What is the Right Path?

Many ask, "How do I find the right path for me?" This is especially true for young adults who are wondering how to spend their lives while following Christ.  What is the right job, should I get married, or even should I go to a monastery.

Elder Paisios has much to say on this subject.  His first advice to those who are young is to finish their studies. He says, "First they have to concentrate on their degree; then on getting a job." He adds that if one's direction in life is not yet clear then they should continue with their studies and "Later on, pursue what has matured within them and brings them peace."

God has given mankind a free will.  He will never take this away from us. He allows each of us to follow a path that is unique and that will bring each one peace.  God will not force us.  So how do we help those seeking advice about what to do with their lives?  Elder paisios says,

"The parents, the Spiritual Fathers and teachers ought to help the young to select a vocation inline with their capabilities and to follow their natural inclination, without influencing them or strangling that inclination."

The path must be one that each person choses for himself.  We can observe the unique gifts God has given a person and encourage them to use these gifts. But we can only express our opinions and then help them achieve what they have chosen themselves. Elder Paisios clearly advises, "The decision about which life they will follow has to be their own."

What we can do in assisting them is to remove from their path what is harmful and what may destroy their inner peace encouraging living always in harmony with God, with the joy of being close to Him.  Our main concern should be about their salvation and not their career.

If you trust in Christ and follow His commandments you have nothing to fear. Life is never a straight path but one that we are continually seeking clues for the next steps.

Remember always what Elder Paisios says, "Consider what puts you more at peace and choose that."

Reference: Elder Paisios of Mount Athos Spiritual Councils IV: Family Life, pp 22-28

Words, Words, Words...

Too often we place our hopes in words and human thinking.  But, can human thought or words ever gain for us what we seek?

St Gregory Palamas says,

If someone attempts to touch the stars with his hand, even though he is tall and stretched his arm further than the rest, he is almost as far away from those ethereal heights as men of much shorter stature, the difference not being worth mentioning. In the same way, on subjects transcending words, eminent speakers are not significantly better at saying something than anyone else. Who can attempt to treat of matters which utterly defy all words without being seen to give  away beneath the weight of these topics, like those reputed to have boasted they could counterbalance the weight of the universe, or those in the myth who attempted to make their way up to heaven? Men who make such an attempt are as far from the truth as their aims are beyond the grasp of human minds and speech, being outside the spree of this world, based far above the earth and its surroundings, and reckoned among things holy and divine.

Saint Gregory goes on to offers as an example the Mother of God. What were her words? How was she prepared for the incredible task God gave to her?

Words can be helpful in our early stages of our spiritual development to point us in the right direction, but then comes the need to go beyond all words to know Truth.  We need a healing of our soul so we can be in continual communion with God and do His will. Then all of life, no matter how difficult the situation, becomes bearable.  To gain this communion with God we cannot simply read and read, expound and expound with words.  We need to take action to purify our passions from dominating our soul and then learn to follow what it commands of us. This is a state of love which comes not from words but from our heart.  

The path of the Orthodox Life is one that is focused not on words or doctrines, surly it is grounded by sound doctrine, but is focused on a life of repentance. Beginning with faith in the Good News of the Gospel, coupled with a recognition of our sinful state, our condition that is less than what God has intended for us, we must focus on our perfection with the help of God's saving grace.

How?  Do we need to have exalted words?  No. We need to be joined with Christ in His Church, to give our best effort to follow His commandments, and to participate in His sacraments for our healing.  We need to pray daily, participate in the prescribed fasts, and follow the guidance of a spiritual father who knows the path to unity with God.

Let's not get too engaged in the meaning of words, or even in the analysis of Scripture.  With faith, let's seek to heal our souls through the healing sacraments, prayer and fasting. Our souls are crying for healing and liberation from our passions and our dedication to the things of this world. Let's allow ourselves to be lifted above all words and receive what cannot be put into words. This is the path to unity with God and our salvation.

Truely Christ is Risen!

Reference: Mary the Mother of God: Sermons by Gregory Palamas, p16

More On Prayer

Anonymous 6th century

...when you stand in prayer sign yourself with the cross, collect your thoughts to gather and prepare yourself properly; concentrate on him to whom you are praying, and take care that your thought does not depart from him until your prayer has reached its conclusion. At the very beginning of your prayer, compel yourself so that your tears flow and your mind is filled with suffering: in this way your whole prayer will gain advantage. For any prayer in which reflection on God and mental contemplation is not mingled is a mere weariness of the flesh. Take care that your mind does not wander off during the time of prayer as it thinks about empty matters: in that car, instead of arousing the Judge to reconciliation, you will stir him to anger, having been insulted by you. You are full of fear before the world's judges, but in God's presence you show contempt: if someone is not aware of where he is standing and what he is saying, how can he suppose that he is offering up prayer? No, arouse yourself and concentrate your mind at the times when you stand in prayer; your Lord is speaking with you, so do not wander off; his chosen angels surround you, so do not be perturbed; ranks of demons are standing in front of you, so do not slacken. Rather take refuge in trust in your Lord and start off on the road of prayer confidently, turning aside neither to the right nor to the left; then all of a sudden you will arrive at the pace of tranquillity which is exempt from any element of fear, and the offering of your prayer will be accepted, as was Abel's (Gen 4:4), your mind being attentive and aware: whereas the Adversary who opposes you is put to shame, for he becomes fearful of you during your tie of prayer, seeing that the words of your mouth correspond to the will of God.

Resource: The Syriac Fathers on Prayer and the Spiritual Life, pp 174-175

On Prayer

By Saint Jacob of Serugh

Prayer reveals the profundities of the Divine,
by it one enters to behold the mystery of hidden things.
It is the key able to open all doors.
From it one can clearly espy what is hidden,
by it the soul can approach to speak with God,
it raises up the mind so that it reaches the Majesty.
It is easy for prayer to learn the mysteries of the Divinity,
for it can go in and out unhindered by angelic powers:
no angel is as swift-winged as prayer,
nor do the seraphim fly up with it as it ascends;
it wishers its words in the ears of the Lord, without any intermediary,
it murmurs in the heart, and God hears it in his exalted place.
Where it ascends not even the Watchers have ever reached,
for it is capable of approaching the very Divinity.
The seraph hides its face from the divine Being with its wings,
but prayer stands there unveiled before the Majesty:
nothing at all stands in the way between it and the Lord,
for it converses with him and he hears it gladly.
The Watchers tremble and the heavenly hosts in their modesty are held back,
whereas prayer goes in and relates its affairs before God.
The cherubim are harnessed and cannot see him whom they bear,
but prayer goes up and speaks with him lovingly.
In its love prayer advances to be raised up above the heavenly orders.
The cherub is afraid to raise its eyes to the Majesty,
being harnessed in its modesty with the pure yoke of flame;
the ranks of fire to not approach the Hidden One,
whereas prayer has authority to speak with him.
Prayer enters closer in than they and speaks unashamed;
above the myriads of heavenly hosts does it pass in flight, unhindered by their ranks.
As though to a close relation prayer reveals its secret to the Lord of the Watchers,
asking of him what is appropriate in all sorts of activities.
Prayer does not bend down to the angels to speak with them,
for it asks God himself, and he bids the angels attend to its affairs.

Resource: The Syriac Fathers on Prayer and the Spiritual Life, pp 171-173

Hypocrisy?

This article is from the blog MYSTAGOGY

Hypocrisy: The Illness of our Time

By Metropolitan Seraphim of Kastoria

In Matins of Holy and Great Tuesday, which is chanted by custom in the evening of Holy and Great Monday, there will parade before us hypocrisy and the hypocrites, the theater and actors, and will feature the terrible "woe" which our Lord sent to the exponents of hypocrisy.

"Woe to you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces... You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin... You are like whitewashed tombs..." (Matthew 23:13-29).

What is hypocrisy? It is the pretense of friendship, the God-bearing Fathers of the Church will answer. Hatred hidden under the schema of friendship. Hatred manifested as friendship. Envy characterized as love. Hypocrisy is fictional and not real life virtue. It is the pretense of justice. It is fraud which has the form of truth, according to Maximus the Confessor.

A hypocrite is a man who from a person becomes a mask. A hypocrite is one who puts forward his ego, and idolizes his own self. A hypocrite is one who plays the actor.

Hypocrisy is when one supposedly cares and sacrifices for others while exploiting them. It is one who pretends to be unhappy, sad, persecuted and complains in order to create impressions and distract the attention of others.

A hypocrite is one who uses various disguises, masks, to reveal the frustrations of his experiences, to externalize the passions which exist in the soul.

This is why it is observed that this phenomenon is not given much importance to what the Church calls a sin, rather considering it as a natural state, and others as a catapult to punish our ruthless fellows.

For those ears that can endure the words of my revered Elder, the Metropolitan of Katerini Agathonikos, he said: "When you see these situations know that there is a problem there and even a schizophrenic situation, and you are to supplicate God for the healing of this man."

The hypocrite constantly wants to show himself off so people can talk about him, to praise him and receive honors from everyone else. This situation makes him anxious, nervous, and it gets even worse when it is perceived by people. This occurs especially in our era and in the lifestyle we choose that moves away from our tradition.

And unfortunately we all, more or less, are possessed by this passion. Clergy and laity are under the cloak of hypocrisy.

We have been altered from persons to masks and from people who had upon us the grace of God to secularized beings, as has been observed by Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos.

How correct was the Elder of Chalcedon Meliton when he said on Cheesefare Sunday in the Metropolitan Church of Athens, "I criticize hypocrisy", stressing that all of us "pretend that yesterday is today and tomorrow comes without us."

Let us supplicate fervently with tears of repentance and kneeling to come to the Passion of the Savior and Redeemer the Lord Jesus Christ to rid us of the terrible passion of hypocrisy.

May He cleanse us from the passions that we may discard the masks of hypocrisy and become real people. "O Lord, deliver us from all deceit and hypocrisy" (1 Peter 2:1).

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos

Mirrors for Repentance

We are all involved in a life long struggle against our sinful tendencies.  Our greatest challenge is to recognize the weaknesses in our character, to gain a clear view of our defects and failings so we can overcome them.  Normally this is done through inner introspection.  Sometimes others will point our weaknesses out to us and in this case we must be careful not to react badly, but to accept this information as a gift from God.

A disciple of Elder Paisios asked him if it was possible to try and see oneself as he really is, but be unable to actually do so.  He answered "Yes, if his attempt to do so contains pride, he will not be able to see the real self."  We need a bit of humility to begin to see our true self so we can begin the work to grow spiritually. We can use a good mirror.

Elder Paisios advises us that until we are able to uproot our defects we should mirror ourselves in the defects of others. He says that other people are a mirror in which we can see ourselves.

Do you find that you can easily spot the failings of others, but find it difficult to see your own failings? This is a most common condition. When Elder Paisios was asked about this condition he pointed out that we see the illness in others when we cannot see them in ourselves.

If you knew you own illness, you wouldn't know the illness of others. I am not saying you shouldn't be concerned with their pain and suffering, but you mustn't preoccupy yourself with other's faults. If a person is not concerned with his self, the tempter devil will lead him to be concerned with other's faults. If we work on ourselves, then we know ourselves and come to know others as well. Otherwise, we judge others by the wrong assumptions we make about ourselves.

There are two important points here. One is that we can see our own faults in others if we are not blocked from seeing them because of our pride. Our efforts to focus on others' defects can block us from seeing our own defects because of our pride. Second, once we recognize the failings of others in ourselves, we will no longer judge them because we will know the true assumptions about them.  We now know them in ourselves are now focused on our own defects and not theirs.

Next time you catch yourself judging others, or being critical of their behavior, stop and reflect on what you have in yourself that mirrors this behavior.  When you find that weakness in yourself, see if that does not change your view of the one you were about condemn. Most likely you will find that you now do not have time for such speculation as you are busy working on your own perfection.

When you do find a weakness in yourself all you need is willpower to make changes, according to Elder Paisios.  It's just like with a physical illness. We must accept the treatment to get well and carry it out.

Elder says,

This is why the starting point is for one not to be embarrassed, but gladly aware of his illness, his faults. From that point, he must accept the necessary treatment, the appropriate medicines, and be grateful to his physicians - the spiritual father or the elder - and not resist them. 

When you catch yourself judging others, stop and seek to find the weakness in yourself.  Pretend you are looking into a mirror. By using others as a mirror in this way you can begin to dig deeper into your true self.  With the help of your spiritual father you will find cures for what you find and you will also find your relations with others and God changes as you change.

Reference: Elder Paisios of Mount Athos Spiritual Counsels III: Spiritual Struggle,  pp157-164

Taxing Our Faults

When Elder Paisios was questioned about whether he struggled as a novice he answered, "Every time something happened in my struggle, or if others told me something, I never allowed things to just roll off 'untaxed." This leads to the question, what is the tax? Normally a tax is an additional cost that is added on to the goods we buy or service we use.  It is an extra burden that we are obligated to pay.

If we reverse this and say what is meant by being untaxed, it implies that there is no extra cost. This is how Elder Paisios explains the idea of a tax on his faults.  He says, "'Untaxed' means that you disregard your faults, aren't touched by them, you just let them roll off."  The tax is our effort to examine our own behavior. So, if we do not place a 'tax' on the faults we discover or are pointed out to us by others, we are in a sense ignoring them.  This ignorance leads to indifference. We begin to accept them as just part of our normal behavior. Our heart is hardened. Our conscience becomes blind.

Regarding this indifference the Elder says, "Indifference hardens the field of our heart and, no matter what we are told, what ever happens, we are not touched, we can't become aware of our guilt so as to repent." Once we become indifferent to our faults there is no way for us to improve. We know that God calls us to have a pure heart.  The only way to gain this is by being able to recognize our failings.  We must learn to fight indifference so we can become repentive and continually make progress in our way of life. We must learn to apply a tax on our failings.

What are some ways we avoid applying a tax to our faults? We change the subject when they are brought up. We find some rationale to explain our behavior, often blaming our environment or some other person.  We can get pretty creative in finding ways to avoid applying this tax. It's not a heavy tax. It only requires us to take the time to examine ourselves and seek ways to become more like Christ.

The Elder give us an example:

If someone says that I am a hypocrite, I would not say, "May whoever said that be cursed with a bad year!" Instead I would seek to find out what caused him to say such a thing. I would reason and say, "Something is going on; the other person is not at fault. There must be something in myself I have not noticed; I must have given cause in some way for others to misunderstand my behavior. He wouldn't have said such a thing without some reason. If I had been attentive and behaved with prudence, I would not have been misunderstood. I have brought harm to the other person and will be judged for it by God".

Notice what he did not do. He did not explore the other person possible negative motive for such an accusation. He did not assume the other person who is trying to discredit him because of envy or other malice. He assumed that there was a fault he had that he needed to better understand. This extra effort is the tax that is needed to keep us on a path of repentance.

Elder Paisios says:

If we don't examine everything in this manner, we won't be able to benefit from anything. This is why we often say about someone, "this person has lost all control." Do you know when control is lost? When we don't observe ourselves carefully. ... As the years pass, man matures spiritually, and if he makes good of past experiences, he progresses more steadily and more humbly. Often even the ups and downs in our struggle help us achieve a positive and steady spiritual march upwards.

This is what is key, to continue to make progress in the way we live and interact with other in this world. As we learn to perfect our own actions, our heart will be opened more and more to the needs of others and to the acceptance of God's love.  We will receive the blessing of His grace more and more abundantly if we learn to tax our faults. We must take advantage of every clue you get from our daily life and continually seek ways to understand our own behavior.

Reference: Elder pAisios of Mount Athos Spiritual Counsels III: Spiritual Struggle, pp 154-156