71. Breath (Pray)

Selection from John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ:

“As breath is necessary for the body, as as without breathing men cannot live, so likewise the soul cannot truly live without the breath of God’s Spirit. As air is necessary for the body, so is the Holy Ghost for the soul.”

St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ or Moments of Spiritual Serenity and Contemplation, of Reverent Feeling, of Earnest Self-Amendment, and of Peace in God: Extracts from the Diary of St. John of Kronstadt (Archpriest John Iliytch Sergieff, trans. by E. E. Goulaeff (Jordanville, NY: Holy Trinity Monastery, 2000), 88.

72. In the Silence

73. The Prayer Rope

Selection from St. Gregory of Sinai, “Instructions to Hesychasts”:

“Some of the fathers taught that the prayer should be said in full: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me.’ Others advised saying half, thus: ‘Jesus, Son of God, have mercy upon me’, or ‘Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me’, or to alternate, sometimes saying it in full and sometimes in a shorter form. Yet it is not advisable to pander to laziness by changing the words of the prayer too often, but to persist a certain time as a test of patience. Again, some teach the saying of the prayer with the lips, others with and in the mind. In my opinion both are advisable. For a time the mind, left to itself, becomes wearies and too exhausted to say the prayer mentally; at other times the lips get tired of this work. Therefore both methods of prayer should be used—with lips and with the mind. But one should appeal to the Lord quietly and without agitation, so that the voice does not disturb the attention of the mind and does not thus break off the prayer, until the mind is accustomed to this doing and, receiving force from the Spirit, firmly prays within on its own.”

St. Gregory of Sinai, “Instructions to Hesychasts”, section 2, Writings from the Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, trans. by E. Kadloubovsky and G. E. H. Palmer (London: Faber and Faber, 1951), p. 74-75.

74. The Turtle

75. In the Calm of the Storm

76. Secure the Door

Selection from St. John Chrysostom, Homily LVIII (John 9.17-18), on being distracted by the world rather than being attentive to the spiritual life:

“For there are some too far colder than these, who are not even ashamed at the things spoken of, nay, who even put together a long argument in defense of the action. If you ask them who was Amos or Obadiah, or what is the number of the Prophets or Apostles, they cannot even open their mouth but for horses and charioteers, they compose excuses more cleverly than sophists or rhetoricians, and after all this, they say, ‘What is the harm? what is the loss?’ This is what I groan for, that ye do not so much as know that the action is a loss, nor have a sense of its evils. God hath given to thee an appointed space of life for serving Him, and dost thou while thou spendest it vainly, and at random, and on nothing useful, still ask, ‘What loss is there?’ If thou hast spent a little money to no purpose, thou callest it a loss: when thou spendest whole days of thine upon the devil’s pageants, thinkest thou that thou art doing nothing wrong? Thou oughtest to spend all thy life in supplications and prayers, whereas thou wastest thy life and substance heedlessly, and to thine own hurt, on shouts, and uproar, and shameful words, and fighting, and unseasonable pleasure, and actions performed by trickery, and after all this thou askest, ‘What is the loss?’ not knowing thou shouldest be lavish of anything rather than time. Gold, if thou shalt have spent, thou mayest get again; but if thou lose time, thou shalt hardly recover that. Little is dealt out to us in this present life; if therefore we employ it not as we ought, what shall we say when we depart ‘there’? For tell me, if thou hadst commanded one of thy sons to learn some art, and then he had continually stayed at home, or even passed his time somewhere else, would not the teacher reject him? Would he not say to thee, ‘Thou hast made an agreement with me, and appointed a time; if now thy son will not spend this time with me but in other places, how shall I produce him to thee as a scholar?’ Thus also we must speak. For God will say also to us, ‘I gave you time to learn this art of piety, wherefore have ye foolishly and uselessly wasted that time?”

St. John Chrysostom, Homily LVIII (John 9.17-18), NPNF, Vol. 14, 210-211.

Selection from St. Gregory of Sinai, “Instructions to Hesychasts”:

“You should know that no one can hold the mind by himself, if it be not held by the Spirit. For it cannot be held, bot because of its mobile nature but because, through neglect, it has acquired the habit of turning and wandering hither and thither. When through transgressing the commandments of Him who has regenerated us (in baptism) we become separated from God, we lost our union with Him and destroyed in our feeling a mental feeling of Him. A mind thus inclined and withdrawn from God is led captive everywhere. And these is no way of regaining its stability except by repenting to God and uniting with Him, by frequent and patient prayers, and by mentally confessing our sins to Him each day. God immediately forgives those who ask forgiveness in humility and contrition and who ceaselessly invoke His holy name. When through this working at prayer the action of the prayer become established in the heart, then prayer begins to keep the mind hear by, fills it with joy and does not let it be made captive. However, wanderings of thoughts occur even after this, for thoughts submit fully only to those who are perfect in the Holy Spirit and who, through Jesus Christ, have attained a state free from wanderings.”

St. Gregory of Sinai, “Instructions to Hesychasts”, section 3, Writings from the Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, trans. by E. Kadloubovsky and G. E. H. Palmer (London: Faber and Faber, 1951), p. 74-75.

Selection from Ss. Barsanuphius and John, Letters from the Desert, on being distracted when the mind wanders while reading the Psalms in prayer:

“If you are distracted, then take up the same Psalm from the last word that you remember. And if this happens once, or twice, or three times, and you cannot remember which point or find any word that you remember in the part you have just recited, then take up the Psalm from the very beginning. If it happens that you have read through the most fo the Psalm, in or der not to be further interrupted or fall into despondency, then recite from the following Psalm. For the aim of the enemy is to prevent us from givine glory through forgetfulness. So, then, starting from the following Psalm in doxology; but not being distracted belongs to those who have purified senses, while we are still weak. However, when we become conscious of the distraction, let us keep vigilant in order to understand the words from that point onward, so that they are not to our condemnation.”

Ss. Barsanuphius and John, Letters from the Desert, Question 433 (Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 2003), 135.

Selection from Ss. Barsanuphius and John, Letters from the Desert:

“If you are praying to God and become distracted, struggle until you begin to pray without distraction. And keep your intellect alert in order that it does not become too lofty. Nonetheless, should this occur, since we are weak, persist to the very end or your prayer; then prick your heart, and say with compunction: ‘Lord, have mercy on me and forgive me all my offenses.’ And, afterward, you will receive forgiveness of all your offenses as well as of the distraction that occurred at the beginning of your prayer.”

Ss. Barsanuphius and John, Letters from the Desert, Question 444 (Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 2003), 135-136.

77. The Frog

78. The Butterfly

79. The High-Flying Eagle

80. The Bee

Selections from St. Justin the Philosopher, “The Second Apology”:

“For whatever either lawgivers or philosophers uttered well, they elaborated by finding and contemplating some part of the Word. But since they did not know the whole of the Word, which is Christ, they often contradicted themselves. And those who by human birth were more ancient than Christ, when they attempted to consider and prove things by reason, were brought before the tribunals as impious persons and busybodies.”

St. Justin the Philosoper, “The Second Apology of Justin,” chapter X, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, ed. by Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2004), 191-192. The full text is also available for free at this address: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.txt

“For each man spoke well in proportion to the share he had of the spermatic word, seeing what we related to it. But they who contradict themselves on the more important points appear not to have possessed the heavenly wisdom, and the knowledge which cannot be spoken against. Whatever things were rightly said among all men, are the property of the Christians. For next to God, we worship and love the Word who is from the unbegotten and ineffable God, since also He became man for our sakes, that, becoming a partaker of our sufferings, He might also bring us healing.”

St. Justin the Philosopher, “The Second Apology of Justin,” chapter 13, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, ed. by Alexander Roberts & James Donaldson (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2004), 192-193. The full text is also available for free at this address: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.txt

Note: The spermatic word means the “seed of the Logos,” the Divine Son, Word and Tao. St. Justin acknowledges that in ancient times before the Word of God became Incarnate, born of a Virgin, even some pagans experienced the Word and perceived the Truth to some degree, though imperfectly. As Orthodox Christians, we do not see the partial Truth, mixed with some incorrect speculation, but we know the whole Christ. We are part of the Church of the Living God, the “pillar and ground of Truth.” Therefore, all Truth belongs to us, because we know and belong to the One Who Is Truth and reveals all Truth.

Selection from St. Gregory of Nyssa, The Life of Moses:

“The loftier meaning is therefore more fitting than the obvious one. It commands those participating through virtue in the free life also to equip themselves with the wealth of pagan learning by which foreigners to the faith beautify themselves. Our guide in virtue commands someone who “borrows” from wealthy Egyptians to receive such things as moral and natural philosophy, geometry, astronomy, dialectic, and whatever else is sought by those outside the Church, since these things will be useful when in time the divine sanctuary of mystery must be beautified with the riches of reason.

Those who treasured up for themselves such wealth handed it over to Moses as he was working on the tent of mystery, each on making his personal contribution to the construction of the holy places. It is possible to see this happening even now. For many bring to the Church of God their profane learning as a kind of gift: such a man was the great Basil who acquired the Egyptian wealth in every respect during his youth and dedicated this wealth to God for the adornment of the Church, the true tabernacle.”

Gregory of Nyssa, The Life of Moses, 81. According to note 128 on p. 170 of this text, “Clement Alexandra, Strom. 1.3, had explained Hagar, the Egyptian, as secular culture. The idea of ‘spoiling the Egyptians’ comes from Origin, Ep. ad Greg. Thaum. (MG 11.88-89).” See also Life of Moses, 63.

Selection from St. Basil the Great, Address to Young Men on the Right Use of Greek Literature:

“For just as bees know how to extract honey from flowers, which to men are agreeable only for their fragrance and color, even so here also those who look for something more than pleasure and enjoyment in such writers may derive profit for their souls. Now, then, altogether after the manner of bees must we use these writings, for the bees do not visit all the flowers without discrimination, nor indeed do they seek to carry away entire those upon which they light, but rather, having taken so much as is adapted to their needs, they let the rest go. So we, if wise, shall take from heathen books whatever befits us and is allied to the truth, and shall pass over the rest. And just as in culling roses we avoid the thorns, from such writings as these we will gather everything useful, and guard against the noxious. So, from the very beginning, we must examine each of their teachings, to harmonize it with our ultimate purpose, according to the Doric proverb, ‘testing each stone by the measuring-line’.”

St. Basil the Great, “Address to Young Men on the Right Use of Greek Literature,” Frederick Morgan Padelford, Essays on the Study and Use of Poetry by Plutarch and Basil the Great. Yale Studies in English 15 (1902) pp. 99-120.

Selection from St. Gregory Palamas, The Triads:

“Is there then anything of use to us in this philosophy? Certainly. For just as there is much therapeutic value even in substances obtained from the flesh of serpents, and the doctors consider there is no better and more useful medicine than that derived from this source, so there is something of benefit to be had even from the profane philosophers—but somewhat as in a mixture of honey and hemlock. So it is most needful that those who wish to separate out the honey from the mixture should beware that they do not take the deadly residue by mistake. And if you were to examine the problem, you would see that all or most of the harmful heresies derive their origin from this source.”

“In the case of secular wisdom, you must first kill the serpent, in other words, overcome the pride that arises from this philosophy. How difficult that is! ‘The arrogance of philosophy has nothing in common with humility,’ as the saying goes. Having overcome it, then, you must separate and cast away the head and tail, for these things are evil in the highest degree. By the head, I mean manifestly wrong opinions concerning things intelligible and divine and primordial; and by the tail, the fabulous stories concerning created things. As to what lies in between the head and tail, that is, discourses on nature, you must separate out useless ideas by means of the faculties of examination and inspection possessed by the soul, just as pharmacists purify the flesh of serpents with fire and water. Even if you do all this, and make good use of what has been properly set aside, how much trouble and circumspection will be required for the task!”

St. Gregory Palamas, The Triads, trans. by Nicholas Gendle, Classics of Western Spirituality (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1983), 28-30. See also Fr. Alexis Trader, Ancient Christian Wisdom and Aaron Beck’s Cognitive Therapy: A Meeting of Minds (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2011), 45-46.