Sunday, November 5, 2017

Elder Symeon (Krayopoulos) says... (November 1st-5th)



"You're not going to become a Christian simply by saying 'this is bad, and this is innocent, or this is other thing isn't good, and that's why I'm going to leave those things and do what is good." You'll become a Christian when you leave everything--even the good, not just the bad--and you say 'Not what I want but what God wants.' The Lord said, 'I seek not my own will but the will of the Father who sent me.' When divine consolation comes it doesn't feed our self-love, it doesn't puff up man; it doesn't make him boast. It gives man humility and contrition. When you receive divine consolation, you're brought down to earth, you're freed from your own will, you become genuine. Human consolation can be good but it feeds self-love. I know no other way to reach the point where you turn away from the human and seek only the divine except by simply beginning to say in every matter, 'This is human consolation and for the sake of the divine consolation, I don't want it.'"
----------
"The greatest evil which sin has wrought is not simply that it has thrown man into the condition it has, but that sin makes man think in accordance with the condition in which he finds himself. For example, the drug addict isn't simply someone who takes drugs but one whose heart and mind have already begun to function in accordance with the condition that the drugs create, "That was nice, how wonderful, how sweet this is!

Christ came and told us how things really are. And now, as rational human beings, even though we may be influenced by this whole sickness of sin, provided we preserve some measure of our rationality, our free will, our power of self-determination, we can strain to hear what Christ tells us and say, 'Since Christ says so, I will be obedient.' And then a miracle happens in our souls..."
----------
"Man doesn't sin by chance, neither does he simply make mistakes or fall by chance; he doesn't sin just because he's human. There are always deeper causes. You make the mistakes that you make, you speak how you speak and you do wrong because more generally you're fallen. Just like the Lord--and every saint--was crucified, it's necessary for you too to be crucified. Then, it won't even occur to you to speak and behave improperly. That which makes you live carelessly and sloppily is exactly this worldly mindset which avoids sacrifice, avoids the cross.

You can't be worldly in the sense of having everything in your life arranged conveniently--lest others upset you, hurt you, do you wrong, or disregard you--and at the same time think you're living spiritually and making progress. It just doesn't work that way. What you're ultimately doing living a caricature, rather than leading a genuine Christian life."
----------
"On the first Saturday of November, we have the feast of the three Theologians. Saint John the Theologian in his Gospel, in his epistles, and in the Apocalypse encourages us to lead our whole lives in the truth.

Saint Gregory the Theologian tells us that the one who teaches must be pure, must have the light of God, and to say more to those most eager to hear, because they are in some way more fertile earth and their hearts are more ready to receive the word of God.

Saint Symeon the New Theologian had the charisma of obedience. He went to God and by means of his spiritual father, showed absolute trust without knowing what would happen. Our own poverty is due to how we limit ourselves to several externals and what interests us more is to just lead a normal human life. We don't give ourselves up to God so that He as God can give us whatever He wishes."
----------
"Today our Lord presents to us in the person of the rich man those who lose their souls while presenting in the person of Lazarus those who are servants of God and are saved. Moreover, very many souls will leave this world without having readied themselves for the next life, despite the labors they happened to engage in and despite the difficult situations they have dealt with in life, because they didn't deal with them like the poor man, Lazarus.

Lazarus lives out the entirety of his condition and shows patience. He does not protest. He does not react. He doesn't play the victim. He is not upset with God, nor does he blame other people. He endures; he follows his rule without any trace of bitterness or complaint. Each of us must lay himself down and endure whatever God allows, if he wants to possess what is according to the parable of our Lord the spirit of those who are saved."

Monday, August 21, 2017

"The Blast of Death's Incessant Motion"

Φωτογραφία του Павел Белобрицкий.



"For Gregory [of Nyssa], the clock whose tick measured off most inexorably and most audibly the passing of tainted time was the clock of marriage. He saw human time as made up of so many consecutive attempts to block out the sight of the grave. Marriage, intercourse, and the raising of children were the most persistent, and the most highly valued of such expedients. It was precisely through the elemental power of the hopes inspired by marriage—and through the tearing grief associated with the dashing of those hopes through the deaths of spouses and children—that it was possible to take the full measure of the burden of anxiety that rested upon men and women, caught as they were in ‘the blast of death’s incessant motion’ (George Herbert).

"Hence the huge symbolic pressure that built up, in Gregory’s mind, around the issue of marriage and virginity. What was at stake, for him, in the virgin life, was not the repression of the sexual drive. That was only a means to a greater end—the withering away in the human heart of a sense of time placed there by the fear of death. This fear could be dissolved most effectively by dispensing with the one social institution that had been brought into existence expressly by the fear of death. Marriage conferred the validation of organized society on that fear. Married intercourse had been the ‘last outward stopping place’ of Adam and Eve in their sad exile from Paradise. It was by joining to have children that they had recognized, in themselves, the full extent of the terror of extinction. To abandon marriage was to face down death. It was to deliver no further hostages to death in the form of children. It was more than that: the abandonment of marriage implied that the soul had broken with the obsession with physical continuity that was the most distinctive trait of a humanity caught in ‘tainted’ time. In the heart of the continent person, the heavy tick of the clock of fallen time had fallen silent." – Peter Brown (The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity, p.297-98)

Sunday, August 20, 2017

Some saints wear blue jeans...



by Fr Haralampos Livyos Papadopoulos


Let's allow God to surprise us, let him overturn our sense of what is reasonable--drive us crazy. I've written many times and I've mentioned just as often in talks that in our days, modern Christians have a very limited conception of holiness. They've narrow what is so wide and spacious, open and loving toward man, the embrace of the presence of God. When you believe that the only saints are the ascetics, monks with unkempt beards and hair, you exclude from holiness so many souls that live and breathe the grace of God, then you destroy the most important thing in life--the sense of surprise and reversal.

No, saints aren't only those monks and priests with long beards, tattered robes and austere comportment. There are also saints who are crucified but full of joy, with hearts full of love for man and these saints live in our parishes, in our villages and our cities--there in the room next door in our apartment complex, the hospital, the jail or even the mental hospital.

There is no greater sin and simultaneously invalidation of life's beauty than to limit with your religious narrowmindedness the various and even strange ways of God. Paradise is an incredibly beautiful surprise but you want it to be a yawn that never ends.  God's presence is what we could have never expected but you prefer what you've been waiting for. But God won't do you the favor [of accomodating you]. God will remain unpredictable and stubborn before our logic.

Because God, however much we want to imprison Him in our ideas, doesn't shrink to fit our limited understanding, He isn't boxed in by the smallness of our hearts. Always and forever He eludes us. The moment we think we've found Him, He is lost and the second we think that we know Him He becomes unknown. When you say that He is "yours," He will become a stranger and when you think you've gained Him, He make Himself absent.

And I say all of these things because recently I met a clergyman  who didn't have a long beard or long hair. He wasn't slender and "ascetic" in appearance. But believe me, he had such a loving and merciful heart, such humility and love, such balance and harmony in a way I hadn't encountered in many years.

Yet again God had suprised me. His Grace had made it clear to me that it breathes and resides where it wishes and does not give reasons. I understood again that spiritual life, the experience of life in Christ is not lived by those who use it to build up their own reputation and profile, but by those who having stripped and broken themselves  to the point of death, allowed God to conquer them. Because the secret of the spiritual life will always remain the same--to allow God to conquer us with His love.

Let's open our eyes, let's broaden our souls, so that we can see that among us there are holy people, everyday, simple people with simple daily routines. Who live without causing any fuss, they exude the miracle of humanity, the joy and lovingkindness of God.

The saints of the future won't live only in monasteries, nor will they even be wearing cassocks. They will be simple souls that we would never expect, innocent and full of love who live in the apartment to ours in the middle of the city. They will live their damnation without losing hope of paradise. And it is those who will taste paradise and the Grace of God because not even once did they believe they were worthy of it. And remember, they may even wear blue jeans...

(Source)

A note from the translator: Father Haralampos Livyos Papadopoulos is a popular homilist and writer of books about the spiritual life from Crete. His work has the grace of being simultaneously deep while remaining approachable. Like the best of the current generation of Greek clergy and theologians, he is very concerned with shattering the hold of the Protestant moralism and pietism that gripped the Greek Church for much of the 20th century and in general shaking us "religious folk" from the self-satisfied complacency that we all tend toward. I hope this blogpost that I've translated here conveys what has gained him so many followers in the Greek speaking world. 

Friday, August 18, 2017

Ideology as Pathology of Soul



With the recent events in Virginia, we've all surely seen a lot of outrage. Many insist that the moral choice here is very simple: either you side with the Neo-Nazis and their allies or Antifa and those other counterprotesters. If we construe the situation this way, almost all of us would naturally want to be clear that we are against the the racism and the hatred that Neo-Nazism represents. But I must question if many on the left do not go to the other extreme and in doing so actually commit the same error as the racist. I've seen a number of postings on social media justifying violence against anyone who according to the categories of the poster could be construed as a Nazi or part of the "alt-right." I've even seen those who hold far right political views described as "sub-human."

And so the presence of the image of God is denied to a whole swath of human beings for whom Christ died. In short, this is the sickness of ideology, ideology as a kind of pathology of the soul. We become so obsessed with the rightness of our ideas and of the righteousness of our own cause that we blind ourselves to the presence of Christ in the other. Unfortunately, this is a problem shared by adherents of all ideology both from the left and the right. We place an idol of our own making on the throne of God in our hearts and God, as a jealous God, refuses to share His rightful place.

So long as the Holy Spirit does not reign over us and fill our very being, we will not see Christ in those who hate us or with whom we disagree. As St. Palamas insists over against Barlaam, the light of the Transfigured Christ is invisible to the senses and the mind and can only be seen in and through the Holy Spirit. As long as we view our neighbor through the lens of a worldly ideology we know that the Holy Spirit does not dwell in us. We know that we have made an idol out race or history (the right) or ideology and ideological purity (the left). We neglect the fight against the demonic powers at work within our own souls and remain unable to acknowledge the image of God and the beauty in each human being---whether he be communist, neonazi, immigrant, foreigner, Protestant, Roman Catholic, liberal, conservative--whatever group our pet ideology has taught us is no longer worthy of respect and love as persons of infinite worth willed into being by the Tripersonal God who loves all and calls all to communion with Him and in Him with each other.

Thursday, March 9, 2017

Eugenios Voulgaris by Fr. George Metallinos

One of the main purposes of this blog is to highlight theologians and aspects of Orthodox theology that are not normally given enough attention. After talking with a priest-friend of mine about Vikentios Damados and Eugenios Voulgaris, I thought it would be enlightening to translate this brief article about a rather misunderstood figure within the Roman Orthodox tradition, Eugenios Voulgaris. As Fr. George states here, while he critically engaged with the modern thought coming out of the West, he was in no way a slavish follower of its trends. Originally I was going to translate the footenotes, but this delayed me from putting this on here for literally weeks. I hope this short article spurs further research into another great theologian of our church.

The Theology of a Great Teacher of the Roman People: Eugenios Voulgaris

By Fr. George Metallinos



Eugenios Voulgaris, an illumined spirit, of Orthodox conscience, contributed greatly through his diverse works to the awakening of Hellenism. In the current article, we approach this important personality as a theologian, an aspect of his work which has not received sufficient attention in scholarly research where focus is usually restricted to his role in the course of the Greek Enlightenment.

Eugenios Voulgaris [1] was introduced to theology [as an academic discipline] beyond his personal relationship with the Holy Scripture and the patristic tradition by the clergymen Antonios Katiforos and Ieremias Kavvadias [2] who were his first teachers and by the Lixourian, Vikentios Damodos, [3] with whom he a spent one of his most formative years. […]

We know that Eugenios Voulgaris taught theology in Ioannina (1742-49, 1751-52/53) where he began his teaching career. His instructional program does not seem to have been modified during his short break in Kozani (1750-51/52). Regarding the Athoniada [the school on Mount Athos], it is not clear that he taught theology, because it is not clearly documented but can only be concluded indirectly. Granted of course that according to the witness of his student at the school of St. Athanasios Parios (1721-1813), he was no longer using his “theologikon” [textbook of theology] [5] giving some validity to this doubt. Nevertheless in the sigillium of Patriarch Kyrillos V [6] promulgated in May of 1850 [7] which regulated the operation of the School, theology is explicitly included in the program of studies: “a school for Greek language, education, and instruction of every type, in the sciences of logic, philosophy, and theology” is given charter for its foundation. […]

The sources tell us nothing about the independent instruction of theology [as a discipline] and it is curious that we have Voulgaris’ “theologikon” from the first stage of his teaching [career], while we have no such documentation from his time at the Athoniada. It is certain that alongside the positive sciences (arithmetic, geometry, physics, and cosmography) he taught also logic, introduction to philosophy and metaphysics. [8]

Neverthless, it is hard to believe that at the School on Mount Athos theological instruction would have been limited to the study of metaphysics--something which the existence of the “Theologikon” and the “Confesion” does not allow.

Besides, in his Logic, Philosophy is differentiated radically from Theology. On the one hand, Philosophy is “knowledge of things divine and human” which ought to give reason for the existence of God, but never enter into the realm of “mystical theology” which is known only by divine revelation. [9]

This “mystical theology” described in his “Theologikon”[10] must have been taught by Vouglaris at the Athoniada. Moreover, Athanasios Parios in his “Epitome”, explaining that Voulgaris did not use his Theologikon, he does not deny that he was instructed in the rudiments of theology by his great Teacher. [11]

Voulgaris composed many works with theological content. [12] Not a single of work of his can be found, even from among his non-theological works, which does not contain theological interventions, including within his purely “scientific” works. His work as a theologian dominates his entire output as a writer, so that we may be sure that it was not merely “something accidental” [to his identity] that he was a clergyman as some contend. This has been thoroughly documented by Martin Knapp. [14]

His basic theological works are his “Theologikon” [15] and his “Confession” [16], where his theology is represented in its prime form. These works alone were enough to obtain a place for Voulgaris within the still theologically vacillating Greek 18th century. [17] As a theologian, Voulgaris remains, according to Podskalsky, “derivative” and not original, but this judgment, originating as it does from a Jesuit scholar, is based on a western understanding of [what it means to be a] philosophical theologian rather than the patristic one, centered chiefly on the continuation of the tradition and not on impressing by one’s originality. The renewed expression of the tradition for each age is the goal of the Orthodox theologian. […]

Voulgaris’ faithfulness to the tradition
His traditionalism permeates all of his works and particularly in his theology. He writes as a champion of the faith of the Church. Of course we know that traditionalism and patristic character cannot be discerned primarily from texts but by someone’s existential relationship to the living tradition expressed in his ascetic-liturgical life. Serious researchers are able to speak to this aspect of his character as well.

For example, Podskalsky recognizes in Voulgaris “a love for hesychastic monasticism.” [19] Our own [Greek] scholars, Basil Tatakis [20] and Kitromilidis [21] view him as an inheritor of the mystical theology of the Orthodox East. Knapp sees him as “one hundred percent rooted in traditional Orthodoxy, not only as regards dogma, but also with regard to ecclesiastical practice.” [22] Orthodox theologians, B. Makridis and Fr. Eirinaios Delidimos, [likewise agree with this evaluation.]

His famous and often cited expressions, both sincere and enlightening, “I risk becoming also a lover of church-services” and “because I am not… a faster” are but witticisms of one possessing a strong sense of humor, patristic and characteristic of himself. We cannot accept the judgment of Patriarch Dimaras of Constantinople (of blessed memory) who claims that in [Voulgaris’] understanding of Orthodoxy “we think him to be more akin to the liberalizing Catholic abbots of his era than a monk of the Holy Mountain.” [27]

Goudas presents him as a lover of church-services, [28] and Tatakis does not hesitate to write concerning him that, “Vouglaris shows himself to be a prime example of the modern Greek intellectual who goes to the West, receives its philosophy and science, but sacrifices nothing of his Greek Orthodox heritage.” [29]

His Orthodox identity shows, as was said, in his consistent employment of the distinction between the divine essence and the uncreated divine energy, [30] the absence from his work of the analogia entis, [31] his teaching concerning the vision of God (theoptia-theosis) and in other ways. In his short work “Concerning the where of Paradise and the where of Hell and what these are” [32] he defines, in accordance with Orthodox teaching, “the place of the soul after death” as a “condition” in which the soul leaving the present life “in piety and faith, in repentance and confession, justified by the grace of God,” “has the pledge of the perfect rest, enlightened by God, a glorified (glory=theosis)[…] interlocutor with the angels, accompanied by the prophets and Apostles and Martyrs and the whole choir of the just.”

He bases these reflections on his reading of Luke 16:19-31 (the parable of the rich man and the poor man, Lazarus) and culminate with the rejection of the Latin “purgatory” as a “third place of purification” closing with the counsel “believe only that they are (paradise and hell) and do not inquire as to the where!”

Even in his work, “Concerning Music,” [33] he is concerned with strengthening the tradition, differentiating the music of the Church from that of Western Christendom. He fully identifies himself with the hesychastic tradition of theological reflection and practice in his Epistle “To Klairkios” [34] where his account concerning the saints and sanctity, concerning rudimentary miracles, such as holy bread and holy water, the holy relics, and others. After all, Orthodox patristic thought is not the mere fruit of human reflection, but is founded on these realities that testify to the presence of the Uncreated in the created.

His publications evince a similar stance. Not only did he publish complex authors such as Theodoros of Cyrus [35] whose themes include saints’ lives or monastic texts worthy of attention, but he shows particular love for the great hesychast, Joseph Vryennios. [36] Consequently, he cannot be considered “cut off from the lived-out ecclesiastical experience of the people and of his place” [37] as one may think if one only read his epistles.

It is impossible moreover to compare the situation of Vouglaris who was forced by his circumstances to live many years away from Greece itself (did this not also happen to others including Korais?), with the Kollyvades Fathers who were remained at the epicenter of developments inside of Greece.

His clear place within the ecclesiastical tradition

Voulgaris’ references to Papism, Papists and Papolaters [38] are frequent. He considers Papism the greatest undoing of Christianity and an immediate threat to Orthodoxy. [39]

For this reason, he did not limit himself to writing only academic refutations but also popular anti-Latin works in an attempt to inform the Orthodox faithful who found themselves under the immediate influence of papal elements, chief among them, the Unia. Such a work was his “Booklet Against the Latins” which was sent to the Serbian Orthodox of Austro-Hungary [40] where he demonstrates the falseness of Papism calling on the faithful to reject their attempts at proselytizing, not hesitating to prefer martyrdom as a means of safeguarding their Orthodox faith.

His Discourse “On Saint Andrew” [41] has a similar character. His “Confession” and his “Response” [42] also contain anti-Latin elements as well as his translations from Russian. [43] Even in his “Outline Concerning Religious Toleration” he inserts antipapal elements, chiefly in the notes which follow his translation of the relevant work by Voltaire. [44]

This translation essentially serves his antipapal aims and goals. Podskalsky characterizes Voulgaris as “fiercely anti-Latin” and even includes him among the portion of the adherents of re-baptism [45] [for the Latins]. It is certainly a fact that in his anti-Latin stance he is closer to Damodos than Athanasios Parios.

How he was different from the anti-Orthodox tendencies of the Enlightenment

It is a serious error to classify Voulgaris as a ‘philosophe’ of the Enlightenment as so often happens to him and even to St. Kosmas Aitolos in the realm of education. Voulgaris’ openness to European science was a purely patristic stance [46] and does not at all mean that Voulgaris can be confined to the category of the Enlightenment or be identified with the full range of this multifaceted movement.

The Enlightenment was for Voulgaris “a challenging field for knowledge but never an acceptable worldview.” [47]

Even in issues of purely scientific importance he remained critical of the Enlightenment, remaining faithful to the tradition of the Holy Fathers. [48] His attitude toward scientific research is illustrated clearly in his “Against the Latins”: “What does the wisdom of the world have in common with the wisdom of God? The wisdom of the world is delusion, nonsense, it is foolishness according to Paul when it is separated from the wisdom of God, the truth faith. This is truly wisdom, sure wisdom, without error or fault, upright wisdom.” [49]

The judgment of Martin Knapp, an expert in the thought of Voulgaris, inclines the same way. He correctly states that “Voulgaris’ “involvement in the issues surrounding the Natural Sciences is not equivalent to being a part of the Enlightenment.” [50]

Voulgaris’ thought always has its center of gravity in the Theology of the Church. This even shows in his occupation with the works of Voltaire. He translates Voltaire’s works but exclusively those parts most timely and which are identical with the faith of the Church and contribute to his own aims. […] Voulgaris’ stance always remains critical. [53] […]

Openness to society and to modern reality

He accomplished this chiefly in his “Outline Concerning Religious Tolerance.” In this work, he confronts the social phenomenon and abuse of religion in society by political authority. In this way, he is able to connect theology and the problem societal status. [54

Of course, unable to surpass the limitations of his time, Voulgaris does not reach our contemporary notion of religious freedom, [55] but he does manage to distinguish himself from the various western authorities (Lock, Voltaire, etc) and be led to the “sentiment that only tolerance and mutual respect between [different] spiritual understandings can safeguard peace in society.”

In the work of Voulgaris, “the notion of tolerance, as a fundamental ideal of European liberalism” [56] passes into Greek society, [57] filtered however by his Orthodox conscience.

In the same way he distinguishes his position from that of the Deists. He condemns the interlinking of spiritual and worldly authority, he denies the proposals of Petavius (“violence against all false religions”), but also of Bernard of Clairvaux (“arguments instead of weapons”), coming to his own conclusion that when the spiritual means of the Church do not suffice, strict penalties (excepting death) may be imposed by the State therapeutically. [58] Chiefly, he is at variance with Voltaire: the tolerant man of Voulgaris is a zealot of piety, not indifferent. “The indifferent man is not tolerant, but irreligious.” [59]

In the end, he gives his own definition: Religious tolerance is “lenient and meek disposition of the soul of the pious man who with knowledge according to zeal toward those violating the things of faith employs understanding and purposeful means toward their correction. Taking custody for them, he tolerates those who are insubordinate with longsuffering and patience, feeling compassion for their loss, promoting rather than impeding the loosing of their corruption, but never tyrannically and inhumanly becoming angry with them.” [60] He does not reach the idea of religious freedom, but as a trailblazer he opens the way for it.

Biographical Note

Born on the 11th of August in the year 1716 in Kerkyra (Corfu) from parents from Zakynthos. Studies: First in Kerkyra, then in Arta, Ioannina, near the well-known teachers of his era (Antonios Katiforos, Vikentios Damodos, and Ieremias Kavvadias). Higher education in Padua (Italy) and particularly ancient Greek, Latin, and Hebrew philology, theology, positive sciences, foreign languages, and above all modern philosophy (Descartes, Locke, Leibniz, Frederich Wolf). 1737: Ordained to the diaconate. 1742: He returns from his studies in Italy and begins teaching at various education foundations in the Ottoman Empire: Ioannina (1742-46), Kozani (1746-50), Ioannina (1750-52), Mount Athos—Athoniada (1753-59), Constantinople—Great School of the [Roman] Race (1759-61). 1762: He departs disappointed by the persecution he faced for Vlachia and from there to Leipsia. 1772: Upon the invitation of Tsarina Catherine II, he departs from Berlin where he was living for St. Petersburg. 1776: Ordained in Moscow Archbishop of Slavinios and Hersonos. 1787: He resigns as Archbishop offering his position to his compatriot, the wise Nikiphoros Theotokis. He returns to St. Petersburg where becomes a member of the Imperial Academy and dedicates himself entirely to study and writing. 1802: He cloisters himself in the Lavra of St. Alexander (Nevsky) until his death (1806).

[source]

Thursday, November 3, 2016

Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra on the Different Kinds of Temptation



Those who by God’s permission tempt us either inflame the desiring aspect of the soul, or stir up its incensive power, or darken its reasoning faculty, or envelop its body in pain, or deprive us of bodily necessities. [12] (St. Maximus the Confessor, Four Hundred Texts on Love: Second Century)

Here saint Maximus sets side by side for us on the one hand the tripartite division of the soul of man, the mental world of man, and on the other hand that of the body. He is not dealing with man’s personality, but with his passive aspect, with the passions which he may have, bring into activity or suffer.

The phrase by God’s permission means according to the knowledge and permission of God, God allows something to happen to them. Those who by God’s permission tempt us either inflame the desiring aspect of the soul, in other words, they create a burning desire within man, or stir up its incensive power, they contribute to man losing his mental or emotional balance so that he loses his internal peace, creating internal agitation, or darken its reasoning faculty, or they create conflict in the reason [logos], in the reasoning faculty of the soul [logistikon], which ceases to think correctly, so that my reasoning [logismos] is blinded, thrown into a torpor, dulled, distorted; it sees black as white and white as black.

First, we need to interpret at length the phrase either inflame the desiring aspect of the soul. The only thing I am able to desire is God. Is this possible?  Of course it is. Because, in reality, the only thing that I am able to know is God. When my intellect [noesis] is absorbed by God, then my spirit is free to ascend together with my soul which is totally given over to God, in addition to my desiring faculty. Consequently, my desire is sincere before God, it is divine, when my mind cleaves to God; otherwise, my internal world suffers a kind of division which can throw a shadow over me, create composition, division, even further fragmentation in my soul so that I am unable to love God, because I am not simple like God is simple.

How can those tempting inflame the desiring faculty of the soul? For example, while I am in a cenobitic monastery, they give me the longing to go out into the desert. They kindle in me this longing, this desire, which seems as if it were from God, but may actually be a stumbling block for me, my fall for the rest of my life. Or, they place in me the desire to go cultivate the people of God, to speak to the people, to save them. How? My heart is filled with warmth, I love them, I want to help them, and this warming [of the heart] is a temptation permitted by God, because God never tempts, he only allows temptations. This is why we say “by God’s permission.” And so my fervent desire is a clear temptation and as much as it takes the form of a good service, so the more dangerous it is, because it is all the better hidden from our understanding.

Second, or stir up its incensive power. The incensive power of the soul is the feeling part, where I feel intensely, where I live intensely; it is not desire. When I desire something, I don’t have it but I want it. The spirited faculty is something which I have and live, I feel it, I have laid hold of it. Whatever within us absorbs [our attention], whatever constrains us and possesses us—even our own thoughts—even if it is something completely our own, internal, when this is stirred up, harmony is lost. It is as if man starts to vibrate, he lives in internal turmoil. Think for a moment how when you come into conflict with someone else’s opinion or someone comes into conflict with your opinion; immediately you’re burning inside to prove what you believe. Or think of when you feel someone to be very dear to you and then others come to steal him, to take him in, or he dies. You feel the loss, your whole being is disturbed, your inner peace is lost.

Third, or darken its reasoning faculty. In the spiritual man the reasoning faculty [logistikon] is inactive, because his spirit is led upward. Generally, the intellect [noeron] soars high above, but the reason [logos] slows it dow---it wants to paint, it wants to be occupied, it constrains the intellect [nous]. Hence when we speak about the spiritual life, we distinguish the intellect [noeron] from the reason [logistiko]; while when we speak about the life of the passions and the properties of the soul, we don’t distinguish the intellect from the reason, but the incensive power of the soul at work.
When my intellect [nous] ascends toward God, then reasoning mind [logos], thought is pure and has no content, because the intellect [nous] is empty and is absorbed in God alone. Then the reasoning mind [logos] does nothing else but follows God. In other words, the mind [logos], when it is pure, is one with the intellect [nous]. But when it is not pure, then it becomes a counterweight to the intellect, it darkens the atmosphere so to speak, and the intellect is incapable of continuing on its course. Then we have thoughts [logismoi] as we say which in their most crude form result in fantasy. The intellect [noeron], when it mixes with an unclean thought, is essentially nonexistent, it is an eagle which has fallen in the mud and been covered up.  But when the intellect [nous] is an eagle, when the intellect flies, then the Tempter or the people [around us] try to cast a shadow on the reasoning mind [logistiko].

What is the difference between what the demons do on the one hand, and what other people do? They come into conflict with our desires, or they give us desires, and [either method] achieves the same result, warmth; or they help us in our thinking, in what we are living and feeling, or they come into conflict with this, and then cast a shadow on the reasoning faculty, removing its brightness and giving it content like a cloud, something so you can’t see. Any content in the reasoning mind obstructs the vision of God, it isn’t the cloud behind which God [waits], but the cloud above which [waits] the tempter. This is what happens with regard to the soul.


Now, regarding the body, or envelop its body in pain, or deprive us of bodily necessities. If it is the Evil One who is tempting you, he can come and hit you, cover you with bruises, make you sick, or take away all of your possessions. The same things happens if it is the people around you; maybe they fill [your life] with bodily grief, with deprivation, with impotence, hunger, nakedness, with whatever else it may be. In other words, they confine you so that deprived as you are, you can no longer deal with it, you react, and you lose your peace with God.

If you succeed in surpassing the grief, meaning you no longer consider the grief something evil , but only good—if you consider every robbery, loss, and grief as visitations of God—then  you have become incapable of being tempted. But from the moment that you want to conquer the grief, the pain, you want to fight back, or to regain any of your lost bodily goods, then you [become] unable to have a relationship with God, or [at least] your relationship is disturbed. For example, you don’t have anything to eat. “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I find myself,” says the Apostle [Philippians 4:11]. Do I have anything to eat? I will eat. And if I don’t have anything to eat? I won’t eat. Do I have my health? I will say, glory to Thee, O God. And if I don’t have my health?  Again, I will say, glory to Thee, O God. From the moment that I want to become well, to get better from my illness, going to one doctor and then another, doing everything [I can], finding new drugs from America, from Russia, I’ve already lost God; I am a top spinning upon the earth.
The same thing also happens when I’m unable to understand that, whatever I don’t have, I don’t need. They took my clothes from me, my possessions, or my money, they stole my wife, my friend, or my father; this means that they weren’t necessary for me. Loss and grief constitute a criterion of our spirituality. A man who reacts to pain, or who is afraid of pain, or struggles because of the lack or absence of [material] things doesn’t have God—for him, God is dead.


In order for someone to not be tempted and to not lose his contact with God, so that God does not cease to exist for him, in everything regarding the body, he must love pain, grief, and want.

Archimandrite Aimilianos of Simonopetra, Concerning Love: Interpreting St. Maximus the Confessor, p. 87-92 [Translation mine]

Friday, September 9, 2016

A Hymn of Love For Jesus By Elder Joseph the Hesychast


A Hymn of Love For Jesus
By Elder Joseph the Hesychast

My most sweet Jesus, balm of my soul,
Love of my heart, air that I breathe,
Noetic light most sweet, eros, my strength,
Love most marvelous, my life’s desire,
My faith and hope, my sweet love,
Savior most desired, sweet consolation!
Come, sweet breath of mine, come, my light divine,
Come, light of my eyes, sweet amusement,
And enlighten my inward parts, my intellect and heart
And grant my body perfect peace (apatheia).
Shine in my intellect your illumination divine,
Most radiant movement of your divine knowledge.
Give me, my sweet love, all that which I ask,
Your feet to embrace and them to sweetly kiss.


Sorry if the translation is a little awkward still, but if I spent hours agonizing over how to make it sound like English poetry (or heaven forbid, attempt to metre it), it would have never gone up. The Fathers of Vatopaidi Monastery on Mt.Athos have set the poem to music and chant it in the video above. It is truly heavenly.