"What God requires is a true faith in Himself and His Only begotten Son. In return He generously bestows the grace of the Holy Spirit. The Lord seeks hearts filled with love for God and for one's neighbor."Saint John Chrysostom reminds us that this is not a task just for monks, but is one for all Christians.
"Those who live in the world, even though married, should resemble the monks in everything else. You are wholly mistaken if you think that there are some things that are required of seculars, and others for monastics... They will have to render the same account... When Christ orders us to follow the narrow path, he is speaking to all men."The level of perfection that we are all called to, does not come without our effort. This effort involves what is commonly termed ascetic practices which include a daily rule for prayer and fasting as well as the study of Holy Scripture and other spiritual writings.
When St. Seraphim says, "to acquire" the Holy Spirit, he uses this idea of acquiring in a similar way to saying we acquire material benefits. Saint Seraphim says,
Surely you understand what it means to acquire money? The acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God is exactly the same. You understand I am sure, O lover of God, the meaning of acquiring in a worldly sense. The primary aim of ordinary people in a worldly sense is to acquire, or to make, money... the acquisition of the Spirit of God is the same as the acquisition of capital with the difference that it is eternal and dispenses grace. Since it is so similar to everyday ordinary money, it is acquired in much the same way.How do we acquire material wealth? We must train ourselves, develop valued skills, and apply them through hard work. For spiritual benefits we also must work and prepare to receive the heavenly benefits.
Saint Seraphim continues,
Our Lord Jesus Christ himself compares our life in this world with a marketplace. He likens our everyday activities to trading, telling, telling us to 'trade till I come, redeeming the time, because the days are evil' (cf. Lk 19:13; Eph 5:16). In other words make the most of your time by obtaining heavenly blessings in exchange for you earthly good. The goods you should be trading in are those very same good works done for Christ's sake that confer upon us all the grace of the Holy Spirit.It is these good works which include not only charitable acts but also our ascetic efforts that are essential to purify our mind and heart from the bodily passions that too frequently take precedence over the desire of the soul.
Ascetic efforts cannot be considered as merits to earn God's grace, but only as means to an end, They prepare us for the acquisition of the Holy Spirit and union with God. With the Holy Spirit moving though us we must align our free will with God's and live the virtues. This is only possible though the work of the Holy Spirit. But, we must always remember that God will not judge us based on our ascetic efforts, but will judge us based on our humility as expressed in our love for others and love for God.
Saint Seraphim says,
Prayer, fasting, vigils and all other Christian practices, however good they may be in and of themselves, do not constitute the true goal of our Christian way of ice. They only serve as the indispensable means of attaining it. The true goal of our Christain life consists in the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God. Fasting, keeping vigil, prayers, and charity, as well as every other good deed done for the sake of Christ, are but the means through which we may acquire the Holy Spirit of God.The love of God must be the motivation of all our actions. As we learn to love others we will increase our love of God. As our love of God is increased so will our love for others. The ascetic practices cannot interfere with our love for others. If we must take care of the needs of a child or a parent or any other person, we cannot use our ascetic practices to excuse ourselves from our loving care of others. But we also must recognize that this ability to love is increased as we purify our heart and mind and this comes about as a result our ascetic efforts so we can acquire the Holy Spirit.
Reference: The Joy of the Holy by Harry M. Boosalis, pp 35 - 43.
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ReplyDeleteSt. Paul asks: "Did you receive the Holy Spirit through works, or through hearing with faith." And Our Lord Jesus said that God gives the Holy Spirit simply to those who ask. No matter what you call it, what I see proclaimed here is trying to "buy" the Holy Spirit with one's good works. We do not do good works to gain the Holy Spirit, we do truly good works because we already have the Holy Spirit (which is given to all baptized believers). Now, having said that, we CAN allow the Holy Spirit to move ever more deeply and broadly in our lives, but that is not the same as "acquiring", is it?
ReplyDeleteNot works in the sense of gaining merits but preparing ourselves so we have a mind and body prepared to accept this awesome power to guide us in doing good works. Prayer and fasting as the article says are but means. We must want it and in this sense desire to acquire it.
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ReplyDeleteAnonymous, Orthodox Christian spirituality presents the process of a Christian progress on the road to perfection in Christ, by the cleansing of the passions and the winning of the virtues. The Holy Spirit can't enter a man who is full of passions. He must be cleansed from them. The goal of Orthodox Spirituality is the perfection of the believer by his/her union with God in Christ. And the good works are not only keeping Gospel commandments but also a warfare with our anger, jealousy, pride, etc. It takes a lot of prayer and inner work to acquire the Holy Spirit.
ReplyDeleteActually, you do good works for the glory of God and the Holy Spirit and His grace enters you. For me, I have found that He enters my heart. Even if you are very sinful, like I was, He still will go, but when you sin, you grieve Him, and He lessens how much of Himself and His grace is in you because He can't stand sin, but almost all of Him does remain in you. I know from experience.
ReplyDeleteThe good works are actual deeds, not staying from sin, though, as i mentioned before, sin only makes Him leave a little.
The most I got was about 75% of my heart full of Him, but because I was sinful, he didn't remain in my heart at that much for long, but slowly and sure was leaving until the next time that I did a good deed for the glory of God, and then more of Him came.
I have found that prostrations, praying for those who have fallen asleep, and other deeds give me the the Holy Spirit and His grace, but for you it may be different.
Acquire the Holy Spirit and His grace by doing good deeds for the glory of God and find out for yourself!