chore. The difference is, however, that when we force ourselves to pray, often times the desire is given to us again which was lacking to begin with.

St. Macarius the Great says, The man who desires to come to the Lord and to be found worthy of eternal life should force himself to every good work and to fulfilling all the commandments of the Lord because of sin that is present with him… One must force himself to prayer when he has not spiritual prayer; and thus God, beholding him thus striving and compelling himself by force, in spite of an unwilling heart, gives him the true prayer of the Spirit.

Dealing with Wandering Thoughts

One of the greatest difficulties when we tread on the path of prayer is that of wandering thoughts. Like many other things, the solution is training. St. Theophan says, It is necessary to make the effort to concentrate the attention even though one knows in advance that the thoughts will wander. When the mind does wanders during prayer, recall it – and do so over and over again. If the mind wanders many times at the same place, repeat the section again and again until it is said entirely with feeling and understanding. Once you have overcome this difficulty, it may never repeat itself. If it does, it may not do so to the same extent.

If a Word in the Prayer Strongly Affects You

Sometimes it happens that some word or phrase in the prayers will strongly affect your soul, causing it to not continue speaking the prayers. The mind keeps going back to this word or phrase. In this case, St. Theophan says, Stop! Do not continue repeating the prayers, but stand with your attention on those words, feeling them. Feed the soul on them or on the thoughts that arise from them. Do not hurry to move on from this state, even if you have no time left; it is better to leave your rule of prayer unfinished than to destroy this state of mind. This will sanctify you and will perhaps last all day long…this kind of action of grace when you are saying prayers means that the spirit of prayer itself is beginning to penetrate into you.

Your Own Words During Prayer

At the end of your prayer rule, it is good to spend additional time saying your own prayers. You can use this time to ask for forgiveness for involuntary inattentiveness during prayer. Also, this is a good time to pray for others.

You can keep a peace of paper or index card with the names of those you wish to pray for in the following categories with prayers such as those below:

For the Christian living – "Grant, O Lord, health and salvation to Your servants…."
For the Christian reposed – "Grant, O Lord, repose with the Saints to Your servants…"
For the Catechumens – "Grant, O Lord, that Your holy will be done with your servants…"
For the Non-Christian living – "Grant, O Lord, that Your servants will be illumined with the light of the Orthodox faith, and numbered with Your one, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church…"
For the Non-Christian reposed – "Grant, O Lord, if it be possible on the souls of Your departed servants (names), who have departed into eternal life in separation from Your Holy Orthodox Church"

Unceasing Prayer

St. Paul commands us saying, Pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17). The Orthodox Christian does not limit his prayers (i.e. the time that he lifts his mind and heart to God) to the Prayer Rule and liturgical prayers of the Church, but prays at all times according to his strength and God’s grace. The most useful tool for achieving this is to recite short prayers such as the Jesus Prayer ("Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner) or a verse from one of the Psalms ("Make haste, O God, to deliver me! Make haste to help me, O Lord" - Psalm 70).

The goal of unceasing prayer is to arouse a constant awareness of the presence of God. It creates a sure realization and recognition of God’s majesty and our dependence upon His grace. The Jesus Prayer can, of course, be incorporated into our daily rule.

Conclusion

St. Theophan says, The essence of prayer lies in lifting the mind and heart to God. Prayer rules are only aids to this end. We weak ones cannot do without them!

 

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The Way of the Ascetics: Negative or Affirmative?

The Way of the Ascetics: Negative or Affirmative?
Kallistos Ware An Entry into Freedom? "Asceticism means the liberation of the human person," states the Russian Orthodox philosopher Nicolas Berdyaev (1873-1948). He defines asceticism as "a concentration of inner forces and command of oneself, and he insists: "Our human dignity is related to this." Asceticism, that is to say, leads us to self-mastery and enables us to fulfill the purpose that we have set for ourselves, whatever that may be. A certain measure of ascetic self-denial is thus a necessary element in all that we undertake, whether in athletics or in politics, in scholarly research or in prayer. Without this ascetic concentration of effort we are at the mercy of exterior forces, or of our own emotions and moods; we are reacting rather than acting. Only the ascetic is inwardly free. The Roman Catholic Raimundo Pannikar adds that asceticism frees us in particular from fear: "True asceticism begins by eliminating the fear of losing what can be lost. The ascetic is the one who has no fear." The prisoner Bobynin, in Alexander Solzhenitsyn's novel The First Circle, expresses a genuinely ascetic attitude when he says to Abakumov, the Minister of State Security, "I've got nothing, see? Nothing! ... You only have power over, people so long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything he's no longer in your power - he's free again." How much more free is the one who has not been robbed of everything but with ascetic freedom has given it up by his own choice! While Berdyaev regards asceticism as an entry into freedom, another Russian Orthodox thinker, Father Paul Florensky (1882-1943), links it with beauty: "Asceticism produces not a good but a beautiful personality." He would surely have welcomed the fact that our conference is devoting two of its sessions to the "aesthetics of asceticism." In the eyes of Jacob of Serug (c.449-521), the asceticism of Symeon the Stylite - altogether horrifying by our standards - made possible a revelation of the saint's beauty: "Good gold entered the crucible and manifested its beauty." Even Symeon's gangrenous foot was from the spiritual point of view an object full of beauty: "He watched his foot as it rotted and its flesh decayed. And the foot stood bare like a tree beautiful with branches. He saw-that there was nothing on it but tendons and bones." In Greco-Roman antiquity, ascetic practice was regarded equally as the pathway to happiness and 'joy. The Cynics saw rigorous self-denial as "part of askesis (training) for happiness." Philo's Therapeutai assembled at great festivals "clad in snow white raiment, joyous but with the height of solemnity," and celebrated the feast by dancing together. The same joyful note re-echoes in the mimra attributed to St. Ephrem the Syrian (c.306-373), On Hermits and Desert Dwellers: There is no weeping in their wanderings and no grieving in their gatherings;
the praises of the angels above surround them on every side. There is no distress in their death, nor walling at their departing;
for their death is the victory with which they conquer the adversary. Freedom, beauty, joy: that is what asceticism meant to Berdyaev, Florensky, and the Syrian monks. But most people in our present-day world have a radically different perception of what asceticism implies: to them it signifies not freedom but submission to irksome rules; not beauty but harsh rigor; not joy but gloomy austerity. Where does the truth lie? The case against asceticism is often stated, and is thoroughly familiar to all of us. Rather than restate it once again, let us try to discover what can be said in defense of the ascetic life. This we can best do by considering two basic components in ascetic practice anachoresis (withdrawal) and enkrateia (self-control). Our primary questions will be: 1. Does anachoresis mean simply a flight in order to escape, or can it sometimes signify a flight followed by a return? What if, in fact, there is no return? 2. Does enkrateia mean the repression or the redirection of our instinctive urges? Does it involve "violence to our natural appetites" (Durkheim) or their transfiguration? Obviously these are not the only questions to be asked about asceticism, and in seeking to respond to them I make no claim to provide any overarching cross-cultural framework. My answers will be given, not as a sociologist, but as a theologian and church historian, specializing in Greek Christianity. But the questions themselves have a wider scope, for they are applicable to the Christian West as well as the Christian East, and to non-Christian as well as Christian traditions.
A Flight Followed by a Return? In itself anachoresis can be either negative or positive, either world-denying or world-affirming. Often it is the world-denying aspect that seems to be dominant. When Abba Arsenius asks, "Lord, guide me so that I may be saved," he is told: "Flee from humans, and you will be saved." Arsenius's motive here seems to be exclusively his own salvation, and this involves an avoidance of all contact with his fellow humans; he does not appear to be interested in trying to help them. When a high-ranking Roman lady comes to visit him and asks him to remember her in his prayers, Arsenius answers brusquely: "I pray to God that he will wipe out the memory of you from my heart." Not surprisingly, she departs much distressed. When asked by Abba Mark, "Why do you flee from us?," Arsenius gives an answer that is only slightly more conciliatory: "God knows that I love you, but I cannot be both with God and with humans." There still seems to be no suggestion that he has any responsibility to assist others and to lead them to salvation. Abba Macarius of Egypt is equally inexorable. "Flee from humans, he says; and, when asked what that means, he replies: "It is to sit in your cell and weep for your sins." A monk, so it appears, has no duty toward his neighbor; he must simply think about himself and repent his own offenses. Texts such as these, taken in isolation certainly suggest that monastic anachoresis is something introspective and selfish. When Paul the First Hermit withdraws into total and lifelong seclusion, what possible benefit did this confer on society around him? Yet this is not the whole story. In other cases the ascetic undertakes, not simply a flight in order to escape, but a flight followed by a return. This pattern can be seen in particular in the immensely influential Life of St. Antony of Egypt (231356), attributed (perhaps correctly) to St. Athanasius of Alexandria. At the outset, Antony withdraws gradually into an ever increasing solitude, which reaches its extreme point when he encloses himself for two decades in a ruined fort, refusing to speak or meet with anyone. But when he is fifty-five there comes a crucial turning point. His friends break down the door and he comes out from the fortress. During the remaining half-century of his long life, Antony still continues to live in the desert, apart from two brief visits to Alexandria. Yet, even though he does not go back to the world in an outward and topographical sense, on the spiritual level he does indeed "return." He makes himself freely available to others, he accepts disciples under his care, and he offers guidance to a constant stream of visitors, serving "as a physician given by God to Egypt," in the words of his biographer. Palladius recounting the story of Eulogius and the cripple, provides a vivid picture of how in practice Antony exercised this ministry of spiritual direction. His description is strikingly similar to the account-written fifteen centuries later-of the Russian staretz Zosima surrounded by the pilgrims, in Dostoevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov. Here, then, in St. Antony's case, there is a flight into the desert which turns out to be not world-denying but world-affirming. Although he begins by avoiding all contact with fellow humans, he ends by accepting great numbers of them under contact with his fellow humans his pastoral care. If the portrait of him given in the Apophthegmata (sayings/stories) is to be trusted, Antony felt an intense compassion for others, a direct sense of responsibility. "From our neighbor is life and death, he said; "if we gain our brother, we gain God, but if we cause our brother to stumble, we sin against Christ." Such is the pattern of Antony's life: silence gives place to speech, seclusion leads him to involvement. This same pattern - of a flight followed by a return - recurs repeatedly in the course of monastic history. It marks the life of St. Basil of Caesarea in fourth-century Cappadocia, of St. Benedict of Nursia in sixth-century Italy, of St. Gregory Palamas (1296-1359) in Palaeologan Byzantium, and of St. Sergius of Radonezh (c.1314-1392) and St. Seraphim of Sarov (1759-1833) in Russia. In all of these instances, the ascetic starts by withdrawing into seclusion and ends by becoming the guide and leader of others, a spiritual father or soul friend. What is more, these two stages - solitude, followed by leadership - are not merely juxtaposed in time but are integrally connected with each other. It is precisely because they first withdrew into solitude that these ascetics were afterwards able to act as spiritual guides. Without the ascetic preparation that they underwent in the silence of the wilderness, St. Antony, St. Benedict, or St. Seraphim would never have been able to bring light and healing to others in the way that they did. Not that they withdrew in order to become guides and spiritual masters to their generation; for they fled, not in order to prepare themselves for any other task, but simply in order to be alone with God. When St. Benedict hid himself in a cave near Subiaco, he wanted simply to save his own soul, and had not the slightest intention of saving Western civilization. But his solitary quest for personal salvation did in fact exercise in the long term a profoundly creative effect on European culture. Often it is precisely the men and women of inner stillness - not the activists but the contemplatives, fired by a consuming passion for solitude - who in practice bring about the most far-reaching alterations in the society around them. In the case of saints such as Antony, Benedict, or Seraphim, the flight was followed by a return. Yet what is to be said of the many ascetics who, after the model of the legendary Paul the First Hermit, never actually "returned" but remained to the end in solitary isolation? Were their lives entirely wasted? Was their anachoresis simply negative? Not necessarily so; it all depends on our criteria. In speaking earlier about Arsenius I was careful to use the words "seems" and "appears." When Arsenius flees from his fellow humans, it may indeed seem to the modern reader that he is doing nothing to help them. But, in the eyes of many of his contemporaries, he was in fact doing something extremely positive in the solitude of the desert: he was praying. Significantly, Arsenius, the Desert Father who represents anachoresis in its most uncompromising form, is depicted in the Apophthegmata as, above all, a person of unceasing, fiery prayer: "A certain brother went to the cell of Abba Arsenius in Scetis and looked through the window, and he beheld the old man as if completely on fire; for the brother was worthy to see this.... They also said about him, that late on Saturday evening he turned his back on the setting sun, and stretched out his arms towards heaven in prayer; and so he remained until the rising sun shone on his face. And then he sat down." Such, then, is the service which the solitary ascetic renders to society around him. He helps others not through active works of charity, not through writings and scholarly research, nor yet primarily through giving spiritual counsel, but simply through his continual prayer. His anachoresis is in itself a way of serving others, because the motive behind his withdrawal is to seek union with God; and this prayerful union supports and strengthens his fellow humans, even though he knows nothing about them; and they, on their part, are unaware of his very existence. The point is effectively summed up by Palladius in the phrase "guarding the walls.'" In his chapter on Abba Macarius of Alexandria, whom he met around 391 CE during his early years in Cellia, he recounts: "Once, when I was suffering from listlessness (akedia), I went to him and said: 'Abba, what shall I do? For my thoughts afflict me, saying: You are making no progress; go away from here.' And he replied to me, 'Tell them: For Christ's sake I am guarding the walls.' " The monks keep watch like sentries on the walls of the spiritual city, thus enabling the other members of the church inside the walls to carry on their daily activities in safety. Guarding the walls against whom? The early Christian ascetics would have had a clear and specific answer: against the demons. Guarding the walls by what means? With the specific weapon of prayer. In the words of the Historia Monachorum: "There is not a village or city in Egypt and the Thebaid that is not surrounded by hermitages as if by walls, and the people are supported by their prayers as though by God himself." The positive value of flight into the desert is evident when we take into account the meaning that the desert possessed for these early Christian ascetics. It had a twofold significance. It was both the place where God is to be found - here the classic prototype was Moses, who met God face to face in the desert of Sinai - and at the same time it was the place where the demons dwell. The second meaning is vividly emphasized in the Life of Antony: as Antony withdraws into the deep desert, he hears the demons shouting, "Depart from our territory. What business have you here in the desert?" So the solitary, in withdrawing into the desert, has a double aim: to meet God and to fight the demons. In both cases he is not being selfish, and his purpose is not to escape but to encounter. He goes out to discover God and to achieve union with him through prayer; and this is something that helps others. Equally he goes out to confront the demons, not running away from danger but advancing to meet it; and this also is a way of helping others. For the devil with whom he enters into combat is the common enemy of all humankind. Thus there is nothing self-centered in his act of anachoresis. Every prayer that he offers protects his fellow Christians, and every victory that he wins over the devil is a victory won on behalf of the human family as a whole. Such, therefore, is the positive value of anachoresis, even when it is not followed in any visible or explicit fashion by a movement of "return." Of course, many twentieth-century students of early Christian literature do not believe in the existence of demons or in the efficacy of prayer; but such persons need to recognize that the authors of the literature that they are studying believed keenly and intensely in both of these things. According to the early Christian world view, then, the solitaries were assisting others simply by offering prayer-not just through prayer of intercession, but through any kind of prayer: Civilization, where lawlessness prevails, is sustained by their prayers,
and the world, buried in sin, is preserved by their prayers. In the words of an Orthodox writer in Finland, Tito Colliander: Prayer is action; to pray is to be highly effective. . . . Prayer is the science of scientists and the art of artists. The artist works in clay or colours, in word or tones; according to his ability he gives them pregnancy and beauty. The working material of the praying person is living humanity. By his prayer he shapes it, gives it pregnancy and beauty: first himself and thereby many others. The ascetic in the desert, that is to say, helps his fellow humans not so much by anything that he does, but rather by what he is. "First himself and thereby many others": he serves society by transforming himself through prayer, and by virtue of his own self-transfiguration he also transfigures the world around him. By weeping for his own sins, the recluse is in fact altering the spiritual situation of many others. The rationale of ascetic anachoresis is concisely summed up by St. Seraphim of Sarov: "Acquire the spirit of peace, and then thousands around you will be saved." Perhaps the more a monk thinks about converting himself, and the less he thinks about converting others, the more likely it is that others will, in fact, be converted. St. Isaac the Syrian (seventh century) goes so far as to maintain that it is better to become a solitary than to win over "a multitude of heathen" to the Christian faith: "Love the idleness of stillness above providing for the world's starving and the conversion of a multitude of heathen to the worship of God.... Better is he who builds his own soul than he who builds the world." That is to put the point in a deliberately provocative way; but in fact he who "builds his own soul" is at the same time building the world, and until we have ourselves been in some measure "converted" it is improbable that we shall ever convert anyone else to anything at all. Actually, solitaries did on occasion prove quite effective as missionaries, as is shown, for example by the story of St. Euthymius (377-473) and the Bedouin tribe, but this is exceptional. In this way the solitaries, through their ascetic anachoresis, are indeed cooperating in the salvation of the world; but they do this not actively or intentionally but existentially-not through outward works but through inner perfection. In the words of Father lrenee Hausherr: "All progress in sanctity realized by one member benefits everyone; every ascent to God establishes a new bond between him and humanity as such; every oasis of spirituality renders the desert of this world less savage and less uninhabitable."
Repression or Transfiguration? Anachoresis, then, can be world-affirming as well as world-denying. The flight of the solitary from the world may be followed by a "return," in which he or she acts as a spiritual guide, as a "soul friend"; and, even when there is no such return', the hermits are helping others by the very fact of their existence, through their hidden holiness and prayer. What then of enkrateia? Often in Eastern Christian sources this seems to imply an attitude toward material things, toward the human body, and toward members of the other sex, that is little short of dualist. But is this invariably the case? Cannot ascetic enkrateia be likewise affirmative rather than negative? First of all, early Christian ascetic texts insist repeatedly on the need for moderation in all forms of abstinence and self-restraint. Doubtless this was necessary precisely because so many ascetics were immoderate; yet it is nonetheless significant how often the best and most respected authorities issue firm warnings against excess. What distinguishes true from demonic fasting, states Amma Syncletica, is specifically its moderate character: "There is also an excessive asceticism (askesis) that comes from the enemy, and this is practiced by his disciples. How then are we to distinguish the divine and royal asceticism from that which is tyrannical and demonic? Clearly, by its moderation." As regards food, the Apophthegmata and other early sources regularly discourage prolonged fasting, and state that the best course is to eat something every day. If we want to fast in the right way, affirms John of Lycopolis, the golden rule is never to eat to satiety, never to stuff one's belly. According to St. Barsanuphius of Gaza, we should always rise from the meal feeling that we should have liked to eat a little more. The same principle applies to the drinking of water: we should restrict our intake, stopping well short of the point where we feel that we cannot possibly drink any more. Sober advice of this kind serves to counterbalance the stories of spectacular and inhuman fasting. Moderation, however, is a vague term. To render our evaluation of enkrateia more exact, let us take up a distinction that is made by Dom Cuthbert Butler between natural and unnatural asceticism: The mortifications recorded of the Egyptian solitaries, extraordinary and appalling as they were, were all of a kind that may be called natural, consisting in privation of food, of drink, of sleep, of clothing; in exposure to heat and cold; in rigorous enclosure in cell or cave or tomb; in prolonged silence and vigils and prayer; in arduous labour, in wandering through the desert, in bodily fatigue; but of the self-inflicted scourgings, the spikes and chains, and other artificial penances of a later time, I do not recollect any instances among the Egyptian monks of the fourth century. What basically distinguishes natural from unnatural asceticism is its attitude toward the body. Natural asceticism reduces material life to the utmost simplicity, restricting our physical needs to a minimum, but not maiming the body or otherwise deliberately causing it to suffer. Unnatural asceticism, on the other hand, seeks out special forms of mortification that torment the body and gratuitously inflict pain upon it. Thus it is a form of natural asceticism to wear cheap and plain clothing, whereas it is unnatural to wear fetters with iron spikes piercing the flesh. It is a form of natural asceticism to sleep on the ground, whereas it is unnatural to sleep on a bed of nails. It is a form of natural asceticism to live in a hut or a cave, instead of a well-appointed house, whereas it is unnatural to chain oneself to a rock or to stand permanently on top of a pillar. To refrain from marriage and sexual activity is natural asceticism; to castrate oneself is unnatural. To choose to eat only vegetables, not meat, and to drink only water, not wine, is natural asceticism; but it is unnatural intentionally to make our food and drink repulsive, as was done by Isaac the Priest, who after the Eucharist emptied the ashes from the censer over his food, and by Joseph of Panepho, who added sea water to the river water that he drank. Incidentally, such actions surely display a curious disrespect to God as creator; for we are not to disfigure the gifts that God confers on us. Unnatural asceticism, in other words, evinces either explicitly or implicitly a distinct hatred for God's creation, and particularly for the body; natural asceticism may do this, but on the whole it does not. The official attitude of the church, especially from the fourth century onwards, has been entirely clear. Voluntary abstinence for ascetic reasons is entirely legitimate; but to abstain out of a loathing for the material creation is heretical. The point is firmly made in the Apostolic Canons (Syria, c.400 CE): If any bishop, presbyter or deacon, or any other member of the clergy, abstains from marriage, or from meat and wine, not by way of asceticism (askesis) but out of abhorrence for these things, forgetting that God made "all things altogether good and beautiful" (Gen. 1:31), and that he "created humankind male and female" (Gen. 1:27), and so blaspheming the work of creation, let him be corrected, or else be deposed and cast out of the Church. The same applies also to a lay person. The Council of Gangra (Asia Minor, c.355 CE) likewise anathematizes those who censure marriage and meat eating as essentially sinful. The motive for asceticism must be positive, not negative: "If anyone practices virginity or self-control (enkrateia), withdrawing from marriage as if it were a loathsome thing and not because of the inherent beauty and sanctity of virginity, let such a one be anathema. When we fast, so Diadochus of Photice (mid-fifth century) insists, "we must never feel loathing for any kind of food, for to do so is abominable and utterly demonic. It is emphatically not because any kind of food is bad in itself that we refrain from it." We fast, not out of hatred for God's creation, but so as to control the body; also fasting enables us to help the poor, for the food that we ourselves refrain from eating can be given to others who are in need. Natural asceticism, it can be argued, is warfare not against the body but for the body. When asked by some children, "What is asceticism?," the Russian priest Alexander Elchaninov (1881-1934) replied, "A system of exercises which submits the body to the spirit"; and when they inquired what was the first exercise of all, he told them, Breathe through the nose. Our ascetic aim is not to impede our breathing through some forced technique, but simply to breathe correctly and so to let the body function in a natural way. "The important element in fasting," Father Alexander added, "is not the fact of abstaining from this or that, or of depriving oneself of something by way of punishment"; rather its purpose is the "refinement" of our physicality, so that we are more accessible to "the influence of higher forces" and thus approach closer to God. Refinement, not destruction: that is the aim. In contrast, then, to the unnatural variety, natural asceticism has a positive objective: it seeks not to undermine but to transform the body, rendering it a willing instrument of the spirit, a partner instead of an opponent. For this reason another Russian priest, Sergius Bulgakov (1871-1944), used to say (employing the word "flesh" in its Pauline sense, to signify not our physicality but our fallen and sinful self): "Kill the flesh, so as to acquire a body." As for the body, so far from killing it we are to hold it in honor and to offer it to God as a "living sacrifice" (Rom. 12.1). The Desert Father, Dorotheus, was surely wrong to say of his body, "It kills me, I kill it;" and he was tacitly corrected by another Desert Father, Poemen, who affirmed: "We were taught, not to kill the body, but to kill the passions." There is an eloquent assertion of the intrinsic goodness of the body in the hymn already quoted, On Hermits and Desert Dwellers: Their bodies are temples of the Spirit, their-minds are churches; their prayer is pure incense, and their tears are fragrant smoke... They greatly afflict their bodies, not because they do not love their bodies, rather, they want to bring their bodies to Eden in glory.
It is reassuring in this connection to find that the earliest and most influential of all Greek monastic texts, the Life of Antony, adopts a markedly positive attitude towards the body. When Antony emerged after twenty years of enclosure within a fort, his friends "were amazed to see that his body had maintained its former condition, neither fat from lack of exercise,, nor emaciated from fasting and combat with demons, but he was just as they had known him before his withdrawal.... He was altogether balanced, as one guided by reason and abiding in a natural state." There is no dualistic hatred of the body here; asceticism has not subverted Antony's physicality but restored it to its "natural state," that is to say, to its true and proper condition as intended by God. This natural state of the body continues up to the end of Antony's long life. Although he lived to be more than a hundred, his eyes were undimmed and quite sound, and he saw clearly; he lost none of his teeth-they had simply become worn down to the gums because of the old man's great age. He remained strong in both feet and hands." So according to the texts, enkrateia enhanced rather than impaired Antony's bodily health. "We were taught, not to kill the body, but to kill the passions," says Abba Poemen. But is he right? Cannot even the passions be redirected and used in God's service? Our answer will depend in part on the meaning that we attach to the word pathos (passion). Are we to regard it in a Stoic sense, as something fundamentally diseased and disordered, a morbid and pathological condition, or should we rather follow the Aristotelian standpoint and treat it as something neutral, capable of being put either to evil or to good use? The manner in which we understand pathos will also influence the sense that we give to the term apatheia (dispassion, passionlessness). But this is not simply a linguistic issue; for the way in which we employ words influences the way in which we think about things. It makes a considerable difference what we say to others and, indeed, to ourselves: do we enjoin mortify" or "redirect," "eradicate" or "educate," "eliminate" or "transfigure"? Philo adopts the Stoic view of pathos, and many Greek Christian fathers follow him in this, regarding the passions as "contrary to nature" and even directly sinful. This is the position of Clement of Alexandria, Nemesius of Emesa, Gregory of Nyssa, Evagrius of Pontus, and John Climacus, to mention only a few. But there are significant exceptions, and both Theodoret of Cyrus and Abba Isaias of Scetis adopt a more positive attitude. Desire and anger, says Theodoret, are "necessary and useful to nature": without desire we would experience no longing for divine things, no appetite for food and drink, no impulse towards "lawful procreation, and so the human race would perish. Anger in its turn has a positive function, he says, for it prevents our desire from passing beyond due limits. Isaias likewise argues that the different passions can all be put to a positive use that is "in accordance with nature." Desire, employed aright, impels us to love God; jealousy (or zelos [zeal]) spurs us on to make greater efforts in the spiritual life (cf. 1 Cor. 12.31); anger and hatred prove beneficial, if directed against sin and the demons; even pride can be used in a constructive way, when we employ it to counteract self-depreciation is not to suspend despondency. The aim of the ascetic, then, press these passions but to reorient them. St. Maximus the Confessor (c.580-662) follows the same approach when he describes love for God as a "holy passion." In similar terms St. Gregory Palamas speaks of "divine and blessed passions"; our objective is not the nekrosis (mortification) of the passions but their metathesis (transposition). Even in those authors, such as Evagrius, who speak of pathos (passion) in pre-orative terms, the notion of apatheia (dispassion) is by no means unduly negative. Evagrius himself links it closely with agape love. It is not an attitude of passive indifference and insensibility, still less a condition in which sinning is impossible, but it is on the contrary a state of inner freedom and integration, in which we are no longer under the domination of sinful impulses, and so are capable of genuine love; apathy" is thus a particularly misleading translation. Adapting Evagrius's teaching to a Western audience, St. John Cassian wisely rendered apatheia as puritas cordis (purity of heart) a phrase that has the double advantage of being both scriptural in content and positive in form. To denote its dynamic character, Diadochus employs the expressive phrase "the fire of apatheia." It is no mere mortification of the passions, but a state of soul in which a burning love for God and for our fellow humans leaves no room for sensual and selfish impulses. From all this it is evident that enkrateia, although often understood in a negative manner-as hatred of the body,, as the destruction of our instinctive urges-can also be interpreted in more affirmative terms, as the reintegration of the body and the transformation of the passions into their true and natural condition. Again and again, when the patristic texts are carefully analyzed, the Greek fathers turn out to be advocating not repression but transfiguration.
A Vocation for All Our explanation of the terms anachoresis and enkrateia has made clear that askesis signifies not simply a selfish quest for individual salvation but a service rendered to the total human family; not simply the cutting off or destroying of the lower but., much more profoundly, the refinement and illumination of the lower and its transfiguration into something higher. The same conclusion could be drawn from an examination of other key ascetic terms, such as hesychia (stillness, tranquility, quietude). This too is affirmative rather than negative, a state of plenitude rather than emptiness, a sense of presence rather than absence. It is not just a cessation of speech, a pause between words, but an attitude of attentive listening, of openness and communion with the eternal: in the words of John Climacus, "Hesychia is to worship God unceasingly and to wait on him.... The Hesychast is one who says, 'I sleep, but my heart is awake"' (Song 5.2). Interpreted in this positive way, as transfiguration rather than mortification, askesis is universal in its scope-not an elite enterprise but a vocation for all. It is not a curious aberration, distorting our personhood, but it reveals to us our own true nature. As Father Alexander Elchaninov observes, "Asceticism is necessary first of all for creative action of any kind, for prayer, for love: in other words, it is needed by each of us throughout our entire life.... Every Christian is an ascetic." Without asceticism none of us is authentically human.

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On Spiritual Peace of Heart

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On Spiritual Peace of Heart

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Excerpts from Unseen Warfare as edited by St. Nicodemos of the Holy Mountain and revised by Bishop Theophan the Recluse

Your heart, beloved, is made by God for the sole purpose of loving Him alone and of serving as a dwelling for Him. So He calls to you to give Him your heart, saying My son, give me thine heart (Prov. 23:26). But since God is peace passing all understanding, it is quite indispensable for the heart, which wishes to receive Him, to be peaceful and free of all turmoil. For only in peace is His peace, as David says. So strive above all things to establish and make firm the peaceful state of your heart. All your virtues, all actions and endeavors should be directed towards achieving this peace, and especially your valiant feats of struggling against the enemies or your salvation; as the great practiser of silence, Arsenius, says: 'Make it your whole care that your inner state should be in accordance with God, and you will vanquish your outer passion."

Peace of heart is disturbed by passions; so if you do not allow passions to approach the heart, it will always remain at peace. in the unseen warfare, the warrior stands full: armed at the gates of the heart and repulses all those who attempt to enter and disturb it. While the heart is at peace, victory over the attackers is not difficult. Peace of heart is both the aim of spiritual warfare, and the most powerful means to achieve victory in it. So, when passionate turmoil steals into the heart, do not jump to attack the passion in an effort to overcome it, but descend speedily into your heart and, strive to restore quiet there. As soon as the heart is quieted than the struggle is over.

Human life is nothing but unceasing warfare and endless temptation. Temptation provokes struggle, and. so warfare ensues. Owing to this warfare you should always keep awake and do your utmost to guard your heart and watch over it, to keep it peaceful and quiet. When some disturbing movement arises in your soul. strive with zeal to stifle it and pacify the heart, lest this confusion makes you stray from the right path. For the human heart is like a weight on a clock or like a boat's rudder. If you make the weight lighter or heavier, this will immediately change the movement of all the wheels, and the hands will cease to show the correct time. If you move the rudder to the right or left, the course of the boat is at once altered, so that it no longer stays on its former course. In the same way, when the heart is thrown into turmoil, everything within us is brought into disorderly movement and our very mind loses the capacity of right thinking. This is why it is so necessary not to delay in quieting the heart as soon as it becomes troubled by something internal or external, whether in time of prayer or at any other time.

And you must realize that you will know how to pray rightly only when you have really mastered the task of guarding your inner peace. So direct your attention to this subject and try to find out how to achieve a state of affairs when every action is done in peace of heart, with pleasure and joy. I should say, in brief, that preserving peace of heart · should be the constant endeavor of your whole life; you must never allow it to be cast into disorderly turmoil. Then, doing all your business tranquil in the shelter of this peace, as it is written: My son go on with thy business in meekness (tranquility) (Eccleasticus 3:17) you will attain the bliss promised to the tranquil. Blessed are the meek .for they shall inherit the earth.

"On the Means of Preserving Inner Peace"

To preserve inner peace:

1) First of all keep your outer senses in order and flee all licentiousness in your external conduct,-namely, neither look, speak gesticulate, walk nor do anything else with agitation, but always quietly and decorously Accustomed to behave with decorous quiet ness in your external movements and actions you will easily and without labor acquire peace within yourself, in the heart; for, according to the testimony of the fathers, the inner man takes his tone from the outer man

2) Be disposed to love all men and to live in accord with everyone, as St. Paul instructs: If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men (Rom. 12:18).

3) Keep your conscience unstained, so that it does not gnaw at you or reproach you, in anything, but is at peace in relation to God to yourself, to your neighbors, and to all external things, If your conscience is thus kept clean, it will produce, deepen and strengthen inner peace, as David says: Great peace have they Which Love Thy law and nothing shall offend them (Ps. 119:165).

l) Accustom yourself to bear all unpleasantness and insults without perturbation, It is true that before you acquire this habit you will have to grieve and suffer much in your heart. But once this habit is acquired, your soul will find great comfort in the very troubles you meet with. If you are resolute, you will day by day learn to manage yourself better and better and will soon reach a state where you will know how to preserve the peace of your spirit in all storms, both inner ant outer.

If at times you are unable to manage you heart and restore peace in it by driving away all stress and griefs, have recourse to prayer and be persistent, imitating our Lord and Saviour, Who prayed three times in the garden of Gethsemane, to show you by His example that prayer should be your refuge in ever stress and affliction of the heart, and that, no matter how faint-hearted and grieved you may be, you should not abandon it until you reach a state when your will is in complete accord with the will of God and, calmed by this, your heart is filled with courageous daring and is joyfully ready to meet, accept and bear the very thing it feared and wished to avoid; just as our Lord felt fear, sorrow and grief, but, regaining peace through prayer, said calmly: Rise, let us be going; behold, he is at hand that doth betray Me (Matt. 26:46)

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Sobre la oración y sobre el amor a Dios y al prójimo. P. Arsenie Papacioc. La oración verdadera nunca cesa. P. Roman Braga.

Sobre la oración y sobre el amor a Dios y al prójimo. P. Arsenie Papacioc.

domingo, julio 08, 2012 Posted by JDavidM

Sobre la oración.

La oración no debe hacerse sólo en determinados momentos del día, sino debe ser un deseo y un hábito, debe ser permanente. No se trata sólo de los santos paráclesis (oraciones específicas a la Virgen) y de otras oraciones, que llevan a tomar determinadas posturas corporales como las postraciones y otras formas de piedad; se trata de elevar la mente hacia Dios, de pensar en Él de manera personal, incesante, sin ni siquiera decir nada, sino sólo darle desde tu corazón un sentimiento de amor y de respeto, incluso de temor. En todo caso, lo importante es mantener la mente y el corazón elevados al cielo, hacia la salvación.

Así, la solidez espiritual hacia un estado permanente de oración, debe ser un propósito serio, porque es lo que lleva paz al corazón, una especie de alimento concentrado para éste, y el don de Dios le ayudará.

Dios es un Dios del corazón. Ora, entonces, sintiéndolo. El poder de la oración no radica en tal o cual palabra, sino en la forma en como se dice. Dios necesita sólo del corazón y con esto le basta, si éste permanece frente a Él con devoción. La oración incesante en esto consiste, en presentarnos con humildemente frente a Dios; nuestras oraciones leídas, después, no harán sino agregar más leña a ese fuego.

Vete a dormir y levántate con las preocupaciones de Cristo (no las tuyas), es decir, cómo piensa, qué piensa de cada uno de nosotros para lograr que nos salvemos, porque esta preocupación divina es incesante, sí, sin detenerse jamás. Cuando alguna necedad te atrapa o cuando buscas alejarte de tu prójimo, aunque este se haya equivocado contigo, en ese momento Jesus vuelve a crucificarse por tí.

Piensen siempre en el juicio final, qué respuesta daremos entonces!

No pierdan el tiempo! ¿Acaso saben ustedes qué valor tiene el tiempo perdido? Toda la felicidad eterna, con los ángeles, ciertamente está relacionada con este tiempo. Poco tiempo, pero vivido como se debe!

Sobre el amor

Amar a tu hermano porque es tu hermano, es un amor meramente humano, no místico, espiritual. Amar a tu prójimo, así como amas a tu hermano, éso es un amor místico.

El primer mandamiento (y el más importante), "Amarás a Dios con toda tu alma y con toda tu mente...", es ciertamente el más grande, completado con otro que dice "Amarás a tu prójimo como a ti mismo". Si este segundo mandamiento es similar con el primero, significa que nuestro prójimo tiene reflejos divinos, por gracia de Dios. Porque no puedes amar a Dios sin amar a tu semejante.

Si no sientes amor por todo, entonces no amas en absoluto. Si no eres agradecido con tu prójimo, tampoco lo eres con Dios. Si reconoces a Dios en tu corazón, entonces, lo reconoces también en tus semejantes y en lo que te rodea.

Por eso se ha dicho que amemos totalmente a nuestro prójimo, porque esta es la medida de tu amor por Dios, al Que no ves, pero Quien puede sentirse y vivirse en Su mandamiento: "Amarás a tu prójimo como a ti mismo". Es decir, así como amas tu plenitud física y humana, con la intensidad de sus necesidades propias, pero especialmente como amas tu plenitud espiritual (posible), para acercarte a Dios, así debes amar a tu semejante, a quien Dios hizo visible entre tú y Él, para que entiendas que amándole Dios reconoce tu verdadero amor hacia Él. Y para que veas y sientas que en este amor total hay una belleza inigualable, debes llenarte de la luz que Dios no da sino a aquellos corazones nobles, bondadosos y humildes. "El hombre se diviniza con su participación en la luz divina y no por medio de cierta transformación en un ser divino". Entonces, atrayendo a tu semejante, así como te atraes a tí mismo, con toda la fuerza de tu corazón, hacia Dios, intentarás entender la plenitud, la libertad y la armonía eterna.

Intenta descubrir en tí la fuerza dominante, para que puedas valorar y recibir en don el único tesoro que puede hacer que los hombres se conozcan a sí mismos, el hombre y el Dios que le ha hecho: la armonía.

Dios sólo a través del hombre se glorifica, incluso cuando podría aparecer cierta tentación que dice que difícilmente se podrá encontrar en el mundo a alguien que se haya liberado completamente del amor de sí mismo. Esto no anula para nada la lucha incesante por cumplir los mandamientos divinos, que no son nada utópico. El mandamiento nuevo, el más grande, el amor total, no tiene principio ni final.

El mundo fue creado por un Dios bueno. Las fuerzas del amor que vive en nosotros, nos vienen de Él. Si es que no te produce temor pensar en los tormentos eternos del infierno, teme y camba tu forma de vivir, hacia el amor de Dios. Él nos ama tanto, como para rechazarlo.

Traducción libre, tomada de: Arhimandrit Arsenie Papacioc. "Scrisori catre fii mei duhovnicesti". Manastirea Dervent. Constanta, Rumanía, 2001.

 

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La oración verdadera nunca cesa. P. Roman Braga.

viernes, enero 04, 2013 Posted by JDavidM

-Padre, ¿Qué debemos hacer para amar mucho más a Dios, para sentirlo más cerca de nosotros?

- Debemos hablar con Él. Debes sentirlo en ti, no fuera de ti, en el exterior; debes sentirlo en tu interior, en tu corazón, porque nuestro corazón es infinito, ya que en él vive Cristo desde nuestro bautizo. Una persona tiene ciertas dimensiones infinitas, las de su personalidad; en lo profundo, la persona humana es eterna. En esta profanidad nuestra está Dios, de acuerdo a lo que repite tantas veces San Pablo “Ustedes son iglesia del Dios vivo”.

Entonces, no dirijamos nuestra oración a un rincón, porque Dios no es material o espacial como para ponerlo en un solo rincón y decir “¡Ahí está Dios!”. Ensimísmate y dirige desde el corazón tu oración a Dios y así sentirás Su presencia. Hablar con Dios te ayuda a sentir la presencia de Dios. Cuéntale a Dios cuando tienes hambre, cuando tienes sed, dile a Dios que vas a viajar a tal lugar, habla con Él cuando vayas en camino, enséñale lo bellas que están las flores. Habla con Dios de todo, “Señor, ¿Qué hago? Fíjate que tengo que tengo que hacer esto y esto; tengo hambre, voy a ir a comer un pedazo de pan”;puede parecer cosa infantil, pero toda conversación con Dios se convierte en oración.

Porque, ¿Qué es la oración? Es una continua comunicación de la persona con Dios. Recuerden lo que dice San Pablo en la Carta a los Tesalonicenses: “Oren sin cesar”. ¿Cómo lograba él orar sin cesar, cuando todo el tiempo fue un hombre muy activo? Hizo tantas iglesias, escribió tantas epístolas, hizo tantas cosas… No podía, entonces, estar permanentemente de rodillas, orando. Entonces, pensó lo siguiente: hay que sentir todo el tiempo la presencia de Dios, en el corazón.De hecho, los Santos Padres de la Iglesia así definen la oración: la oración es sentir la presencia de Dios. Orar no es solamente leer algo en un libro. Es algo que deben saber también los jóvenes. No se trata solo de hacer una oración por la mañana y, listo, se acabó por hoy. Alguna vez habrás pensado “¡Ah, no terminé de hacer mis oraciones!”.Pero la oración no se termina nunca. Habla con Dios como si fueras un niño, ¡porque somos los pequeños de Dios! Y este hablar infantil con Dios te traerá el sentimiento de la presencia íntima de Dios en tu corazón. Existe un refrán conocido entre monjes: “Si oras sólo cuando oras, entonces no oras en absoluto”. Si sientes la presencia de Dios en ti, entonces te encuentras en ese estado de oración. El individuo en sí se vuelve una oración, porque tiene ese estado de oración, no momentos de oración,… no momentos en los que ora y momentos en los que no. Eso sería terrible. Debemos sentir todo el tiempo la presencia de Dios en nosotros.

Cuando digas “¡Señor!” está seguro que Dios vuelve Su rostro hacia ti y espera a que le digas algo. Cuando estás ocupado, permanece atento a lo que haces. Cuando hables, piensa siempre lo que dices. Pero, si tienes tiempo, 2, 3, 4 minutos o incluso hablando con otras personas, puedes decir. ” ¡Señor Jesucristo, tennos en cuenta, ayúdanos!”O “¡Señor, Bendice a estas personas!”.

Traducción libre de un fragmento del texto publicado en www.putna.ro