Success in the spiritual life is not measured by spiritual consolations, which could come from the evil one, but by the depth of humility.
Success in the spiritual life is not measured by spiritual consolations, which could come from the evil one, but by the depth of humility.
Of course, it would be easier to get to paradise with a full stomach, all snuggled up in a soft feather-bed, but what is required is to carry one’s cross along the way, for the kingdom of God is not attained by enduring one or two troubles, but many!
Even in spiritual drought God sends us consolation, as He knows our weaknesses. It would be to our advantage to live our whole life in spiritual dryness but to struggle.
In other words, if we could reach Christ through being utterly abandoned by God, through emptying ourselves completely, as happened with Christ on the Cross. Then man would also have great glory. We shall have glory depending on how much we empty ourselves and how much pain we endure.
Featured image: source
If you want to serve God, prepare your heart not for food, not for drink, not for rest, not for ease, but for suffering, so that you may endure all temptations, trouble and sorrow. Prepare for severities, fasts, spiritual struggles and many afflictions, for by many afflictions is it appointed to us to enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Acts 14,22); The Heavenly Kingdom is taken by force, and they who use force seize it (Matt 11:12).
Featured image: Kizhi Pogost, Church of the Transfiguration (built 1714). Photo by Richard Davies.
All people have a cross to carry. There is no man in this world without a cross. Those who met Christ from the time of their childhood have for their Cross, the Cross of our Christ. Those who met Jesus and have repented on behalf of their previous life, have a cross, the cross of the good and penitent thief. And those who have met Jesus and have not received Him, have in their life the cross of the unrepentant thief. So we all have our cross. Everyone carries his cross and ascends his own Golgotha, the Golgotha of his personal life.
– Archimandrite Chrysostom, Abbot of the St. Nikodemos Holy Monastery in Pentapolos, Greece. From the homily: “A Few Flowers from The garden of St. John of Sinai”
Featured image: Abbot Alexios, 79, center, reciting a prayer during the early morning prayer in the church of Xenophontos Monastery, Mt. Athos. source
It is not only one church which is in peril, nor only two or three which have fallen under this terrible storm. The mischief of heresy spreads almost from the borders of Illyricum to the Thebaid. Its bad seeds were first sown by the infamous Arius; they then took deep root through the labors of many who vigorously cultivated the impiety between his time and ours.
Now they have produced their deadly fruit. The doctrines of true religion are overthrown. The laws of the Church are in confusion. The ambition of men, who have no fear of God, rushes into high posts, and exalted office is now publicly known as the prize of impiety. The result is, that the worse a man blasphemes, the fitter the people think him to be a bishop. Clerical dignity is a thing of the past. There is a complete lack of men shepherding the Lord’s flock with knowledge.
Let us hymn and glorify God in trials. Let us not be beggars and only ask things from God like: give me this, give me that, why won’t you give it to me?
May our lips be used to glorify God. Let us not be sullen and self-absorbed. Let us say also Glory to Thee, oh God! We must never forget it. It should be always on our lips.
If we want to endure every affliction and trial readily, let us long to die for Christ and let us keep this death continually before our eyes. For we have been commanded to take up the cross and to follow Him (Matt. 16:24); and this means that we must be prepared and ready for death. If we have this disposition we will endure every affliction, visible and invisible, much more easily. How can he who is anxious to die for Christ’s sake have any difficulty in putting up with suffering and distress? Yet we think afflictions are hard to bear, for we do not keep death for Christ’s sake before us or fix our mind always on Christ. But if we want to share His inheritance we must be willing to share His sufferings with an equal zeal. Those who love the Lord may be recognized by the fact that because of their hope in Him they bear every affliction that comes, not simply courageously but also wholeheartedly.
– St. Symeon the Metaphrast, “Paraphrase of the Homilies of St. Macarius of Egypt,” Philokalia, Vol. 3