Farewell Word.Saint Sophrony(Sakharov)

     

Fr. Sophrony:

            Blessed be the Name of the Lord now and unto the ages!

         The Lord left as His commandment: "Love me and in this love keep my commandments"[1]. By keeping the commandments we become accustomed to live effortlessly in the frequent memory of Christ, His life, His example and His words. So then, I ask you please, my beloved brothers and sisters, to accept simply and in peace these words, not as mine, but as an answer to the call which our Lord is addressing us.

         If you hear now some things, similar to those that the Lord said at the Last Supper prior to His departure, I ask you please to not be saddened by these, because He Himself said: "Do not premeditate what you will speak... but whatever is given you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak but the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father".[2] As He chose the Most Holy Virgin Mary and rendered Her a path for His Incarnation, in that same way the Lord unites Himself with all of us and according to our type of mind. Therefore, it follows that I have the right to speak, following the example of Christ, because He said: "I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you".[3]

Persecution and monasticism preparation for sanctity.Saint Sophrony(Sakharov)

Archimandrite Thomas, Saint Sophrony, Mother Mariam,
contemplating the icon of the Mother of God.

  

Fr. Sophrony:

          As always, I come to our synaxes without preparation. My preparation rests on the prayer which you have just chanted: that the Spirit may come and vivify our heart and mind. And once again I rejoice that I am living this moment of our meeting together...

          We are living in an exceptionally important time. Two or three years ago a team of theologians from Serbia visited us. These young Serbian theologians asked me what I thought about the future. Here in our country (England), no one knew at that time the word "perestroika", which all the world today knows. I answered them that I am not a prophet, but my prayer tells me that humanity is living in a tragic tension, which surpasses the capacities of whichever State leader. Thus, if destruction through a nuclear war does not come in the near future, there will occur an inevitable revival of Christianity. And behold, a little while later, we began to hear talk on "perestroika" (= reconstruction- reformation), so that the Orthodox Church in Russia is now undergoing a period of revival.

          As Christ said that through the Providence of our Creator and Father even the hairs of our head are numbered[1], it is obvious that through the same Providence also Russia was preserved throughout this entire period of seventy years. The Word of God entered total kenosis, when He said to the Father, on the Cross : "Why have You forsaken me?"[2]The Apostle Paul tells us that God did not answer His Son who was dying saying, "Father, into Your hands I commit  my spirit"[3]. And precisely from that moment of His death, Christ began to be known not as a Prophet, no matter how great He was, but as God Himself.

          What the Church of Russia lived throughout the period of the seventy years, was allowed by Divine Providence, even though from a human point of view these years were an exceptionally tragic period. The slaughter of Christians was allowed by the Providence of God, at a time when the voices and innumerable prayers of the faithful remained unanswered from the part of the Heavenly Father. Knowing very many texts of prisoners, exiles etc., we can see there the repetition of all that occurred during the first centuries of Christianity. Thus, was granted in our times an exceptionally grand privilege: the privilege not only to believe in God, but also to suffer with Him[4]. In other words, these events, which seem to us terrible and which urged in us tearful prayer for them and for the whole of mankind, permitted a harvest of thousands and thousands of great saints.

Saint Sophrony (Sakharov).Worship and Prayer. by Mother Mariam (Zacca)

Excerpts from the video presented in the international symposium "Meeting with the Confessor - Elder Sophrony (Sakharov)" that was held in Neamt Monastery, Iasi, Romania - November 2016.

What are you human life?!.Saint Colombanus.

       

Saint Colombanus.

          Human life, fragile and marked for death, how many have you deceived, beguiled, and blinded? While in flight, you are nothing; while in sight, you are a shadow; while you rise up, you are but smoke. Every day you depart and every day you return; you depart in returning and you return in depart­ing, different ending, same beginning, different pleasure, the same passing, sweet to the foolish and bitter to the wise. Those who love you do not know you, and those who condemn you really understand you. Thus you are not true but false; you pre­sent yourself as true but prove yourself false. 

          What are you then, human life? You are the wayfaring of mortals and not their liv­ing; your beginning is in sin and in death your end. You would be true if the sin of the first human transgression had not cut you short so that you became unsteady and mortal and marked all who tread your way for death. And so you are the way that leads to life, but not life itself, for you are a true way, but not an open one: brief for some and long for others, broad for some and nar­row for others, joyful for some and full of grief for others, but for each and every one, you hurry on and cannot be called back. A way is what you are, a way, but you are not evident to all. Though many see you, few understand that you are indeed a way.

l'Emmanuel né de la Vierge.Saint Irénée de Lyon.

Saint Irénée de Lyon.

Par la désobéissance d'un seul homme, le péché a fait son entrée et par le péché, la mort a prévalu, de même, par l'obéissance d'un seul homme, la justice a été introduite et a produit des fruits de vie chez les hommes qui autrefois étaient morts. Et de même que ce premier homme modelé, Adam, a reçu sa substance d'une terre intacte et vierge encore - «car Dieu n'avait pas encore fait pleuvoir et l'homme n'avait pas encore travaillé la terre»- et qu'il a été modelé par la Main de Dieu, c'est-à-dire par le Verbe de Dieu - car «tout a été fait par son entremise», et: «Le Seigneur prit du limon de La terre et en modela l'homme, de même, récapitulant en lui-même Adam, lui, le Verbe, c'est de Marie encore Vierge qu'à juste titre il a reçu cette génération qui est la récapitulation d'Adam. Si le premier Adam a été pris de la terre et modelé par le Verbe de Dieu, il fallait que ce même Verbe, effectuant en lui-même la récapitulation d'Adam, possédât la similitude d'une génération identique. Mais alors, objectera-t-on, pourquoi Dieu n'a-t-il pas pris de nouveau du limon et a-t-il fait sortir de Marie l'ouvrage qu'il modelait?- Pour qu’il n'y eût pas un autre ouvrage modelé et que ce ne fût pas un autre ouvrage qui fût sauvé, mais que celui-là même fût récapitulé, du fait que serait sauvegardée la similitude en question.

En connexion étroite avec le Christ, la Vierge Marie tient nécessairement une place éminente dans le plan du salut.

Contemporary Hagiorite witnesses of Deification.Metropolitan Ierotheos Vlachos.

Saint Gregory Palamas.

St. Gregory Palamas belongs to the category of those Hagiorite Fathers who see God. He himself, as St. Philotheos Kokkinos describes, had experiences of God many times, but also participation in the deifying energy of God. His way of writing and the way in which he analyses the texts of the holy Fathers manifest his personal participation in the uncreated glory of God.

For the Glory of God, we have written testimonies about vision of the uncreated Light in our days. Several Hagiorite monks, for many reasons, chiefly to help the Christians whose faith was wa­vering, came to the point of revealing their experiences. Thus we have written testimonies of this life. In what follows we should like to mention four such testimonies, which show the value and importance of the Mountain of holy name.

The first is the witness of father Paisios. He describes how St. Arsenios of Cappadocia appeared to him at the mo­ment when he had finished writing his biography. It was an experience of God, for saints appear in the uncreated Light. Moreover the saints enjoyed Paradise and the Kingdom of God, which is the vision of the uncreated Light. It is very charac­teristic that on Mt. Tabor the Prophet Elijah and the Prophet Moses appeared in God's Light. Paisios writes:

"The Father also has other such garments, but my own spir­itual hands have been paralyzed by my many sins and I can­not loose them for the present to pray. May the good Father forgive me for this and for the fact that I have defiled his name, which he gave me. It is true also that I have not imitat­ed him in any way. And while I was regarded as a young scamp the indulgent Father Arsenios, as an imitator of Christ, was vindicating me by his love. It seems that for years he was collecting all his love for me in order to give it to me at one time and to jolt me, careless and insensitive as I am, into re­covering my senses.

Vivre en Dieu au quotidien.Starets Serge Chévitch.

Starets Serge Chévitch.

Correspondant de saint Silouane et du célèbre Higoumène Chariton de Valaam, ami de Jacques Maritain, Louis Massignon, Olivier Lacombe, Charles du Bos, Emmanuel Mounier et Gabriel Marcel, père spirituel de Nicolas Berdiaev, de Vladimir Lossky et du grand iconographe Grégoire Kroug, le Starets Serge Chévitch (1903-1987) fut l'une des figures les plus charismatiques et les plus lumineuses de l'émigration russe et de l'Église orthodoxe en Occident.

Les possibilités humaines dépassent de très loin les limites de la vie terrestre. Les hommes ont de grands dons, mais ceux-ci sont bien peu développés dans la vie terrestre. La plupart des hommes restent en deçà de ce qu'ils pourraient et devraient être par rapport à leur vocation et à leur destin spirituels. Comme disait Pascal: « L'homme passe infiniment l'homme » Les talents dont parle l'Évangile sont les possibilités que nous avons et que nous devons développer et faire fructifier. Nous devons avoir conscience de la responsabilité que nous donnent ces possibilités, et agir pour les mettre en valeur.

Notre but doit être de vivre en union avec Dieu. Nous devons tendre sans cesse vers le Royaume des cieux auquel nous sommes destinés. Notre but doit constamment être la vie éternelle qui est notre vraie vie. Mais cette vie nous sommes appelés à la vivre déjà ici-bas. 

The Spiritual Fire.Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov.

Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov.

God is the teacher of prayer; true prayer is the gift of God. To him who prays constantly with contrition of spirit, with the fear of God and with attention, God Him­self gives gradual progress in prayer. From humble and attentive prayer, spiritual action and spiritual warmth make their appearance and quicken the heart. The quick­ened heart draws the mind to itself and becomes a temple of grace-given prayer and a treasury of the spiritual gifts which are procured by such prayer as a matter of course.

“Labor away”, say great ascetics and teachers of prayer, with pain of heart to obtain warmth and prayer, and God will grant you to have them always. Forgetfulness expels them, and it is born of sloth and carelessness. If you want to be delivered from forgetfulness and captivity, you will not be able to attain it otherwise than by acquiring within you the spiritual fire; only from the warmth of the fire of the Spirit forgetfulness and captivity vanish. This fire is obtained by desire of God.

Brother! Unless your heart seeks the Lord day and night with pain, you will not be able to succeed. But if you abandon everything else and occupy yourself with this, you will attain it, as Scripture says: Be still and realize (Ps. 45.11).

Brother! Implore the goodness of Him Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2.4) to give you spiritual vigilance which kindles the spiritual fire. The Lord of heaven and earth came to earth to pour that fire upon it (Luke 12.49).

According to my power I shall pray with you that God Who gives grace to all who ask with fervor and toil may grant you that vigilance. When it comes it will guide you to the truth. It enlightens the eyes, directs the mind, banishes the sleep of languor and negli­gence, restores luster to the weapon covered with rust in the earth of sloth, restores radiance to clothes defiled by captivity to barbarians, and inspires a desire to be satisfied with the great sacrifice offered by our great High Priest. This sacrifice of which it was revealed to the Prophet that it cleanses sins and takes away iniquities (Isa. 6.7), forgives those who weep, and gives grace to the humble (Prov. 3. 34), manifests itself in the worthy, and by it they inherit eternal life, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Spiritual vigilance or sobriety is a spiritual art which completely delivers a man, with the help of God, from sin­ful actions and passionate thoughts and words when fer­vently practiced for a considerable time. It is silence of heart; it is guarding of the mind; it is attention to oneself without any other thought which always, incessantly and unceasingly calls upon Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and God, which breathes by Him, with Him courageously takes up arms against the enemies, and which confesses Him. This is the definition of spiritual vigilance that St. Hesy­chius of Jerusalem gives. The rest of the Fathers agree with him.

When the fire descends into the heart, says St John of the Ladder, it revives prayer. And when prayer has risen and ascended to heaven, then the descent of the fire takes place into the cenacle of the soul. It is evident that the Saint is speaking from his own blessed experience. Some­thing similar happened in the case of Saint Maximus Kapsokalivitis. “From my youth”, he told St Gregory the Sinaite, “I had great faith in my Lady, the Mother of God, and besought her with tears to grant me the grace of mental prayer. Once I came to her temple as usual and fervently prayed to her for this. I went up to her icon and reverently kissed her image. Suddenly I felt as if there fell into my breast and heart a warmth which did not burn, but be­dewed and delighted me, and stirred my soul to compunc­tion. From that moment my heart began to say the prayer within itself, and my mind began to delight in the remem­brance of my Jesus and the Mother of God and to have Him, the Lord Jesus, constantly within itself. Since then the prayer has never ceased in my heart".

The prayer of grace appeared suddenly, unexpectedly, as a gift from God. The Saint's soul had been prepared to receive the gift of prayer by fervent, attentive, humble, constant prayer. The prayer of grace did not stay in the Saint without its usual concomitants, quite unknown and uncongenial to the carnal and natural state.

An abundant manifestation of spiritual fire in the heart, the fire of divine love, is described by George, the recluse of Zadonsk, from his own experience. But before that, he was sent the divine gift of penitence which purified his heart to receive love (the gift which acts like fire and con­sumes all that defiles the courts of the Holy and Mighty Lord), and even took all the strength from his body. “The holy and heavenly fire”, says St John of the Ladder, “scorches some on account of their defective purity; but others it enlightens as having attained perfection. The same fire is called a consuming fire and an illuminating light. For this reason some leave their prayer as if it were a hotly heated bath-house, feeling a certain relief from defilement and earthliness; while others go out shining with light and arrayed in a double garment of joy and humility. But those who after prayer feel neither of these two effects are still praying bodily, and not spiritually."! Prayer inspired by divine grace is here called spiritual prayer, while prayer performed by one's own efforts without the obvious assis­tance of grace is called bodily prayer. The latter kind of prayer is indispensable, as St John of the Ladder says, in order that grace-given prayer may be granted in its time. But how does the prayer of grace intimate its coming? It intimates its coming by supernatural weeping - and the man enters the gates of God's sanctuary (his heart) with unspeakable thankfulness!.

 Reference:

On the Prayer of Jesus. Ignatius Brianchaninov.(1965)