Athanasius of Alexandria: “O Death, Where Is Thy Victory? O Grave, Where Is Thy Sting?” Thursday, May 2 2013

Death is destroyed, and the Cross is become the victory over it, and it has no more power but is verily dead.

Of this is no small proof, but rather an evident warrant – the fact that it is despised by all Christ’s disciples, and that they all take an aggressive stance against it and no longer fear it.

Instead, by the sign of the Cross, and by faith in Christ, they tread it down as dead.

For of old, before the divine sojourn of the Saviour took place, even to the saints death was terrible, and all wept for the dead as though they perished.

But now that the Saviour has raised His body, death is no longer terrible. For all who believe in Christ tread death under foot as nothing, and choose rather to die than to deny their faith in Christ.

For they verily know that when they die they are not destroyed, but actually begin to live, and become incorruptible through the Resurrection.

And they know that the devil that once maliciously exulted in death, once death’s pains were loosed, remained the only one truly dead.

And a proof of this is, that before men believe Christ, they see in death an object of terror, and play the coward before him.

But when they are gone over to Christ’s faith and teaching, their contempt for death is so great that they even eagerly rush upon it, and become witnesses for the Resurrection the Saviour has accomplished against it.

For while still tender in years they make haste to die – and not men only, but women also, exercise themselves by bodily discipline against it.

So weak has death become, that even women who were formerly deceived by him, now mock at him as dead and paralyzed.

When a tyrant has been defeated by a real king, and bound hand and foot, then all that pass by laugh him to scorn, buffeting and reviling him, no longer fearing his fury and barbarity, because of the king who has conquered him.

In the same way, death has been conquered and exposed by the Saviour on the Cross, and bound hand and foot.

And all they who are in Christ, as they pass by, trample on death, and witnessing to Christ scoff at death, jesting at him, and saying what has been written against him of old:

“O death, where is thy victory? O grave, where is thy sting?”

Athanasius of Alexandria (c.293-373): On the Incarnation, 27.

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Macarius the Egyptian: One who Wishes to be a Partaker of the Divine Glory Must Seek the Help which Comes Mightily from God Friday, Apr 12 2013

Those upon whom the divine law is written, not with ink and letters, but implanted in hearts of flesh, these, having the eyes of their mind enlightened, and reaching after a hope, not tangible and seen, but invisible and immaterial, have power to get the better of the stumbling- blocks of the evil one, not by themselves, but from the power that never can be defeated.

But those who have not been honoured with God’s word, nor instructed by divine law…fancy that by their own free will they can bring to nought the resources of sin, which is only condemned through the mystery contained in the Cross.

It lies in the power of man’s free will to resist the devil, but it does not extend to an absolute command over the passions. Except the Lord build the house…and keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain, and the builder laboureth in vain (Ps. 126:1).

You cannot go upon the asp and basilisk and tread under your feet the lion and the dragon [cf Ps. 90:13] without first purging yourself as far as human ability goes, and being strengthened by Him who said to the apostles, Behold, I have given you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy.

If human nature had had force, without the whole armour of the Holy Ghost, to stand against the wiles of the devil, St Paul would not have said, The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly, and again, Whom the Lord shall destroy with the Spirit of His mouth.

That is why we are bidden of the Lord to pray, Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. If we are not delivered by the superior power from the fiery darts of the wicked one and admitted to the adoption of sons, our social existence is in vain; we are far from the power of God.

Accordingly, one who wishes to be a partaker of the divine glory, and to see as in a glass the form of Christ in the ruling faculty of his own soul, ought with insatiable affection and an inclination which is never filled, with all his heart and all his might, by night and when it is day, to seek the help which comes mightily from God.

Of this help, as I have said before, it is impossible to partake, unless a man first abstains from the luxury of the world, from the desires of the opposing power, which is alien to the light, and is an activity of wickedness with no kinship to a good activity, but wholly estranged from it.

Macarius the Egyptian (c. 300-391) [attributed]; Fifty Spiritual Homilies, 27,1-3, trans. by A.J. Mason DD.

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John Cassian: Running Towards Christ with Devotion of Heart Thursday, Mar 7 2013

“I,” said St Paul, “so run, not as uncertainly; I so fight, not as one that beateth the air: but I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest by any means when I have preached to others I myself should be a castaway” (1 Cor. 9:26-27).

You see how he made the chief part of the struggle depend upon himself, that is upon his flesh, as if on a most sure foundation, and placed the result of the battle simply in the chastisement of the flesh and the subjection of his body. “I then so run not as uncertainly.”

He does not run uncertainly, because, looking to the heavenly Jerusalem, he has a mark set, towards which his heart is swiftly directed without swerving.

He does not run uncertainly, because, “forgetting those things which are behind, he reaches forth to those that are before, pressing towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13-14), whither he ever directs his mental gaze, and hastening towards it with all speed of heart, proclaims with confidence, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:7).

And because he knows he has run unweariedly “after the odour of the ointment” (Cant. 1:3) of Christ with ready devotion of heart, and has won the battle of the spiritual combat by the chastisement of the flesh, he boldly concludes and says, “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me in that day.”

And that he might open up to us also a like hope of reward, if we desire to imitate him in the struggle of his course, he added: “But not to me only, but to all also who love His coming” (2 Tim. 4:8).

He declares that we shall be sharers of his crown in the day of judgment, if we love the coming of Christ—not that one only which will be manifest to men even against their will; but also this one which daily comes to pass in holy souls—and if we gain the victory in the fight by chastising the body.

And of this coming it is that the Lord speaks in the Gospel. “I,” says He, “and my Father will come to him, and will make our abode with him” (John 14:23).

And again: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the gate, I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he with me” (Rev. 3:20).

John Cassian (c. 360-435): Institutes 5, 17.

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Peter of Damascus: The Divine Physician Heals the Sickness of the Soul Monday, Feb 18 2013

Just as sick people need surgery and cautery to recover the health they have lost, so we need trials, and toils of repentance, and fear of death and punishment, so that we may regain our former health of soul and shake off the sickness which our folly has induced.

The more the Physician of our souls bestows upon us voluntary and involuntary suffering, the more we should thank Him for His compassion and accept the suffering joyfully.

For it is to help us that He increases our tribulation, both through the sufferings we willingly embrace in our repentance and through the trials and punishments not subject to our will.

In this way, if we voluntarily accept affliction, we will be freed from our sickness and from the punishments to come, and perhaps even from present punishments as well.

Even if we are not grateful, our Physician in His grace will still heal us, although by means of chastisement and manifold trials. But if we cling to our disease and persist in it, we will deservedly bring upon ourselves agelong punishment.

[...] We do not all receive blessings in the same way. Some, on receiving the fire of the Lord, that is, His word, put it into practice and so become softer of heart, like wax, while others through laziness become harder than clay and altogether stone-like.

And no one compels us to receive these blessings in different ways. It is as with the sun whose rays illumine all the world: the person who wants to see it can do so, while the person who does not want to see it is not forced to, so that he alone is to blame for his lightless condition.

For God made both the sun and man’s eyes, but how man uses them depends on himself. Similarly, then, God irradiates knowledge to all and at the same time He gives us faith as an eye through which we can perceive it.

[...] Greater practice is rewarded by greater knowledge; and from the understanding thus acquired we gain control of the passions and learn how to endure our sufferings patiently.

Sufferings produce devotion to God and a recognition of His gifts and our faults. These give birth to gratitude, and gratitude inculcates the fear of God which leads us to the keeping of the commandments, to inward grief, gentleness and humility.

These three virtues produce discrimination, which…makes it possible for the intellect…to foresee coming faults and to forestall them through its experience and recollection of what has happened in the past. In this way it can protect itself against stealthy attacks.

Peter of Damascus (?12^th Century): A Treasury of Divine Knowledge  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. 77-78.

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Theodore the Studite: Fasting Renews the Soul and Makes Us Habitations of God Sunday, Feb 17 2013

The present days of the holy fast are, among the other periods of the year, a calm haven to which all gather and find spiritual serenity –

not only monastics, but laymen as well…., for this period is beneficial and salvific for every country and age of mankind.

At this time every disruption and disorder comes to a halt, and doxology and hymnody are multiplied, charities and prayer by means of which our good God is moved to compassion and is pleased to grant peace to our souls and forgiveness of sins –

if only we shall sincerely turn to Him with all our heart, falling down before Him with fear and trembling, and promising to cease from every bad habit which we might have.

[...] Brethren, fasting is the renewal of the soul, for the Apostle says insofar as the body weakens and withers from the ascetic labor of fasting, then so much is the soul renewed day by day and is made beauteous and shines in the beauty which God originally bestowed upon it.

And when it is purified and adorned with fasting and repentance, then God loves it and will live in it as the Lord has said: “I and the Father will come and make Our abode with him” (John 14.23).

Thus if there is such value and grace in fasting that it makes us into habitations of God, then ought we to greet it with great rejoicing and gladness.

[...] If we desire that the fast be for us a true one and acceptable unto God, then together with abstaining from food, let us restrain ourselves from every sin of soul and body, as the sticheron instructs us in which it is said,

“Let us keep the Fast not only by refraining from food, but by becoming strangers to all sinful passions”.

[...] Let us guard against ill temper and self-assertion, that is, let us not appropriate things for ourselves and indulge our self-will.

For nothing is so loved of the devil as to find a person who has not forgiven another and has not taken advice from those able to instruct him in virtue; then the enemy easily deludes the self-assertive and traps him in all that he does and reckons as good.

Let us vigilantly attend to ourselves, especially in regard to the desires of the flesh; for it is just now, when we fast, that the chameleon serpent-devil fights us with bad thoughts.

Theodore the Studite: (759-826): Catechetical Homilies, 47 @ Orthodox Christian Information Center.

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Isaac the Syrian: Glory to Jesus Christ Who Brings Us the Sweetness of Health by Stringent Medicines! Saturday, Feb 16 2013

God allows His saints to be tried by every sorrow, then to experience anew and prove His aid, and to understand how great a providence He has for them, for in their perils He is found to be their Redeemer.

[...] If a man is not first tried by the experience of evils, he has no taste for the good. Hence when in evils he meets with that which is good, he will be unable in knowledge and freedom to make use of it as being his very own.

How sweet is knowledge that is gained from actual experience and diligent training, and what power it gives to the man who through much experience has found it within himself, the same is known by those who have been assured of and have seen the help it affords them.

Then they learn the weakness of their nature and the help of Divine power, when God first withholds His power from them while they are amid temptations.

Thus He makes them conscious of their nature’s impotence, the arduousness of temptations, and the cunning of the enemy.

Thus he gives them to understand against whom they must wrestle, what kind of nature they are clothed with, how they are protected by divine power, how far they have advanced on the way, to what height God’s power has raised them up, and how powerless they are before the face of every passion when the divine power is withdrawn from them.

Through all these things they acquire humility, cleave closely to God, look for His help with expectation, and persevere in prayer.

[...] The diligent are tried, that they might add to their riches, the lax are tried, that they might guard themselves from what is harmful; the sleepy are tried, that they might be armed with wakefulness, those afar off are tried, that they might draw nearer to God; those who are God’s own are tried, that with boldness they might enter into His house.

The son who is not trained will receive no profit from the riches of his father’s house. For this reason, then, God first tries and afflicts, and thereafter reveals His gift. Glory to our Master Jesus Christ Who brings us the sweetness of health by stringent medicines!

There is no man who will not feel oppressed at the time of training, nor any who will not find the time bitter wherein he is given the medicine of trails to drink. Without temptations a man cannot acquire a strong constitution, yet to endure with patience is not within our power.

For how should the clay vessel endure the vehemence of the waters, if the divine fire had not hardened it?

Isaac the Syrian (c. 630-c. 700): Homily 61; longer text @ Kandylaki.

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Richard of St Victor: “Rejoice in the Lord Always, Again I Say Rejoice” Saturday, Dec 22 2012

“How great” is “the multitude of sweetness, which God has hidden for those who love him” (Ps. 30:20).  “He has hidden,” it says.  Therefore, why marvel if any lover of the world does not know that which God has hidden for those who love Him?

[...] For it is manna, hidden and completely unknown except to those who taste it.  For it is such sweetness of the heart, and not of the flesh, that no carnal person whomever is able to have known it.  “You have put joy in my heart” (Ps. 4:7).

Corporeal delights, like the body itself, can be seen by the bodily eyes; eyes of the flesh cannot see the delights of the heart and also not even the heart itself.  Therefore by what way could he know spiritual delights unless he makes a point of entering into his heart and dwelling within?

Therefore it is said to him: “Enter into the joy of your Lord” (Matt. 25:21).  This inner joy is for spiritual persons.  That sweetness which is felt within is that son of Leah….  For joy is one of the principal affections….

However, when it has been set in order, this can rightly be numbered among the sons of Jacob and Leah.  For we certainly have ordered and true joy when we rejoice concerning true and inner goods.

The Apostle wished to animate us to the desire for such offspring when he said: “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice” (Phil. 4:4).  And the Prophet: “Rejoice in the Lord and exult you just, and glory all you with an upright heart” (Ps. 31:11).

For such offspring Leah gladly despised the mandrakes so that she would be able to have such a son.  In fact, the mind that delights in the praise of men does not deserve to experience what inner joy is.

However, after the birth of Gad and Asher, Leah rightly gave birth to such a son because except by means of abstinence and patience the human mind cannot reach true joy.

Therefore it is necessary that he who wishes to rejoice concerning the truth exclude not only false pleasure but also vain disquiet.  For he who until now delights in the lowest things is especially unworthy of inner enjoyment, and he who is disquieted by vain fear is not able fully to enjoy spiritual sweetness.

Truth condemned false joy when he said: “Woe to you who now laugh” (Luke 6:25).  He extirpated vain disquiet when he admonished his hearers, saying: “Do not fear those who kill the body, for they are not able to kill the soul” (Matt. 10:28).

Richard of St Victor (d. 1173): The Twelve Patriarchs, c. 36,translated by Grover A. Zinn, Paulist Press @ Lectionary Central.

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Fulgentius of Ruspe: Mortify your Base Desires, Mend your Ways, and you shall Set Free your Mind and Heart Saturday, Oct 27 2012

Turn your thoughts to yourself, to your own state, mortal man.

Look for the accusation against you yourself: then for the defence; and then, what about the judgement itself?

For now, you alone are accuser, defender, and judge.

Enter the secret recesses of your mind and heart, where the eyes of the Lord alone can see you.

Accuse yourself there, that you may be defended of the charge.

Try your­self there, that you may carry off the victory.

Condemn yourself there, in your own mind, that you may merit absolution.

Do not treat yourself as a special case when criticising your own conduct.

Instead, take apart and analyse your misdeeds with rigour; be strict in condemning the sins you acknowledge as yours; and in con­demning them as your own, do them to death as well.

Do them to death: that means, not to yield in the slightest, ever after, to sinful urges.

Not being one who commits sin, you will then be one who has killed it off.

And if you are a sound judge of your own sin you will go free of God’s just judgement.

But that you may rejoice in a just judgement delivered on yourself, take note of St Paul’s counsel, teaching what actions of ours we need to mortify so as to arrive at the true life.

For he says this: Mortify your own bodies as they walk the earth; as for fornication and all impurity, evil desires and prurience, avarice and slavery to the idols of materialism, all these call down the wrath of God on the children of disbelief.

That tells us, then, what is objectionable in ourselves, what we should condemn there, what needs mortifying.

Make the judgement on yourself – and you will not be judged.

So condemn – and you will not be condemned.

Mortify yourself – and you will not be finally mortified, with the death of the soul.

Here and now be the strictest judge, a veritable butcher in cutting out defects in the flesh.

Take careful thought and be abject in mortification.

For if you have properly weighed your sins you have made the judgement; then by casting them off, you have killed them.

To defend yourself, then, self-accusation has to come first; to secure your pardon, judgement and self-criticism; so as to conduct your cause victoriously, exami­nation of conscience.

Acknowledge your iniquity, mortify your base desires, mend your ways – and so by judging aright you shall set free your mind and heart, your very soul.

Fulgentius of Ruspe (462/467—527/533): Sermon 10.2-3 (CCL 91A:938-939); from the Monastic Office of Vigils, Friday of the 24th Week of Ordinary Time, Year 2.

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G.K. Chesterton: The Joyful Asceticism of St Francis Thursday, Oct 4 2012

If ever that rarer sort of romantic love, which was the truth that sustained the Troubadours, falls out of fashion and is treated as fiction, we may see some such misunderstanding as that of the modern world about asceticism.

[...] Men will ask what selfish sort of woman it must have been who ruthlessly exacted tribute in the form of flowers, or what an avaricious creature she can have been to demand solid gold in the form of a ring; just as they ask what cruel kind of God can have demanded sacrifice and self-denial.

They will have lost the clue to all that lovers have meant by love; and will not understand that it was because the thing was not demanded that it was done.

But whether or no any such lesser things will throw a light on the greater, it is utterly useless to study a great thing like the Franciscan movement while remaining in the modern mood that murmurs against gloomy asceticism.

The whole point about St. Francis of Assisi is that he certainly was ascetical and he certainly was not gloomy.

As soon as ever he had been unhorsed by the glorious humiliation of his vision of dependence on the divine love, he flung himself into fasting and vigil exactly as he had flung himself furiously into battle.

He had wheeled his charger clean round, but there was no halt or check in the thundering impetuosity of his charge. There was nothing negative about it; it was not a regimen or a stoical simplicity of life.

It was not self-denial merely in the sense of self-control. It was as positive as a passion; it had all the air of being as positive as a pleasure. He devoured fasting as a man devours food. He plunged after poverty as men have dug madly for gold.

And it is precisely the positive and passionate quality of this part of his personality that is a challenge to the modern mind in the whole problem of the pursuit of pleasure.

[...] It is certain that he held on this heroic or unnatural course from the moment when he went forth in his hair-shirt into the winter woods to the moment when he desired even in his death agony to lie bare upon the bare ground, to prove that he had and that he was nothing.

And we can say, with almost as deep a certainty, that the stars which passed above that gaunt and wasted corpse stark upon the rocky floor had for once, in all their shining cycles round the world of labouring humanity, looked down upon a happy man.

G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936): St Francis, ch. 5.

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Mark the Hermit: Every Affliction Tests Our Will Wednesday, Mar 21 2012

Unless a man acquires, through the grace of Christ, knowledge of the truth and fear of God, he is gravely wounded not only by the passions but also by the things that happen to him.

When you want to resolve a complex problem, seek God’s will in the matter, and you will find a constructive solution.

When something accords with God’s will, all creation aids it. But when God rejects something, creation too opposes it.

He who opposes unpleasant events opposes the command of God unwittingly. But when someone accepts them with real knowledge, he ‘waits patiently for the Lord’ (Ps 27:14).

When tested by some trial you should try to find out not why or through whom it came, but only how to endure it gratefully, without distress or rancor.

Another man’s sin does not increase our own, unless we ourselves embrace it by means of evil thoughts.

If it is not easy to find anyone conforming to God’s will who has not been put to the test, we ought to thank God for everything that happens to us.

If Peter had not failed to catch anything during the night’s fishing (cf. Lk 5:5), he would not have caught anything during the day. And if Paul had not suffered physical blindness (cf. Ac 9:8), he would not have been given spiritual sight.

And if Stephen had not been slandered as a blasphemer, he would not have seen the heavens opened and have looked on God (cf. Ac 6:15; 7:56).

As work according to God is called virtue, so unexpected affliction is called a test.

God ‘tested Abraham’ (cf. Gn 22:1-14), that is, God afflicted him for his own benefit, not in order to learn what kind of man Abraham was – for He knew him, since He knows all things before they come into existence – but in order to provide him with opportunities for showing perfect faith.

Every affliction tests our will, showing whether it is inclined to good or evil.

This is why an unforeseen affliction is called a test, because it enables a man to test his hidden desires.

The fear of God compels us to fight against evil; and when we fight against evil, the grace of God destroys it.

Mark the Hermit (5th-6th c.): On Those who Think They Are Made Righteous by Works,194-205, Text from G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, and Kallistos Ware (trans. and eds.) The Philokalia: The Complete Text, vol. I (Faber & Faber, London & Boston: 1979), online version here.

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