Ignatius Brianchaninov: The Holy Spirit Instils Christ in the Inner Man Tuesday, May 22 2012

And of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (Jn. 1:16–17).

This means that Jesus Christ brought not some more or less detailed and clear understanding of grace and truth, but the grace itself, the truth itself, essentially bestowed upon people, instilled in people. We have been made partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4).

Truth has a characteristic Spirit. This spirit is called the Spirit of Truth (cf. Jn. 15:26; 16:13).

It is Spirit, proceeding from the Father (cf. Jn. 15:26). It is the Holy Spirit of God (cf. Jn. 14:26). It is the Spirit of the Son (cf. Gal. 4:6), as inseparably close to the Son, as comprising together with the Father and the Son one undivided and unmingled Divine Essence.

Accepting the Truth, we also accept the Holy Spirit—that is why the All-Holy Truth says of Himself, that He will send the Holy Spirit from the Father to His disciples.

Naturally, the Holy Spirit of Truth will be present where Holy Truth acts, and will leave the effect of its action.

In like manner, where the Holy Spirit works, there will be an abundant manifestation of Truth, as the Lord also said to His disciples: Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth (Jn. 16:13).

Describing the wondrous relationship of the Divine Word to the Divine Spirit, the Lord said of the Spirit: He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine (Jn. 16:14–15).

The Spirit shows and manifests to people the Son co-natural to Him. The Holy Spirit spiritually forms the true Christian and transforms him into a dwelling place of God (cf. Eph. 2:22).

He represents Christ and instills Him in the inner man (cf. Eph. 3:16–17). He makes people God’s children by adoption, making them like unto Christ, establishing Christ-like qualities in them (cf. Jn. 14:6).

People who have been made children of God by adoption turn to Him in their prayers as to their Father, because the Holy Spirit very clearly and tangibly witnesses to the spirit of a person renewed by Him (cf. Rom 8:16) concerning that person’s union with God, his adoption by God.

And because ye are sons, says the Apostle, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father (Gal. 4:6).

Such worshippers are recognized as true worshippers of God! Such worshippers, who worship God in Spirit and in Truth, seek and receive God.

There is no knowledge of God outside of true Christianity, and no service of God.

Ignatius Brianchaninov (1807–1867; Russian Orthodox): Homily on the Sunday of the Samaritan Women on Worshipping God in Spirit and in Truth translated by Nun Cornelia Rees @ Pravoslavie.

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Nicholas Cabasilas: Through Jesus We Are Made Sharers in the Holy Spirit and Are Led to the Father Saturday, May 12 2012

The purpose of Chrismation is to enable us to share in the power of the Holy Spirit.

This anointing brings the Lord Jesus ­himself to dwell in us, our only salvation and hope.

Through ^­him we are made sharers in the Holy Spirit and are led to the Fa­ther.

Unfailingly it procures for Christians those gifts that are needed in every age, gifts such as faith, reverence for God, prayer, love, and purity.

It does so even though many are un­aware of having received such gifts.

Many do not know the power of this Sacrament or even that there is a Holy Spirit, as it says in the Book of Acts, because they were anointed before reaching the age of reason and afterward they blinded their ­souls by sin.

Nevertheless, the Spirit does in truth give the newly initiated his gifts, distributing them to each one as he wills; and our Lord, who promised to be with us always, never ceases ­to shower blessings on us.

Chrismation cannot be superfluous. We obtain the remis­sion of our sins in Baptism and we receive the body of Christ at the Altar. These Sacraments will remain until the unveiled appearance of their author.

It cannot be doubted, then, that Christians also enjoy the benefits that belong to this holy anointing and receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

How could some Sacraments be fruitful and this one without effect? How can we be­lieve that Saint Paul’s words: He who promised is faithful, apply to some Sacraments but not to this one?

If we discount the value of any Sacrament we must discount the value of all, since it is the same power that acts in each of them, it is the immolation of the same Lamb, it is the same death and the same blood that gives each of them its efficacy.

The Holy Spirit is given to some, as St Paul says, to enable them to do good to others and to edify the Church by prophesying, teaching revealed truth, or healing the sick by a mere word.

The Spirit is given to others for their own sanctification, imparting to them a shining faith and reverence for God, or making them outstanding in purity, charity, or humility.

Nicholas Cabasilas (1319/1323–after 1391): The Life in Christ, 3 (PG 150:574-575); from the Monastic Office of Vigils, Thursday of the Fifth Week of Eastertide, Year 2

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Nicholas Cabasilas: “It Is No Longer I Who Live: It Is Christ Who Lives In Me” Saturday, May 5 2012

We approach the Holy Table, the consummation of our life in Christ, which leaves no further happiness to be desired.

Now it is no longer a question of sharing in Christ’s death or burial or in a higher kind of life, but of welcoming the risen Lord himself.

It is no longer the gifts of the Spirit that we receive, insofar as we are able, but our benefactor himself, the very temple that enshrines all gifts.

Christ…leads communicants to his Table and gives them his body to eat he completely transforms them, raising them to his own level.

This is the last Sacrament we receive because it is impossible to go beyond it or to add to it anything whatever.

We remain imperfect even after Baptism has produced in us its full effect because we have not yet received the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are given in Chrismation.

[...] Yet even among those who had been filled with the Spirit and who prophesied, spoke in tongues and displayed other such gifts, there were some in the time of the Apostles who were so far from being divine and spiritual as to be guilty of envy, rivalry, contention, and other similar vices.

This is what Paul referred to when he wrote to them: You are still unspiritual and are living on a purely human plane.

They were indeed spiritual by reason of the graces they had received, but these graces did not suffice to free them from all sinfulness.

With the Eucharist, however, it is different.

No such charge can be brought against those in whom the Bread of Life, which has saved them from death, has had its full effect and who have not brought to this feast any wrongful dispositions.

If this Sacrament is fully effective it is quite impossible for it to allow the slightest imperfection to remain in those who receive it.

If you would know the reason for this, it is because through communion, in fulfilment of his promise, Christ dwells in us and we in him.

He lives in me, he said, and I in him.

When Christ lives in us, what can we lack? When we live in Christ, what more can we desire?

We at once become spiritual in body and soul and in all our faculties because our soul is united to his soul, our body to his body, our blood to his blood.

The consequence is that the higher prevails over the lower, the divine over the human.

As Paul says, referring to the Resurrection: What is mortal is swallowed up by life.

And elsewhere he writes: It is no longer I who live: it is Christ who lives in me.

Nicholas Cabasilas (1319/1323–after 1391): The Life in Christ, 4 (PG 150:582-583); from the Monastic Office of Vigils, Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Eastertide, Year 2

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Ignatius Brianchaninov: “Who Shall Roll the Stone from the Tomb for Us?” Thursday, May 3 2012

Who shall roll the stone from the tomb for us?

These words of the holy women have their own mysterious meaning.

[...] The tomb is our heart.

The heart was once a temple, but it became a tomb.

Christ enters it by means of the sacrament of Baptism, in order to dwell in us and work in us. Then the heart is consecrated as a temple to God.

[...] Brought in by Baptism, Christ continues to abide in us, but He is as if wounded and mortified by our behavior.

The temple of God not made by hands is turned into a cramped, dark tomb.

A very great stone is rolled over its entrance.

The enemies of God set a guard over the tomb, and seal its entrance blocked by the stone.

They seal the stone to the cave so that in addition to the stone’s great weight, this famous seal forbids anyone to even touch the stone.

The enemies of God themselves watch over the preservation of this deadness!

They have thought through and set up all these obstacles in order to forestall the resurrection, to prevent it, and make it impossible.

The stone is the soul’s illness by which all the other spiritual illnesses are guarded incurably and which the holy fathers call insensibility.

[...] According to the fathers, insensibility is the deadening of spiritual feelings, the unseen death of the human soul with respect to spiritual things/

[...] When insensibility stagnates in the soul and becomes a property of it, then the world and its rulers place a seal on the stone.

[...] Who shall roll the stone from the tomb for us?

[...] The heart stricken by its former careless life as by a mortal wound does not discover any signs of life.

[...] It is asleep in a deep sleep, the sleep of death; it is asleep, drunken with sinful poison.

Who shall roll the stone from the tomb for us?

This stone is very great.

[...] An angel of God, at God’s command, comes down to help the laboring and troubled soul, rolls away the stone of hardness from the heart, fills the heart with compunction, announces to the soul the resurrection, which is the usual result of continual compunction.

Compunction is the first sign of a heart revived toward God and eternity….

Compunction is a person’s feeling of mercy and compassion toward himself, toward his grave state, his fallen state, a state of eternal death.

[...] Christ is resurrected in the person who is prepared for it, and the tomb—the heart—again becomes a temple of God. Arise, O Lord, save, O my God (Ps. 3:7).

In Thy mysterious and yet essential Resurrection is my salvation.

Ignatius Brianchaninov (1807–1867; Russian Orthodox): Homily on the Sunday of the Myrrh Bearing Women on Spiritual Deadness translated by Nun Cornelia Rees @ Pravoslavie.

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Ignatius Brianchaninov: When the Heart is Filled with a Feeling of Repentance… Thursday, Apr 5 2012

The disciples of prayer who lean upon its breast—the holy Fathers—correct a major mistake that deprives the praying ascetic of all the fruits of his ascetic labor.

They instruct us to pronounce the words of short prayers and of all kinds of prayer without haste, observing scrupulous attention to the words of the prayers.

When the prayers are read unhurriedly, it is possible to have such attention, while hurried reading leaves no place for attention.

Prayer without attention is like a body which the soul has left: it has no fragrance of humility, it does not ascend to God.

Stricken and deadened by dispersed thoughts, it crawls along the earth of corruption and foul smell, imparting this corruption to those who pray carelessly and coldly.

Mental attention at prayer is reflected in the heart by blessed grief over sins, which is that very repentance that God commands us to have.

When the heart is filled with a feeling of repentance, it in turn draws the mind to increased attention.

Once there is attention and tender feeling, all the gifts of the Holy Spirit enter into the soul, making it a temple of God.

Let us provide our prayer with two qualities: attention and repentance. Let it fly up to the heavens with them as upon two wings, then appear before the face of God, and intercede for us to gain His mercy.

The blessed publican’s prayer had these two qualities. Penetrated by the awareness of his sinfulness, he did not have any hope in his own deeds to receive salvation; he had hope only in God’s mercy, which calls all sinners to repentance, and grants them salvation for repentance alone.

As a sinner who had no goodness of his own, the publican took the last place in the temple. As a sinner who is unworthy of heaven, he did not dare to lift his eyes unto heaven.

His eyes were directed toward the ground; and beating upon his heart with repentance from deep within his heart, he pronounced with his whole soul the prayer united with his confession: God be merciful to me, a sinner.

His prayer was so effective and strong, that the sinner left the temple of God justified.

Ignatius Brianchaninov (1807–1867; Russian Orthodox): Homily on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee on Prayer and Repentance translated by Nun Cornelia Rees @ Pravoslavie.

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Ignatius Brianchaninov: Explanation of the Parable of the Prodigal Son Thursday, Mar 29 2012

According to the holy fathers, the younger son could also be an image of all fallen mankind and of every sinner.

The younger son’s inheritance is God’s gifts, with which every person is endowed, especially Christians.

The most supreme gifts of God are the mind and heart, and especially the grace of the Holy Spirit given to every Christian.

The son’s demand that the father give him his inheritance to use according his own will is man’s attempt to cast off his submission to God, and follow his own thoughts and desires.

The father ceding the inheritance is a portrayal of the self-governance with which God honored man for the use of His gifts.

The far country is a sinful life, distancing and alienating us from God.

The squandering of the inheritance is the exhaustion of the powers of our mind, heart and body; in particular the outrage against the Holy Spirit and its expulsion from ourselves through our sinful deeds.

The younger son’s poverty is the soul’s emptiness, which comes about from a sinful life.

The permanent inhabitants of the far country are the princes of the darkness this age, the fallen spirits, permanently fallen and alienated from God.

The sinner submits to their influence.

The herd of unclean animals [swine] is the sinful thoughts and feelings that roam in soul of the sinners, grazing on its pastures.

They are the inevitable consequence of sinful acts.

In vain does a man think to silence these thoughts and feelings by fulfilling them—they are most impossible to satisfy!

Man can carry out these passionate thoughts and dreams, but that does not destroy them—it only rouses them to redouble their strength.

Man is created for heaven; only true goodness can be his satisfying, life-giving food.

Evil, which attracts and seduces the heart’s taste damaged by the fall, is only capable of despoiling man’s nature.

How horrible is the emptiness of soul brought on by a sinful life!

Unbearable is the torment from passionate, sinful thoughts and feelings, when they roil like worms in the soul, when they tear at the soul that has submitted to them, the soul that has been violated by them!

Often a sinner who is tormented by fierce thoughts, dreams, and unfulfilled desires comes to despair.

He often tries to take his own life, both temporal and eternal.

Blessed is the sinner who comes to his senses during that terrible period and remembers the boundless love of the Heavenly Father, and the measureless spiritual riches overflowing in the house of the Heavenly Father—the holy Church.

Blessed is that sinner who, horrified by his own sinfulness, wants to be free of its oppressive weight through repentance.

Ignatius Brianchaninov (1807–1867; Russian Orthodox): Instruction on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son on Repentance translated by Nun Cornelia Rees @ Pravoslavie.

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Ignatius Brianchaninov: God’s Mercy is Nothing Other than the Grace of the All-Holy Spirit Sunday, Feb 26 2012

Throughout the forty days fast, at all the Church services, the prayer, God, have mercy on me, a sinner! is repeated aloud.

[...] What meaning do the verb phrases, have mercy, or be merciful contain in all these prayers?

It is man’s awareness that he is perishing;

it is the perception of the mercy and pity that the Lord commanded us to feel toward ourselves, but which very few actually do feel;

it is the rejection of our own self-opinion;

it is a request for God’s mercy, without which there is no hope of salvation for the one who is perishing.

God’s mercy is nothing other than the grace of the All-Holy Spirit, and we sinful ones should ceaselessly and unrelentingly ask it of God.

Have mercy, my Lord, upon the disastrous state into which I have fallen, having been deprived of Thy grace, and again make Thy grace to dwell in me.

Strengthen me with Thy governing spirit (Ps. 50:12), a spirit of Thy power, so that I might withstand the temptation brought against me by the devil, and the temptation that comes from my fallen nature.

Send me a spirit of chastity, so that I might come out of this state of delirium, and correct my moral steps.

Give me the Spirit of Thy fear, so that I might have [godly] fear of Thee, as it is proper for a weak creature to fear his great God and Creator, so that by my awe before Thee I might hold Thy commandments sacred.

Root love for Thee within my heart, so that I may never again be separated from Thee, nor be distracted by an irresistible attraction to loathsome sin.

Grant me Thy peace, that it might preserve my soul in unperturbed calm, not allowing my thoughts to wander over the entire universe without need and to my own injury, to my own confusion; that it might concentrate them in introspection, and bear them upwards thence to Thy throne.

Give me a Spirit of meekness, so that I might refrain from anger and malice, that I might be continually filled with goodness toward my brother.

Give me a Spirit of humility of mind, so that I would not be high-minded, or dream about myself, or seek praise and human glory; but that I might rather remember that I am earth and ashes, a fallen being, cast down to the earth for my unworthiness.

I must be taken from this body and world by death, and appear before Thy dread and impartial judgment.

God, be merciful to me a sinner! Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me! Lord, have mercy!

Ignatius Brianchaninov (1807–1867; Russian Orthodox): Homily on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee on Prayer and Repentance translated by Nun Cornelia Rees @ Pravoslavie.

 

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Ignatius Brianchaninov: When True Repentance Begins to Shudder in the Soul Monday, Feb 20 2012

The prayer of the publican is shown drawing God’s mercy to him. This prayer consisted of the following words: God be merciful to me a sinner (Lk. 18:13).

[...] This prayer is commended in the Gospels; it is set forth as an example of prayer, and it becomes our sacred duty to piously contemplate it.

Why didn’t the publican choose some majestic and moving psalm by which to pour out his heart before God, but instead had recourse to such a brief prayer?

[...] When true repentance begins to shudder in the soul, when humility and contrition of spirit arises there because one’s eyes have been opened to the soul’s sinfulness, then loquacity becomes unbearable, impossible.

Concentrating within itself, turning all its attention upon its disastrous condition, the soul begins to call out to God through some form of short, concise prayer.

When an encompassing view of his own sinfulness is granted to a person by God, it cannot be described by eloquent speech or an abundance of words.

More exactly, the person expresses this awareness by sighs and groaning of soul, clothed in very brief and simple words.

Whoever wishes to unfold a deep feeling of repentance within himself uses short prayer to reach that state, pronounced with as much attention and reverence as possible.

Abandoning excessive words, even though they be sacred words, allows the mind to completely free itself of distractions and to strive for introspection with all its strength.

“When you pray, do not permit yourself to use many words,” says St. John Climacus, “so that your mind might not be distracted from considering the words.

“One word from the publican brought him God’s mercy, and one faithful utterance saved the thief. Much speaking in prayer often brings the mind to distraction and dreaminess, while sparse words usually gather the thoughts.”

Because of the great benefit that brief, attentive, concentrated prayer brings, the Holy Church enjoins its children to timely learn some form of brief prayer.

One who has learned such a prayer possesses a ready ability to pray in any place, at any time. While traveling, in the refectory, doing handiwork, or in the company of others, he can cry out to God.

When it is not possible to pray with the lips, it is possible to pray with the mind.

The convenience of brief prayer is obvious in this regard: it is quite easy to lose the meaning and order of lengthy prayers when we are occupied with something else, while short prayer always preserves its integrity.

If it is left off for a time, one can return to it with little difficulty.

Ignatius Brianchaninov (1807–1867; Russian Orthodox): Homily on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee on Prayer and Repentance translated by Nun Cornelia Rees @ Pravoslavie.

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John Maximovitch: Weeping Entered the World, and the Soul became Burdened Friday, Dec 2 2011

The world was created good and called to the joy of life in union with the Source and Creator of life, the Lord God.

The first to sin and to be torn from this union were angels.

The angelic realm was split: some remained with God; others, in their pride, desired to live their own life, independent of God.

The angelic world was split and sin was born there, but the earthly world remained good.

And then the devil, which means “the one cast down from heaven,” began to strive to join the earthly realm to himself.

The highest creation on earth, man, had been given a commandment by God not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Why was the commandment given? This tree was just like all the others, and in itself it had no outstanding characteristics.

No, the knowledge of good and evil was not in the tree itself, and not for this reason was the commandment given.

The Lord gave it because man was created free, and the Lord desires of man a freely-willed striving and longing for union with God.

The commandment was given because only through its fulfillment could man express his freely-willed striving toward God and love for Him.

And blessedness consists simply of communication with God through love of Him.

The devil is burdened by his separation; he is perpetually in a state of wrath and vengeance, and it comforts him to attract others.

The devil never appears as his true self, but takes on various appearances.

Then in paradise he took on the appearance of a serpent, and gave man the idea that the commandment had not been given for the expression of man’s love of God, but so that man would not become like God.

The devil planted the thought that the command was issued, not out of God’s love, so that man would dwell in God’s love, but because God desires to dominate, and to prevent man from being as God, and coming to know the endless and limitless joy of being.

When man came to believe this diabolical idea, he was instantly separated from God.

Everything changed, and man could no longer enjoy life in God and speak with God freely and straightforwardly as children speak.

There was no peace, no joy, and man began to hide from God.

Everything changed, the link between God and man was destroyed and nature ceased to heed man.

Weeping entered the world, and the soul became burdened.

John Maximovitch (Orthodox Church; 1896-1966): Sermon on the Fall of Man @ Orthodoxy Today and Orthodox Christian Faith

 

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Gregory of Sinai: Renewed in the Spirit, Transformed and Embodied in Christ Monday, Nov 21 2011

If our human nature is not kept pure or else restored to its original purity by the Holy Spirit, it cannot become one body and one spirit in Christ, either in this life or in the harmonious order of the life to come.

For the all-embracing and unifying power of the Spirit does not complete the new garment of grace by sewing on to it a patch taken from the old garment of the passions (cf.Matt. 9:16).

Every person who has been renewed in the Spirit and has preserved this gift will be transformed and embodied in Christ, experiencing ineffably the supernatural state of deification.

But he will not hereafter be one with Christ or be engrafted into His body unless in this life he has come to share in divine grace and has embodied spiritual knowledge and truth.

The kingdom of heaven is like the tabernacle which was built by God, and which He disclosed to Moses as a pattern (cf. Exod. 25:40); for it too has an outer and an inner sanctuary.

Into the first will enter all who are priests of grace. But into the second – which is noetic – will enter only those who in this life have attained the divine darkness of theological wisdom and there as true hierarchs have celebrated the triadic liturgy, entering into the tabernacle that Jesus Himself has set up, where He acts as their consecrator and chief Hierarch before the Trinity, and illumines them ever more richly with His own splendor.

By ‘many dwelling-places’ (John14:2) the Savior meant the differing stages of spiritual ascent and states of  development in the other world; for although the kingdom of heaven is one, there are many different levels within it.

That is to say, there is place for both heavenly and earthy men (cf.1Cor.15:48) according to their virtue, their knowledge and the degree of deification that they have attained.

‘For there is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars, for one star differs from another star in glory’(1Cor. 15:41); and yet all of them shine in a single divine firmament.

You partake of angelic life and attain an incorruptible and hence almost bodiless state when you have cleansed your intellect through tears, have through the power of the Spirit resurrected your soul even in this life, and with the help of the Logos have made your flesh – your natural human form of clay – a resplendent and fiery image of divine beauty.

Gregory of Sinai (1260s–1346): On Commandments and Doctrines, chs 41-45, Text from G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, and Kallistos Ware (trans. and eds.) The Philokalia: The Complete Text, vol. 4 (Faber & Faber, London & Boston: 1979ff), pp. 220-221.

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