Articles of Monasticism, Eldership & Hesychasm

[Kollyvas]

http://www.innerlightproductions.com/th ... ar2298.htm

A monk had a brother living in the world who was poor, and so he supplied him with all he received from his work. But the more the monk supplied, the poorer the brother became. So the monk went to tell an old man about it. The old man said to him, "If you want my advice, do not give him anything more, but say to him, 'Brother, when I had something I supplied you; now bring me what you get from your work.' Take all he brings you, and whenever you see a stranger or a poor man, give him some of it, begging him to pray for him."

The monk went away and did this. When his secular brother came, he spoke to him as the old man had said, and the brother went sadly away. The first day, taking some vegetables from his field, he brought them to the monk. The monk took them and gave them to the old men, begging them to pray for his brother, and after the blessing he returned home. In the same way, another time, the brother brought the monk some vegetables and three loaves, which he took, doing as on the first occasion, and having received the blessing he went away.

And the secular brother came a third time bringing many provisions, some bread, and fish. Seeing this, the monk was full of wonder, and he invited the poor so as to give them refreshment. The he said to his brother, "Do you not need a little bread?" The other said to him, "No, for when I used to receive something from you, it was like fire coming into my house and burning it, but now that I receive nothing from you, God blesses me."

Then the monk went to tell the old man all that had happened, and the old man said to him, "Do you not know that the work of the monk is of fire, and where it enters, it burns? It helps your brother more to do alms with what he reaps from his field, and to receive the prayers of the saints and thus to be blessed." END

from "The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers," by Sr. Benedicta Ward, (Oxford: SLG Press, 1986), pp. 43-44

[Kollyvas]

http://www.zephyr.gr/stjohn/ark24.htm

“...WITHIN YOU”

By Dr. Alexandre Kalomiros

What is the profoundest characteristic of Orthodox life, the quintessential characteristic of Orthodox piety, the sign of authentic Orthodoxy as well as a premise of the true faith?

It is a turning inward.

Orthodoxy is nothing but a thirsting for the Kingdom of Heaven, a search for the Kingdom of God and communion with the Persons of the Holy Trinity. But, “the Kingdom of God”, said the Lord, “is within you” (Lk.ll:21). The Kingdom of God is within us because we can meet God and come into communion with Him only inside of us, in our hearts.

It is charaeteristic of antiorthodox teachings of recent years that the Lord’s words, “within you”, have been interpreted not as “inside of yourselves” but as “in your midst.” With this most cunning misinterpretation everythinq has changed, and the Lord’s saying has been utterly overturned. Thus, instead of learning to seek the Kingdom af God inside of themselves, the Orthodox have learned the opposite - to search for it outside of themselves in their relations with other people.

“The church community”, said the faith’s distorters, “is a communion with other Christians, a giving to others, and love for one another. On the contrsry”, they said, “turning inward is an entrenchment in the ego; it is being out of touch with others, navel-gazing, a pathological egocentricity”.

These distortions are the results of not knowing God. Such people do not know that without God no communion of men is possible.

God is the place, the means, and the power of any communion. God is the communion itself, the love itself, because God is a Trinity, a loving communion of Persons. Only communion with God is capable of providing the communion of created persons. Any attempt whatever at direct communion among humans is doomed to failure because it is enervating. There is no other power of communion than the Divine Energy. Only communion with the Divine Energy actuates communion between us. Any direct attempt at communion that overlooks or ignores God comes to self-delusion.

If a communion of persons exists in the Church, it exists to the extent that those persons have communion with God. Without personal communion with Him, a simple gathering of persons in the house of God, even around the table of sacrifice and even in the communion of His Body and Blood, can be blasphemy against God and unworthiness before the Church’s most sacred mystery.

For communion with God is a personal matter in the Holy Spirit. Whether a Christian is in church, in the street, at home, in a crowd of people, or alone, the matter of communion with God is a matter of turning inward. It is in our heart that we will encounter God; and when we do, He will take us by the hand and put us in communion with others. And in our communion with others our bond will always be God Himself.

So there is no other path to the Kingdom of God but the one which leads to our heart, the one which leads “within you”. It is the path of hesychasm [quietude]. This hesychasm is the deepest characteristic of Orthodox life, the sign of orthodox genuineness, the premise of right thinking and of right belief and glory, the presupposition of faith and Orthodoxy. In all of the Church’s external and internal battles, we had the hesychasts on one side defending Orthodoxy, and the anti-hesychasts on the other side fighting against it. The very fabric of heresy is anti-hesychastic. And above a1l, Papism and Protestantism are anti-hesychastic. And within Orthodoxy, those who were under heretical influence, little by little became anti-hesychastic, acquiring the anti-hesychastic spirit and inclinations. They became either outwardly oriented or intellectualists.

There is no criterion of Orthodoxy more certain than genuine hesychasm. Genuine hesychasm is an inward disposition. One can be a monk in the desert, and his heart can still be in the world. The foes of the Kollyvades of Athos were in name and appearances hesychasts, but their mind and heart spoke otherwise. In the beginning, western monasticism was orthodox, that is, hesychastic. Little by little, the spirit of an outward orientation entered into it. It became missionary, philanthropic, intellectual, scholarly.

Temptation for Christians is not always animalistic. Most of the time it is very clever, or the devil would not have been called cunning. The call of the world is never sent naked but cloaked in the delusion of love. “Go save your brothers. Don’t you see that they seek help?” And the hesychast goes into the world or concerns himself with the world, and ceases to be a hesychast. And once a Christian believes he will save and help people, he has become a victim of the evil one. None of us can help or save anyone. The only savior and helper is God. And once we lose this truth, we lose everything.

The Orthodox had never lost this truth. That is why their gaze was always inward and never outward. And that is why, without pursuing it themselves, they became instruments of divine providence for the salvation of men. The apostles themselves, who were clearly sent to men for this purpose by the Lord, were men of inner reflection. They were not men of action but of prayer. And thus their word had power. It was the word of God. They bore no resemblance to today’s missionaries.

The missionaries of Orthodoxy carried out missions without trying and without even knowing it, because missionaries are not members of an order in the Church. All Orthodox Christians are missionaries, if they are truly people of God. And therefore they would not be the ones who seek disciples and think of themselves as teachers. Rather, disciples would seek after them.

Orthodox Christians do not seek after the salvation of others. They labor for their own salvation and leave the salvation of others to God. And thus if they are made worthy of becoming an abode of God, and God speaks through their eyes and their mouths and their hearts, they might become instruments of the salvation of others. But they will never seek on their own to become such an instrument. And if in fact they were to become instruments of the salvation of others, only God would know it.

The more intensely we live with God and the more deeply we penetrate our hearts and meet God who abides in the hearts of baptized Christians, the more will people around us be saved, without our even having an inkling of it. It is not we who would save them but God who dwells in us. We should have no concern about it unless God has given us a specific and clear commandment as He gave the apostles. And if He gives us such a commandment, we take it up as if it were a cross He placed on our shoulder; though, like the fishes in the sea, we ever long for quiet. “The Kingdom of God is within you.” (Lk. 17:21)

(From “Epignosis,” Summer, 1990. English translation by George Gabriel, copyright 1991)

[AndyHolland]

From www.orthodox.net :
...a man without counsel is his own enemy. the Monks Callistus and Ignatius (Directions to Hesychasts no. 15, Writings from the Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart; Faber and Faber pg. 179)

A brother questioned Abba Poemen saying, "Give me a word." And he said to him, "The fathers put compunction as the beginning of every action." The brother said again, "Give me another word." The old man replied, "As far as you can, do some manual work so as to be able to give alms, for it is written that alms and faith purify from sin." The brother said, "What is faith?" The old man said, "Faith is to live humbly and to give alms." The Desert Fathers

If we desire to acquire faith the foundation of all blessings, the door to God's mysteries, unflagging defeat of our enemies, the most necessary of all the virtues, the wings of prayer and the dwelling of God within the soul--we must endure every trial imposed by our enemies and by our many and various thoughts....if we forcibly triumph over the trials and temptations that befall us, it will not be we who are victorious, but Christ, Who is present in us through faith. St. Peter of Damaskos

The passion of self-esteem is a three-pronged barb heated and forged by the demons out of vanity, presumption and arrogance. Yet those who dwell under the protection of the God of heaven (cf. Ps. 91.1) detect it easily and shatter its prongs, for through their humility they rise above such vices and find repose in the tree of life. Nikitas Stithatos, Philokalia, Vol. 4

If you refuse to accept suffering and dishonor, do not claim to be in a state of repentance because of your other virtues. For self-esteem and insensitivity can serve sin even under the cover of virtue. REF:Saint Kosmas Aitolos +1779

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There is no requirement to hate anyone. Hatred takes two forms; one is fire, the other ice. Ice is disregard. We cannot love God and pass by the beaten up stranger on the side of the road. We are called to be good Samaritans - not haughty passers-by.

Has some good thought come to you? Have you felt some good impulse or inclination in your heart? Stop! Check it with the Gospel. Blessed Vladyka Ignatij (Brianchaninov) :
How can you love God whom you don't see, if you do not love your neighbor whom you do see? The second commandment is like unto the first, and we are commanded to love our neighbors AS OURSELVES.

Our Father who art in Heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive those who tresspass against us.
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.

God dwells in us and we in him.
All who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
This saying is approved by all; "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief."

Consider also carefully the Second Epistle of Peter that explicitly states the dangers of singular - personal interpretations of Holy Scripture. We are commanded by St. Paul to compare spiritual to spiritual. Searching the Scriptures and the Church Fathers, one finds consistency .

Not to rely on oneself is so necessary in our struggle...that without this, be assured, not only will you fail to gain the desired victory, but you will be unable to resist the smallest attack of the enemy. Lorenzo Scupoli (Unseen Warfare, Chap. 2)

Good judgment is gained from experience. Experience is gained by bad judgement. [J.R. Oppenheimer]

andy holland - experienced - in bad judgment
Somerset PA

[Kollyvas]

http://www.innerlightproductions.com/th ... ay3198.htm

A Holy Conversation -- Love and Works
We will join a group of fathers today who are entertaining questions from young monks about the spiritual life. The entire transcript is too long for one issue, so it will be run serially until it is completed. This is Part I.

Brother: How is love (or charity) acquired by men of understanding?

Old Man: True and pure love is the way of life, and the haven of promises, and the treasure of faith, and the interpreter of the kingdom, and the herald of that which is hidden.

Brother: I do not know the power of the word.

Old Man: If a man loveth not God, he cannot believe in Him, and His promises are not true to him, and he feareth not His judgment, and he followeth Him not. Now because love is not in him, he cannot be free from iniquity, and await the life which is promised, but he performeth at all times the plans of sin; and this happeneth because the judgment of God is too exalted in his sight. Therefore, let us run after love, wherewith the holy fathers have enriched themselves, for it is able to pay back what is due to its nature and its God. This then is praise.

Brother: How does wisdom dwell in man?

Old Man: Now when a man hath gone forth to follow after God with a lowly mind, grace bestoweth itself upon him, and his conduct becomes strengthened in the spirit, and when he hateth the world he becomes sensible of the new conduct of the new man, which is more exalted than the impurity of the human abode; and he mediates in his mind on the humility of the rule of the life which is to come, and he becomes a man of greater spiritual excellence.

Brother: How is love made known?

Old Man: By the fulfillment of works, and by spiritual care, and by the knowledge of faith.

Brother: What are the works?

Old Man: The keeping of the commandments of the Lord with the purity of the inner man, together with the labor of the outer man.

Brother: Is he who is destitute of work also destitute of love?

Old Man: It is impossible that he who is of God should not love, and it is impossible for him that loveth not to work, and it is impossible to believe that he who teacheth but worketh not is a true believer, for his tongue is the enemy of his action, and though he speaketh life he is in subjection unto death.

Brother: And is he who is in this state free from retribution?

Old Man: Such a man who speaks the things of the spirit, and performs the things of the body, and supplies his own wants, is not deprived of reward, but he is deprived of the crown of light, because the guidance of the spirit refuses to rule him. END

from E. A. Wallis Budge, "The Paradise of the Holy Fathers," (Seattle: St. Nectarios Press, 1984), pp. 262-263

[AndyHolland]

Brother: How is love made known?

Old Man: By the fulfillment of works, and by spiritual care, and by the knowledge of faith.

Brother: What are the works?

Old Man: The keeping of the commandments of the Lord with the purity of the inner man, together with the labor of the outer man.

from www.orthodox.net/gleanings

...a man has no right to be called faithful, if his faith is a bare word and if he has not in him a faith made active by love or the Spirit. Thus faith must be made evident by progress in works, or it must act in the light and shine in works, as the divine Apostle says: 'Shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works' (James 2:18), thus showing that the faith of grace is made evident by works performed in accordance with the commandments, just as the commandments are fulfilled in deed and are made bright through the faith which is in grace. St. Gregory of Sinai (Texts on Commandments and Dogmas no. 119)

...we ought to learn the virtues through practicing them, not merely through talking about them, so that by acquiring the habit of them we do not forget what is of benefit to us. 'The kingdom of God', St. Paul says, 'resides not in words but in power' (I Cor. 4:20). For he who tries to discover things through actual practice will come to understand what gain or loss lies in any activity that he pursues..." St. Peter of Damaskos (Book 1:A Treasury of Divine Knowledge, The Philokalia Vol. 3
pg. 183)

---

The middle-way is the way between fire and ice. One cannot love God without love of neighbor, and one cannot love one's neighbor as oneself without the love of God.

andy holland
Somerset PA

[Kollyvas]

http://www.innerlightproductions.com/th ... ne0798.htm

A Holy Conversation -- Fasting and Prayer (Part II)
BROTHER: What are fasting and prayer?

OLD MAN: Fasting is the subjugation of the body, prayer is converse with God, vigil is a war against Satan, abstinence is being weaned from meats, humility is the state of the first man, kneeling is the inclining of the body before the Judge, tears are the remembrance of sins, nakedness is our captivity which is caused by the transgression of the command, and service is constant supplication to and praise of God.

BROTHER: Are these able to redeem the soul?

OLD MAN: When internal things agree with external, and manifest humility appears in the hidden works which are from within, verily, a man shall be redeemed from the weight of the body.

BROTHER: And what is internal humility?

OLD MAN: The humility of love, peace, friendship, purity, restfulness, tranquility, subjection, faith, remoteness from envy, and a soul which is free from the heat of anger, and is far from the grade of arrogance, and is redeemed from the love of vainglory, and is full of patient endurance like the great deep, and whose motion is drawn after the knowledge of the spirit, and before whose eyes are depicted the fall of the body, and the greatness of the marvel of the Resurrection, and the demand for judgement which shall come after the revivification, and its standing before the awful throne of God. If the soul has these things, redemption shall be unto it.

BROTHER: Is there any man who fasteth that shall not be redeemed?

OLD MAN: There is one kind of fasting which is from habit, and another from desire, and another from compulsion, and another from sight, and another from the love of vainglory, and another from affliction, and another from repentance, and another from spiritual affection; for although each of these seems to be the same as the other in the mind externally, yet in the word of knowledge they are distinct. Now the way in which each is performed by the body is the same, and the way in which each is to be undertaken is wholly the same by him who travelleth straightly on the path of love, and who beareth his burden with patient endurance spiritually, and who doth not rejoice in his honor.

from E. A. Wallis Budge, "The Paradise of the Holy Fathers," Seattle: St. Nectarios Press, 1984, pp. 263-264

[Kollyvas]

http://www.innerlightproductions.com/th ... ne1498.htm

A Holy Conversation -- What Makes A True Monk? (Part III)
BROTHER: Who is the true monk?

OLD MAN: He who makes his word manifest in deeds, and bears his passion with patient endurance; with such a man life is found, and the knowledge of the spirit dwells in him.

BROTHER: Who is the pure habitation?

OLD MAN: He who is destitute of the good things of the body, and who rejoices in the love of his neighbors in the love of God; for spiritual relaxation is produced in proportion as need rules over the soul.

BROTHER: With what is a man able to overcome lust?

OLD MAN: With spiritual remembrance. If the desire for the delights which are to come does not obliterate that of the things which are here, a man cannot conquer; for if the ship of the merchant did not arrive over and over again by means of hope, he could not endure the storms, and he would go on his way of tribulation.

BROTHER: How does a man go forth from the world?

OLD MAN: By forsaking entirely the gratification of desire, and by running to the utmost of his power in the fulfillment of the commandments; for he who does not act in this way falls.

BROTHER: Behold, through what have the men of old triumphed?

OLD MAN: Through the fervor of their supernatural love, and through the death of the corruptible man, and through the contempt for pride, and through the abatement of the belly, and through the fear of the judgement, and through the promise of certainty; through the desire for these glorious things the fathers have acquired in the soul the spiritual body.

BROTHER: How can I conquer the passions which trouble me when they are fixed in me by nature?

OLD MAN: By your death to this world; for if you do not bury your soul in the grave of persistent endurance the spiritual Adam can never be quickened in you. When a dying man has departed from this temporary life he has no consciousness of this world, and all his perceptions are at rest and are abated. Now if you forsake that which is of nature naturally, and you do not perform it voluntarily in your person, you are dead; but if your desire dies in repentance, the whole of your nature ceases from this temporary life by the death of the spirit just as do the motions of the body at the natural end of time.

BROTHER: To what extent is a man held capable of revelation?

OLD MAN: To the same extent as a man is capable of stripping off sin, both internally and externally. For when a man dies by spiritual sacrifice, he dies to all the words and deeds of this habitation of time, and when he has committed his life to the life which is after the revivification, divine grace bestows itself upon him, and he becomes capable of divine revelations. For the impurity of the world is a dark covering before the face of the soul, and it prevents it from discerning spiritual wisdom.

from E. A. Wallis Budge, "The Paradise of the Holy Fathers," Seattle: St. Nectarios Press, 1984, pp. 264-265