"A Call from the Holy Mountain," by Elder Ephraim of Philotheou and Arizona

A CALL FROM THE HOLY MOUNTAIN

The Holy Monastery of Philotheou

By Elder Ephraim of Philotheou and Arizona

 

Introduction

Fifteen years ago, on the day of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God, my venerable Elder, Father Joseph, passed away. He had oftentimes said to my unworthiness:

“My son, if God leads any souls into your hands, make certain of teaching them one thing only. Prayer. Prayer will teach them everything else and will sanctify them.”

The prayer my holy Elder had in mind was the ceaseless meditative prayer - the Jesus prayer, which he had recited throughout his life ever since he had become acquainted with it. He had been so deeply absorbed by it that he could go without food, but not without prayer.

For its sake he had suffered countless woes and temptations from both visible and invisible foes. In The Way of a Pilgrim [1] Saint John of Karpathos puts it simply thus: “those who devote themselves completely to prayer are quite often subject to dreadful temptations.” Elsewhere, the same holy man says that “the teacher should frequently humble himself and bear misfortune and temptations that his spiritual offspring may be instructed.”

These experiences, which were made into lessons for us, yielded a spiritual fruit to my blessed Elder. It was that benign change undergone by all pious souls who surrender themselves to the grace of God unconditionally and beyond limits.

In the text of The Life of Our Memorable Father Joseph the Hesychast you will find the following extract giving a glimpse of his experience derived from the Jesus prayer and in general from leading a life of tranquil hesychasm:

“There comes a moment when man is at prayer uttering it with all his mental powers concentrated and with only the sweet Name of our Lord Jesus on his lips that all of a sudden his mind is illuminated or rather overwhelmed by a dazzling immaterial light as white as snow and a fine perfume imbues all his being. He emerges from himself standing in another world quite transformed. It is then that he neither prays nor thinks: he just looks upon the sublime works of God.”

Saint Makarios the Great had once said that “there are eyes behind these eyes and there is a hearing beyond this hearing.”

My humble hesychast Elder had two touching characteristic features: silence and tears. In the vastness of silence, he could hear the whispers of grace. Death found him with his face bedewed with those tears whose sweetness we have not as yet experienced.

It is this luminous life of his that we, his spiritual children, have vowed to follow, each one according to his capacity and the particular constitution of his inner being.

The humble brotherhood which has gathered around my unworthiness, and which by God’s grace is growing day by day, after intermediary stations at Nea Skiti and at St. Artemios in Provata has now taken root in this peaceful spot of the Holy Monastery of Philotheou.

The Monastery used to be idiorrhythmic; [2] it is now cenobitic, [3] and we give thanks to God for all His blessings.

Create In Me a Clean Heart, O God

Facing our Holy Monastery is what is known as the Skete of Magoula. It was there that before the middle of the fourteenth century Saint Gregory of Sinai first taught the Jesus Prayer on the Holy Mountain. This challenges us to carry on the hesychastic course, within the framework of Orthodox monasticism, as it has been passed on to us by our memorable Elder and to devote ourselves assiduously to the task of making a monk of the inner man. For the difficulty does not lie in the prospective monk changing his mundane appearance by putting on monastic garments; the difficulty is to bring about a change in his heart. You have probably heard of what Saint Basil the Great had told a nobleman who had taken the vows without becoming a monk at heart. “A Senator has been lost, and no monk has been gained.” Saint Ephraim the Syrian elsewhere made this observation: “ascesis, [4] my child, is not a game; it demands perseverance and a great deal of discipline to achieve the redemption of the soul.”

When you come to the Holy Mountain you will observe among the Icons and frescoes the image of a crucified monk. A monk, any monk, is nailed to the Cross surrounded by demons representing the mortal sins, maliciously aiming their shafts at him. In his torment the monk speaks the words of Prophet David, “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” The Lord’s Angel hovers over the monk ready to come to his support in case he loses heart. That is the life of a monk who has vowed to carry the Lord’s Cross for as long as he lives. Whoever thinks of it otherwise cannot be a member of a monastic brotherhood. Father Athanasius of the Iviron Monastery, who passed away some months ago, used to say that “such should a monk’s life be that he should gradually become an earthly Angel and a heavenly man.” And to quote another holy man, Saint Neilos the Wise, a pupil of Saint John Chrysostom, “a monk is said to be an altar of the Lord; an altar in which and from which pure prayers are offered to God in the Highest; an altar spiritually founded.”

The question remains how the sinful human heart can be cleansed so that it may turn into a “spiritually founded altar.” The Holy Fathers say that a safe and unerring way of purifying the heart, of illuminating the mind and of sanctifying the soul is through the constant application of the Jesus Prayer.

The Ascetic Fathers attribute the origins of this prayer to the holy Apostles. Ever since the Apostolic years the ceaseless mental prayer appears to have been the secret breathing of the Body of the Church through the ages. The Church is Christ’s Body and breathes in the name of Christ. Christ’s name has the power and the grace and the energy of the Holy Trinity. Thus, with the blessed name of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ have generations and generations meditated.

Pray Without Ceasing

The Jesus Prayer reached the Holy Mountain in the middle of the 14th century. From the Skete of Magoula, which we spoke of above, it rapidly spread not only to the Monastery dependencies which are more suitable for an undistracted life of hesychasm but also to the Sovereign Monasteries of Mount Athos and to the Fraternities outside the Mountain, including secular Christians. It was then that this mystic flame of prayer spread from one part to another and enlightened minds, warmed up hearts, purged consciences, and purified souls in view of the Kingdom of Heaven.

In his well-known Philokalia, Saint Nicodemos of the Holy Mountain appended an extract from the life of St. Gregory Palamas where he recommends that “all Christians in general should pray without ceasing.” Here are some excerpts from it. “Let no one think, my Christian brethren, that only clergymen and monks are under the obligation to pray continually and at all times while laymen need not do so. Nay. All Christians without exception should be praying, as Saint Paul the Apostle recommends in his Epistle to the Thessalonians: ‘Pray without ceasing.’ We, too, should follow the admonition of the Saints. It is not only we that should constantly be praying, but we should also instruct all others whether they be monks, laymen, scholars, men, women or children and encourage them to pray without ceasing.”

You see, my brethren, that all Christians from the youngest to the eldest are under the obligation to recite the meditative prayer at all times, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” But laymen would say: “We are besieged by the myriad cares and problems of this world. How can we be expected to pray without ceasing?” My answer is this: God did not instruct us to do the impossible; He only asked us to do what is in our power to do. That is why this may also be attained by anyone firmly seeking to save his soul. For had it been impossible, it would have been so for all laymen and there would not have been so many in the world who do attain this.

How widely that prayer spread at the time may be seen from the reaction raised against it by the westernized monks and scholars who tried to make an open deliberate misinterpretation of the prayer and its attendant profound effects. The monks of the Holy Mountain assigned Saint Gregory Palamas to take up the defense of the Jesus Prayer, of Hesychasm and on the whole of all those mystic and dogmatic views of the Orthodox East against which westernized opinion had risen up in arms. Saint Gregory was the best choice for this undertaking not only on the grounds of his proficiency in theology and philosophy but also because of his hesychastic experiences gained from the ascetic application of the Jesus Prayer. At the time, this holy Father spoke as “one having authority” and made such an impression in the West that it revealed that the spirituality of Western Christendom was dogmatically ailing. With its confused and false precepts on highly significant questions, the Western Church, to say the least, deprives its faithful of the possibility of salvation. When, for example, the Westerners ascribe to God both essence and energy, they actually cause a deadlock. If God is inaccessible both in essence and from the point of view of His divine energy, then men cannot really communicate with Him. They cannot enter into the essence of God; and again, they cannot be redeemed through the constructive energies of God as viewed by the Latins. Therefore, their dogmatic foundations do not give the faithful any chance to seek real salvation safely, as had been offered by Our Lord Jesus.

Saint Gregory developed the distinction between “the essence and the energies of God” and affirmed that “the inconceivable and incomprehensible God in essence becomes accessible to men through his energies.” By participating in the divine energies or the divine grace man receives by grace what God holds in essence.

Therefore, man’s salvation is real, because man becomes a god in everything but essence, concludes Professor P. Christou in his Ecclesiastical Grammatology.

On the basis of this Orthodox doctrine of our great mystical theologian, three Councils in Constantinople (one in 1341 and two in 1351) denounced the enemies of Hesychasm and proclaimed the Saint “the defender of piety.” The fact that the Church determined to commemorate Saint Gregory, who later became Archbishop of Thessaloniki, on the second Sunday of the Great Fast following the first Sunday of Orthodoxy, as if it were a second Sunday of Orthodoxy, shows what a high tribute of gratitude it wished to pay to the Saint and how willingly it accepted in its Orthodox bosom the pure seed of the Jesus Prayer and of hesychastic life as a whole.

The monks of the Holy Mountain drew up what is known as the Holy Mountain Tome, “for those devoutly practicing hesychasm” in order to render wise “those who owing to their inexperience and their insubordination to the Saints disobey the unknown energies of the Spirit.” The Tome was signed by the Protos of the Holy Mountain, the abbots, the priests and monks of Athos and was ratified by the Bishop of Ierissos in these words: “The humble Bishop of Ierissos and of the Holy Mountain, Iakovos, having been nurtured in the traditions of the Holy Mountain and of the Holy Fathers, and witnessing hereby that the scholars have herewith signed, and that the whole of the Holy Mountain is in agreement, I, too, being in agreement, do append my signature.”

Saint Dionysios of Olympus

Thus, the humble community of the Holy Monastery of Philotheou has laid its foundations on these Orthodox dogmatic and mystical doctrines.

Even the landscape surrounding the Holy Monastery predisposes for a life of hesychast contemplation. Let us go back a short way into history to make the acquaintance of only two of the seven Holy Fathers of the Monastery.

One of them is Saint Dionysios of Olympus who lived in the sixteenth century. Before going to that “idol infested” Greek mountain [5] to purify it by means of his ascetic exercise and toil, he earnestly devoted himself here at Philotheou to the task of purifying and guarding the mind and to the Jesus Prayer. Over above the Monastery in the woods there is a curious looking cave. In it, he built a chapel in honor of the Holy Trinity where he used to retire to be alone with God, alone in His presence.

When he later went to Olympus, where in a deep gorge he built another church of the Holy Trinity, in the evening after compline he used to leave the Monastery and walk up to the cave. He would spend the night in prayer and before the day broke, he would return to the Monastery for Holy Liturgy. On his way to and from the cave the Holy Father never used any light. But the monks would frequently follow his steps both when going and when returning. That light of another world, the “uncreated light” of the Trinitarian God would emanate from him, illuminating him. [6]

The Saints come to know true “Light through Light in Light.” That is the light of the Church, the light of Orthodoxy, the light of Monasticism; that is the light of hesychasm which Saint Gregory Palamas defended. It is to this divine light that the Holy Trinity introduces its disciples from this world.

In Icons, Saint Dionysios may be seen holding a scroll with these words on it: “O monk, go your way, be silent, be peaceful and save yourself.” Another Saint admonishes “through saving save your soul; take yourself to the mount of no passions.”

Saint Dionysios is one of the hesychast Saints of the Holy Monastery of Philotheou.

Saint Cosmas the Aetolian

The other one is the Saint of slaves and of free men. He is Cosmas the Aetolian the Holy Martyr and the peer of the Apostles. He is the Saint who spread so much light around him that he illuminated the enslaved Grecian race, saved it from the menacing embrace of Islam and roused it from the slumber of serfdom. His teachings, his miracles and his prophecies will guide Christian thoughts for as long as this world endures.

However much we may say, we cannot repay our debt to this Saint; what we can do is to try, with his blessings, to do something according to our means and under the present circumstances to carry on the tremendous, inimitable missionary task he initiated.

What was accomplished in Saint Cosmas’ heart and prepared him to make up his mind to go out into the world may be found in the words below by the contemporary disciple of Christ, Father Justin Popovich. “By living in Christ, both in body and soul, the Saints are sanctified by Him; they are blessed, they acquire divine power, they become almighty just as in the apostolic and post-apostolic times, just as in later times, and yesterday and today, so will it always be to the end of time.” The Same concept may also be found in a sentence referring to the life of Saint Symeon the New Theologian. “A perfect man becomes the peer of the Apostles; he may turn to other men and tell them what he has witnessed in God. He can and must do this; he may not even do otherwise.”

The same Saint, talking of his call for preaching, used to tell his listeners:

“While I myself listened to the sweet words of our Christ they gnawed at my heart for years, like the worm that eats its way through wood, wondering what I could do in my ignorance. I consulted my spiritual fathers, high prelates and patriarchs, and told them about my thoughts asking whether such a vocation would be agreeable to God if I were to put it into practice; and they all persuaded me to carry on and told me that such a task was both good and saintly.

“My brethren, if it were possible for me to climb up to heaven, to cry out in a loud voice and proclaim that only our Christ is the Son and Word of God, and the real God and the life of everything, I would do it. But because I am unable to carry out so great a deed, I do this: I go on foot from one place to the next and teach my brothers what in my power I can, not as a teacher but as a brother, for our teacher is Christ alone.”

“How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things!” says Saint Paul the Apostle of the nations.

See now how Saint Cosmas wanted to present the world with the Jesus Prayer:

“I now bid you do this: let all of you get a set of 33 beads (elsewhere the Saint says that we should carry 103 beads) and start praying, saying ‘Lord Jesus Christ Son and Word of the living God, by the intercession of the Mother of God and all Thy Saints, have mercy upon me, Thy sinful and unworthy servant.’

“What is beheld in the words, ‘Lord Jesus Christ,’ my brethren? The Holy Trinity our God, the incarnate economy of our Christ and all the Saints who, with the Cross and the ‘Lord Jesus Christ,’ went to Paradise. That is what is beheld. And whoever utters these words and crosses himself, whether man or woman, blesses the heavens, the earth and the sea. With the Cross and the ‘Lord Jesus Christ’ all diseases are cured. With the Cross and the ‘Lord Jesus Christ,’ man is sanctified and makes his way to paradise where he feels happiness and the bliss of the Angels.”

What is it that appears in the “Lord Jesus Christ," my brethren? There appears the Holy Trinity, our God, the incarnate economy of our Christ. It is the strength of the mental prayer that elevates and deifies the industrious laborers before the Blessed and Life-governing Trinity. Saint Dionysios and Saint Cosmas are lovers and adorers of the Holy Trinity. Saint Maximos the Confessor said: “Blessed is the mind that has surpassed all creations and ceaselessly beholds divine beauty.”

And Saint Cosmas puts it in plain words: “All the Saints were lifted up to Heaven with the Cross and the ‘Lord Jesus Christ.’”

Obey God’s Commandments That He May Respond to Your Prayers

The Holy Fathers say that the simply worded prayer “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me” is a summary of the Gospels.

We could even say that if repentance is, according to Saint Isaac of Syria, “the awe experienced by the soul before the gates of the Kingdom,” the “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me” is the knock that Christ commanded us to strike persistently on the entrance leading to His mercy. “Knock and it shall be opened unto you.” To the supplication of this age “have mercy on me,” All-Merciful God responds with compassion and pardon. But to that “have mercy on me” which on behalf of all the heartless rich who are wealthy in both material and spiritual wares, that rich man in the Gospel dares not address God directly but utters it indirectly through the Patriarch Abraham; to that “have mercy on me” and to “Lord, Lord, open to us” and to similar prayers of the age to come, the Supreme Judge shall answer flatly and irrevocably: “Verily, I say unto you, I know you not.”

This “I know you not” means that God knows who the members of His family are; that is, those who know Him in this world in an unreserved way. “The Lord knows His beings.” If we do not become acquainted and familiar to Him here, how is He to recognize us over there? Those who seek His mercy here shall find it there. For only “everyone that asketh receiveth,” only “he that seeketh findeth” and only “to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” The earth is full of the mercy of God but will be bestowed only upon those who are conscious of their sinfulness and prostrate themselves before His compassion.

Sinlessness is the gift of the Angels. Sinfulness and repentance are human traits. Sinning without repenting is the quality governing the demons. Non-repenting sinners shall not differ from demons at the hour of Judgement for spending their lives assimilating themselves daily with the devils. And let there not be brought forth that excuse that for a brief period of sin, should they be eternally damned? Because God judges the future course of humanity from a very few incidents of temporary life. Unrepenting sinners who remain so to their last breath, would have eternally sinned even if they were to live upon this earth forever. On the other hand, if they just were to live forever on earth, they would eternally follow the path of justice.

Now is the time of mercy. Then it will be the hour of Judgement. Saint Hesychios the Elder of Jerusalem wonders and says: “How can he who is not merciful to himself expect mercy from the Judge?”

Once a visitor calling on Saint Anthony implored him, thus: “Have mercy upon me, Father, and pray for me.” The Saint responded: “Neither God nor I may grant you mercy unless you are merciful to yourself.” And the holy Chrysostom clarifies further: “Obey God’s commandments that He may respond to your prayers.”

“Some men wonder in astonishment when we say that most Christians do not love Christ,” says Saint Symeon the New Theologian. But to love Christ is nothing more than to obey His commandments as He himself said, “he that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.” And the scholar Joseph Vryennios was bold enough to conclude: “There are four defects and if a man happens to have one of them, he may neither repent nor may his prayers be heard by God: if he is boastful, if he has no love, if he deems someone (else) sinful and if he feels malice against anyone.”

My brethren, the walls of our sinful hearts fall from within like the walls of Jericho. The power that pulls them down is carried in these few words: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” When the Lord “spake a parable unto them to this end, that man ought always to pray and not to faint.” He concluded “and shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily.”

But we must not use this prayer in such a way so as to make the Lord say to us: “Why do you call on me, ‘Lord, Lord’ while you do not do what I tell you?” Saint Symeon the New Theologian gives us an awe-inspiring definition, namely, that “the gravest of all sins is to pray to God without fear, piety or caution.”

Praying is an Arduous Virtue

Ceaseless meditative prayer lights up the mind of man and rids him of irrational darkness; man acquires those gifts the Son and Word of God bestowed on human nature by means of His incarnate economy, and he becomes part of God.

Through this prayer of the heart Almighty Jesus de- scends into man’s sinful heart and drives away the wicked and defiled spirits. "Whenever the name of our Savior Jesus Christ is invoked and the seal of the Lord’s Cross is placed upon our hearts and bodies, the foe’s power is broken up and the evil demons turn in fright away from us," says Saint Neilos the Wise in one of his epistles.

In his book, Struggle with God, Paul Evdokimoff says:

“God remains eternal so much so as passions are internal and the ego is identified with the evil spirits that dwell in our hearts, according to Saint Diadochus of Photike.

“The ascent towards God begins with a descent into yourself – ‘know thyself’ - so that you may force the passions that drive you away from God to break away from you and to float up to the surface.”

After partaking of the pure and life-giving Mysteries of Christ a Christian becomes a blood-relative of God. He becomes the bearer of Christ, of God, and of the Spirit. He becomes an animate temple of the Trinitarian God. In other words, after a Christian has waged the blessed battle by gathering up all his forces to cleanse himself as best he can, in the name of Christ, from every infection of the flesh and of the spirit, achieving holiness in fear of God, he then approaches the sacramental Altar to commune of the Bread of life and of the new Wine of joy.

“Within the Church there is offered bread and wine representing His Flesh and Blood (that is, Christ’s), and those receiving from the visible bread spiritually eat of Christ’s Flesh.” This is “the perfect Mystery of Christianity” which becomes known through experience, “For Christianity is food and drink and the more one eats of it the more the mind becomes insatiable and yearns for more,” according to Saint Makarios.

Hence, obedient to the commandments of the Lord and to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit by mouth of the Apostles and the Holy Fathers we pray ceaselessly as well we might, we go to confession almost daily and we receive Holy Communion intermittently, keeping in mind Saint Symeon the Theologian, who recommends continual ascetic striving and vigilance:

“Strive with violence, towards your actions, for the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence. As for the actions, these should be vigils, and fastings, and sincere repentance and mourning, and bountiful tears, ever remembering death; prayers without ceasing and suffering all on-coming temptations, above all, silence and profound humility and absolute obedience.”

Father Agathon was once asked by some brethren which virtue he considered to be the most arduous. “Praying,” was his retort. “When the soul yearns for frequent communication with its Creator the evil spirits struggle to prevent it from doing so because they know that there is no stronger weapon against them than prayer. When the soul acquires any other virtue, it then rests; but to learn to pray properly it has to toil all its life.”

“The Christian who remembers to communicate with God only at the hour set for that purpose has not yet learned how to pray,” says one of the Fathers.

Remember God Rather than Breathe

Saint Arsenios’ biographers recount that he used to raise his hands in prayer at sundown and lower them only when the sun again shone upon his face.

There are no fixed hours for the Jesus Prayer. Just as breathing revives the body, so does prayer resuscitate the soul. Saint Gregory the Theologian concludes that "reference to God is respiration." And Saint Ephraim the Syrian says: “Study well lest you study evil, for the mind cannot suffer to remain idle.”

Therefore, we, too, pray as well we might, more than they that watch for the morning but in particular at night. Every night the vigil lasts for at least eight hours. Four hours before Office, every monk mainly recites the Jesus Prayer in his cell and in extension indulges in the study of edifying spiritual subjects. The remaining hours are spent in the Church with the ordinary Midnight Service, the Matins, the Typica and the daily Liturgy. During the day, along with his individual duties, every monk has the internal task of reciting the meditative prayer. The difficulty does not lie in moving the tongue to pray. The difficulty is to follow the words of the prayer mentally and not to forget that we are constantly “at any hour or time” under the gaze of the Lord whose most holy Name we are continually invoking. The persistent effort made by a monk, especially a novice or a beginner, to recall his fugitive mind becomes a sort of habit which by and by becomes natural; in other words, it becomes an acquired part of oneself. Just as, for example, water is pressured and, whether it likes it or not, rises up the water pipes, so does the mind also fret. At the beginning it cannot stand for it, is thwarted from spreading out, and when gradually, with the grace of God, it begins to be enlightened, then the heart feels like one who has been away and with a sense of nostalgia is returning home.

The prayer is started by the tongue, it is assimilated by the mind and is taken over by the heart. Much has been said about this meditative prayer - the “Jesus Prayer.” We would like to add that whoever decides to take up this prayer must seek out an experienced spiritual guide so that he may not come up against insuperable obstacles all by himself and particularly that he may not lose heart and give up or, worse, lest he be led astray by the evil demons. Because when they are confronted by this prayer, they use any possible means to eliminate it. Or they may, for instance, persuade the devotee to pray negligently without any fear of God; or they may encourage his false piety to feed upon his latent egotism that they may rob him stealthily by deceit. At this point we should remember that the slightest attention or significance we may attribute to dreams or even visions is capable of disturbing our spiritual course and may make us deviate without our becoming aware of it. We should always remember the Apostle Paul who warns us to beware of the luminous-like transformations of the spirits of darkness.

The brilliant Makarios was once asked: “Because sin assumes the form of an angel of light and looks like grace, how is man to discern the schemes of the Devil and how is he to receive and distinguish the power of grace?” The Saint responded: “The power of grace carries with it joy, peace and truth. This truth induces man to seek truth, while the fruits of sin are troubled and bear neither love for nor joy in God.

“And how do those who have, through their efforts, gained God’s grace, fall from it?” Continued Makarios, “These very pure thoughts abandon one’s soul when he starts feeling proud of his merit, criticizes others and says, ‘you are sinners.’ He looks upon himself as being just... Christians therefore should strive in all directions and censure nobody but should look upon all without malice. That is what purity of heart means--to feel compassion for the sinful and for the weak who have no power to resist evil, and to sympathize with them.”

A Monk Stands or Falls by His Thoughts

Because “whatsoever doth make manifest is light,” anything that thwarts our spiritual course should be revealed to our spiritual guide so that our way may be illuminated. Just as a snake cannot remain under a stone if we remove it, neither can the age-old snake, the Devil, remain behind our thoughts if we reveal them. In particular, the novices are in need of very frequent confession of any thoughts whether coming from left or right. “Should we confess all our thoughts, Father?” the novices asked their Abbot. “Not those that are transient and pass but those that remain and nag, those that become persistent,” said the Abbot.

The Holy Fathers say that “a monk stands or falls by his thoughts.” If he discloses his thoughts, the Angels rejoice. If he conceals them, God’s grace will be hidden from his face. It is at this point that lies the valor of a monk and of all Christians in general. The humble one is soon redeemed of the malodorousness of the conscious or unconscious original filth accumulated in him like some other Augean stables. [7] The proud one suffers until he realizes that he must yield to get rid of his evil lodger. Christ shall not enter nor may He rest in proud souls before they humble themselves.

“Humility increases in proportion to fear, and all passions recede before humility and with them the entire host of demons perishes.”

Satan has an aversion for the humble and avoids them more than he does incense.

Have We Been Made Evil by Being Affected by Sin?                                                              Let us be Healed Through Repentance

He who is troubled by evil, vulgar, blasphemous or even facetious thoughts is convinced by Satan that he is the only one in whom such unnatural thoughts occur. This is a lie, for before such thoughts occurred in the confessant similar thoughts or even more impious ones had occurred to the Elder (or the confessor) at the time he was going through similar stages of internal struggle. One should be bold enough to look at himself straight in the eye. A spiritual operation is undoubtedly painful while being carried out but without this psychical pain, the wicked pleasure of sin cannot be exterminated nor can our minds be rid of the invisible fetters of guilt. The shame felt by the man confessing at that moment is only temporary, while at the same time it is doubly rewarding. From the moment he confesses openly and without excuses, the man who has a sense of his sinfulness is redeemed both by this court of conscience, of which nothing in the world is stricter, and by the Court of the Judgement to come. Besides, so much grace takes up the emptied space after this spiritual rendering up that it is sufficient to reward not only the man who confessed, but there is also enough of it to urge him to look deeper inside him to force those venomous reptiles to come out and stop poisoning his heart. If we confess our sins and wicked thoughts the evil demons find no more food or comfort inside us. “Because just as swine feed on acorns, so do wicked desires feed on evil thoughts.” “Confess your sins and thoughts,” Saint Basil counsels, “for otherwise sin shall follow you like a shadow of your soul. Just as the shadow follows the body, so does sin follow the soul.”

“Have we been made evil by being affected by sin? Let us be healed through repentance.” Martyrs shed their blood; sinners shed tears. There is no sin that cannot be washed away by the tears of repentance. And no sin is unpardonable except the one that has not been confessed. Hence, “just as when you stumble and fall in the marketplace you get up again, so also whenever you sin you should repent for that sin without despairing; even if you sin for a second time, repent for a second time; and even if you are at an advanced age and you happen to sin, repent, for this is an infirmary, not a law court dispensing responsibilities for sins,” counsels Saint John Chrysostom.

Blessed is the Christian who sincerely repents and confesses his sins with contrition.

Blessed is the monk who strives to explore minutely his innermost self.

More blessed is he, however, who does not. stop here, but purified as he is with the tears of repentance and confession, draws near “with fear of God, with faith and with love,” to the cup of life to partake of Christ’s Pure and Life-giving Mysteries.

Whoso Eateth My Flesh and Drinketh My Blood Hath Eternal Life

So much has been said about this “controversial point” of the Holy Eucharist that the faithful wonder what they should do in the long run. Two questions mainly arise: (a) how often and (b) after what preparation may and should the faithful receive the Mystery of the Holy Eucharist?

The answer has been given by the Church, which has been guided, is guided and shall be guided by the Holy Spirit “to the whole truth.” The answer is in agreement with the Lord’s words summoning us to a continually repeated participation in the Cup of Life. “Whoso eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” The Holy Apostles and the Holy Fathers interpreted the Lord’s words in the liturgical act to mean a continual coming to this most holy Mystery. They did not set a time; they set the way of participation.

But because frequent participation in the Mystery of the Holy Eucharist requires a coordinate life and an upward course, in order to evade such a constant endeavor towards repentance and sanctification, various plausible sounding pretexts have been invented to prevent Christians from coming to the Holy Cup and from receiving Holy Communion “for the remission of sins and for eternal life.”

Actual Fasting is Constant Temperance

Fasting is the main requirement for preparation. Our Christians who pretend to give a precise interpretation to the question of fasting would, in actual fact, like to ask: “How can we fast so frequently that we might receive Holy Communion so often?” How often? In the days of Saint Basil the Great and Saint John Chrysostom, Christians used to receive Holy Communion three, four or more times a week. Some shudder at the thought of it and immediately ask: “But when did they fast?” We shall provide the answer.

Our Brotherhood also receives Communion three times a week; on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. On each day before – that is, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday – our food is cooked without olive oil. If we take into account the days of the Great Fast (Lent) and the three other fasts of the year, we shall see that we do not have olive oil on most days of the year.

Now let us come to those who wish to be over-precise about fasting and receive Communion [only] certain times of the year, who fast longer and more strenuously. The word “strenuously” ushers in another factor, a more painful one, in fasting. For fasting means that a Christian should abstain from certain kinds of food on certain days and periods of the year as stipulated by our Holy Church.

Fasting, furthermore, means continual temperance. In other words, we should not only fast on the set days of the year when we want to receive Communion and then eat so much for the rest of the year so as to replace in the shortest possible period what we had been deprived of on the days of our preparation for the Holy Communion. Real, genuine fasting is, even if it is not to our liking, to eat with temperance at all times. Because this also does happen, while preparing ourselves to receive Communion and because our food is Lenten we eat double portions under the impression that we are exhausted, from fear lest we fall ill, or urged by the naive thought that since the food is Lenten we may and should eat more. You see, brethren and Fathers, where superficial over-precision leads. Naturally, there are a few who actually fast properly but hesitate to come and receive Holy Communion frequently. Let them look into the causes of their hesitation and they may find some of these...

It may be, for instance, that it is not just a question of fasting but one of habit. Maybe their frequent coming to the pure Mysteries does not depend on them alone but also on their environment. Their environment, they think, is cold or lukewarm. “How am I to be ardent in my love for the Lord who beckons me to offer me joy and immortality?” How many are not those who, at heart, would like to respond to the Almighty’s invitation, but hesitate to make their way through that indifferent crowd which, on their way back, will receive them with a smile of dubious significance.

Quite a few are discouraged by over-zealous confessors. We do not mean to say that confessors should not use the disciplines provided by the Holy Canons; we mean that harsh, abrupt and unjustified cutting off of the believers from this Mystery of life. The Holy Canons were passed just for the purpose of being used in the salvationary work of the Church and should be interpreted in the same spirit with which they were drafted by the Holy Fathers. How many, besides, are not those who dare not even think of a moderate, wise and temperate living within the bounds of their potentialities in this world which daily removes itself from the Light and Truth and Life? My brethren, in this vast desert of apartment blocks, in this wilderness, what with your prerequisites and with ours, God’s grace is being offered calling us to cooperate for the salvation of our souls. God created us without our asking but when it comes to letting us into that world of heavenly bliss, He does ask us and He takes into account our opinion concerning our future position.

Continuous Communion Means Continuous Repentance and Temperance

And because it is in this transient world that our way to eternity is decided; because it is here alone in the spiritual atmosphere of the Church that we can breathe the grace of God and be sanctified through its Holy Mysteries, “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation?” If God were to save all, both just and sinners indiscriminately, He would not call on the sinners to repent. Of course, He wishes that “all men be saved” but on the condition that they become aware of the truth.

So much about the “controversial point” of the Holy Eucharist. It is through this Mystery that we define our relationship with Christ. According to the way we prepare ourselves and according to the frequency in coming to Communion, we are classified as ardent, or lukewarm, or cold in our love towards Him. Regular Holy Communion means continual repentance. Neither neglect of fasting nor sinful pretenses. And we shall fast, and be temperate in all aspects, and we shall receive Communion, if we wish to be saved. We do not mean here that all Christians may receive Communion two or three times a week. This is often not possible. But it is possible with some good will that they receive Communion every Sunday. When any difficulties intervene irrespective of one’s will, then the occasions should be spread out after consultation with the confessor, but without our saying that forty days should elapse before we may receive the Holy Communion or uttering that frigid excuse that we should not receive Communion more than three times a year. If we come to our confessor with as much confidence as we go to our doctor, we are quite certain that through him God shall make the most suitable suggestions for the solution of our problems. Have no doubt about it. Saint Mark the Ascetic says that in the same way that God uses the priest to perform the practical part of the Holy Mysteries, in a corresponding way He uses the confessor’s mind and tongue in guiding that soul which asks and expects, as if from God, an answer to its problems.

But Let a Man Examine Himself

In his highly theological book, Eortodromion, Saint Nicodemos of the Holy Mountain encourages frequent but irreprehensible reception of the Holy Communion, thus: “If the Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ purifies men from sin, why do you, brother, not see to receiving it regularly so that you may be forgiven your known sins? Do you not know that the more often you receive this Holy Blood, the more often you receive this life? And contrariwise, do you not know that the longer you put off and do not receive this life-giving Blood the more you remove yourself from life?”

Therefore, do come frequently to the pure Mysteries and receive the Holy Communion. But take care that you do so with the appropriate preparation, namely, after confession, after fasting in accordance with your powers, with temperance, prayers, attention, contrition of the heart and a clear conscience, examining yourself as the Apostle counsels, so that receiving the Holy Communion may not turn to your damnation. And in accordance with the preparations you make, you shall be given the grace of Communion. Therefore, there are two things you should do. You should receive Communion regularly and do so as worthily as possible without impediments as provided by the Holy Canons. “But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup.” [8]

A fellow-monk wrote in his diary: “Life here flows serenely and tranquilly under the black robes.” The war is an invisible one with interchangeable phases. The most prevalent life experience is “the joyful sorrow,” “the mirthful mourning.” The latter being an effective medication with which the Comforting God heals those struck by the fiery shafts of evil. “Standing in the Temple of God, we think we are in Heaven; O Mother of God, celestial gate, open for us the door leading to your mercy”; what else is sweeter than the most adorable name of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ? What else is more desirable than peace in our hearts and calm in our thoughts? Subtle is the perfume of incense burnt “unto a breath of spiritual fragrance.” The superb hymn-chanters sing chants of spiritual elevation. The Angels and Saints from the Icons on the walls look upon us through the flickering light of the Other World. Their garments, according to the late father Kontoglou, “billowing in the wind blowing in that ever-lasting world.” There the Sovereign Christ is sitting with the Father and the Holy Spirit on the Throne of Glory. “Holy, holy, holy, Lord of Sabaoth, heaven and earth are full of Thy Glory. Hosanna in the Highest.” “Take ye, eat: this is my Body... Drink of it ye all: this is My Blood.”

“Thou drewest me to Thee with a strong desire, O Christ, and Thou didst change my disposition by making me feel Divine Love. But do Thou burn out my sins with Thine immaterial flame and make me worthy of sharing the bliss one always finds near Thee, Good Lord, so that overflowing with joy I may be witness to Thy two comings on earth.”

“What ephemeral taste could supplant the inexpressible sweetness of Holy Communion?” “And what tie is stronger than a blood-tie?” asks the venerable Father [St.] Justin Popovic. Through Jesus Christ we enter into a blood relationship with God; the divine Blood of our Lord Jesus is the sanctifying, purifying, transforming, anointing, deifying, and saving power; this most-holy Blood uniting man with God, also unites all men through Him.

From the texts of the Twelve Apostles, we borrow the following thanksgiving words: “Just as this fraction was dispersed over the mountains and having come together became one, so may the Church gather from the ends of the world around Thy Kingdom.” Thus do we open our arms in immense love to all our brothers in Christ scattered in the four corners of the universe “for we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.”

As the Church is the Body of Christ and Christ is omnipresent, so is His Church spread to the ends of the earth. All those Christians who have been baptized in the name of the Holy, Consubstantial, life-giving and Indivisible Trinity, who acknowledge our Lord Jesus Christ as the God-man, the Redeemer and the Savior of the world, and are sanctified by the Divine Word and the Holy Mysteries of the Orthodox Christian faith, all these constitute the body of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ. Christ’s Church is Catholic in the sense that it possesses the entire fullness of the truth and the grace to illuminate and redeem the world; it is, moreover, Catholic in the sense that it tends not to conquer but to sanctify the world. The Head of the Church is Christ and we are members of it connected by the common faith in conjunction with love.

The history of the Church is the story of its struggle to sanctify its faithful.

This is the Church established by our Lord Jesus. This is the Church of the Holy Apostles. This is the Church of the Holy Martyrs, this is the Church of the Holy Fathers through the ages. The Church of yesterday, the Church of today, the Church of tomorrow, the Church unto the end of time, that shall enter in triumph into the infinite blessed life of the ages to come. For the Church is the homeplace of the Holy Trinity, the very image of it. And yet more because it is the Body of the incarnate Second Person of the Holy Trinity, Jesus Christ, it is in consequence the eternal possession and property of the Holy Trinity, “and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

We firmly “believe in one God, Father...” “And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God...” “And in the Holy Spirit...who proceeds from the Father...” “In One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.” Our Faith has this quality of eternity. The history of the Church throughout the ages testifies that a few Christians may err for a long time, or many Christians may do so for a short time, but it is impossible for all Christians to err forever. Because the Church as a whole, as the Body of Christ, is guided by the Holy Spirit and ever since it was founded has been led by it to the whole truth. The history of the Church also testifies that ever since its foundation the Antichrist has been trying to infiltrate into its Divine Body to disintegrate it and annihilate it as he had attempted against Christ’s Body. But just as the dead Body of the Lord “saw no corruption” and “arose from the dead,” so too, Christ’s spiritual Body, the Church, even if it goes through “the shadow of death shall fear no evil.” Christ, (the Church’s) life-giving power granted to the devil “for a season” that he may put the faithful to the test.

The Word of God says that he who “deceiveth the whole world” will try through the Antichrist to deceive “if it were possible even the very elect” of the Church, but not the Church itself. The human members of the Church will be deceived, but not the Church. Those members in whose faith and life by the Devil’s treachery there shall prevail the human element at the expense of the Divine and the gifts of this age at the expense of those eternal blessings of the coming age, believed in and anticipated, shall be deceived and cut off. The Devil’s craftiness in leading astray the elect, in particular, lies in “forging devoutness” and in urging excessive zeal, so that the believer may reach decisions and perform actions which will remove him from the blessed fold of the Church.

At this point we should underline that falsehood may result in error when it looks all the more like truth. From this dire ordeal suffered by each one of the faithful at the hour of temptation, the highest temptation in their lives, and through which the Church shall pass when the Antichrist shall attempt to forge Christ’s Spirit “so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God,” mere knowledge of things divine cannot save us; it is the taste, indeed, the experience of a life in Christ that will do so. And this is so because Christian truth is not an intellectual affair but a living experience of the dogmatic and moral doctrines of the faith and a mysterious and mystic communication between the faithful and its Founder. Do not wonder at what is said about temptation; for just as Christ was tempted so shall His Church enter into temptation. However, just as Christ vanquished the tempter, so shall the Church vanquish the Antichrist “that Wicked, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming.”

The work of iniquity is already under way. If one fears so much so as to try to spread his roots deeper into the waterways of Orthodoxy and to strive for a greater and a more sincere participation in the Mysteries of our most Holy Church by frequently communicating with Christ, he shall have “the mind of Christ” and shall come “unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,” in a way that he may not only evade the risk of erring but may also become for others a fixed guide to the Kingdom of Heaven. The more we sanctify ourselves the more the Body of the Church is sanctified even in its human form, for in its divine form it is as holy as the Lord Jesus Christ. The history of the Church is the story of a struggle to sanctify its faithful.

“He who believes not after the tradition of the Church is an infidel.” But although many are sure of their firmness in the faith, they declare “at sundry times and in diverse manners” their fear lest the heads of the Church should forge the Orthodox faith and after betraying its prerogatives they drag it bound hand and foot to one of the well-known heresies, to Papism for instance, or Protestantism or to the sum total of heresies, Ecumenism. We already know that although the Church is represented by a number of its members assigned to important posts, it does not spread its universal conscience by means of the actions or decisions of these representatives when these actions or decisions are not in absolute agreement with what has been the common heritage of the Orthodox Christian faith through the ages. It is only then that the final decisions, even of the Ecumenical Councils, bear the mark of validity; that is, on the one hand, when the holy delegates are able, with fear in God and “that their hearts might be comforted,” to utter that sentence of the holy Apostolic Council: “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us;” and, on the other hand, when the flock of the Church, the Orthodox clergy and laity, acknowledge what has been decreed as if they themselves decreed it, as it had been uttered by their own mouths.

In cases of deliberate or indeliberate deviation from tradition, judgment has always been, is and shall be pronounced by the sound public opinion of the Church which by right intervenes and restores peace in the Church; peace, not truth, for the grace and the truth never abandon the Divine Body of the Church. It abandons those who in wavering “concerning faith have made shipwreck,” and betray the birthright of the common heritage of those “taxed” in the heavens.

It never abandons the flock of the Church, either clergy or laity. That is why, “remain with the Church,” counsels Saint John Chrysostom, “and ye shall not be betrayed by the Church; if you do depart from the Church the cause is not the Church. If you are inside, the wolf cannot enter; if you go out, you will be the prey of beasts; the fault does not lie with the fold but with your faintheartedness; nothing may equal the Church.”

My dear brethren, just as we cannot be saved by others without our consent, neither can we be betrayed by others if we ourselves do not betray the cause of our salvation.

You have probably heard that in the summer of 1973 an Exarch of the Holy Ecumenical See came to the Holy Mountain. When the Most Reverend Metropolitan Maximos of Stavroupolis, who was heading the Exarchate, posed a question concerning the commemoration of His Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch, we answered that we would commemorate the name of His Holiness as long as he would follow the path of Orthodoxy. If he strayed, we would discontinue doing so. His Eminence then said: “But how can the Patriarch possibly stray from the path of Orthodoxy?” And we answered, “If His Holiness cannot possibly stray, then we could not possibly cease his commemoration.”

That is what we said at the time. At present we are praying all the more fervently, for clouds are again gathering on the horizon of the Phanar [9] and we do not know what the weather will be like tomorrow.

In our times, more than ever before, a great deal is being said about “union.” The Church has always prayed “for the union of all.” But today the password making the round from mouth to mouth among all the “union supporters” warming up the hearts of all its adherents does not originate from the self-consciousness of the Church; it comes from abroad. It is the work of him whose task is to sow weeds in the garden of the Church to deceive the uninitiated in the mystery of Christianity or in the Mysteries of the Church. Satan did his best to snatch away countless men from the bosom of the Church and to present it before the world as being divided and weak. Now he is again doing his best to unite it into a peculiar union of his own inspiration, using as leaven the formula of “love.” Such has been the plethoric use and abuse of this “love” by so many that others neither wish to hear nor talk about love. Thus, a cold breath has started blowing both where love is being much talked about and where they have stopped talking about it. The Lord has said: “And many false prophets shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”

Those who talk profusely about love tamper with its contents that they may embrace heretics of all textures. This love is as false as false flowers are.

The Church Has No Place                                                                                                     Among the Conglomeration of Errors and Heresies: Ecumenism

The rule is that where much is being said about a virtue, that virtue is not to be found there. The voice raised in favor of that virtue is the cry of its absence. This is the case with the “love” of all those who believe that they should contribute towards the realization of the Lord’s wish “that they all may be one.”

Let us be more specific. They say that we Orthodox should unite with the Roman Catholics and then with the Protestants and with all the known and unknown heresies conceived by the Devil in the name of Christianity. After all Christians without exception unite, they should then unite with the Mohammedans, the Jews and in extension with the Buddhists, Brahmins, Shintoists and with all the religions of the world in general.

This pan-heretical alchemy is being inspired through the so-called World Council of Churches. We think that the term is not true to the fact, for it does not concern a World Council of Churches but a World Council of Will Worship. The only god to demand a tribute of worship there will be the fallen Beelzebub who through his representative amongst men, the Antichrist, will try to substitute his own will for the faith and worship of the true God. For in Ecumenism there is no personal God; for consistent ecumenists the doctrine of the Trinitarian God is utterly rejectable.

It is well known that the devil-instigated Zionism is coordinating two insidious operations both within and without the Church aspiring to one and the same end; to destroy the fortress known as Orthodoxy.

Papists, Protestants, Jehovah Witnesses, Freemasons, Unionists, Ecumenists and any other “root of bitterness” – all these have one mind and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. These shall “make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for He is Lord of Lords, and King of Kings: and they that are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful.”

We believe that Orthodoxy has no place among this conglomeration of errors and heresies. This insidious “ecumenical fabrication does not wish to seek out the truth but,” according to Father Haralambos Vasilopoulos, “is a mixture aimed at exterminating the Truth. It is an effort not for those that have been deceived to find the truth but for those that do have it to lose it; that is, those who believe in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.”

Let Us Not Deceive Ourselves – Between Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy                              There Exists an Enormous Gap

When even the champion of the World Council of Churches, Metropolitan Meliton of Chalcedon, is forced to admit: “It is an undoubted fact that the W.C.C. is 99% under the control of Protestantism and strongly carries its mark,” what more evidence do we Orthodox need to sever relations with them before we crush any hope left in them that the truth really exists unique, intact and lucid to be found in the One, Holy, Orthodox Church of Christ?

The strong position taken up by Father Georges Florovsky that “Orthodoxy’s mission is to be a martyr and ‘bear witness unto the truth’,” may be fulfilled only with an Orthodox Ecumenism described by Father Spyridon Bilialis in his book, Orthodoxy and Papism. “We believe that it is high time that the Orthodox Church came forth united before the world and promoted its own Orthodox Ecumenism by setting up purely orthodox ecumenical rostrums where from in loud voices it would proclaim urbi et orbi that Orthodoxy alone is today the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ.”

Otherwise, with this frequentation of such Church Representatives with today’s heterodox and tomorrow’s atheists, Orthodoxy will run the risk of suffering what Saint Gregory the Theologian said happened in similar cases: “It is easier for one to be infected by iniquity than for him to transmit a virtue; just as it is easier for you to contract a sickness than to have health bestowed on you.”

“Let us not deceive ourselves. Between Orthodoxy and heterodoxy there stands an enormous gap,” says Professor Andreas Theodorou.

“But can’t Christian love bridge this gap?” many ask. Love, my dear brethren, is omnipotent, as mighty as death, but its strength always goes hand in hand with truth. God transmits the power of His love when He is worshipped “in Spirit and in Truth.” The disciple of love, the Apostle of Orthodoxy, setting down the words of His Epistle, says: “The elder unto the elect lady (i.e., the Church) and her children whom I love in the truth...” “Grace be with you, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.” All those who truly believe, love in truth; those who do not truly believe, love in hypocrisy. We, being Orthodox Christians, love everyone and desire that they come to realize the truth. Thus were we taught by “the God of Love”; thus is our conscience set at rest. We feel no animosity against any men because of their heresy or their faithlessness, but we shall never come to love faithlessness or heresy for the sake of men, because if we do, we shall be alienated from God.

One Sunday, a preacher delivered a sermon on “love your enemies.” On the Sunday after, he spoke against alcohol addiction - about the havoc it wrought among the Christian peoples. Incidentally, the infamous Zionists greatly boast about this in their notorious “Protocols.” When the preacher, then, referred to drinking and described its effects as mortal foes, one of the “smart” listeners who, by the way, are never missing, stopped him short and said: “Father, didn’t you say last Sunday to love your enemies?” The preacher calmly answered, “I told you to love them. I didn’t say you should swallow them.”

Something similar is happening with us Orthodox in relation to all non-Orthodox. We love them in all sincerity and pray for them, remembering the admonition of Saint Ignatios the God-bearer: “also pray without ceasing for other men; for there is hope for repentance in them, that they may come to realize God.” We love them so that they may renounce heresy, error, faithlessness, and wickedness. But we cannot assimilate them as they are, piecemeal with their heresy, their error and their atheism.

Salvation Shall Come from the Orthodox

We judge no one, because there is a Judge who shall judge all of us. But we believe we should tell everyone, whether far or near, that by the grace of God we have acquired a life experience; namely, that salvation shall come from the Orthodox.

Only the Orthodox East agreed to venerate and worship God “in Spirit and in truth.” Western man stood up against Eastern Mysticism ever since the beginning. He took the Christian faith slightly, on the surface. He did not let its renovating force pierce to the depth of the "old man” to have him reborn and to transform him. In essence, particularly after the tragedy of the Schism, Western man did not wish to bend his proud neck humbly to the yoke of Christ but in a perverted sort of way induced the Lord’s Church to serve worldly values and objects. It was inconceivable but fatal. For some time now the West has been hinting at “saints without God” and that “God is dead.” Even if these blasphemous utterances were void of any content they are intolerable to the sensitive ears of the Orthodox East. Here, where God and man meet in the path of life, man bows down in humility and pleads for the mercy of the compassionate Father. And that he may become worthy of this mercy at any cost, he binds himself to repentance for life. Through remembrance of death and by means of exercise, he daily puts to death the “old sinful man” in order that the new man of grace may receive the privileges of life. The pathway of the Christian Orthodox both within and without the Monasteries is an ascetic one. If, sometimes, the Christian East appears to be forgetful of this significant element of its spirituality, Orthodox Monasticism always finds ways of reminding it of the fact, gently and affectionately.

Christianity is the Soul of the World

In the incomparable text of the Epistle to Diognetus, the Christians are compared to the world in this way: as the soul is united with the body, so are Christians with the world.

Christianity is the soul, the life and the hope of the world. Had Christ not come, or if His Church were for a very short time to disappear from the face of the earth, then we would see whether “the world that lieth in wickedness would be able to endure its unbearable stench. Christianity is in consequence the soul of the world. Monasticism is in proportion the Christianity of Christianity. And Hesychasm by extension is the Monasticism of Monasticism.

The message of Hesychast Monasticism to contemporary man (who flees from the present and from himself and who divides his mind and heart between the reminiscences of the past and the expectations of the future) and the message of love of humble asceticism to the brethren in Christ, is: exercise, psychosomatic exercise, mental exercise. Concentration of the mind on the heart and investigation of the conscience. Fasting in accordance with the Holy Canons of our Church. Vigilance about incoming and outgoing thoughts. Prayer without ceasing in the name of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ. Each one according to his capacity and everyone willingly, for there is no other way to salvation. The grace of God helps and thus the “things which are impossible for men are possible with God.”

The Disease of the Spirit is Sin

In the past, man suffered in body. Nowadays, he is suffering in spirit. Medicine has ousted disease from the organic region but is compressing it more and more into the “invisible and unmade” inner parts. There it works without being seen and appears by another way. Man is now “possessed” by his guilt complexes to a disconcerting degree even for the specialists. The suppression of guilt is a “second sin” and the “general neurotic behavior is sin,” says Professor J. Kornarakis. All specialists agree that “neurosis is the number one enemy of the mental health of a people and is certainly a vital problem of our age.”

“The disease of the spirit is sin,” agree all the Holy Fathers. By sin and through sin the evil spirits do their damaging work “upon the children of disobedience.” “For of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage,” says Saint Peter the Apostle. Only the Holy Spirit in the name of the Saviour Jesus Christ may deliver man from the destructive effects of sin. Only in the light of the dialogue of confession do all the machinations of the deceit of wickedness vanish and the soul finds rest. And only with the Body and the Blood of Christ may man become the bearer of Christ and God and achieve the purpose for which he was created. “I said: ye are all gods and the children of the Highest.”

Saint Basil the Great says this explicitly: “Man is a creature that was given the order to become God.”

It is in his power to do this, and he should start now. For God is perfect and infinite. And will feeble man manage to overcome in time his defects, with the assistance of divine grace, so that he may march forward to infinite perfection? When is he going to dismantle the work of sin with which he had been busy all these years, that he may gather in a little fruit of repentance, lest his wretched soul Starve to eternity? Time passes, but it refers to eternity which does not. That is why the Holy Fathers urge “if you have time, do not wait for the opportunity.” The old are approaching death but death comes to the young. And “I shall judge you whereupon I find you,” says the Lord God.

The Kingdom of Heaven Suffereth Violence, and the Violent Take it by Force

It suffers violence temporarily: today, now. It also suffers violence morally: repentance; exercise this everywhere and in every way; in any weather and at any time. As much as man can and as much as God wills. God always wants much more than what man can desire. “Neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”

There have always been laymen with hearts of monks; and there have always been monks with hearts of laymen. It is not the place but the means that makes the man. Repentance, my brethren and Fathers in Christ, as Saint John of Sinai says, is a renewal of Baptism; it is the greatest source of redemption following Baptism. Let us remember the steadfast knock of repentance on the gates of the Kingdom. “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.”

 

NOTES

1. A different work from the famous tales of a Russian Pilgrim which was discovered in Optina Hermitage in 19th Century Russia.

2. Idiorrhythmic (Gk. ideo, self + rhythmos, pattern), monks living according to their own will, which is contrary to the traditions of monasticism. Under this system, monks retain personal property. Thankfully, this abuse is now dying out on the Holy Mountain.

3. Cenobitic (Gk. Kinos, common + bios, life), the traditional monastic community where the monks live under obedience to an Abbot, all things are held in common and there is no private property.

4. Ascesis (Gk. askesis, exercise) the disciplining of the body through fasting, vigils and other spiritual practices for the purpose of mortifying the flesh and overcoming the passions.

5. I.e., Mount Olympus, which the pagan Greeks believed to be the home of the gods.

6. This is the Light of Mount Tabor, which was seen by the chosen Apostles at our Lord’s Transfiguration.

7. In Greek mythology, the stable of King Augeas held three thousand oxen and had remained uncleaned for thirty years until Hercules cleaned it in one day by diverting two rivers through it.

8. I Cor. 11:28.

 

Revised from the English translation published by New Sarov Press (Blanco, TX: 1991), which was printed with the blessing of Bishop Hilarion of Manhattan, Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.