Death to the World

https://youtu.be/ByYCiUHA-WY?si=_ZjwHG_0DIskyWoY

Half issue to be released prior to Great Lent 2024

"Just as incense is good and fragrant even on its own, but displays its fragrance properly when it comes in contact with fire, so it is with prayer. It is good even on its own, but it becomes even better and more fragrant when it is offered up with a warm and ardent soul, when the soul becomes a censer and is burning with fierce fire. . . First set your heart on fire by your eagerness, and then pray."

~St. John Chrysostom

12. Take walks in the cemetery: Saint Ambrose of Optina said, “You must not be greatly troubled about many things, but you should care for the main thing — preparing yourself for death.” Saint Athanasius writes about remembrance of death as a spiritual discipline, “Recall your exodus every hour; keep death before your eyes on a daily basis. Remember before whom you must appear.” And Saint John of the Ladder writes, “Let the memory of death sleep and awake with you.” Remembering our end is the constant kindling for the battle against sin. This memory of death helps him to hate sin, to evaluate correctly and positively the things of the present; to evaluate appropriately the value of the “future age,” which he desires with all the power of his soul. St. Maximos the Confessor teaches that the memory of death, when accompanied by the memory of God, is very helpful to the believer in his life in Christ: “Nothing is more fearful than the thought of death, and nothing is more marvelous than the memory of God.” For, as he says, the memory of death “produces in the soul salutary sorrow,” while the memory of God produces in the soul “joy and gladness.” This is why the Prophet said, “I remembered God and was pleased” (Ps. 76,4:LXX), while the wise man of the Old Testament was advised, “Remember the end of your life, and then you will never sin” (Wis. Sir. 7,36). For it is impossible to keep oneself unwounded by sin if one does not experience the salutary “sourness” of the memory of death .

6. Stop judging others and conceal their sins: “They said of Abba Macarius that just as God protects the world, so Abba Macarius would cover the faults he saw, as though he did not see them, and those he heard, as though he did not hear them.” Saint Paisios of Athos advises: “He who does his spiritual work correctly finds excuses for everyone else in order to justify their shortcomings, but never justifies himself, even when he is in the right… For example, he sees someone stealing and thinks to himself, “If I had not been helped by God, I would now be stealing more than he is”…Or, if he sees a certain shortcoming in another person, be it serious or trivial, he will excuse him with good and positive thoughts. He thinks of his own many shortcomings…” Focus upon your own sins and be strict with yourself, but lenient with others.

7. Stay put: Mother Syncletica (4th century), “If you find yourself in a monastery do not go to another place, for that will harm you a great deal. Just as the bird who abandons the eggs she was sitting on prevents them from hatching, so the monk or the nun grows cold and their faith dies when they go from one place to another.” Find yourself a little place of solitude and frequent it. Among the desert fathers, their monastic hut or “cell” was thought to be their traning ground. St Moses once said to a monk, “Go and sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything.” Find a closet, a quiet place outside, and take time to practice a little hesychia (inner stillness), in order to get to know yourself and more importantly to commune with God. For, St Isaac of Syria says, “The language of heaven is silence.”

8. Drive away negative thoughts: Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica advised, “Our life depends on the kind of thoughts we nurture. If our thoughts are peaceful, calm, meek, and kind, then that is what our life is like. If our attention is turned to the circumstances in which we live, we are drawn into a whirlpool of thoughts and can have neither peace nor tranquility.” Elder Sergei of Vanves said, “Take care to distinguish between your thoughts, as the Fathers teach. Stop and look, decide which ones are good and which ones are bad. Then, disassociate from any that you find to be bad, believe nothing they tell you, do not believe for an instant that they are a part of who you are. This is of the utmost importance, because if we accept bad thoughts, then they will stay with us and make us believe that they are actually a part of us.”

9. Acknowledge my brokenness: “The person who has come to know the weakness of human nature has gained experience of divine power. Such a person never belittles anyone. . . . He knows that God is like a good and loving physician who heals with individual treatment each of those who are trying to make progress” (St. Maximos the Confessor, 7th century).

10. Be ruthlessly realistic: “Saint Anthony said to Poemen, ‘expect trials and temptations until your last breath.’” The same Saint said, “Whoever has not experienced temptation cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Without temptations no-one can be saved.” The coming year will have temptations, but let us take up the armor of God, flee to the Church, and combat them.

11. Always think good of everyone: “Show the greatest gentleness toward all people” (Evagrios the Solitary, 4th century). Father Seraphim Rose, an American desert dweller wrote: “Dont criticize or judge other people—regard everyone else as an angel, justify their mistakes and weaknesses, and condemn only yourself as the worst sinner.”

New Year's Resolutions from the Holy Fathers

1. Never stop making a good beginning: “Abba Poeman said regarding Abba Prin that every day he made a new beginning.” “My God, do not abandon me. I have done nothing good before Thee, but grant me, in Thy compassion, the power to make a start” (Arsenios, 5th century). Again St Anthony advised, “Let this especially be the common aim of all, neither to give way having once begun, nor to faint in trouble, nor to say: We have lived in the discipline a long time: but rather as though making a beginning daily let us increase our earnestness. For the whole life of man is very short, measured by the ages to come, wherefore all our time is nothing compared with eternal life.” Continually get up everyday making a new beginning before God.

2. Live intentionally, not aimlessly: “Think nothing and do nothing without a purpose directed to God. For to journey without direction is wasted effort” (St. Mark the Ascetic, 5th century). “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God”(1 Corinthians 10:31). Do not give yourself to vain pursuits or useless distrcations, but do everything to God’s glory.

3. Never, ever despair, no matter what: “Let us eagerly draw near to Christ, and let us not despair of our salvation. For it is a trick of the devil to lead us to despair by reminding us of our past sins” (St. Makarios of Egypt, 5th century). “When someone is defeated after offering stiff resistance, he should not give up in despair. Let him take heart, encouraged by the words. . . . God raises up all who are bowed down (Psalm 145:14). Do all in your power not to fall, for the strong athlete should not fall. But if you do fall, get up again at once and continue the contest. Even if you fall a thousand times. . . . rise up again each time” (St. John of Karpathos, date unknown). Make confession a regular part of your life, by not only confessing your sins to God daily, but frequenting the confessional to recieve the Church’s medicine.

4. Pray simply, not stupidly: “Often when I have prayed I have asked for what I thought was good, and persisted in my petition, stupidly importuning the will of God, and not leaving it to Him to arrange things as He knows is best for me. But when I have obtained what I asked for, I have been very sorry that I did not ask for the will of God to be done; because the thing turned out not to be as I had thought” (Evagrios the Solitary, 4th century). Abba Macarius said, “It is enough to say, ‘Lord, as you will, and as you know, have mercy.’ And if the conflict grows fiercer, say: ‘Lord, help!’” Do not just ask for what you want in prayer, but give yourself entirely over to the will of God.

5. Renounce all self-justification and making excuses: According to John the Dwarf, “We have put aside the easy burden, which is self-accusation, and weighed ourselves down with the heavy one, self-justification.” The modern desert father, Saint Paisios, told a group of people: “I must understand that when I try to justify myself with excuses, I’m in a wrong state of mind. I cut off my communication with God and am deprived of divine Grace, because divine Grace does not come to one who is in a wrong state. The moment a person justifies the unjustifiable, he is separated from God…There is no stronger barrier to the Grace of God than excuses!” And he says again, “One who justifies himself with excuses makes no progress in the spiritual life, nor can he find any inner peace.”

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