Wisdom of Fathers from Optina

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Dan Everiss <oregdan@hotmail.com> Thu, Oct 20, 2016 at 6:23 PM Reply | Reply to all | Forward | Print | Delete | Show original   TEACHINGS OF ST. NEKTARY OF OPTINA HELP OF THE SAINTS When you will say, “All Saints, pray to God for me!”—then all of the saints in heaven will cry out, " Lord have mercy!"—and you will have what you desire. OBEDIENCE Take this advice for your whole life: if the superiors or those older than you suggest something, then no matter how difficult or how lofty it might seem, do not refuse. God will help you for your obedience. Every obedience which seems difficult, becomes very easy when we fulfill it, because that is how obedience works. IRRITABILITY As soon as you notice in yourself any irritation, just say firmly, “Lord have mercy.” With prayer we are purified from every defilement. FAMILY LIFE For a woman, marriage is service to the Most Holy Trinity—see what a great honor it is to be a wife and a mother. Happiness in married life is granted only to those who fulfill the Divine Commandments and treat marriage as a Mystery of the Christian Church. SORROWS When there are sorrows and you do not have the strength to endure them, then turn with all your heart to the Lord, the Mother of God, St. Nicholas, the saint whose name you bear, and the sorrow will be alleviated. PRAYER At all times, whatever you may be doing: whether you are sitting, or walking, or working, say with the heart, “Lord have mercy.” Pray that the Lord will rule in your heart. Then it will overflow with great rejoicing and happiness, and no kind of sorrow will have the strength to disturb it. The power of prayer is not in many words, but in the sincerity of prayerful sigh. KNOWLEDGE OF GOD The story of Job is an example for every person, for as a long as a man is rich, famous, and content, God pays him no mind. When a man, on the other hand, is on a dung heap, rejected by everyone, then God appears and converses with him, and the man in return cries out, “Lord have mercy!” THE JESUS PRAYER Drive away the enemy and those who bring temptations of evil thoughts with prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” This prayer can be said during all activities. NONBELIEVERS One may have a good worldly relationship with nonbelievers, but one cannot have a relationship in prayer and one must not carry on arguments about religion so that the name of God not be offended during an argument. CONDEMNATION As soon as condemnation comes into your head, immediately say with attention: “Lord, grant me to see my sins and not condemn my brother”. HUMILITY You ask: “By what path do I go to God?” Go on the path of humility! By humbly bearing the difficult circumstances of life, by humbly enduring sicknesses sent by the Lord, by the humble hope that you will not be abandoned by the Lord, the quick Helper and Heavenly Father overflowing in love, by humble prayer for help from on high to dispel despondency and feelings of helplessness by which the enemy of salvation tries to bring us to despair, which is so perilous for man, depriving him of Divine Grace and removing from him the mercy of God. REPENTANCE The details of the confession are not important, but the compunction of the heart. "The Lord sees the heart." THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD In order to not lose the grace of God, strive more to acquire the remembrance of God. One must fulfill the word of God, i.e., the commandments, as the Lord Himself said: He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me (John 14:21). In such a way there is achieved sincere service to God, with all one's heart. You should love your neighbour, but sincerely, not with calculation. Love—it is most beautiful, most holy. It is so beautiful! But people have distorted it. It must be like that of Christ, when He suffered for us.   ============================================================ TEACHINGS OF ST. MACARIUS OF OPTINA (PART 1) KNOWLEDGE OF GOD If we truly labor to cleanse our hearts from the passions, then according to the amount that we have purified ourselves, Divine Grace will open our eyes spiritually to the vision of the true Light; for as it is written, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt. 5:8). This is achieved only through humility, for it is in humility that divine mysteries are revealed. SICKNESS We are visited by sicknesses and sorrows. This is an indication of God's mercy towards us, For whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth (Heb. 12:6), and so it is proper for us to thank the Lord for His fatherly Providence for us. Sorrows instruct us and make us skillful in our work, and likewise they, along with sickness, cleanse us of sins. We do not know the judgements of God, but He does everything for our benefit. We are bound to earthly blessings, but He desires to give us future blessings through brief sicknesses on this earth. SPIRITUAL WELFARE Our life is a spiritual warfare with unseen evil spirits. They arouse us through our weaknesses and passions; they urge us to disobey the commandments of God. When we look with discernment, we will find that for every passion there is a cure, an opposing commandment; therefore, do the enemies of mankind try to keep us from this saving cure. The struggle to not have possessions is indispensable; for the dark­ness and gloom of this passion obscures our spiritual vision, so that we cannot see the sun of righteousness, Jesus. The struggle against the passions, the warfare with them and invisi­ble enemies, is relentless, terrible, and ferocious. It is humility that defeats them. SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING We should not be attracted to ourselves, thinking that we are better than others, but we must consider ourselves to be the last of all; in this consists spiritual understanding and spiritual instruction. Begin gradually, do not trust yourself, do not depend on your own understanding, reject your own will, and the Lord will give you true understanding. Unfortunately, everywhere now they talk and write so freely about religion, not constructively, but to cast doubts. Sensuality has seized con­trol and the younger generation is more inclined to freedom and not bridling the senses, and they give their thinking free rein, even though it is darkened. With humility the mind is pleasing to God, but with pride it is reject­ed. DISCERNMENT True understanding, or discernment, is obtained through humility, and humility through sorrows. According to St. Peter Damascene, he who flees from sorrows flees from his own salvation. COMPLAINING God endures all the sins of man, but He does not leave a complainer without punishment. Watch out for complaining and faintheartedness, which worsen and increase sorrows. GUIDANCE Humility is born from true obedience and the rejection of self-centered thoughts, when we do not trust ourselves in any way, and cutting off our will and understanding, we entrust them to others who are able to guide us. Not having anyone to nourish or guide your soul, you must instead read books and be nourished by them, while imploring God's help. CONCEIT Conceit—that subtle arrow of the devil—secretly wounds the heart and its seed is subtly planted, so that little by little it grows into a phar­isee, and later it succumbs to complete pride—but this is the demonic realm. Watch carefully so that the thieving thought does not creep in, which says that you live better and more attentive­ly than others. It is so danger­ous that you will not even notice how, from a poppy seed falling on the heart, it will grow into a giant pharisee, turn into complete arrogance and more. Before the Lord it is better to be a sinner with repentance than a righteous person with pride. Do not consider every proud suggestion and opinion about yourself to be a minor sin, but prostrate yourself before God, and ask for for­giveness and help in being delivered from it. If you were not subject to temptation and not recognizing your infirmities, and you saw only your own improvements and placed your hope of salvation on them, then you could fall into extreme haughtiness and incurable deception; for when the enemy cannot conquer someone through passions and infirmities, then he places into the mind haughtiness and conceit, from which they fall into deception and the darkening of the mind. Beware of having exalted thoughts about yourself. For this the grace of God withdraws its help and we are handed over to the passions and (evil) spirits as punishment. Through obedience humility is achieved, we recognize our worth and we flee from conceit. SELF-KNOWLEDGE We cannot know ourselves other than through association with our neighbors, receiving from them reproaches and vexation, as a cure for our spiritual wounds, while reproaching ourselves for impatience, but not them; instead we must thank them, for through them we came to know our spiritual infirmity, by God's Providence. And having serenity, by God's grace, be careful not to be carried away with a high opinion of yourself, so that you again do not suffer: the enemies do not sleep, they only fear humility. SELF-REPROACH Strive in every way to acquire self-reproach and humility, and be atten­tive and watch over the movements of your heart. Watchfulness over yourself and self-reproach at all times produce humility, and that preserves peace. If we happen to be reproached or scorned by someone, we must instruct our heart to say: "We're worse than they are,"—not only with the tongue but with a heartfelt pledge. No matter who he might be, always consider him to be better than you, and as you gradually get used to this you will regard everyone as an angel, and you yourself will be at peace. But as long as your self-loving part is not subdued, much fire will be required to burn it up.     THE HEART Follow the movement of your heart and vanquish those passions which arise, but mainly pride, anger, wrath, judgement, and condemnation of your neighbors. How can we weep for other deceased people when our corpse lies before us—our soul deadened by sins. =======================================================   TEACHINGS OF ST. MACARIUS OF OPTINA (PART 2) SORROWS It is impossible to pass your entire life without temptations and sor­rows, and to always be happy and without a care. Know that God is car­ing for you when He sends sorrows and griefs, and with them He tries to instruct you and make you more wise in spiritual understanding. Without sorrows we cannot be humble or acquire spiritual understand­ing. And be assured that without God's permission, no kind of sorrow can come to us. Although it may seem that people are the cause of them, they are the instruments by which God acts in the work of our salvation. If God sends someone sorrows, it is in order to cleanse him of sins and prepare him for the eternal Kingdom of Heaven. Here everything is tem­poral, but there it is eternal. You will never flee from sorrows for they are a product of your own passions, for exposing them, so that, with God's help, we might take care to heal them. Woe to our times: we now depart from the narrow and sorrowful path leading to eternal life and we seek a happy and peaceful path. But the merciful Lord leads many people from this path, against their will, and places them on the sorrowful one. Through unwanted sorrows and illnesses we draw closer to the Lord, for they humble us by constraint, and humility, when we acquire it, can save us even without works, according to St. Isaac the Syrian. TENDING THE SICK Tending the sick is one of the most powerful means of preserving puri­ty. THOUGHTS The thoughts that vex and annoy us have many distinctions: a provo­cation, or an attack of a thought, is not a sin but is a test of our free will, to what it is inclined—to the thought or to opposition of it. Howev­er, when there is agreement and communion with these passions it is con­sidered to be a sin and repentance is needed. He who does not have the strength to oppose them himself must hasten to God, cast down his infir­mity and implore His help and the help of the Mother of God. When someone is conquered by thoughts, it is a sign that pride preceded them, and therefore he must humble himself more. Do not be surprised that various thoughts arise during the time of the services: when you take up arms against the enemies, i.e., prayer, then they arm themselves against you more forcefully with provocative thoughts. Flee to the Lord with prayer against them and do not become confused: they will vanish. When you become confused, seeing that they do not leave you, they arm themselves even more against you; but when you chant unto God with humility, then you will be at peace. The holy fathers in gener­al consider blasphemous thoughts to be not our thoughts but provocations of the enemy; and when we do not agree with them but grieve that they have pene­trated our mind, then this is a sign that we are not guilty of them. One should not be dis­turbed that they come. When a person becomes disturbed, the enemy attacks him even more, but when he pays no attention, disregards them and does not consider them to be a sin, then the thoughts vanish. OBEDIENCE Obedience is what directs us on the path of perfection. FASTING While refraining from food, one must also refrain from the passions. PRAISE Whoever reproaches us, gives us a gift, but whoever praises us, steals from us. St. Ambrose How harmful is the praise of man! Even though a person may have done something worthy of praise, when he enjoys the sound of praise he is already deprived of future glory, according to the teachings of the holy fathers. To have a high opinion of oneself is a serious sin before God; but peo­ple afflicted with this not only do not repent of it, but they do not even consider it a sin. Flее from this evil root! We must fear every kind of praise and glory from men, for according to the teachings of the holy fathers, “It is not only the one who accepts praise from men, but even the one who hears the sounds of the words with enjoyment, that is deprived of eternal glory." Lord, do not allow us to be carried away by the enjoyment of the vain glory of this world! DIVINE PROVIDENCE Faith does not consist of merely believing in the existence of God, but also in His all-wise Providence which guides His creatures and arranges everything for the good; the times and the seasons are put in His power (Acts 1:7), and for each of us the limits of our life were determined before our existence, and without His will a bird does not fall nor does a hair of our head perish! (Matt 10:29; Luke 21:28). God cares and provides for us more than we ourselves. He arranges our salvation, but He also does not want us to seek it in worldly enjoy­ment, but in sorrows, difficulties, and sicknesses. Was it not with infirmi­ty that our fathers and mothers entered the Kingdom of Heaven? Did they not reach it by the narrow and sorrowful path? They sorrowed, but they did not grow weary and become despondent and this served as a comfort for them during the most cruel sorrows, spiritual and physical. Through enduring them with perfect humility they received absolute peace and even spiritual gifts. The works of God are wondrous and unfathomable for our darkened minds, but as much as possible, we see from Scripture and our per­sonal experiences that the Lord sends sicknesses, sor­rows, deprivation, droughts, wars, and revolutions, either as punishment for our sins, or in anticipation, so that we do not fall into sins, or some­times to test our faith. And so, we must bow in reverence before His all-wise Providence and give thanks for His ineffable mercy towards us. How would we know ourselves if no one caused us sorrow, and how would we acquire patience, and how would we be humbled? All of this does not happen without Divine Providence, but by His most wise supervision, each person is pre­sented, for testing his will and patience, situations which can disturb and shake him, so that he can see his infirmity and be humbled, or so that he can acquire the virtues of patience and love. We do not know the judgements of God. He does everything for good. We are bound to earthly blessings, but He wants to give us future blessings through brief earthly sickness. His all-embracing Providence extends over the whole world, but especially over each of us. THE PATH TO SALVATION Do not get lost in sorrow, do not seek lofty gifts, but conduct yourself with humility: feel compunction upon your beds for what ye say in your hearts (Ps. 4:5). Reproach yourself for your imperfections; this is better than your lofty improvements accompanied by conceit. As long as we remain in this war, we must neither be bold nor despair. IRRATIBILITY Irritability, or the anger part of our tripartite soul, is not given in order to be angry at our neighbors, but in order to have zeal against sin. When we become enraged with our neighbors, we do this contrary to our nature. Irritability is strong in us because of pride. Irritability shows us our inner disposition which we must overcome with self-reproach, patience, love, not noticing the weaknesses of our neighbors and not condemning others. Sometimes, however, we are offended, and this, of course, is not without Divine Providence, in order to show us our infirmity and give the means for healing: struggle, resis­tance, and humility. To fight against irritation we have patience, self-reproach, and con­templation of the sufferings of Christ.   ==============================================================================================================   TEACHINGS OF ST. MACARIUS OF OPTINA (PART 1) KNOWLEDGE OF GOD If we truly labor to cleanse our hearts from the passions, then according to the amount that we have purified ourselves, Divine Grace will open our eyes spiritually to the vision of the true Light; for as it is written, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matt. 5:8). This is achieved only through humility, for it is in humility that divine mysteries are revealed. SICKNESS We are visited by sicknesses and sorrows. This is an indication of God's mercy towards us, For whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth (Heb. 12:6), and so it is proper for us to thank the Lord for His fatherly Providence for us. Sorrows instruct us and make us skillful in our work, and likewise they, along with sickness, cleanse us of sins. We do not know the judgements of God, but He does everything for our benefit. We are bound to earthly blessings, but He desires to give us future blessings through brief sicknesses on this earth. SPIRITUAL WELFARE Our life is a spiritual warfare with unseen evil spirits. They arouse us through our weaknesses and passions; they urge us to disobey the commandments of God. When we look with discernment, we will find that for every passion there is a cure, an opposing commandment; therefore, do the enemies of mankind try to keep us from this saving cure. The struggle to not have possessions is indispensable; for the dark­ness and gloom of this passion obscures our spiritual vision, so that we cannot see the sun of righteousness, Jesus. The struggle against the passions, the warfare with them and invisi­ble enemies, is relentless, terrible, and ferocious. It is humility that defeats them. SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING We should not be attracted to ourselves, thinking that we are better than others, but we must consider ourselves to be the last of all; in this consists spiritual understanding and spiritual instruction. Begin gradually, do not trust yourself, do not depend on your own understanding, reject your own will, and the Lord will give you true understanding. Unfortunately, everywhere now they talk and write so freely about religion, not constructively, but to cast doubts. Sensuality has seized con­trol and the younger generation is more inclined to freedom and not bridling the senses, and they give their thinking free rein, even though it is darkened. With humility the mind is pleasing to God, but with pride it is reject­ed. DISCERNMENT True understanding, or discernment, is obtained through humility, and humility through sorrows. According to St. Peter Damascene, he who flees from sorrows flees from his own salvation. COMPLAINING God endures all the sins of man, but He does not leave a complainer without punishment. Watch out for complaining and faintheartedness, which worsen and increase sorrows. GUIDANCE Humility is born from true obedience and the rejection of self-centered thoughts, when we do not trust ourselves in any way, and cutting off our will and understanding, we entrust them to others who are able to guide us. Not having anyone to nourish or guide your soul, you must instead read books and be nourished by them, while imploring God's help. CONCEIT Conceit—that subtle arrow of the devil—secretly wounds the heart and its seed is subtly planted, so that little by little it grows into a phar­isee, and later it succumbs to complete pride—but this is the demonic realm. Watch carefully so that the thieving thought does not creep in, which says that you live better and more attentive­ly than others. It is so danger­ous that you will not even notice how, from a poppy seed falling on the heart, it will grow into a giant pharisee, turn into complete arrogance and more. Before the Lord it is better to be a sinner with repentance than a righteous person with pride. Do not consider every proud suggestion and opinion about yourself to be a minor sin, but prostrate yourself before God, and ask for for­giveness and help in being delivered from it. If you were not subject to temptation and not recognizing your infirmities, and you saw only your own improvements and placed your hope of salvation on them, then you could fall into extreme haughtiness and incurable deception; for when the enemy cannot conquer someone through passions and infirmities, then he places into the mind haughtiness and conceit, from which they fall into deception and the darkening of the mind. Beware of having exalted thoughts about yourself. For this the grace of God withdraws its help and we are handed over to the passions and (evil) spirits as punishment. Through obedience humility is achieved, we recognize our worth and we flee from conceit. SELF-KNOWLEDGE We cannot know ourselves other than through association with our neighbors, receiving from them reproaches and vexation, as a cure for our spiritual wounds, while reproaching ourselves for impatience, but not them; instead we must thank them, for through them we came to know our spiritual infirmity, by God's Providence. And having serenity, by God's grace, be careful not to be carried away with a high opinion of yourself, so that you again do not suffer: the enemies do not sleep, they only fear humility. SELF-REPROACH Strive in every way to acquire self-reproach and humility, and be atten­tive and watch over the movements of your heart. Watchfulness over yourself and self-reproach at all times produce humility, and that preserves peace. If we happen to be reproached or scorned by someone, we must instruct our heart to say: "We're worse than they are,"—not only with the tongue but with a heartfelt pledge. No matter who he might be, always consider him to be better than you, and as you gradually get used to this you will regard everyone as an angel, and you yourself will be at peace. But as long as your self-loving part is not subdued, much fire will be required to burn it up.     THE HEART Follow the movement of your heart and vanquish those passions which arise, but mainly pride, anger, wrath, judgement, and condemnation of your neighbors. How can we weep for other deceased people when our corpse lies before us—our soul deadened by sins.   ================================================================================================================   TEACHINGS OF ST. BARSANUPHIUS OF OPTINA (PART 2) WARRING WITH THE PASSIONS My simple words are comprehensible to a five-year-old child, but the meaning of all of life is contained in them. Learn to war with your passions—this is very important, and even imperative. The best guide for you will be the Lives of the Saints. The world abandoned this reading long ago, but don’t conform to the world, and this reading will console you greatly. In the Lives of Saints you’ll find instructions on how to conduct warfare against the spirit of evil and remain the victor. May the Lord help you. GOING TO CHURH Go to God’s temple more often, especially when you’re in afflictions. It’s good to stand in some dark corner and pray and weep from your heart. SPIRITUAL JOYS When a valve of the heart closes to the receptivity of worldly enjoyments, another valve opens for the reception of spiritual joys. But how does one acquire this? First of all, by peace and love towards one’s neighbors: Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up; doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth… (1 Cor. 13:4-8). Then, by patience. Who will be saved? He that endureth to the end shall be saved (Mt. 10:22). Also, by withdrawing from such sinful pleasures as, for instance, card-playing, dances, and so on… Full joy does not occur in this life, where we see God only through a glass, darkly. This joy will begin yonder, beyond the grave, when we will see the Lord face to face. Not everyone will see God the same way, but each will see Him according to the measure of his own receptivity. In fact, even the vision of the Seraphim is distinguished from the vision of simple angels. One can only say whoever has not seen Christ in this life will not see Him in the next. The capability of seeing God is attained through work on oneself in this life. The life of any Christian person can be depicted graphically in the form of an uninterruptedly ascending line. But the Lord does not allow a man to see this ascent; He conceals it, knowing human weakness, knowing that by observing his own improvement it would not take a man long to become prideful, and where there is pride, there too is a fall into the abyss. [Benjamin] Franklin thought up a horrible thing, proposing that people, on special little boards, make note of their successes of the day, of the week, and so on. In this way one can reach a state of terrible prelest, and tumble down into the abyss of destruction.      No, ours is a different path. We must all strive towards God, towards heaven, towards the East; but we must see our sins and weaknesses, confessing ourselves to be the first among sinners, seeing ourselves as beneath all, and all others as above us. However, this is a difficult thing; we all try to take notice of others—he's weak in this, but I'm not; I'm a good boy, better than him. One must struggle against this trait. This is a tough struggle, but without it it's impossible to see God. True, only a few people have seen God face to face, like St. Seraphim of Sarov, but we must all, without exception, strive, if only to see His reflection. If we believe in Christ and try, according to our strength, to fulfill His commandments, then even if only through a crack, we'll still see Him. Our vision of Christ and the vision of the saints can be compared to the ability of a man and an eagle to look at the sun. The eagle rises high above the earth, soars in the sky, and with unblinking eyes looks at the sun. But man's site is not adapted to this; man cannot bear the fullness of the light. Thus it is as well with Divine light—those who are adapted to this spiritual sight will see Him, and the rest will not. DISPASSION A man who has attained dispassion receives, as it were, a diploma with the right to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and becomes a converser with the angels and saints. A man who has not conquered the passions cannot be in Paradise—he’s detained at the tollhouses. But let’s assume that he has entered Paradise; he’ll be in no state to remain there, however—and what is more, he himself wouldn’t want to. As difficult as it is for an ill-bred man to be in the society of those that are well bred, so would it be impossible for a passionate man to be in the society of those that are dispassionate. The envious would remain envious, even in Paradise, and the proud, even in Heaven, would not become humble. People with opposing tendencies do not understand one another, and often bring harm to one another.