Only the Holy Spirit…

Only the Holy Spirit can purify the intellect [nous], for unless a greater power comes and overthrows the despoiler, what he has taken captive will never be set free (cf. Lk. 11:21-22). In every way, therefore, and especially through peace of soul, we must make ourselves a dwelling-place for the Holy Spirit. Then we shall have the lamp of spiritual knowledge burning always within us; and when it is shining constantly in the inner shrine of the soul, not only will the intellect [nous] perceive all the dark and bitter attacks of the demons, but these attacks will be greatly weakened when exposed for what they are by that glorious and holy light.   

~Saint Diadochos of Photiki, “On Spiritual Knowledge and Discrimination,” # 28, The Philokalia, Vol. 1

God’s uncreated light…

Elder Nektary (artist unknown)

“That which is set in motion by the Holy Spirit becomes an eternal movement, living and holy; when the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in a man, he who was previously only earth and dust receives the dignity of a prophet, an apostle and an angel of God.” -St. Gregory Palamas

Professor Ivan M. Kontzevitch was one of the 20th century’s greatest students of Orthodox sanctity, which was encapsulated in his excellent book The Acquisition of the Holy Spirit in Ancient Russia. His magnum opus, this book is a priceless source book of all that he felt important to say about the prayer of the heart, communion with God, asceticism, and eldership. In it he combined careful honest scholarship with a first-hand knowledge of saints with whom he had been in contact while in Russia including the holy elders of Optina Monastery.

One particular elder whom Professor Kontzevitch came to know personally and was his spiritual father was the last elder of Optina Monastery before the 1917 revolution, Elder Nektary of Optina. In fact, Professor Kontzevitch’s brother, Bishop Nektary of Seattle, was named after Elder Nektary and also had him as a spiritual father, and the mother of these two brothers, Nektaria, was a nun who had the Elder as a spiritual father as well. She witnessed the destruction of Optina Monastery and many other horrors of the Soviet system (her coffin was found above Elder Nektary’s in Optina when his relics were discovered in 1992).

The book The Acquisition of the Holy Spirit in Ancient Russia is not only interesting for its contents, but is also a book which can be judged by its cover. It not only depicts many illumined fathers from whom the uncreated light emanates, but it is also in a peculiar color purple. We are told in the book by the author that this color was chosen with a purpose. He had seen Elder Nektary immersed in God’s uncreated light, and this was the color that comes closest to it.

hat tip: Mystagogy

Holy Moments…

A Divine Appointment

In my work as a prison chaplain, I would often have an encounter with one of the men or one of the staff members that at first I described as a Holy Moment.  God’s presence became obvious during our time together, so much so in fact, that I would say I had been “on holy ground” during my time with that person.  I came to look on these encounters as “Divine Appointments”.   I eventually found myself praying in the mornings that God would grant me a Divine Appointment in the day ahead.

Amazingly, Divine Appointments would often come at the least expected time with the least expected person.  I might be in a hurry to get someplace, or stressed out with some issue I had to deal with, or feeling sick that day…and suddenly, I was on “holy ground”…not knowing how or why.  In hindsight, many of those Divine Appointments became humorous because I was never ready…never expecting them.

This story is about a wonderful Divine Appointment that changed a man’s life.  It was sent to me by one of the readers of An UpWord Glance…many thanks to her!  May it be a blessing for you…

Fr Stephen powley

The Sandpiper
by Robert Peterson

She was six years old when I first met her on the beach near where I live.  I drive to this beach, a distance of three or four miles, whenever the world begins to close in on me.  She was building a sand castle or something and looked up, her eyes as blue as the sea.

‘Hello,’ she said.

I answered with a nod, not really in the mood to bother with a small child.

‘I’m building,’ she said.

‘I see that.  What is it?’  I asked, not really caring.

‘Oh, I don’t know, I just like the feel of sand.’

That sounds good, I thought, and slipped off my shoes…A sandpiper glided by.

‘That’s a joy,’ the child said.

‘It’s a what?’

‘It’s a joy.  My mama says sandpipers come to bring us joy.’

The bird went gliding down the beach.  Good-bye joy, I muttered to myself,  hello pain, and turned to walk on.  I was depressed, my life seemed completely out of balance.

‘What’s your name?’  She wouldn’t give up.

‘Robert,’ I answered.  ‘I’m Robert Peterson.’

‘Mine’s Wendy… I’m six.’

‘Hi, Wendy.’

She giggled.  ‘You’re funny,’ she said.

In spite of my gloom, I laughed too and walked on.  Her musical giggle followed me.

‘Come again, Mr. P,’ she called.  ‘We’ll have another happy day.’

The next few days consisted of a group of unruly Boy Scouts, PTA meetings,
and an ailing mother.  The sun was shining one morning as I took my hands out
of the dishwater.  I need a sandpiper, I said to myself, gathering up my coat.

The ever-changing balm of the seashore awaited me.  The breeze was
chilly but I strode along, trying to recapture the serenity I needed.

‘Hello, Mr. P,’ she said.  ‘Do you want to play?’

‘What did you have in mind?’ I asked, with a twinge of annoyance.

‘I don’t know.  You say.’

‘How about charades?’  I asked sarcastically.

The tinkling laughter burst forth again.  ‘I don’t know what that is.’

‘Then let’s just walk.’

Looking at her, I noticed the delicate fairness of her face.
‘Where do you live?’ I asked.

‘Over there.’  She pointed toward a row of summer cottages.

Strange, I thought, in winter.

‘Where do you go to school?’

‘I don’t go to school.  Mommy says we’re on vacation.’

She chattered little girl talk as we strolled up the beach, but my mind was on other things.  When I left for home, Wendy said it had been a happy day.  Feeling surprisingly better, I smiled at her and agreed.

Three weeks later, I rushed to my beach in a state of near panic.  I was in no mood to even greet Wendy.  I thought I saw her mother on the porch and felt like demanding she keep her child at home.

‘Look, if you don’t mind,’ I said crossly when Wendy caught up with me, ‘I’d
rather be alone today.’  She seemed unusually pale and out of breath.

‘Why?’ she asked.

I turned to her and shouted, ‘Because my mother died!’ and thought,  My God, why was I saying this to a little child?

‘Oh,’ she said quietly, ‘then this is a bad day.’

‘Yes,’ I said, ‘and yesterday and the day before and — oh, go away!’

‘Did it hurt?’ she inquired.

‘Did what hurt?’ I was exasperated with her, with myself.

‘When she died?’

‘Of course it hurt!’ I snapped, misunderstanding, wrapped up in myself.  I strode off.

A month or so after that, when I next went to the beach, she wasn’t there.
Feeling guilty, ashamed, and admitting to myself I missed her, I went up
to the cottage after my walk and knocked at the door.  A drawn looking
young woman with honey-colored hair opened the door.

‘Hello,’ I said, ‘I’m Robert Peterson..  I missed your little girl today and wondered where she was.’

‘Oh yes, Mr. Peterson, please come in.  Wendy spoke of you so much.
I’m afraid I allowed her to bother you.  If she was a nuisance,
please, accept my apologies.’

‘Not at all — she’s a delightful child.’  I said, suddenly realizing that I meant what I had just said.

‘Wendy died last week, Mr. Peterson.  She had leukemia.
Maybe she didn’t tell you.’

Struck dumb, I groped for a chair.  I had to catch my breath.

‘She loved this beach, so when she asked to come, we couldn’t say no.
She seemed so much better here and had a lot of what she called happy days.
But the last few weeks, she declined rapidly…’ Her voice faltered, ‘She left
something for you, if only I can find it.  Could you wait a moment while I look?’

I nodded stupidly, my mind racing for something to say to this lovely young
woman.  She handed me a smeared envelope with ‘MR. P’ printed in bold
childish letters.  Inside was a drawing in bright crayon hues — a yellow beach,
a blue sea, and a brown bird.  Underneath was carefully printed:

A SANDPIPER TO BRING YOU JOY

Tears welled up in my eyes, and a heart that had almost forgotten to love
opened wide.  I took Wendy’s mother in my arms.  ‘I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,
I’m so sorry,’ I uttered over and over, and we wept together.  The precious little
picture is framed now and hangs in my study.  Six words — one for each year
of her life — that speak to me of harmony, courage, and undemanding love.

A gift from a child with sea blue eyes and hair the color of sand
– who taught me the gift of love.

——————————————————————————–

NOTE: This is a true story sent out by Robert Peterson.  It happened over 20
years ago and the incident changed his life forever.  It serves as a reminder
to all of us that we need to take time to enjoy living and life and each other.

May God grant you a Divine Appointment today!!

Please remember those who are imprisoned. Visit Orthodox Christian Prison Ministries and lend them your support during this season of repentance. And if you ever get a chance to hear Fr. Stephen Powley speak – do it!

How is it that you assert that I receive the Body of Christ?

by St. Ambrose of Milan

Perhaps you will say,

I see something else, how is it that you assert that I receive the Body of Christ?

And this is the point which remains for us to prove. And what evidence shall we make use of? Let us prove that this is not what nature made, but what the blessing consecrated, and the power of blessing is greater than that of nature, because by blessing nature itself is changed.

Moses was holding a rod, he cast it down and it became a serpent. (Exodus 4:3-4)

Again, he took hold of the tail of the serpent and it returned to the nature of a rod. You see that by virtue of the prophetic office there were two changes, of the nature both of the serpent and of the rod. The streams of Egypt were running with a pure flow of water; of a sudden from the veins of the sources blood began to burst forth, and none could drink of the river.

Again, at the prophet’s prayer the blood ceased, and the nature of water returned. The people of the Hebrews were shut in on every side, hemmed in on the one hand by the Egyptians, on the other by the sea; Moses lifted up his rod, the water divided and hardened like walls, and a way for the feet appeared between the waves.

Jordan being turned back, returned, contrary to nature, to the source of its stream. (Jos. 3:16)

Is it not clear that the nature of the waves of the sea and of the river stream was changed? The people of the fathers thirsted, Moses touched the rock, and water flowed out of the rock. (Exodus 17:6)

Did not grace work a result contrary to nature, so that the rock poured forth water, which by nature it did not contain?

Marah was a most bitter stream, so that the thirsting people could not drink. Moses cast wood into the water, and the water lost its bitterness, which grace of a sudden tempered. (Exodus 15:25)

In the time of Elisha the prophet one of the sons of the prophets lost the head from his axe, which sank. He who had lost the iron asked Elisha, who cast in a piece of wood and the iron swam. This, too, we clearly recognize as having happened contrary to nature, for iron is of heavier nature than water.

We observe, then, that grace has more power than nature, and yet so far we have only spoken of the grace of a prophet’s blessing. But if the blessing of man had such power as to change nature, what are we to say of that divine consecration where the very words of the Lord and Saviour operate? For that sacrament which you receive is made what it is by the word of Christ. But if the word of Elijah had such power as to bring down fire from heaven, shall not the word of Christ have power to change the nature of the elements? You read concerning the making of the whole world:

He spoke and they were made, He commanded and they were created.

Shall not the word of Christ, which was able to make out of nothing that which was not, be able to change things which already are into what they were not? For it is not less to give a new nature to things than to change them.

But why make use of arguments? Let us use the examples He gives, and by the example of the Incarnation prove the truth of the mystery. Did the course of nature proceed as usual when the Lord Jesus was born of Mary? If we look to the usual course, a woman ordinarily conceives after connection with a man. And this body which we make is that which was born of the Virgin. Why do you seek the order of nature in the Body of Christ, seeing that the Lord Jesus Himself was born of a Virgin, not according to nature? It is the true Flesh of Christ which crucified and buried, this is then truly the Sacrament of His Body.

The Lord Jesus Himself proclaims:

This is My Body. (Matt. 26:26)

Before the blessing of the heavenly words another nature is spoken of, after the consecration the Body is signified. He Himself speaks of His Blood. Before the consecration it has another name, after it is called Blood. And you say, Amen, that is, It is true. Let the heart within confess what the mouth utters, let the soul feel what the voice speaks.

Christ, then, feeds His Church with these sacraments, by means of which the substance of the soul is strengthened, and seeing the continual progress of her grace, He rightly says to her: How comely are your breasts, my sister, my spouse, how comely they are made by wine, and the smell of your garments is above all spices. A dropping honeycomb are your lips, my spouse, honey and milk are under your tongue, and the smell of your garments is as the smell of Lebanon. A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed. By which He signifies that the mystery ought to remain sealed up with you, that it be not violated by the deeds of an evil life, and pollution of chastity, that it be not made known to thou, for whom it is not fitting, nor by garrulous talkativeness it be spread abroad among unbelievers.

Your guardianship of the faith ought therefore to be good, that integrity of life and silence may endure unblemished.

(On the Mysteries 9.50-55)

hat tip: Preachers Institute and Fr. John A. Peck

video: A Thousand Years are as One Day…

what constitutes our Christian life…

Saida Afonina's St Seraphim Praying by a Brook (modern)

Prayer, fasting, vigils, and all other Christian practices, however good they may be in themselves, certainly do not constitute the aim of our Christian life: they are but the indispensable means of attaining that aim. For the true aim of the Christian life is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God. As for fasts, vigils, prayer and almsgiving, and other good works done in the name of Christ, they are only the means of acquiring the Holy Spirit of God. Note well that it is only good works done in the name of Christ that bring us the fruits of the Spirit.

~St. Seraphim of Sarov

Ten sayings of St Anthony the Great…

from the blog post at Ora et Labora: The Thirty-eight Sayings of St Anthony the Great

The Sayings of the Desert Fathers:

1. When the holy Abba Anthony lived in the desert he was beset by accidie, and attacked by many sinful thoughts. He said to God, “Lord, I wand to be saved but these thoughts do not leave me alone; what shall I do in my affliction? How can I be saved?” A short while afterwards, when he got up to go out, Anthony say a man like himself sitting at his work, getting up from his work to pray, then sitting down again and plaiting a rope, then getting up again to pray. It was an angel of the Lord sent to correct and reassure him. He heard the angel saying to him, “Do this and you will be saved.” At these words, Anthony was filled with joy and courage. He did this, and he was saved.

2. When the same Abba Anthony thought about the depth of the judgments of God, he asked, “Lord, how is it that some die when they are young, while others drag on to extreme old age? Why are there those who are poor and those who are rich? Why do wicked men proper and why are the just in need? He heard a voice answering him, “Anthony, keep your attention on yourself; these things are according to the judgment of God, and it is not to your advantage to known anything about them.”

3. Someone asked Abba Anthony, “What must one do in order to please God?” The old man replied, “Pay attention to what I tell you: whoever you may be, always have God before your eyes, whatever you do, do it according to the testimony of the holy Scriptures; in whatever place you live, do not easily leave it. Keep these three precepts and you will be saved.”

4. Abba Anthony said to Abba Poemen, “This is the great work of man: always to take the blame for his own sins before God and to expect temptation to his last breath.

5. He also said, “Whoever has not experienced temptation cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” He even added, “Without temptations no-one can be saved.”

6. Abba Pambo asked Abba Anthony, “What ought I to do?” and the old man said to him, “Do not trust in your own righteousness, do not worry about the past, but control your tongue and your stomach.”

7. Abba Anthony said, “I saw the snares that the enemy spreads out over the world and I said groaning, “What can get through from such snares?” Then I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Humility.’”

8. He also said, “Some have afflicted their bodies by asceticism, but they lack discernment, and so they are far from God.”

9. He said also, “Our life and our death is with our neighbor. If we gain our brother, we have gained God, but if we scandalize our brother, we have sinned against Christ.”

10. He also said, “Just as fish die if they stay too long out of water, so the monks who loiter outside their cells or pass their time with men of the world lose the intensity of inner peace. SO like a fish going towards the sea, we must hurry to reach our cell, for fear that if we delay outside we will lost our interior watchfulness.”

also available at Biblicalia

Wherever He stood, Paradise appeared…

excerpt from A Deer Lost in Paradise:

by St Justin Popovic

“My heart is an inaccessible island in a boundless ocean of sorrow. Is every heart an inaccessible island? Say that you have a heart! Do you know what completely surrounds your hearts? Mine. Therefore my eyes are blurred by tears and my heart undermined by sighs. The pupils of my eyes are in pain, because many midnights have spent the night in them. Last night the sun set in my eye, and the morning did not give birth to it. It married the darkness of my sorrow. Something fearful and terrifying has begun to move through my being. It frightens me, everything around me and above me. O, would that I could flee from the fear of this world. But does any world without fear exist? I call out to my soul, frightened and chased away by the fears of this world, to return to me, but more and more heedlessly it flees from me, leaving me sad and dejected… I am a deer.

I have listened to the angels of Heaven, when they wash their wings in my tears. In ancient times the white deer told me that He, the All-meek and All-merciful One passed over the earth and transformed the earth back to Paradise. Wherever He stood, Paradise appeared. Out of Him unto all beings and all creation there would flow boundless goodness and love, gentleness, mercy, meekness, and wisdom. He walked over all the earth and brought Heaven down to earth. They called Him Jesus. We saw in Him that man can be wondrous and exceedingly beautiful only when he is sinless. He shared in our sorrow and wept with us. He was with us and against those human creations: sin, evil, and death. He loved all creatures gently and compassionately; He embraced them with a divine longing; and He defended them from human sin, human evil, and human death. He was, and has forever remained–our God, the God of the sorrowful and saddened creatures, from the smallest to the greatest. He–our Lord and God! He–our sweet consolation in this bitter world which is passing and our eternal joy in that immortal world which is coming…”

hat tip: Death to the World

The Apostle Philip baptized this black man…

An Icon of Saint Philip the Deacon with the Ethiopian Eunuch, by Ann Chapin (2008)

from the Prologue of Ohrid:

The Apostle Philip baptized this black man, a eunuch. Following his baptism the eunuch returned to his home and began to preach Christ. He was the first Apostle of Faith among the blacks in Ethiopia.

“Then the angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, get up and head south on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, the desert route. So he got up and set out. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, that is, the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury, who had come to Jerusalem to worship, and was returning home. Seated in his chariot, he was reading the Prophet Isaiah. The Spirit said to Philip, `Go and join up with the chariot.’ Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the Prophet and said, `Do you understand what you are reading?’ He replied, `How can I, unless someone instructs me?” So he invited Philip to get in and sit with him. This was the scripture passage he was reading: `Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opened not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who will tell of his posterity? For his life is taken from earth.’ Then the eunuch said to Philip in reply, `I beg you, about whom is the prophet saying this? About himself, or about someone else?’ Then Philip opened his mouth and, beginning with this scripture passage, he proclaimed Jesus to him. As they traveled along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, `Look, there is water. What is to prevent my being baptized?’ Then he ordered the chariot to stop, and Philip and the eunuch both went down into the water, and he baptized him. When they came out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, but continued on his way rejoicing. Philip came to Azotus, and went about preaching the good news to all the towns until he reached Caesarea” (Acts of the Apostles 8: 26-40).

The eunuch died a martyr and became worthy of the Kingdom of God.

thoughts are cowardly…

How can one notice the appearance of a sinful thought, and cut off in time a passionate thought that infect us while it is still at the state of suggestion?

Do not be over-preoccupied with thoughts—they need to be treated with disdain. One monk in our monastery once came to me and said, “I need to confess.” I saw that he was carrying a notebook. I asked him, “What is that you have?” “It is my confession,” he answered. “Well, give it to me,” I said. “I will read your notebook.” Just imagine—thirty pages of thoughts! I said to him, “Do you think you need to confess every thought that comes into your head? You’ll end up in a psychiatric hospital that way!” He had written down even the thoughts that came to him during services. I told this brother, “Thoughts that come in do not mean anything.” Even if the mind inclines toward them for a moment, this does not mean anything, absolutely nothing! Forget them! You need to confess only those thoughts that do not go away for a long time, that stay in the mind for days or weeks; but in general thoughts are soap bubbles.

I will tell you about yet another incident from life. One young man, a church-going man, fell into gluttony—he wanted to eat a shish kebob on a Wednesday, and went to buy it. He came to the store and the salesman said, “Forgive me but I just sold the last one.” This young man then came to me and said, “This is what happened, and I would have eaten a shish kebob!” I said to him, “But you did not eat it? That is all! You gave in to a thought, but did not sin in deed.” How is it with us? First there is the thought, and then it becomes a word, and then a deed. But a sin is considered committed when it becomes a deed. Therefore, be attentive and do not be preoccupied much with thoughts; disdain them. “For the thoughts of mortal men are miserable” (Wis. 9:14), literally, “Thoughts are cowardly”

~excerpt from an interview with Archimandrite Ephraim of Vatopedi