The Fight Against the Passion of the Flesh.Saint Sophrony the Athonite.

Saint Sophrony the Athonite.

       

There are people who resist the passions once or twice during the time of the enemy's attack. Let's say, the passion approached the man one hundred times, and in two cases he resisted and he thinks he is an ascetic monk! And he decides to speak to others about the virtues, whilst he himself gives in ninety eight times! Because, when we speak about "the darkness in which the world lives", we have in mind that the world lives in the passions and does not understand our life. People turn away from Christ and from the true revelation of what man is.

          From the Gospel case, in which the devil approached Christ and said: "If you are the Son of God...", it is obvious that we are all children of God, Who said: "Let us create man in our image and resemblance". And the enemy spoke with Christ immediately about the utmost!

          There are people who strive, resist in their ascetic struggle, and out of the one hundred times of contact with the passion of the flesh, they successfully reject it ninety eight times, whilst once or twice in the one hundred they somehow give in against their will. For the ascetic monk however, these once or twice times are experienced as a nightmare. For this reason he does not think to teach others, because he does not consider himself a victor over the passion.

          But once again I am obliged to remind you: Please say each time, as much as possible, in a conscious way: "Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin!".

The hidden spiritual joy.Abbot Nikon.

Abbot Nikon was born in Russia in 1894. He began to pursue his higher education in the field of medicine-psychiatry, but he became convinced that: true knowledge of man was possible only through knowledge of God. Discontinuing his studies, he began to lead a secluded life, devoting himself to the study of the Gos­pels and the Holy Fathers. Here at last he discovered the "one thing needful."

In 1931 he gave monastic vows, and within a year he was ordained hieromonk. A year later he was sentenced to four years in the Siberian camps. Towards the end of the war, with the re­opening of many churches, Fr. Nikon was assigned first to one parish then to another. Finally he was sent, as though exiled, to the small town of Gzhatsk, where he remained until his death in 1963.

Abbot Nikon.

How are you feeling?! Are you depressed?! We should not fall victim to despondency, grumbling about our illnesses and sor­rows, for God has established a law firmer than heaven and earth, that only through many trials is it possible to enter the Kingdom of God.

We have now come to such a period in the history of humanity when one is saved exclusively through enduring sor­rows without a murmur, with faith in God and hope in His mercy. Today there are no other paths by which to attain salvation. For our times one path alone is left to us: the patient endurance of sorrows. “Saint Isaac the Syrian” writes: "More precious to God than any prayer and sacrifice are sorrows endured because of Him and for His sake.

Why the wise thief was pardoned?.Saint John Maximovitch.

“And one of the malefactors which were hanging railed on Him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other rebuked him, saying, Dost thou not fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when Thou contest into Thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise”. (Luke 23:39-13)

"The Crucifixion". Theophanes the Cretan. 16th century.

This Is How the holy Evangelist Luke relates the edifying and moving incident concerning the conversion and the Lord's pardoning of the thief who hung on the cross next to Him on Golgotha.

How did the thief deserve such mercy? What prompted such a quick and definitive response from the Lord? All the righteous figures of the Old Testament, including Saint John the Baptist, were still shut up in Hades. The Lord Himself was preparing to descend into Hades, not, of course, to suffer there, but to bring out the prisoners.

The Lord had not yet promised anyone to lead them into the Kingdom of Heaven; even the Apostles were promised to be taken into His mansions only after He had prepared them.

How is it that a thief was granted such mercy before anyone else? Why were the gates of Heaven opened so quickly for him? Let us examine the soul of the thief and the attendant circumstances.

When God is Silent.

Dr.Daniel and Dr.Jane Hinshaw.*

"Do not lament me, O Mother".
20th century.

Dr. Daniel: Many people who are very sick, suffering, who are near the end of life, feel an increasing sense of isolation. If they are believers, sometimes they experience this as a sense of being abandoned by God; and we can even see this recorded in the Gospel, when our Lord on the cross cried out: “My God, My God why hast thou forsaken me.” That psalm, however, ends up with hope. I think some scholars believe that Christ probably recited the entire psalm. 

There are many different ways of thinking about silence, especially when one considers silence in the relationship between creature and creator. There is a thread within the early fathers, in the writings of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, that speaks about the Holy Trinity in a very interesting way. It says that the incarnation of Christ, God the Father spoke the Word from silence.  God in some very deep way, in the Apophatic tradition of the church, is beyond our understanding, and beyond our comprehension, therefore we encounter God in Silence. For example, in the Anaphora prayers where we speak of Christ, or God, being incomprehensible, inconceivable, beyond our knowing and that God is so utterly other from us, hence we are unable to know directly, the Father the very essence of the Divinity. But God breaks His silence, and speaks His Word, the incarnate Son of God Jesus Christ, a bridge to bring us back to God. 

The Power of the Holy Cross.Metropolitan Gerasimos of Belmont,California.

           

Mosaic of the Holy Cross, Ravenna, Italy.

I would like to reflect briefly on a few themes found in the Veneration of the Holy Cross. 

          The Cross is truly like the tree spoken of in the first psalm: planted besides running waters, it produces fruit in due season. How does it produce its fruit?. Where Adam snatched at equality with God and seized the forbidden fruit in Eden, the New Adam, the Son of God, willingly laid aside his glory and became obedient even unto death, to death on the Cross. In the same hour of the Office of Readings for Holy Saturday, we listen to these words addressed to us by Christ taken from an ancient homily:

           « See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree. I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you”.