Wisdom from Abba Dorotheos…

 

Instructions to a brother who has asked him about insensitivity and the growing cold of love.

When your soul becomes insensitive, brother, it is useful to read the Holy Scriptures and the heart-touching words of the Holy and God-bearing Fathers, to remember God’s Last Judgment, the departure of the soul from the body, and the terrible powers that can greet it, and with whose cooperation the soul committed evil acts in this brief and tormented life. It is also useful to remember how we shall appear before the terrible and righteous judgment seat of Christ, and not only for our deeds, but for words and thoughts shall we give an answer before God, before all His angels, and in general before all creation.

Remember just as often also that sentence which the terrible and righteous Judge shall pronounce against those who stand at His left side: Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels (Mt. 25:41). It is good also to remember the great sorrows of mankind in order that the cruel and insensitive soul might be thereby if only involuntarily softened, and come to a recognition of its sinfulness.

You are failing in brotherly love because you accept suspicious thoughts against your neighbor, and trust your own heart; this happens to you also because you do not want to endure anything that goes against your will. Thus; before anything else you should, with God’s help, under no circumstances believe your own opinions, and strive with all your might to humble yourself before your brothers, and with all your soul cut off your will before them. If one of them injures you, or causes you sorrow in any way, then you should pray for him, according to the words of the Fathers, as for one who has given you great benefit and has healed your love of pleasure. Through this your irritability will decrease, for in the words of the Holy Fathers, love is the reigns on irritability. And before all, pray to God to give you attentiveness and understanding, so that you might know what is that good, perfect and acceptable will of God (Rom. 12:2); also pray for the strength to be ready for every good work. For to Him belongs all glory, honor and worship unto the ages of ages. Amen.

To a certain very sick brother who had various bad thoughts as to who will take care of his needs.

In the name of Jesus Christ, my brother, let us not have anything against our neighbor, for we should overcome and cover this with love. No one says to his neighbor, “Why don’t you love me?” But he himself, making himself worthy of love, attracts also his neighbor to love. And concerning the needs of the body, I will say that if someone is worthy of comfort, then God will instruct the heart of a Saracen to show him mercy according to his need; if he is not worthy, or if for his instruction it is not useful for him to be consoled, then even if he were to create an new heaven and a new earth, he would not find repose. And what you said about burdening your brother is apparently a self-justification; for no one, in helping his neighbor who desires salvation, in order to fulfill the commandment of God, will say to him, “I burden you.” He who hates those who upset him hates meekness, and he who flees from those who offend him, flees from repose in Christ. May the man-loving God cover us, my son, by His grace, through the prayers of all the saints. Amen.

Abba Dorotheos

hat tip: Pravoslavie.ru

the Kingdom of God within…

We can keep guard over the whole world by keeping guard over the atmosphere of heaven within us, for if we lose the Kingdom of Heaven, we will save neither ourselves nor others. He who has the Kingdom of God within himself will imperceptibly pass it on to others. People will be attracted by the peace and warmth in us; they will want to be near us, and the atmosphere of heaven will gradually pass on to them. It is not even necessary to speak to people about this. The atmosphere of Heaven will radiate from us even when we keep silence or talk about ordinary things.

~ Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica

spotted on FB: Archangel Michael Orthodox Church

Fire and water do not mix…

“Fire and water do not mix, neither can you mix judgment of others with the desire to repent. If a man commits a sin before you at the very moment of his death, pass no judgment, because the judgment of God is hidden from men. It has happened that men have sinned greatly in the open but have done greater deeds in secret, so that those who would disparage them have been fooled, with smoke instead of sunlight in their eyes.”

—St. John Climacus

someone who…

Holy Angel of Hesychia

Someone who has purified his body by self-control, someone who by divine love has made his wilfulness and his desires a means of virtue, someone who presents to God a nous purified by prayer, acquires and sees in himself the grace promised to those whose heart are pure.  

~Saint Gregory Palamas, Triads in Defense of the Holy Hesychasts

hat tip: Daily Dynamis

All things around us are droplets of the love of God…

Cathedral Flowers-Thomas Eyler

“Take delight in all things that surround us. All things teach us and lead us to God. All things around us are droplets of the love of God — both things animate and inanimate, the plants and the animals, the birds and the mountains, the sea and the sunset and the starry sky. They are little loves through which we attain to the great Love that is Christ. Flowers, for example, have their own grace: they teach us with their fragrance and with their magnificence. They speak to us of the love of God. They scatter their fragrance and their beauty on sinners and on the righteous.

For a person to become a Christian he must have a poetic soul. He must become a poet. Christ does not wish insensitive souls in His company. A Christian, albeit only when he loves, is a poet and lives amid poetry. Poetic hearts embrace love and sense it deeply.

Make the most of beautiful moments. Beautiful moments predispose the soul to prayer; they make it refined, noble and poetic. Wake up in the morning to see the sun rising from out of the sea as a king robed in regal purple. When a lovely landscape, a picturesque chapel, or something beautiful inspires you, don’t leave things at that, but go beyond this to give glory for all beautiful things so that you experience Him who alone is comely in beauty. All things are holy — the sea, swimming and eating. Take delight in them all. All things enrich us, all lead us to the great Love, all lead us to Christ.”

Wounded by Love by Elder Porphyrios

to consider…

God alone is…

God alone is substantially and essentially God.  When I say ‘alone,’ I set forth the holy and uncreated essence and substance of God.  For the word alone is used in the case of any individual and generally of human nature.  In the instance of Paul, that he alone was caught into the third heaven and “heard unspeakable words that are not lawful for a man to utter,” and of human nature, as when David says, “as for man his days are as grass,” not meaning any particular man but human nature generally; for every human is short-lived and mortal.  So we understand these words to be said of the nature, “who alone has immortality” and “to God only wise,” and “none is good save one, that is God,” for here “one” means the same as alone….In Scripture “one” and “only” are not predicated on God to mark distinction from the Son and the Holy Spirit but to exclude the unreal gods falsely so called.  As for instance, “The Lord alone did lead them and there was no strange god with them,” and “then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth and served the Lord only.”

~St Basil the Great, Letter 8.3, as quoted in “Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture”

hat tip: Daily Dynamis~Church Fathers Wisdom

gaged by their numbers…

excerpt: Prayer V

How stupid the servants of the tree of knowledge are! They do not measure their strength in You, but in their num­bers. They do not adopt a law of justice in Your name, but by their numbers. Whichever way the majority of them choose is the way of truth and justice. The tree of knowledge has become the tree of crime, stupidity, and icy darkness.

Truly, the knowledgeable men of this world know every­thing except that they are servants of Satan. When the last day dawns, Satan will rejoice in the number of people in his harvest. All the meager ears of grain! But in his stupidity, even Satan counts on quantity rather than quality. One of Your ears of grain will be worth more than the entire harvest of Satan. For You, O Conqueror of death, rely on the fullness of the bread of life, and not on numbers.

In vain I tell the godless: “Head for the Tree of Life and you will know more than you could possibly wish to know. From the tree of knowledge Satan fashions a ladder for you to descend into the nether world.”

Prayers by the Lake    St Nikolai Velimirovic

for dreams have led many astray…

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God (I John 4:1)

There are seven reasons that Christians are deceived into thinking that dream and visions come from God.   These are: pride; vain glory which is the first daughter of pride; a mind that is weak and dull in the faith; misplaced zeal of some Christians who purposely fast and pray specifically that they be granted visions, of whom Saint Isaac the Syrian says ‘Those who have misplaced zeal suffer a great illness;’ then there is disobedience to the spiritual father and stubbornness on the part of some of the faithful, especially those who are proud, and because of this they are easily caught by the devil; the sixth reason is because of the reclusive hidden life that some people lead and the failure to thoroughly confess all thoughts to the spiritual father; and the final reason that some Christians are deceived into believing in false dreams and visions in that they do not ‘know themselves,’ and they fail to read the holy Scriptures and the holy fathers.  The wise Sirah speaks on this topic, saying, Dreams put fools in a flutter.  (You might) as well clutch at shadows and chase the wind as put any faith in dreams.  Divinations, auguries and dreams are nonsense…for dreams have led many astray.

Ioanichie Balan, “Counsels to Laity,” by Elder Cleopa of Sihastria, Mother Cassiana (tr)

New Varatec Publishing: Protection of the Holy Virgin Monastery, Lake George, CO, 2001, p. 174.

hat tip: Daily Dynamis

sacred words of primordial might…

Down the ages the sacred words have been repeated without proper attention and, possibly because of this, they have lost their primordial might – the might which they first had for the prophets, apostles, and saints.  Will other ways be found to express the profound purport of the knowledge that we have been given of the great God?  Our love for Him would wish to express itself with such lively energy that Time, the destroyer of all things could not diminish.

~Blessed Sophrony Sakharov, On Prayer