وجبـــــــة روحيـــــ(†)ــــــــــة يوميـــــــــة

[Mary Naeem]

Man is able to become holy without dark basements and repressed experiences

Before man sinned, he didn’t have dark basements and repressed experiences hidden deep within him.

Roman Catholics, and even more so Protestants, hold that man was created by God from the very outset as a being existing in layers, i.e., having the conscious in the topmost layer, the subconscious lower, and lower still the unconscious. It is, however, completely impossible for it to be this way, and the Orthodox Church does not accept it.
Just as God is simple, likewise did he create man. Before man sinned, he didn’t have dark basements and repressed experiences hidden deep within him. His entire existence was, before God and his own consciousness, naked and open to God’s eyes (Heb. 4, 13). Everything clean and clear. There existed nothing in a subconscious or unconscious state. This state –i.e., where man has all of these layers and is confused and not able to find an outcome –this was created by sin.
We see the saints, those who enter into the spiritual struggle, always believing in the help of God, always having the grace of God, and without ever backing off. And why? Exactly because they believe that: “Man is able to become holy.” We see them working, struggling, and tirelessly trying –two years, five years … ten, thirty and sometimes fifty years. And then the blessed hour comes. The hour in which the saint –that ascetic over there, that man of God, he who takes things entirely differently from the way we clever people take things– the hour comes in which the whole man is conscious before God, i.e., his whole soul is conscious. There is no subconscious, no unconscious, nor dark basements. There are no repulsive experiences, no uncontrollable situations, his subconscious and unconscious having no autonomy.
(If one reads the neptic fathers, he’ll find much within their works which relate to these themes –themes often spoken of today by psychologists.)
We can in no circumstance say that the saint tells us some good things, but that deeper down he has other states that he doesn’t control. No. It is unthinkable for us to accept that a saint doesn’t control himself, and to believe that at a certain point something will leap out of him –out of his subconscious or his unconscious– and will then betray him. Let’s say that while he wants to act rightly, there comes a certain moment that some evil, some uncontrollable hatred, may come out of him. It isn’t like that. The whole saint belongs to God. And because of this, whatever the saint says is holy, whatever he does is holy, the way he conducts himself, his actions are holy. His entire life is holy. To the holy man the grace of God reaches great depths, proceeding to the conscious, to the subconscious, and even to the unconscious. This means that man, before the fall, had only a conscious. And, unlike what the Roman Catholics think, he had neither a subconscious nor an unconscious.

Holy Hesychasterion “The Nativity of Theotokos” Publications.

Archimandrite Symeon Kragiopoulos

[Mary Naeem]

Avoid the causes

“Avoid the causes, what triggers sin. For example, if you have diabetes and you are supposed not to eat sweets, how can you stop them if all the time you are inside or around stores that sell sweets and pastries?

(Source: Dion. Tatsis, Outdoor Archontariki, Recorded teachings of St. Paisiou, Konitsa Feb. ’94, 32)

Translated by Dr. Nick Stergiou

[Mary Naeem]

Fathers of church about fasting

Beware of limiting the good of fasting to mere abstinence from meats. Real fasting is alienation from evil. ‘Loose the bands of wickedness.’ For give your neighbour the mischief he has done you. Forgive him his trespasses against you. Do not ‘fast for strife and debate.’ You do not devour flesh, but you devour your brother. You abstain from wine, but you indulge in outrages. You wait for evening before you take food, but you spend the day in the law courts. Woe to those who are ‘drunken, but not with wine.’ Anger is the intoxication of the soul, and makes it out of its wits like wine.

St. Basil, in his homilies on the Holy Spirit

Bodily purity is primarily attained through fasting, and through bodily purity comes spiritual purity. Abstinence from food, according to the words of that son of grace, St. Ephraim the Syrian, means: ‘Not to desire or demand much food, either sweet or costly; to eat nothing outside the stated times; not to give oneself over to gratification of the appetite; not to stir up hunger in oneself by looking at good food; and not to desire one or another sort of food.

The Prologue from Ochrid – by St. Nikolai Velimirovich (Volume 4, p 338):

Fasting is an exceptional virtue; it represses bodily impulses and gives strength to the soul to fight against the poisoning of the heart through the senses, and provides it with a remedy against any past poisoning. Fasting causes the mind to be cleansed constantly. It whithers up every evil thought and brings healthy, godly thoughts – holy thoughts that enlighten the mind and kindle it with more zeal and spiritual fervour.

Elder Ephraim of Philotheou Mount Athos, “Counsels from the Holy Mountain”

[Mary Naeem]

On Fasting

The Nativity fast has begun and our Orthodox Church calls upon us to renew our spiritual struggle. So let us remind ourselves of the benefits of fasting.

Fasting from foods is intended as spiritual preparation for an experience of deeper communion with God. Each person is a unity of body and soul. A right spiritual diet and a discipline of fasting go together and strengthen each other. Just as prayer benefits not only the soul but also the body so also fasting from foods benefits not only the body but also the soul. Fasting and prayer make us more sensitive to God’s personal presence. At important times of their lives the Prophets fasted and prayed. So did Jesus, the Apostles, Saints and Church Fathers.

Fasting must be undertaken willingly and not by compulsion. God doesn’t need our fasting. We don’t fast as a kind of personal punishment for our sins. We cannot pay God back for sins but we can only confess them to Him to receive forgiveness. Fasting with a willing spirit and not just with an attitude of fulfilling a religious obligation means that we keep the purposes of fasting always before us which is to develop self-control and to remember God and His Kingdom. That way we fast not only in what we eat but also in how much we eat. Fasting is simplicity of eating. We leave the table not with loaded stomachs. Being a little hungry during the day becomes a constant reminder of God, of our dependence on Him, and of the fact that the Lord alone can give us “food that lasts for eternal life” (Jn 6:27). In fasting and prayer, he reveals Himself to us as our true food and drink.

Let us now listen to what the fathers of the Church have to say about fasting.

Abba John the Dwarf said, “If a king wanted to take possession of his enemy’s city, he would begin by cutting off the water and the food and so his enemies, dying of hunger, would submit to him. It is the same with the passions of the flesh; if a man goes about fasting and hungry the enemies of his soul grow weak.”

Sr. Benedicta Ward, “The Sayings of the Desert Fathers,” (Kalamazoo, Michigan: Cistercian Publications, 1975), pp. 85-89

According to St. Gregory the Sinaite there are three degrees in eating: temperance, sufficiency, and satiety.

Temperance is when someone wants to eat some more food but abstains, rising from the table still somewhat hungry.

Sufficiency is when someone eats what is needed and sufficient for normal nourishment.

Satiety is when someone eats more than enough and is more than satisfied.

Now if you cannot keep the first two degrees and you proceed to the third, then, at least, do not become a glutton, remembering the words of the lord: “Woe unto you that are full now, for you shall hunger” (Lk. 6:25). Remember also that rich man who ate in this present life sumptuously every day, but who was deprived of the desired bosom of Abraham in the next life, simply because of this sumptuous eating.

St. Nicodemos of the Holy Mountain, A Handbook of Spiritual Counsel

[Mary Naeem]

Make good use of pain

How good it would have been if we did not let pain go to waste! One way or another we will suffer. But our whole torture and struggle will go down the drain, unless we make good use of pain, unless we exploit it. We make good use of pain, we exploit pain when we take the correct stance.

There comes a time when someone feels the big good which comes out of pain and –no matter how strange it may seem– he says: “Nothing else benefits humanity as much as pain”.

When we talk about pain, we generally mean sickness and the overall physical decline of man and death. If it hadn’t been for these, we would have been like brutal beasts. Society would have been a jungle. But thanks to them, we get tamer.

A Christian is capable of making such good use of every pain, so that he can constantly be in paradise.

Know this: When pain will have completed the work it is supposed to do, God takes away. It is not difficult at all for God to remove whichever pain.

When we suffer, when a pain insists, let us think like that: “God wants something good to come out of this in me; and I act as if I do not get it. And all I do is moan and groan.”

Let there be no complaint, no rebellion, no kicking about. If possible, whichever pain you have, deal with it by saying these words: “Let it be blessed, my God. Whatever You want.” This way our pain won’t get wasted, but will be exploited to the full. We will take advantage of it, and the big good which saves will come to our hearts.

When God visits you with sorrows, say: “Thank you, my God. As I had absolutely no intention to embrace a few ugly things, a few pains, and truly follow your path, you caught up with me and gave me a few. How can I thank you enough?”

Holy Hesychasterion “The Nativity of Theotokos” Publications.

Archimandrite Symeon Kragiopoulos

[Mary Naeem]

Who made God?



The human mind cannot capture the without beginning and without end of God.
God, as God, is infinite in space and time, is without beginning and without end, is out of time and space. If God had a Creator or ancestors, then God would have had a beginning and it would have been created and thus not God.
God is not created, but creates. God before the creation of the material world, created the world of angels. Earlier than that we don’t know what God did. Perhaps God will reveal this to the people who will go to Heaven.
The life of God is for us inconceivable and unthinkable. As we do not know, how the life of the Saints close to God in Heaven is, similarly we do not know the life of God.

From the book “Youth Searches – First Volume: Matters of faith” (p.13), Arch. Maximus Panagiotou Monastery Panagia Paramythia Rhodes

Translated by Dr. Nick Stergiou

[Mary Naeem]

Sayings of Saint Paisios

“A person ought to act in accordance with his spiritual state. To do, therefore, things that correspond to the spiritual state in which he finds himself”. (i.e., to not exceed his spiritual measure).

***

“During the day, you ought to do as did St. Anthony the Great: a little handy work, a little prayer. During the night, a little study and prayer. Small but hard serious study helps a lot.

***

“Devout parents who want their children to become monastics, should not tell them to, but should live themselves like monastics. Neither should they vow to God that their children will become monastics. If these children don’t have a calling, then they will be tortured for their whole life. In such cases, the Bishop must read a prayer and they won’t be monastics”.

[Mary Naeem]

Silence should be kept secretly and in your heart

“Silence should be kept secretly and in your heart. Make sure that is not obvious to others that you maintain silence. As soon as you have said two or three words, continue immediately inside of you to send prayers for everybody to the Lord. Embrace secretly in your heart, with love, the entire world. All the Church … Make holy your silence by praying so is not sterile and barren.”

(Saint Porphyrius Kafsokalyvitis, Anthology of Advices, p. 281)

[Mary Naeem]

Preparation is important for praying

“If while praying we don’t feel comfort, something is clearly going on: we must repent and correct it. Some people say that this happens because of the devil’s jealousy –but this isn’t true. Instead, it’s as though God is saying us, ‘I don’t understand the way you’re speaking to me”. Just like Holy Communion, prayer is mystical nourishment. In the same way, preparation is needed – i.e., a clean conscience”.

***

“Someone once came to me and told me that he’d read a few books on the prayer, and that he later forced himself to apply what he read. The result, he said, was that he felt pain in his heart. I said to him: ‘You don’t have the material necessary for humility (i.e. sins)? Humble yourself; then you’ll feel how necessary God’s mercy is. And then, the prayer will gush for all by itself, without force’”.

***

“When we light a candle for the sake of one who has fallen asleep, that person is greatly benefited”.

[Mary Naeem]

أنـــت لى كل شىء

عندما يحلو البكاء لعيــــــنى وعندما يُزين الدمع خدىٌ

لمن أذهبُ و أحكى لهُ همـــــــى غـــيركُ لم أجدُ يا سيدىٌ

خُطاى تاهت من طول ســـيرى وعينايا زاغت من كثر شكوىٌ

فمن يهدينى فى صحارى القِــــفار و أنت الطريق وفيك المســير

فيبُس لسانى وجفٌ الــــمياة وندبت حظى وبئس الحــياة

فوجدُتك حياتى وغديرٌ مـــــياة ووجدتٌك ملازى ونعم الحياة

فمن لى غيركَ المرعى الخصيب وأنت لنفسى الراعى الأمين

ومن لى غيرُك شفائى بالــــتمام وأنت الطبيب وانــت الدواء

فأنت شهيقى وزفيرى فى الحياة وأنت دماءٍ يجرى فى العروق

أطلبك فتأتى ومعك النـــــجاة أُحبُك فليس لى غيرُكَ إله

مُخلص وفادى وراعى حنون وتحضنُ ضعفى والغربةِ تهون

ففيك وبك ولك الـحـــياة أشــدوا أُغنى فأنت العزاء