| Exhortation on the Prayer Rule St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) Bishop Ignaty (secular name, Dimitry Aleksandrovich Brianchaninov; 1807-1867) was an outstanding ecclesiastical writer and ascetic of the nineteenth century. He had no special theological education. He studied at the main engineering college in St. Petersburg and in 1824 graduated from it, receiving an officer’s rank. During the following four years he fulfilled various obediences as a novice in several monasteries, after which he took monastic vows and was appointed in 1883 as Father Superior of the St. Sergei Hermitage of the St. Petersburg Diocese. He gained profound experience in the knowledge of God by studying the works of the holy fathers. In 1857 he was consecrated bishop of the Black Sea and the Caucasus. In 1861 he retired for reasons of health and settled in the Babaevsky Monastery of St. Nicholas. Besides his feats of prayer and extensive correspondence with his spiritual children, Bishop Ignaty devoted much of his time during these years to literary work. The reader of his works discovers in their author a pastor-ascetic engaged in an intense spiritual combat and who is tragically depressed by setbacks in this struggle. The main motivation behind his ascetic works is his awareness of the damage done to human nature by sin. He wrote: “Our nature is contaminated by sin so that it is quite natural for it to generate unnatural sin” (Essays of Bishop Ignaty Brianchaninov, 3 rd edition, St. Petersburg, 1905, Vol. 5, p. 435). “The Christian discerns within himself the human Fall inasmuch as he can see his own passions. Passions are the sign of the sinful mortal disease which afflicts the entire human race” (1.528). “In order to achieve success in the spiritual life, it is necessary for our passions to reveal themselves by coming to the fore. When passions reveal themselves in an ascetic he comes to grips with them” (1.345). These ideas are further elaborated in all of the works of Bishop Ignaty. In all of his writings on any subject, including practical pastoral advice, Bishop Ignaty takes the reader back to the understanding of the root cause of the misfortunes of the human race, which helps to combat each and every concrete manifestation of sin. Thus defining monastic self-reproach, he points out that it is “a good cause, counterposed to and counteracting the morbid condition of our fallen nature …” (1.345). Elsewhere he writes: “Speaking of books, one should say … that it is necessary to choose among them not the most elevated ones, but the ones that are nearest to our own condition, which describe actions pertinent to ourselves” (2.292). “When a person does not arrange his responsibilities in due order, does not attach to each of them the priority it deserves, then the fulfillment thereof cannot yield virtue, but will only produce sinful mistakes which are all the more dangerous because they have a virtuous appearance” (4.421). |
| John Anthony McGuckin St. Seraphim of Sarov (1759–1833) KONSTANTIN GAVRILKIN St. Seraphim belongs to that tradition of monastic spirituality which was brought to Ancient Rus from Mount Athos in the early 11th century and revived in the late 18th to 19th centuries by Paisy Velichovsky and his followers, among whom one should note St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, St. Feofan (Theophan) the Recluse, and the Optina elders. Prokhor Moshnin (Seraphim’s name prior to his monastic tonsure) was born into a pious merchant family in Kursk. In 1776 he visited the Kiev Caves Monastery, where the elder Dosifei advised him to practice the Jesus Prayer continuously and to enter the Sarov monastery (in Nizhnii Novgorod province). He arrived there in 1778, took monastic vows in 1786, and received the name Seraphim. From his disciples and early biographers, who relied both on his personal testimony and eyewitness accounts, we know that he had multiple mystical experiences, including revelations of Christ and many visitations by the Virgin Mary who guided him throughout his 55-year monastic life and healed him on a number ofoccasions from severe illnesses and injuries. Between 1794 and 1810 Seraphim lived a reclusive life in the forest outside the monastery, spending his time in the practice of the Jesus Prayer, reading Scripture and patristic literature, and engaging in manual labor. One day he was savagely beaten by robbers who left him crippled for the rest of his life; when the attackers were later arrested, he persuaded the authorities to let them go. He returned to the monastery in 1810, but remained in seclusion until 1825, when, at the command of the Virgin Mary, he began to receive people seeking his guidance and healing, and became one of the most renowned startsi of Russia. Seraphim’s extraordinary asceticism and mystical life were witnessed by several of the inhabitants of the Sarov monastery and by visitors whose lives were dramatically changed by their encounter with the saint. |
| Let us continue our talk about dreams. Abba Evagrius writes: “Sometimes demons concoct dreams out of arrogance and throw one’s soul into a quagmire of thoughts. For example, somebody can often see himself in a dream… either healing bodily sicknesses or worthily wearing a pastor’s vestments and tending his small spiritual flock.” Demons are prone to predict the things that are not edifying or eternal. The aim of these false prophecies is to lead a Christian into temptation (see 1 Cor. 10:13). In this state it is easier to tempt us and occasion our fall. If demons fail in this, they begin to bear malice towards us. Trust in dreams intensifies the state of self-delusion, convinces us that we are right, and often makes our spiritual healing impossible. There is a close link between trusting dreams and spiritual deception. Here is one example, described by Holy Hierarch Ignatius (Brianchaninov) in his Ascetic Experiences: “There lived an elder at the Ploschansk Hermitage (in the Orel Diocese) who was in spiritual delusion. He cut off his hand (thinking that by this he was keeping a commandment from the Gospel) and told everybody that it had supposedly become holy relics and was kept at Moscow Simonov Monastery with honor. Living 500 versts [an old Russian measure of length, about 1.1 kilometers or 0.66 miles] from Simonov Monastery, this elder ‘felt’ when its archimandrite and the brethren venerated his hand. It made the elder shudder and hiss very loudly. He regarded that phenomenon as a fruit of prayer, while everybody saw only a regrettable and laughable perversion in it. Orphaned children who lived at the monastery were amused by this phenomenon: they imitated the elder and thus enraged him, so he attacked them and pulled their hair. None of the venerable monastery’s brethren were able to convince the miserable man that he was in a deplorable state.” St. John Climacus , continuing Abba Evagrius’ thought, says that, “The demons of vainglory prophesy in dreams.” 1 Then The Ladder of Divine Ascent explains to us the mechanism of the so-called “prophetic dreams”: “Being unscrupulous, they (demons) guess the future from the circumstances and foretell it to us… A demon is often a prophet to those who believe him, but he is always a liar to those who despise him.” 2 This is an important remark: there is a direct relationship between the fulfilment of “prophetic dreams” and trusting them. |
| Tweet Нравится In The Damascus Cathedral, children greeted Christ on Palm Sunday Damascus, April 14, 2014 On the feast of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, His Beatitude John X, Patriarch of Antioch and all the East, presided at the Divine Liturgy in the Dormition Cathedral in Damascus. The Bishop of Maaloula concelebrated. The cathedral was filled with many parishioners, reports the site of the Antiochian Church. According to tradition, all came that day with their children in festive attire. In his sermon, His Holines Patriarch John called for the end of violence and the restoration of peace, especially in Syria and Libya. At the end of Liturgy their there was a Cross procession. Pravoslavie.ru 15 апреля 2014 г. Квитанция Реквизиты для юридических лиц Оплата с банковской карты Visa, MasterCard и Maestro Оплата наличными через кассы и терминалы Пожертвование через Сбербанк Онл@йн Яндекс.Деньги Альфа-клик MasterPass Интернет-банк Промсвязьбанка Квитанция Реквизиты для юридических лиц Оплата с банковской карты Visa, MasterCard и Maestro Оплата наличными через кассы и терминалы Пожертвование через Сбербанк Онл@йн Яндекс.Деньги Альфа-клик MasterPass Интернет-банк Промсвязьбанка скрыть способы оплаты Предыдущий Следующий Смотри также Homily on the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday) St. Nikolai Velimirovich Homily on the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday) St. Nikolai Velimirovich But this event has more than historical significance; it also has a spiritual meaning, and therefore also a moral meaning for every modern-day Christian. According to the spiritual meaning, Jerusalem signifies the human soul, and the entry of the Lord into Jerusalem signifies the entrance of God into the soul. Homily on Palm Sunday St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) Homily on Palm Sunday St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) Here is another meaning of the colt of an ass. It is an image of every person who is led by irrational desires, deprived of spiritual freedom, attached to the passions and habits of fleshly life. Christ’s teaching looses the ass from its attachment; that is, from fulfilling its sinful and fleshly will. Thousands participate in Palm Sunday pilgrimage in Bucharest Thousands participate in Palm Sunday pilgrimage in Bucharest Thousands of the faithful including over 500 priests participated in a Palm Sunday pilgrimage in Bucharest, which began at 4:15 in the afternoon in Radu Voda Monastery, and ended at the Patriarchal Cathedral. Комментарии Подпишитесь на рассылку Православие.Ru Рассылка выходит два раза в неделю: |
| In 1831 he was tonsured a monk with the name Ignatius, was ordained deacon, then priest, and for a short time he served as superior of a monastery in the Vologda diocese, only to resign a year later because of poor health. In 1833 Nicholas I made an imperial order to discover what had happened to his former protege. Brianchaninov was then brought back to the capital and appointed higumen of the Troitse-Sergiev Monastery near Moscow. In the twenty- four years he spent there, the monastery was rebuilt, its liturgical life became exemplary, and Ignatius its superior became one of the prominent spiritual guides and writers of all Russia. In 1857 he was consecrated bishop of the Caucasus and Black Sea, although his tenure there lasted only four years: he had to resign in 1861 after falling seriously ill; and he spent the last years of his life at Nikolo-Babaevskii Monastery in the Kostroma diocese, where he died in 1867. He was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1988. His life and spiritual heritage can be properly understood in the context of the monastic revival associated with St. Paisy Velichkovsky, hesychasm, and the tradition of spiritual direction, of which the monastery Optina Pustyn’ is the best-known example. He left a substantial body of writings, and it could be argued that many ofhis works are the finest prose ever written by a Russian ecclesiastic. The eight-volume Russian edition of his Complete Works, published in 2007 to celebrate the bicentennial of his birth, contains reflections on scripture and various theological subjects, writings on prayer and ascetic life, a Paterikon, poetic meditations, sermons, materials related to his episcopal administration, his reactions on contemporary political, ecclesiastical, and cultural life, and an extensive correspondence with state officials, clergy, monastics, and others. For a full bibliography of publications by and on Ignatii Brianchaninov (valid up to 2001), see Brianchaninov (2001–7, vol. 4: 644–776). |
| St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov): “The Activity of Prayer Is the Highest Activity of the Human Mind” The one who seeks corruptible earthly blessings in his prayer rouses the indignation of Heaven’s King against himself. The angels and archangels-His courtiers-behold you during your prayer, they see what you are requesting from God. They are surprised and rejoice when they see an earthly creature leave the earth behind and make a request to receive something heavenly, but they mourn for the one who ignores the heavenly and asks for earth and decay. We are commanded to be children in malice, but not in understanding (1 Corinthians 14:20). During prayer, the reason of this world, which is verbose and conceited, is cast off; this does not mean that feeblemindedness is applied or required. Perfected reason is required, spiritual reason, filled with humility and simplicity, which is often expressed in prayer not through words, but by prayerful silence which surpasses words. Prayerful silence then envelops the mind, when suddenly new, spiritual understanding appears to it which is inexpressible in the words of this world and age, when an especially vivid feeling of God being present arises. Before the inscrutable greatness of the Divine Being, His feeble creature, man, falls silent. Vain repetitions (Matthew 6, 7-8), condemned by the Lord in the prayers of pagans, consist in multiple requests for temporal blessings, which fill the prayers of pagans, as well as the eloquent manner in which they are made, as if rhetorical flourishes, material sonority and the power of the word can act on God in the same way that they act on the hearing and nerves of people of flesh. In condemning this verbosity the Lord did not at all condemn prolonged prayers, as it seemed to some heretics: for He Himself blessed prolonged prayer by being in prayer at length. And continued all night in prayer to God (Luke 6:12) as the Gospel recounts of the Lord. The lengthiness of the prayers of God’s saints is not due to verbosity, but to their abundant spiritual feelings, which are manifest in them during prayer. Time, so to speak, is destroyed by the abundance and strength of these feelings, hence it is transformed into eternity for the saints of God. |
| The Basics of Spiritual Life, Based on the Writings of St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) Part I For the commemoration of St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, April 30/May 13 Icon of St. Ignatius Brianchaninov with life. The essence of any religion is contained in the spiritual life, which is its most sacred side. Any entrance into this life demands not only zeal, but also knowledge of the laws of spiritual life. Zeal not according to knowledge is a poor helper, as we know. Vague, indistinct conceptions of this main side of religious life lead the Christian, and especially the ascetic, to grievous consequences; in the best case to fruitless labors, but more often to self-opinion and spiritual, moral, and psychological illness. The most widespread mistake in religious life is the substitution of its spiritual side (fulfillment of the Gospel commandments, repentance, struggle with the passions, love for neighbor) with the external side—fulfillment of Church customs and rites. As a rule, such an approach to religion makes a person outwardly righteous, but inwardly a prideful Pharisee, hypocrite, and rejected by God—a “saint of satan.” Therefore it is necessary to know the basic principles of spiritual life in Orthodoxy. Of great help in this is an experienced guide who sees the human soul. But such guides were very rare even in ancient times, as the Fathers testify. It is even more difficult to find such guides in our times. The Holy Fathers foresaw that in the latter times there would be a famine of the word of God (even though the Gospels are now printed abundantly!) and instructed sincere seekers in advance to conduct their spiritual lives by means of “living under the guidance of patristic writings, with the counsel of their contemporary brothers who are successfully progressing [in spiritual life] . ” These words belong to one of the most authoritative Russian spiritual instructors and writers of the nineteenth century, Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov (1807–1867). His writings are a kind of Orthodox ascetical encyclopedia representing those very patristic writings, but are of particular value to the modern-day Christian. |
| Champion of the Arena—Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov That piety so characteristic of all levels of society in Holy Russia. was rapidly evaporating from the nineteenth century high society intelligentsia when God raised up from its very midst a true ascetic and Church writer, Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov. In him was combined a rare eloquence of style and a profound understanding of the Christian life of struggle through which he was able to inspire many souls, blinded by Western " enlightened " ideas, to return to the saving enclosure of the Church. Bishop Ignatius was a prolific writer best known in the English-speaking Orthodox world for his masterful work, The Arena, in which he skilifully instructs those engaged in the arena of spiritual combat-out of which he himself emerged such a glorious victor. A chapter from Pr. Nicholas Deputatov's book, The Awareness of God, contains a brief life of Bishop Ignatius, together with short selections from his writings. This has been translated below for the edification and inspiration of those struggling in the arena of unseen warfare today. St. Ignatius Brianchaninov Born into a noble family of wealthy landowners, Bishop Ignatius was sent as a youth to the St. Petersburg Military School, a renowned institution which enjoyed the patronage of Tsar Nicholas I. He was a brilliant student, but his heart was not in his studies. Only a few years after graduation as a commissioned engineer, he fell seriously ill and used this as an excuse to request a discharge from the army. Drawn to religion from an early age, he was now able to fulfill his childhood dream of entering upon the monastic life. He spent four years in various monasteries as a novice, forming a close bond with Elder Leonid of Optina, before being tonsured in a small monastery near his native Vologda and ordained to the priesthood soon thereafter. It was not long, however, before the Tsar inquired about the officer whom we remembered as such a gifted cadet. On learning what had become of him, the Tsar immediately sent after him with the following instructions: |
| Tweet Нравится A Brief Life of St. Ignatius Brianchaninov St. Ignatius (Dimitry Alexandrovich Brianchaninov in the world) was born on February 5, 1807 on his father’s estate in the village of Pokrov in the Vologda Province. His mother gave birth to him after a prolonged infertility, by her fervent prayers and travels to the surrounding holy places. The boy spent his childhood in the solitude of village life; from his earliest years he was inexplicably attracted to the monastic life. His religious temper appeared all the more noticeably with age, being manifested in a special disposition towards prayer and the reading of spiritual books. Dimitry performed admirably in school, and remained the top student in his class until graduation. He had a diverse array of abilities—not only in the sciences, but in painting and in music. Family ties led him to the house of the president of the Academy of Arts, A. N. Olenin, where he became a favorite reader at literary parties, and was soon acquainted with A. Pushkin , K. Batiushkov, N. Gnedich, and I. Krilov. But even in the hustle and bustle of city life Dimitry’s spiritual aspirations did not change. In search of “eternal property for eternal man,” he gradually came to a disheartening conclusion: The value of science is limited by man’s earthly necessities and the limits of his life. Dimitry studied science so zealously that he was accepted to study ancient and modern philosophy, trying to calm his spiritual vexation, but he found no resolution there to the most important question of Truth and the meaning of life. The study of Sacred Scripture was his next step, which convinced him that, as any man could offer an arbitrary interpretation, Scripture could not be a sufficient criterion for the true faith and could even thereby tempt with false teachings. Then Dimitry turned to studying the Orthodox faith by the writings of the holy fathers , whose sanctity and miraculous and magnificent harmony became for him a guarantee of their truthfulness. |
| St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov): “Determine the Measure of the Prayer According to Your Strength” Intending to offer up your prayer to God, cast aside all earthly thoughts and cares. Do not engage in the thoughts which come to you at that time, however important or brilliant or necessary they might seem. Render to God the things that are God’s and you will have time to render what is necessary for temporal life in its own time. It is not possible to work for God in prayer and at the same time to engage the mind with thoughts and extraneous cares. Before you pray, cense your heart with the incense of the fear of God and holy reverence: consider that you have angered God with your innumerable trespasses, which are more apparent to Him than they are even to your own conscience; try to placate the Judge with humility. Be careful! Do not rouse his indignation by carelessness and impudence: It is His good will that even those who are closest to Him, the most pure angelic powers, stand before Him with all reverence and most holy fear (Psalm 89:7). The garments of your soul should shine with the whiteness of simplicity. There shouldn’t be anything complicated in this! Evil thoughts and feelings of vainglory, hypocrisy, people-pleasing, pridefulness and sensuality should not permeate-those dark and evil-smelling spots which stain the inner clothing of praying Pharisees. Instead of pearls and diamonds, instead of gold and silver, adorn yourself with chastity, modesty, tears of meekness and spiritual reason, and before you receive these tears, adorn yourself with the tears of repentance; adorn yourself with childlike, angelic mildness-this is a priceless adornment! When the King of kings sees this adornment on the soul, He will incline His compassionate gaze upon it. The prerequisite for attainment in prayer is forgiving every offence, including the most grievous, without any exceptions. And when you stand praying, commands the Saviour, forgive, if you have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses: but if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses. (Mark 11:25-26). “The prayer of those who bear grudges is just like seed sown on rock” said the venerable Isaac the Syrian (Homily 89). |
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