moving towards existence ...

recently archimandrite meletios webber, along with metropolitan jonah, and fr gerashim, spoke at the southern diocese clergy conference. i’ve only made it through the first lecture on monasticm, but so far it’s a must listen. some info on fr meletios:

The Right Reverend Meletios (Weber) has been the pastor of Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church in Santa Cruz, California since 1994. He was received into the Orthodox Church by Bishop Kallistos Ware in 1971. He was educated at Dulwich College and Oxford University in England, and has a doctorate in psychological counseling. He studied Theology at Oxford and also at the University in Thessalonica, Greece. He has been an high school teacher and a university professor. He was tonsured a monk at the Community of St John on the island of Patmos in 1978. Fr. Meletios has served the Orthodox Church in Greece, Great Britain, Montana, and California, and the Netherlands. In June 2008 Fr Meletios was named abbot of St. John of San Francisco Monastery (Manton, California).

you can find the links to the talks here:

Lecture Links

Be at peace with your own soul
then heaven & earth will be at peace with you.

Enter eagerly into the treasure
house that is within you,

And you will see the things that are in heaven,
for there is but one single entry to them both.

The ladder that leads to the Kingdom
is hidden within your soul…

Dive into yourself and in your soul
and you will discover the stairs
by which to ascend.

Saint Isaac of Syria

I kneel before your Majesty and prostrate myself on the ground before you, oh God.

For without my having asked you or even heaving existed you brought me into existence.

And before you fashioned me in the womb you knew that I would live a life full of tumult and backsliding

Yet you did not refrain from creating me and granting me all the attribute with which you have honored human nature even though you knew beforehand my evils.

You are aware of my requests even before they become known to me and of my prayers even before they have been prayed before you

Grant me , o my God, at this hour whatever you are aware that my wretched nature needs in its present peril.

You are aware of my souls affliction, and in your hand lies its healing.

St Isaac the syrian

from Metropolitan Philaret Voznesensky, the New Confessor:

1. Remember, you are a son (daughter) of the Orthodox Church.  These are not empty words.  Remember the commitment this entails.

2. Earthly life is fleeting; one is hardly aware of the swiftness of its passing. Nevertheless, this transient life determines the eternal destiny of your soul.  Do not forget this for a moment.

3. Try to live piously.  Pray to God in church, pray to God at home–fervently, with faith, trusting yourself to God’s will.  Fulfill the holy and saving precepts of the Church, her rules and commandments.  Outside the Church, outside obedience to her, there is no salvation.

4. The gift of words is one of God’s greatest gifts. It ennobles man, lifting him above all other creatures.  But how this gift is now misused by a corrupts humanity!  Safeguard this gift and learn to use it as befits a Christian.  Do not judge, do not speak idly.  Avoid, like fire, bad language and seductive conversation; do not forget the words of our Lord and Savior: By thy words thou shall be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. (Mt 12:37)  Do not indulge in lying.  Holy Scripture sternly forewarns: The Lord shall destroy all them which speak a lie. (Ps 5:4)

5. Love your neighbor as yourself, according to the Lord’s commandment. Without love there is not Christianity. Remember, Christian love is SELF-SACRIFICING, and not egocentric. Do not miss an opportunity to show love and mercy.

6. Be meek, pure and modest in your thoughts, words and deeds.  Do not imitate the profligate.  Do not take their example, and avoid close acquaintance with them.  Have no unnecessary dealings with unbelievers-unbelief is infectious.  Observe meekness and propriety always and everywhere; avoid becoming contaminated by the shameless habits of todays world.

7. Fear vanity and pride; run from them. Pride caused the highest and most power angel to be cast down from heaven.  remember, ‘thou art earth and to earth shat thou return…’ Deeply humble yourself.

8. The fundamental task in life is to save one’s soul for eternity.  Keep this as the most essential task, the main concern of your life.  Woe to those whose indifference and neglect bring their souls to eternal ruination.

Source: Orthodox Heritage, Vol 7, issue 09-10, p 32

[ht: orthodox way of life]

Elder Paisios of Mount Athos says, “When someone is in the beginning of his spiritual life, he should not study a lot, but instead watch himself and observe his thoughts.”

Prayer is the pious direction of man’s soul to God, or the communication of the heart with God, through which God is represented before man as man pours the feelings of his soul before Him. It is the lifting of the mind and the heart to God and with it man is carried to the angelic choir and becomes a member of their blessedness. Prayer is the incense most acceptable to God, that most secure bridge for the passage over the tempting waves of life, the indestructible stone of all who believe, the peaceful landing place, the divine garment which clothes the soul with great goodness and beauty. Prayer is the mother of all good deeds, the keeper of the cleanliness of the body (chastity), the seal of maidenhood, the secure fence against our eternal enemy, the devil. It drives away enemies through the name of Christ, since there is no means powerful in the heavens or on the earth. Prayer is the fortification of the world pleading for God’s mercy for our sins, that landing place which the waves cannot destroy, the enlightenment of the mind, the axe to spare destruction of sadness, the breeding of hope assuaging the wrath, the advocate to all those who are undergoing trial, the joy of those who are in prison, the salvation of those who are dying. It made the whale become the home of Jonah, it brought Ezekiel back to life from the doors of death, and it converted the flames to dew for the Babylonian youths. With prayer St. Elijah closed the heavens so that the rain did not fall for three years and six months (James 5:17). When the apostles themselves were unable to cast out the unclean spirits, Christ told them, “This one cannot go out , except by prayer and fasting” (Matt. 17:21).
There is nothing more precious in man’s life than prayer. It makes the impossible, possible; it makes the difficult, easy; the uncomfortable, it makes comfortable. Prayer is as important to man’s soul as breathing. Who does not pray is deprived of conversation with God and is similar to the tree that bears no fruit and is cut and cast into the fire (Matt. 7:19).

“When you direct yoru mind and thoughts to the heavens,” says St. Makarios the Great, “and want to unite yourself unto the Lord, then a great multitude of evil spirits, like a black cloud, lingers over you, that it might deter your path to heaven. But, just as the old walls of Jericho fell by the power of God, so too will these stones of evil which are deterring your mind be destroyed by the power of God. When you are in prayer, remember before whom you stand. Be deaf and dumb to everything that surrounds you, invoke the Lord for help and He will help you. It’s necessary to uproot all feelings of wrath and to completely cleanse ourselves of murderous feelings of bodily desires, regardless of who they might be directed to.”

Trans. by Fr. Milovan Katanic

Source: Patriarch Pavle
Pravoslavlje No. 936

From Blog Again and Again by Fr. Milovan Katanic

Grant forgiveness, O Lord, send also strength. Convert me, that I might live in sanctity, according to Thy holy will. Sanctify my heart that has become a den and dwelling-place of demons.

I am unworthy to ask forgiveness for myself, O Lord, for many times have I promised to repent and proved myself a liar by not fulfilling my promise. Thou hast picked me up many times already, but every time I freely chose to fall again.

Therefore I condemn myself and admit that I deserve all manner of punishment and torture. How many times hast Thou enlightened my darkened mind; yet every time I return again to base thoughts! My whole body trembles when I contemplate this; yet every time sinful sensuality reconquers me.

How shall I recount all the gifts of Thy grace, O Lord, that I the pitiful one have received? Yet I have reduced them all to nothing by my apathy — and I continue on in this manner. Thou has bestowed upon me thousands of gifts, yet miserable me, I offer in return things repulsive to Thee.

Yet Thou, O Lord, inasmuch as Thou containest a sea of longsuffering and an abyss of kindness, do not allow me to be felled as a fruitless fig tree; and do not let me be burned without having ripened on the field of life. Snatch me not away unprepared; seize not me who have not yet lit my lamp; take not away me who have no wedding garment; but, because Thou art good and the lover of mankind, have mercy on me. Give me time to repent, and place not my soul stripped naked before Thy terrible and unwavering throne as a pitiful spectacle of infamy.

If a righteous man can barely be saved, then where will I end up, I who am lawless and sinful? If the path that leads to life is strait and narrow, then how can I be vouchsafed such good things, I who live a life of luxury, indulging in my own pleasures and dissipation? But Thou, O Lord, my Saviour, Son of the true God, as Thou knowest and desirest it, by Thy grace alone, freely turn me away from the sin that abides in me and save me from ruin.

st ephraim the syrian

Thou, Oh Christ, art the Kingdom of Heaven;

Thou, Oh Christ, art the kingdom of Heaven;

Thou, the land promised to the meek; Thou, the meadowland of paradise;

Thou, the hall of the celestial banquet;

Thou, the ineffable bridal chamber;

Thou, the table set for all,

Thou, the bread of life; Thou, the unheard of drink;

Thou, both the urn for the water and the life-giving water;

Thou, moreover, the inextinguishable lamp for each one of the saints;

Thou, the garment and the crown and the One Who bestoweth the crowns; Thou, the joy and rest;

Thou, the delight and glory; Thou, the gladness and mirth;

And Thy grace, the grace of the Spirit of all sanctity, will shine like the sun in all the saints;

And Thou, the unapproachable Sun, wilt shine in their midst; and all will shine brightly, according to the measure of their faith, their asceticism, their hope and their love, their purification, and their illumination by Thy Spirit.

st symeon

“Because rapture in God is insatiable, the extent of one’s savoring it and partaking of spiritual blessings is the measure by which the hunger for it is increased. Such people have a fervent and unstoppable love for God. The more they succeed and acquire, the more they acknowledge themselves as beggars”

-st macarius