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| Because, you see, there are not two different spiritualities. One cannot be anything more than a Christian. A monk is not more than a Christian. He tries to become one, with the means that the Holy Fathers have put into our hands. Therefore I can give the same advice I give to monks, but always adapted to the circumstances of one’s life, one’s age, and the one’s spiritual age as well. There are many Christians who live in the world, such as mothers of families, who lead a very intense prayer life. But when a first child is born, and then a second and a third, certain things become very difficult. She had been in the habit of reading a certain number of akathists but now, with all these noisy little people at her feet, it is no longer so easy. So she needs to choose the right moments in the course of the day. Fr. Gabriel, one often hears that the works of the Holy Fathers were written for people who lived centuries ago… But man remains the same. Temptations also remain the same. The goal of the Christian life remains the same. The adversaries, the demons, remain the same. They are the greatest ecumenists: they do not distinguish between confessions, tormenting all Christians regardless of whatever church they belong to. Personally, I am in the habit of first giving to anyone certain basic texts, such as the Paterikon – the sayings of the Desert Fathers – because this is the Gospel as lived in the desert. This is comprehensible to anyone. I also recommend similar books of this genre. To some extent this is my own baggage that – thanks be to God! – was placed in my hands from the very beginning. Because if you get a taste for the essential and the authentic (and these books are the most ancient we have), then later you can read anything you want, such as a book that was written today. Because then your palate, your mouth, will be able to distinguish between the real and the counterfeit. First we need to refine the palate, the taste. And here it’s the Gospel and the foundational texts of monasticism – or of what we call the spiritual life – because in the Scriptures, in the Gospel and St. Paul, we have the principles of the Christian life. But in the Holy Fathers (I am speaking about the spiritual fathers now, not the great theologians) you see how this was put into practice. |
| In the 4th Century an Egyptian monk, Evagrius, became famous for writing about the ascetical life. Unfortunately, his work was influenced by some non-Christian thinking, and in later centuries the Church rejected some of what he wrote as heresy. Nevertheless, as a 4th Century Christian he had some profound insights into the spiritual life. In his comments on Psalm 146:7, we see him following the common Christian practice of seeing beyond the literal reading of a text to find a meaning that applies to many, if not most, Christians. The Psalmist may be referring to those incarcerated in prisons, but Evagrius recognized that many things can imprison the mind. “‘The Lord sets the chained ones free’ (Psalm 146:7): Neither things nor their mental conceptions [as such] chain the intellect, but, on the contrary, the passionate conceptions of things. For the Lord has also made gold, and he himself created woman, and nothing of what has come into existence through God is opposed to the salvation of man. On the contrary, it is lust and greed that chain the intellect, in that they force the mental conceptions to remain in the heart. Things hamper the intellect through passionate mental conceptions, just as [the thought of] water [hampers] the thirsty man through thirst and [the thought of] bread the hungry man through hunger. For this reason, the physician of souls neither destroys things (for he is their Creator) nor does he compel the intellect not to recognize them (for it was created by him for this reason, to recognize them). Rather, by destroying by means of spiritual teaching and the commandments the passions – which are something other than the mental representations and the things from which they have their own origin – he frees the intellect from the chains. This is indeed what the words of the Psalm mean: ‘The Lord sets the chained ones free.’” (quoted in Dragon’s Wine and Angel’s Bread by Gabriel Bunge, p 36) It is not gold or pornography which enslaves us – for these are things external to us. It is the lust within us that makes us a slave instead of a free human being. It is sin in us. We are to struggle against our own sins, lusts, temptations and desires in order to be fully, free human beings. The Christian life is a spiritual war, against our own desires and passions. We are aiming to purify our hearts and minds of these passions which are trying to enslave us. |
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| Father Gabriel (Bunge) “Orthodoxy is the Fruit of My Whole Life as a Christian and a Monk” St. Theophan the Recluse, who is very popular in the West, by the way, understood the matter of western mystics very subtly. Once he exclaimed: “Oh, these Western people, they cannot distinguish between psychic and spiritual!” And really, when I talk to people who come for confession, I see how often they mix these things. Jan 25, 2011, 10:00 Orthodoxy in the World The Monks of the Arizona Desert As our two small buses rolled through the arid desert, my mind wondered “where on earth have they come to live?” Then, the oasis appeared suddenly ahead of us transforming the “coldness” of the land to a warm and welcoming embrace; I felt the heartbeat of the monastic prayer rising around me “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner,” and my heart was filled with joy of anticipation. Jan 20, 2011, 10:00 Orthodoxy in the World Death to the World! We like to speak of things how they are, life should not be sugar coated. Both joy and suffering should be acknowledged as part of our journey toward salvation. Suffering is a part of our life that should be embraced by us more often, not ran away from, but unfortunately we who have grown up in a very comfortable and relaxed society have a very hard time with this and it is to our own detriment. Dec 20, 2010, 10:00 Orthodoxy in the World The Orthodox Church of Finland The “Scandinavian countries,” are usually thought of as being Lutheran, and this holds true when speaking of the nation of Finland, which has just over 80% of its inhabitants professing the Lutheran faith. It usually comes as no surprise that Lutheranism is an official state religion. Dec 16, 2010, 10:00 Orthodoxy in the World The Murder of Father Daniel Sysoev: Let us Be Silent in Surprise In the face of holiness and eternity it is difficult to say anything definite in the language of mass-media journalism, or in that of politics. That is because there is too much that is amazing and inconceivable to say. |
Не удалось извлечь искомое из базы ((( |
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Не удалось извлечь искомое из базы ((( |
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| The Church of St. Gereon, apse. The Gothic cathedral, a wonder of Gothic architecture, was built on the place where all the cathedrals had been from early Christian times. One of the first bishops of Köln was a close collaborator of Emperor Constantine. Under the north tower is a baptistery from the fourth century. There is a church of St. Gereon in Köln, where the octagon is up to five or six meters. It is a Romanesque church, from the fourth century, and has relics of the Roman martyrs. There are so many traces of the undivided Church, the beginnings of Christianity, and by these very archeological facts, I was “pushed” to dig deeper into the foundations of the Church. I am a historian by formation, a numismatic. —Did these memories make you feel the desire to “fuse” Europe back together with Church of early Christianity? —Of course, I did not know about the Orthodox Church for a long time. I only discovered the existence of Orthodoxy little-by-little. Some of my Orthodox friends of today have told me that Catholics know that we “exist”, and nothing more. Simple people even ask, “Do you venerate the Mother of God, too?” This is even fifty years after Vatican II, which seemed to “open the windows” of what was the very closed Catholic Church, and their knowledge of Orthodoxy is still very poor. I had to discover this little-by-little for myself. I did not know about any Orthodox communities; there were no Orthodox churches in the cities, because the Russians, at least, celebrated in Protestant churches given them to use for a couple of hours on Sunday, as is often the case even today. In Lugano, the Russian Orthodox have bought a small Protestant church that was empty and unused. All the other Orthodox communities, such as the Romanians, celebrate in Catholic churches given them to use. But now we have a little church, which must be paid for. It is gradually being transformed into an Orthodox church, with an iconostasis and everything. So, I had to discover Orthodoxy little-by-little. When I was about nineteen years old, after gymnasium, I went with a friend to Rome, and there I discovered the early Christian period: the catacombs, the old churches, those founded by Sts. Constantine and Helen, and so on. It was very impressive. I must confess that this strengthened my consciousness of myself as a Catholic. Rome is apostolic ground—here is the tomb of St. Peter, there of St. Paul, Santa Maria Maggiore, Santa Croce, San Giovanni Laterana … all these paleo-Christian churches, this incredible archeological continuity. But it was much later that I discovered that although there is continuity on the level of architecture, there was no continuity on the level of the Apostolic Church, the foundation. |
| Immediately after reading The Way of a Pilgrim , I began practicing the Jesus Prayer – walking, as he did, because I went from my home to the university through a park. I had never before seen a prayer rope, but I learned how to use one long before entering the monastery and even long before visiting the East. When I made this trip – I was then a twenty-one year old student – I discovered in the person of an old abbot, Fr. Seraphim, the living icon of a monk. That is, first there was a literary discovery, and then there was the reality. A very beautiful figure – I didn’t know that he was a geronda or starets . That’s how everything began. Who is a true monk? To my mind, the ideal of a monk is incarnate in the figure of the abba. The first desert fathers were charismatic figures, if you will. One should first add that “spiritual father,” “abba,” and “ starets ” or “ geron ” – these are all the same thing. Today a distinction is sometimes made between these three aspects, but in fact an Elder ( geron or starets ) is a spiritual father, who out of respect is called Abba. These were quite striking figures and one can say that each of them incarnate the essence of monasticism, but each in his own way: no two were identical. Just the same as with the Elders here in Russia – of whom there have been many, right up to the present day – who always had something in common while simultaneously being completely different from one another. Each incarnate, in his own way, the essence of monasticism, and thus the essential virtues. These essential virtues are humility, gentleness, love for neighbor, and unceasing prayer. They are simultaneously in perpetual communion with God through prayer and in communion with their neighbors. To paraphrase the words of Evagrius: “Separated from everything and united with all.” That’s the goal. Each incarnates this goal in his own way. Every saint incarnates in his own way the Christian. How did you understand that you had a calling? It was in fact very simple. You don’t need any earthquakes or other cosmic events. I didn’t know at that time about the life of St. Anthony, but I later learned that he had received his calling in the same way. I was a young man when I went to church one Sunday and they read the Gospel about the rich young man [cf. Matthew 1916-30; Mark 10:17-31; Luke 18:18-30]. I instantly understood that this rich young man, today, was me. This was not a word addressed to all of humanity: this is a call that Christ, when He so desires, addresses to a specific person. |
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