| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation About the Most Serious Damage of a Person Source: Orthodox Life (Russian) Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich) speaks about the most widespread spiritual ailment. Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich) 20 June 2019 Why do believers have different levels of trust in God? The reasons lie in our thoughts. There are good and damaged thoughts. They are key to our salvation or downfall. Damaged thoughts – distortion of reality – lead to serious mistakes in knowledge of God, relationships between people, to wrong guidelines and any further bad deeds. Good thought without selfishness, vanity, selfish motivations bears good fruit, gives people only joy, light, and warmth. It inspires. If there is at least something evil, treacherous or selfish in our thoughts, they will definitely not bring us anything good or useful. They will only sow discord and enmity. A person, who has not abandoned pride, ambitions, selfishness, interprets everything by their standards, taste, manipulating any events and facts for personal gain in such a way so that it would be convenient for them. Thus, false interpretations become common for these people, make them see everything around them distorted like in a funhouse mirror. Beautiful becomes ugly, good becomes evil, sublime becomes dead. It is impossible to interact with such people: you say a kind word to them, praise them, and they become so full of themselves, imagine things that are not true; you do not pay attention to them due to the lack of time and energy, they take offense, get angry and are ready to go to extremes and stupidity. They may interpret any little thing in the wrong way. They get worked up and assure that everything would have been as it seemed to them. These are all demonic tricks. These metamorphoses occur with those, who do not watch over the purity of their thoughts. And this applies to relationships not only with other people, but also with God. |
| I have not preserved a love for God and for my neighbor nor have I made enough efforts, because of laziness and lack of care, to learn the Commandments of God and the precepts of the Holy Fathers. I have sinned: by not praying in the morning and in the evening and in the course of the day; by not attending the services or by coming to Church only half-heartedly, lazily and carelessly; by conversing during the services, by not paying attention, letting my mind wander and by departure from the Church before the dismissal and blessing. I have sinned by judging members of the clergy. I have sinned by not respecting the Feasts, breaking the Fasts, and by immoderation in food and drink. I have sinned by self-importance, disobedience, willfulness, self-righteousness, and the seeking of approval and praise. I have sinned by unbelief, lack of faith, doubts, despair, despondency, abusive thoughts, blasphemy and swearing. I have sinned by pride, a high opinion of my self, narcissism, vanity, conceit, envy, love of praise, love of honors, and by putting on airs. I have sinned: by judging, malicious gossip, anger, remembering of offenses done to me, hatred and returning evil for evil; by slander, reproaches, lies, slyness, deception and hypocrisy; by prejudices, arguments, stubbornness, and an unwillingness to give way to my neighbor; by gloating, spitefulness, taunting, insults and mocking; by gossip, by speaking too much and by empty speech. I have sinned by unnecessary and excessive laughter, by reviling and dwelling upon my previous sins, by arrogant behavior, insolence and lack of respect. I have sinned by not keeping my physical and spiritual passions in check, by my enjoyment of impure thoughts, licentiousness and unchastity in thoughts, words and deeds. I have sinned by lack of endurance towards my illnesses and sorrows, a devotion to the comforts of life and by being too attached to my parents, children, relatives and friends. I have sinned by hardening my heart, having a weak will and by not forcing myself to do good. |
| The passions of the body are gluttony, greed, over-indulgence, drunkenness, eating in secret, general softness of living, unchastity, adultery, licentiousness, uncleanness, incest, pederasty, bestiality, impure desires and every passion which is foul and unnatural, theft, sacrilege, robbery, murder, every kind of physical luxury and gratification of the whims of the flesh (especially when the body is in good health), consulting oracles, casting spells, watching for omens and portents, self-adornment, ostentation, foolish display, use of cosmetics, painting the face, wasting time, day-dreaming, trickery, impassioned misuse of the pleasures of this world, and a life of bodily ease, which by coarsening the intellect makes it cloddish and brutelike and never lets it raise itself towards God and the practice of the virtues. The roots or primary causes of all these passions are love of sensual pleasure, love of praise and love of material wealth. Every evil has its origin in these. As Mark, wisest of the ascetics, says, a man cannot commit a single sin unless the three powerful giants, forgetfulness, laziness and ignorance, first overpower him and enslave him (Sec St Mark the Ascetic, Letter to Nicolas the Solitary (The Philokalia, vol. i, pp. 158–160). And these giants are the offspring of sensual pleasure, luxury, love of men’s esteem, and distraction. The primary cause and vile mother of them all is self-love, which is a senseless love of onés body and an impassioned attachment to it. A dispersed and dissipated intellect given to frivolous talk and foul language produces many vices and sins. Laughter and loose, immodest speech also lead to sin. Moreover, impassioned love of sensual pleasure takes a great variety of forms; for when the soul slackens its vigilance and is no longer strengthened by the fear of God, when it ceases to apply itself in its love for Christ to the practice of the virtues, the pleasures which deceive it are many. For countless pleasures surge to and fro attracting the eyes of the soul: pleasures of the body, of material things, of over-indulgence, of praise, laziness, anger, of power, avarice and greed. These pleasures have a glittering and attractive appearance which, though deceptive, readily seduces those who do not have any great love for virtue and are not willing to endure hardship for its sake. Every attachment to material things produces pleasure and delight in the man subject to such attachment, thus showing how useless and harmful is the soul’s desiring aspect when governed by passion. For when the man subject to this aspect of the soul is deprived of what he is wanting he is overcome by wrath, anger, resentment and rancour. And if through such senseless attachment some small habit gains the upper hand, the man to whom this happens is imperceptibly and irremediably held fast by the pleasure hidden in the attachment until he breaks free of it. |
| A similar situation arose as a result of the liberal movement of the 1960’s and 70’s, although their ideological foundation was formed back in the nineteenth century after the crisis in Europe’s consciousness and sense of justice. Here is what the great Russian philosopher, Ivan Ilyin, writes remarkably about this: «The understanding of justice has lost its ground; its motives and impulses have become one-dimensional. It has lost its noble direction, its original, sacred premises, and has submitted itself to the spirit of skepticism, in which everything is doubtful, to the spirit of relativism, and to the spirit of nihilism, which does not want to believe in anything. Our sense of justice has lost its ability to see [the difference between] good and evil, law and lawlessness; everything has become conditional and relative, and a bourgeois lack of principles and social indifference has settled in. An epoch of spiritual nihilism and public venality has taken over. In the nineteenth century, an abstract and formal jurisprudence flourished in Europe, which dealt only with positive law, and did not want to hear about natural law (that is, true, ideal, law of conscience); in it could be found only scant hints at social ideas, and the pale remains of Christian ideology, both of which where considered ‘subjective and unscientific.’» In order to overcome the crisis occurring in the contemporary sense of justice, we need to return to the theory of «natural rights.» It is not perfect, but it has a specific connection with Christian tradition, for it proceeds from the conviction that the understanding of good and evil is inherent in human nature; thus, law grows out of life itself, based upon conscience (the «categorical imperative» according to Kant). The practical consequence of this theory was the historical principle of an «uninterrupted legal framework» (conscience cannot be done away with), and the principle of precedent that is connected with it (proceeding from moral and historical experience). |
| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation His Holiness Patriarch Kirill greets heads of foreign states with Easter Source: DECR Natalya Mihailova 17 April 2015 On the occasion of the feast of the Radiant Resurrection of Christ, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia sent greetings to the heads of states with Orthodox tradition. His Holiness congratulated President Rosen Plevneliev of Bulgaria, President Prokopis Pavlopoulos of Greece, President Nicos Anastasiades of Cyprus, President Gjorge Ivanov of Macedonia, President Klaus Iohannis of Romania, President Tomislav Nikoli of Serbia, and President Filip Vujanovi of Montenegro. The text of the message is given below. Christ is Risen! Please accept my congratulations on the great and salutary feast of Easter! On these radiant days we recall and glorify the event that has for ever changed human history. The Resurrection of Christ marks the intransient victory of good over evil and life over death ‘for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ (Jn 3:16). We are called to remain faithful to the Gospel ideals, treating our neighbours and those who are far with love and trying to establish traditional moral values and ethical guides in society thus contributing to the maintenance of peace and harmony among countries and nations. I wish you good health, God’s help and success in your noble ministry. Respectfully, +KIRILL Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Tweet Donate Share Code for blog His Holiness Patriarch Kirill greets heads of foreign states with Easter Natalya Mihailova Christ is Risen! Please accept my congratulations on the great and salutary feast of Easter! On these radiant days we recall and glorify the event that has for ever changed human history. The Resurrection of Christ marks the intransient victory of good over evil and life over death ‘for God ... |
| The overall picture, however, would not be complete if not accompanied by a sincere attitude of self-criticism for the “wrongs” which, unfortunately, found their way even into the body of the Church (e.g. a lack of the ecclesiastical ethos of self-reproach and self-criticism). It should be admitted that some clergy and officers of the Church have enjoyed luxurious living and cozy relationships with state power, and that this has resulted in their bureaucratization and professionalization. At the same time this proximity to power did not allow us to sufficiently distance ourselves from the patron/client mindset, from populism, and from the corruption of the Greek political system, so that we could warn the people about where we were heading with the deeply parasitic nature of the Greek economy and our consumeristic absurdity, which was funded by over-borrowing and the long-term mortgaging (and consequent destruction) of our country’s future, a lack of a more critical attitude toward the problem, an attitude which, faithful to the example of the Fathers, would examine the problem at its root and not just superficially, looking at the structures that produce poverty and social injustice and not just the symptoms, etc.). The faithful Christians, are called not only to denounce the domination of the markets and social evil, but first and foremost to examine their own mistakes and omissions, and become united for the good of our social cohesion; ultimately, they must also become creative, proposing realistic steps for exiting the crisis and for a spiritual restoration of the human person. At the end of this talk, the new challenges brought about by the current crisis, they will be addressed in a spirit of dialogue, including among others, the issue of the Church’s role in the Greek public sphere (e.g. the rise across Europe of neo-Nazism and fascism constitutes a broader threat and challenge for the Orthodox Church itself, to the extent that the reception and acceptance of the Other, especially the poor and the foreigner, is a fundamental element of its own tradition and identity, the crisis and the Church’s extensive social work—rendered without regard to religion or ethnicity—has led to a better relationship and understanding with the secular and leftist intelligentsia, who now see the Church’s contribution to society in a better light, one of the measures, for the fiscal consolidation of the Greek economy has been the drastic reduction of new civil servants. Since the Orthodox clergy are civil servants and paid by the state, an obligation arising from the confiscation of Church property, this specific restrictive measure has had a direct impact on the Church, which is now required to find alternative ways to staff parishes and pay the clergy, etc.). |
| We especially greet our suffering brothers and sisters in Kosovo and Metohija who, despite being discriminated and in the chains of captivity, celebrate with us today the victory of Good over evil, Life over death, Christ Resurrected over the demonic powers of darkness. With the same love in the Resurrected Christ the Lord and with warm prayers we greet today all our brothers and sisters in Dalmatia and Lika, Kordun, Banija, Slavonija and Baranja. With Christ is risen! we also greet all of our brothers and sisters in Republika Srpska, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Slovenia and the former Republic of Yugoslavia – Macedonia, most especially the latter ones who at the forefront with their unjustly imprisoned Archbishop suffer for the unity of the Church and for the purity of the Orthodox Faith. We pray especially today to the Conqueror of sin, death and human injustice for our brothers and sisters in Christ the Lord in the Middle East, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ukraine, with wishes and prayers that the light of Christ’s Resurrection dispel the darkness of sin which hovers over Ukraine, that it may enlighten the minds and souls of the sowers of hatred towards Holy Orthodoxy and the Russian Orthodox people. May the Resurrected Christ our Lord shatter the chains of injustice, unlawfulness and hypocrisy with which the sons of illegality have bound the Archbishop of Ohrid and Metropolitan of Skoplje Kyrr Jovan who through us greets the entire Orthodox and justice-loving world. Praying to the Resurrected Christ our Lord that the love of God always and incessantly fill your entire being, we once again greet you wholeheartedly with the salutation more important than any other salutation: Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen! Given at the Serbian Patriarchate in Belgrade at Pascha 2014. Tweet Donate Share Code for blog Paschal message by Patriarch Irinej Natalya Mihailova We pray especially today to the Conqueror of sin, death and human injustice for our brothers and sisters in Christ the Lord in the Middle East, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ukraine, with wishes and prayers that the light of Christ’s Resurrection dispel the darkness of sin which hovers over Ukraine, ... |
| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation Perfectionism – the religion of XXI century? I think that nowadays perfectionism is nothing but oppression, a religion of XXI century, a cult of contemporary mankind that consolidated communities of those who are striving for “perfection”. Hieromonk Spiridon (Balandin) 26 September 2008 I’d flip through catalogues of IKEA and wonder “What kind of dining set defines me as a person?” “Fight Club” film Perfectionism (from French perfection) is the conviction in the idea that perfection (of oneself and others) should be the ambition of every person. The very notion of perfectionism came up in the Protestant environment in the nineteenth century and was then transformed into classical perfectionism formulated by I. Kant, G. Leibnits, and the Marxists. At first it meant the perfection of your own ethical code, cultivation of talents and gifts. Nietzsche’s Ubermensch (sometimes translated as superhuman) is also a perfectionism of a kind. What is the difference between the ideas in Christ’s words “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew, Chapter 5, Verse 48) and classical perfectionism? In Christianity, good is something that is done solely in the name of God, whereas perfectionism is self-cleanup with the help of God out of all sorts of perversity in our nature. The Good of our fallen nature is mixed with evil and therefore the good itself had become evil, just like tasty and healthy food becomes toxic when mixed with poison. “Beware that you do not do the good of your fallen nature! By doing this kind of good you will develop your fallen nature, your self-importance and pride, you will get close to becoming like demons” (Saint Ignatii Brianchaninov “Donation to Contemporary Monasticism”). We have to admit that from the Christian point of view, any affair, even the more right and kindest, is not perfect as it is poisoned with our personal imperfection. This defect is compensated by humility and self-reproach. Perfectionism as a rule is aimed at the promotion of an abstract morality of an individual by means of that very fallen mankind without any additional argumentation. |
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