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| Saint Sophrony with Father Touma(Bitar) and Mother Mariam (Zacca). Essex. 1990 |
Saint
Sophrony’s conversations with the brethren were a conductor of the grace-filled
state in which the elder himself lived after many years of monastic exploit:
“We must focus all our attention only on not sinning either before God, or
before man, or before things,” he said. “And from this life, simple, but
focused on this commandment, the state of a person is born, when he is already
connected with God in his being”. It is difficult to find words to express this
state, which surpasses everything earthly. “We cannot express it in words,” he
said in one of the conversations, “we must “get” into this state. And we “get”
into this state if God Himself comes and dwells in us -
inconceivably great and powerful and inconceivably humble”.
Neither
any external structures, nor a charter, nor an administrative structure, namely
the word entrusted to him by God through St. Silouan, he put in the foundation
of the monastery. For “the word of the Lord is that which abides
forever” ( 1Pet.1: 25 ), even when “heaven and earth pass
away” ( Mark13:31 ). The word given from God is the most powerful
instrument in the economy of salvation. His eternal power is foretold to us
through the prophet Isaiah: "My word, which proceeds from My mouth
... does not return to Me in vain, but does what I please, and does what I sent
him for" ( Isaiah 55: 10-11 ).
The
Lord commanded the witnesses of His word: “... do not worry in advance
what to say to you, and do not ponder; but what will be given to you at that
hour, speak, for you will not speak, but the Holy Spirit ” ( Mark13:11 ).
Therefore, the elder almost never prepared for the conversation: he did not
make preliminary sketches, did not study theological books. Each time he went
to a meeting with his brothers with fear and faith, prayerfully standing with
his mind before the Throne of God, in the hope that God will not despise his
prayers and “the Holy Spirit will teach ... and at that hour
what should be said” ( Lk12:12). He was brought in half-sick,
half-blind, bent over by old age. In the church, the brethren were already
waiting for him, sometimes also the pilgrim guests - in an atmosphere of the
exceptional importance of the gathering in the name of Christ. The elder
began with a prayer, asking God to give him a soul-saving word for all those
present. In prayer singing, everyone called on Him, "Who is everywhere
and fulfill everything." Then the elder usually addressed the Mother
of God with the following words:
"The
Most Holy Lady Theotokos, who gave birth to all the saints the most holy Word,
now give us a word that is pleasing to the Lord."
Then
- to the saints, the patrons of the monastery:
"Great
Saint John, Forerunner of the Lord and friend of Christ God, look mercifully on
us, who have entrusted you with our life and salvation, and save us ... from
every spiritual calamity, so that we also inherit the Kingdom of Christ our
God."
"Reverend
our Father, Holy Silouan, accept us, your children, and pray to God that we
accept your teaching, which is the teaching of God Himself the Holy
Spirit."
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| Saint Sophrony with the community in Essex. 1990. |
Then there was a long pause: Saint Sophrony gathered himself together with his whole being and intensely sought the word in prayer. The old man's heart, refined by many years of crying and suffering, like a kind of sensitive radar, was able to catch the most subtle movements of the Spirit, which “breathes where it wants” ( John3: 8 ). And as if entering this stream of eternity, he began to speak, suddenly transforming and revealing himself in the regal majesty of his word. He spoke slowly, as if from the heart. At the same time, Saint Sophrony always behaved very naturally and simply. There was nothing pompous, untrue, anything resembling an oracle, uttering prophecy in him. Not. Just a rush of fervent prayer to God, through his word, he captured those present and lifted their consciousness into that world where divine realities are contemplated as evidence.
He
himself once confessed to the brethren in one of the conversations when there
were no guests: “All the time I tried to explain to you how the word of God is
born in the heart of man. This process is not so simple and at the same
time very clear and clean. How can we hear the voice of our God in our
hearts instead of our passionate voice? With all the inexpressibly great
task facing us, our life still remains very simple in its outward
manifestation. When our conversations took place in the presence of
guests, although my word is addressed to the newcomers, I noticed that in a
strange way the prayer about the word includes them. And to turn them on
means: to change the content of the conversation. So when we are alone, then I
hold on more freely, despite the unequal reactions and states of the people
present here. However, even in this case we do not free ourselves at all and do
not achieve the unity of the word, since our conversation cannot touch the same
level for all of us, for we all stand at different levels ” .
Saint
Sophrony’s thirst was great to see his pupils possessing "all the fullness
of God" (see Col.2: 9 ). Therefore, he was always interested in
the question: how to pass on this inner experience to future generations, is it
possible to "educate" the gift of speech in others? Thus, he was
filled with special hope by the words of the Old Testament, which spoke of the
"schools of the prophets" (see 1 Kings 19:20 ; 4 Kings
2: 3 ). He told the brethren: “We all need to develop to hear the
unmistakable voice of the Lord. This feat requires constant, day and night,
inner attention. And so life, simple in appearance, will be constant communion
with God "... He believed that the doors to the highest measures of
perfection are not closed to anyone - through deep repentance, the fire of
which devours everything unclean in a person, through constant abiding with the
mind in God, the Lord, by His grace, can come and accomplish everything
Himself.
Saint
Soprony’s word had a special "taste." Like any spiritual word born in
God, it still possessed the same quality: a person intuitively recognized the
Truth in it. It cannot be faked by replacing the truth with external erudition
or a mask of piety. A person hears the voice of eternity with his heart, not by
way of logical evidence, but through an internal evidence that defies any
analysis. Having gone through an intelligent feat - a long, painful and arduous
one - with his thought the old man was already relentlessly abiding in God and
formlessly contemplated His majesty and wisdom, pouring into the stream of His
eternal will. The memory of God sanctified every action and word, and it was
already impossible for the elder not to “love Him with all my heart and
with all my mind, and with all my soul, and with all my strength” ( Mark
12:33 ).
The
ancient Athos tradition commands young monks to live with the thought:
"All the elders are holy, but my elder is holier." It was not
difficult for those who were with Saint Sophrony to adhere to this
rule. However, its simplicity and accessibility hid its true dimensions
from the intelligent gaze of contemporaries, the comprehension of which
gradually comes only now, when he is not with us.
In a
personal copy of his latest book, "Seeing God as He Is," after his
death, they found a note carefully enclosed by him, addressed to all those whom
his soul loved so much:
It
is not easy for me to leave you, but I have some hope that through my writings,
you can see my “deep” heart and my thought, which I tried to express through my
word, born in fervent prayer with tears. Whenever you wish, you can, while
reading, be with me in the plan of the Spirit, especially if this kind of
fellowship is also supported by joint prayer.
Reference:
Sophrony
(Sakharov), archimandrite. Spiritual conversations. Volume 1. -
Ed. 1st. - St. John the Baptist Monastery, Publishing House
"Palomnik", 2003. - 384 p.