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Born at Koman (Coma) near Memphis, Egypt, c. 251; died on Mount Kolzim, January 17, 356.
“Whoever sits in solitude and is quiet has escaped from three wars: hearing, speaking, and seeing. Yet against one thing he must constantly battle: his own heart.”-Saint Antony Abbot.
“The devil dreads fasting, prayer, humility, and good works: He is not able even to stop my mouth who speak against him. The illusions of the devil soon vanish, especially if a man arms himself with the Sign of the Cross. The devils tremble at the Sign of the Cross of our Lord, by which He triumphed over and disarmed them.” –Saint Antony Abbot.
Antony’s work was of lasting import–centuries later, in the 20th century, 
the monasteries he established still exist and are peopled by numerous monks as the Coptic Orthodox Church enjoys a thriving monastic
life in the 20th century.
But the Church has never been simply a clique of saints but a field of weeds as well as wheat. Even after only its first 250 years of existence the level of early enthusiasm and standard of holiness had sunk a great deal as large groups of people, some lukewarm, entered the Church. The Church does not exist for men who are already holy, but rather to help us to grow in sanctity. Her moral laws do not exist to inhibit our freedom, but as signposts allowing us the freedom to become most ourselves, who are made by, for, and in the image of God. Her Sacraments are not prizes for the already perfected but medicine for the sick and weak.
Yet the Church is not just a hospital for the morally wounded or spiritual convalescents. The generous heart, the strong worker, the vivid imagination, the triumphant will–all these are cared for, nurtured, and called to live within her. And not only the Church as a body, but each of us within Her, contains this mixture of the sick and the holy. We are beaten down by the evil within and around us but, with God’s help, arise again to continue the fight. Antony was one of those whose virtues encouraged others to continue the battle and win the crown of glory offered to all by our Lord Jesus Christ.
Antony, the founder of Christian monasticism, is considered as such because he gathered the desert hermits into loosely-knit communities and exercised a certain authority over them. Nevertheless, he himself spent most of his life in solitude.
In order to keep Antony from being tainted by bad example, his rich and pious parents kept him always at home, unacquainted with any branch of human literature or other languages. His childhood was marked by his even temper, attendance to religious duties, and obedience to his parents.
At age 18 to 20, his parents died leaving him a vast fortune, including 300 “auras” (about 120 acres) of rich Egyptian soil. The “Golden Legend” says that one day in church Antony heard: “If you wish to be perfect, go and sell all that you have and give it to the poor.” Many of us hear this passage without really paying much attention to it. But Antony, impressed by Christ’s words to the rich young ruler, gave up everything and, providing only for the needs of his sister, became an ascetic. She, however, following his example, surrendered her share in the inheritance and entered a house of virgins.
He went to live alone in various spots in the neighbourhood of his home in Lower Egypt, but sought the counsel of an aged hermit to teach him the spiritual life and help to control what he felt was his wayward, impressionable temperament, which he knew he could not govern all alone. During the next 15 years, he also visited other solitaries, copying in himself the principal virtue of each. Soon he was a model of humility, charity, and prayerfulness.
He found God on the abrupt and rocky banks of the Nile, where burning stones take possession of flowers before they even bloom. Fleeing the agony of a corrupt and crumbling world, he sought in silence and poverty to hear the whispers of the divine presence, to make the sand and flagstones flourish with spiritual flowers.
Antony began the life of a hermit, living in a tomb. He spent his time in prayer, study, and the manual work necessary to earn his living, while practising the strictest self-denial. He ate only bread, with a little salt, and water, which he never tasted before sunset, and sometimes only once every several days. He wore sackcloth and sheepskin, and often knelt in prayer from sunset to sunrise. When he did sleep, it was on a rush mat or the bare floor. Thus, he became Antony the Great: the giant of holiness, the athlete of the spiritual order, the colossal mystic whose name dominates early Christianity in Egypt.
Here the devils assaulted him most furiously, appearing as various monsters and worldly temptations such as rich clothing, delicious food, and beautiful women. They even wounded him severely. But his courage never failed, and he overcame them all by confidence in God and by the Sign of the Cross. One night many devils scourged him so terribly that he lay as if dead. A friend found him that way and, believing him dead, carried him home. When Antony awakened, he persuaded his friend to carry him, in spite of his wounds, back to his solitude. Here, prostrate from weakness, he defied the devils, saying, “I fear you not; you cannot separate me from the love of Christ.”
Hereupon the fiends appearing again, renewed the attack, and alarmed him with terrible noises and a variety of spectres in hideous shapes until a ray of heavenly light chased them away. He cried out as we so often do when besieged by the enemy: “Where were You, my Lord and my Master? Why weren’t You here from the beginning of my conflict to assuage my pain?” A voice answered: “Antony, I was here the whole time; I stood by you, and saw your combat. And because you manfully withstood your enemies, I will always protect you, and will make your name famous throughout the earth.”
Not only did the devils assault him in this way, they also tempted him with thoughts about failed opportunities for doing good with the property he had given away. This is a common ploy of the evil one: to attempt to pull us away from the vocation to which God has called us, making us slothful or dissatisfied with our own role in the salvation of the world and the glorification of the Father.
About 285, in a quest for greater solitude, he left the area around his birthplace and took up residence in an abandoned fort atop Mount Pispir (now Der el Memun), living in nearly complete solitude and seeing almost no one, eating only dates growing nearby and the bread thrown to him over the wall. He continued this life for 20 years until he knew and could govern himself to do the exterior work.
In 305, he emerged to organise at Fayum (Phaium) the colony of ascetics that had grown around his retreat into a loosely organised monastery with a rule, though each monk lived in solitude except for worship. Most say it was the first Christian monastery. The dissipation occasioned by this undertaking led him into a temptation of despair, which he overcame by prayer and hard manual labour.
During this time of his life, he daily ate six ounces of bread soaked in water with a little salt, and sometimes added a few dates. He generally ate after sunset, but on some days at 3:00 p.m. In his old age, he also added a little oil. Thus, in his more active period he somewhat modified his earlier austerities.
It is said that he was always so cheerful when in company that strangers could always identify him from among his disciples by the joy that always painted his countenance. This, of course, was the result of the inward peace and composure of his soul–Christ’s final gift to us, His servants. (It does appear, however, that Antony also possessed the gift of tears.)
Antony exhorted his brethren to spend as little time as possible in the care of the body. Nevertheless, he was careful never to place perfection in mortification, but rather in charity. He instructed his monks to always be mindful of eternity: to reflect every morning that they might not live until nightfall, every evening that they may never see the sun rise, and to perform every action as if it were the last of their lives, with all the fervour of their souls to please God.
In 311, at the height of Emperor Maximin’s persecution, he went to Alexandria to give encouragement to the Christians being persecuted there and in the mines of the Sudan where they were imprisoned. He wore a white tunic of sheepskin during his stay in Alexandria so that he would be recognised by other Christians. He took care, however, never to provoke the judges or impeach himself, as some rashly did. He returned to his monastery when the persecution subsided in 312 and organized another at Pispir, near the Nile.
Again he retired, this time with his disciple Saint Macarius the Younger (f.d. January 2) to a cliffside cave on Mount Kolzim near the northwest corner of the Red Sea, where he remained for the rest of his long life cultivating enough land to support himself, weaving reed mats, and visiting the monks of the desert community. Generally, Macarius would entertain any strangers who managed to reach their aerie. If they were found to be spiritual men, Antony would spend time with them, too.
Another lesson we can learn from Saint Antony: In a time of spiritual dryness take up an ordinary occupation. When Antony found uninterrupted contemplation above his strength, an angel taught his to use intervals of manual labour interspersed with prayer. Soon prayer was added to the work of his hands.
He had many followers and soon his life of solitude became impossible. Numerous colonies of monks, following his example, multiplied with great rapidity, so that the deserts of the Nile and the sands of Libya were peopled with thousands of anchorites. The rocks resounded with their songs, and at Easter immense congregations of up to 50,000 people would gather to celebrate the glory of the Risen One.
Antony’s influence exerted itself like a radiating force in other countries, too. Saint Hilarion (f.d. October 21) visited him about 310, and inaugurated monasteries in Palestine; Mar Agwin did so in 325 in Mesopotamia; Saint Pachomius (f.d. May 9), nearer home, in 318. Antony had two qualities proper to great men–he was able (such was the force of his personality) to leave almost complete freedom and initiative to the men under his immediate influence; and he did not grumble if others imitated and also modified his system. Thus, Pachomius started a much more centralised, highly organised monasticism more like modern monasteries–the system that spread to the West.
A significant feature of these desert saints was their physical strength and energy. Antony himself remained alert and vigorous despite his privations, and those who followed him became spiritual athletes, men and women who under conditions of great severity developed strong physique and braced themselves in health and virtue. (When Antony died at age 105, his sight and hearing were unimpaired and he had all his teeth.) These desert fathers lived in remote places in huts, caves or abandoned buildings, and sought God through intellectual and physical self-discipline in a life of prayer, meditation, austerity, and manual labour (to feed themselves). Such lives produced characters of impressive integrity and wisdom, as well as keen understanding of the human psyche.
Some desert monks were characterised by extravagant austerities and fanaticism; not so Antony. He was notably moderate for his time, a man of spiritual wisdom, whose austerity of life was always consciously directed to the better service of God.
Many stories are told of Antony and of his encounters with strange creatures (including a centaur and satyr in the story of his search for Saint Paul the Hermit (f.d. January 15), and of how by the power of prayer he overcame his fears and proved that the wildest phantasies of the mind can be dispelled by the grace of God. He had also the gift of taming wild animals and on that account is called their patron saint. “Why do you hurt me,” he asked the beasts of the desert, gently taking hold of one of them, “who do not hurt you?” and they left him in peace.
He had a great reputation for holiness, but on one occasion he heard an inner voice: “Antony, you are not so perfect as is a cobbler that dwells at Alexandria.” Whereupon he took his staff and sought him out. The cobbler was amazed to see such a holy and famous man at his door. Antony enquired how he spent his time.
“Sir,” he replied, “as for me, good works have I none, for my life is but simple and slender. I am but a poor cobbler. In the morning when Irise, I pray for the whole city wherein I dwell, especially for all such neighbours and poor friends as I have. After, I set me at my labour, where I spend the whole day in getting my living. And I keep me from all falsehood, for I hate nothing so much as I do deceitfulness; wherefore when I make to any man a promise, I keep to it and perform it truly. And thus I spent my time poorly with my wife and children, whom I teach and instruct, as far as my wit will serve me, to fear and dread God. And this is the sum of my simple life.”
Thus, Antony learned that there are many way of holiness and that perfection is not only to be found in the lonely places of the desert.
About 337, Emperor Constantine and his two sons, Constantius and Constans, wrote a joint letter to Antony seeking advice and asking for his prayers. His monks were surprised that he should be so honoured. Unmoved he said, “Do not wonder that the emperor writes to us, one man to another; rather admire that God should have written to us, and that He has spoken to us through His Son.” In total, his response to the emperor preserved by Saint Athanasius (f.d. May 2), and seven other letters to various monasteries are the sum of Antony’s literary output.
In 339, Saint Antony had a vision in which mules kicked down the altar. This was taken as a warning about the havoc the Arian persecution wrought just two years later in Alexandria. At the request of the bishops, about 355, Antony again went to Alexandria to join those combatting Arianism. He taught that God the Son is not a creature but the same substance as the Father, and that the Arians, who claimed he was, were heathens. There he met and became close friends with Saint Athanasius, whose “Vita Antonii” is the chief source of information about Antony.
On his return, he again sought refuge in the cave on Mount Kolzim, where he received visitors, including Emperor Constantine, and dispensed advice. He chief advice was that knowledge of oneself was the necessary and only step by which one can ascend to the knowledge and love of God.
Full of years, of battles and victories, Antony died on January 17 in the desert where only legend could trace his path. He was secretly buried on Mount Kolzim. About 561, his body was discovered and with great solemnity translated to Alexandria, then to Constantinople, and is now at Vienne, France.
After Saint Antony had lived in the desert for 75 years, he was told in a vision about the hermit Saint Paul (f.d. January 15), who had been living in asceticism for 90 years. At once he resolved to find him and set out across the desert. On the way he met with a centaur and a satyr, before finding Saint Paul in a cave in the rocks beside a stream and a palm-tree. The two embraced in immediate recognition, after which Saint Paul inquired about the state of the world that he had left so long ago.
Saint Jerome (f.d. September 30), in his account of Paul the Hermit, describes the meeting of the two during which a raven dropped a loaf of bread for the hermits to share. Paul then asked Antony to return to his own hermitage and fetch the cloak given to him by Bishop Saint Athanasius in which he wished to be buried. En route back to the elder hermit, Antony saw Paul ascending into heaven. At the cave he found the dead body in an attitude of prayer. Antony was too old to have the strength to dig a grave, but two lions came and dug it with their paws. Antony wrapped Paul’s body in the cloak and buried it.
The ascetic lives of Paul of Thebes and Anthony was known to the monks of ancient Ireland and they strove to emulate their asceticism. They frequently carved onto the Irish High Crosses the scene of the two ascetics conversing while a raven brings them bread. These High Crosses, with Paul. and Antony depicted on them, may be seen in Ireland even today. If you go here: http://www.flsouthern.edu/eng/abruce/rood/home.htm and look at the North Face of the Cross you can see the two hermits on the Ruthwell Cross, created about 700 AD.
Saint Jerome (f.d. September 30) and Rufinus relate that Antony met Didymus, the blind head of the catechetical school at Alexandria.
His fights with the devil, his temptations, his meeting with Saint Paul the Hermit, his association with monks who treasured his sayings, his prophecies: These are all told in his “Life” written by Saint Athanasius, to whom he bequeathed one of his sheepskins and his cloak as a public testimony of his being united in faith and communion with that holy prelate.
Upon his death 14 years after that of Saint Paul, Antony was buried secretly, according to his own wish. Both during his life and after his death his influence was great, and veneration for him remains strong all
over Christendom (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Butler, Delaney, Encyclopaedia, Gill, Husenbeth, Martindale, Meyer, Tabor, White).
In art Saint Antony is depicted as a very old monk in a habit to indicate that he was the founder of monasticism. But he is represented in various ways: (1) with a bell or asperges (both to exorcise evil spirits) and a “tau”-shaped cross which designates, perhaps, his age and authority, and which is worn by the Knights of Saint Antony (instituted 1352); (2) with a pig (representing sensuality and gluttony), to denote his battles with the devil; (3) with a book to signify Antony’s devotion to the Scriptures; or (4) with flames to indicate the disease known as Saint Antony’s Fire, against which his name was invoked in the Middle Ages; (5) with the devil near him; (6) tempted by devils or carried aloft by them; (7) with the centaur and satyr he met on his way to Saint Paul; ( 8 ) breaking bread with Saint Paul the Hermit (the bread is brought to them by ravens); (9) with two lions, who dig Paul’s grave; (10) making baskets, which was one of the primary occupations of the Egyptian monks; or (11) as a young man distributing his health (Appleton, Encyclopaedia, Roeder, Tabor). Attwater claims that his emblems are a pig and a bell.
Saint Antony is the patron of basket-makers (Roeder), domestic animals, pet, people those with skin diseases (White). He is invoked against erysipelas (Saint Antony’s Fire), probably because of his reputation as a healer (Roeder, White).
Troparion of St Anthony the Great (tone 4)
Thou didst follow the ways of zealous Elijah, and the straight path of the Baptist, O Father Anthony./ Thou didst become a desert dweller/ and support the world by thy prayers./ Intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
********************************
Source:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/celt-saints/
Also on this date: St Anthony the Roman of Novgorod
Saint Felix of Nola (d. January 14, 255) was a Priest martyred for the Faith following the general persecution instigated by the Emperor Decius.
Felix was the elder son of Hermias, a Syrian soldier who had retired to Nola, Italy. After his father’s death, Felix sold off most of his property and possessions, gave the proceeds to the poor, and pursued a clerical vocation. Felix was ordained by, and worked with, Saint Maximus of Nola.
When Maximus fled to the mountains to escape the persecution of Decius, Felix was arrested and beaten for his faith instead. He escaped prison, according to legend being freed by an angel so he could help his sick bishop, Maximus. Felix found Maximus alone, ill, and helpless, and hid him from soldiers in a vacant building. When the two were safely inside, a spider quickly spun a web over the door, fooling the imperial forces into thinking it was long abandoned, and they left without finding the Christians. A subsequent attempt to arrest Felix followed, which he avoided by hiding in a ruined building where a spider’s web spun across the entrance convinced the soldiers the building was abandoned. The two managed to hide from authorities until the persecution ended with the death of Emperor Decius in 251.
After Maximus’ death, the people wanted Felix to be the next bishop of Nola, but declined, favoring Quintus, a “senior” priest who had seven days more experience than Felix. Felix himself continued as a priest. He also continued to farm his remaining land, and gave most of the proceeds to people even poorer than himself. Much of the little information we have about Felix came from the letters and poetry of Saint Paulinus of Nola (feast day: June 22), who served at the door of a church dedicated to Saint Felix, and who gathered information about him from churchmen and pilgrims.
St Felix died a martyr in the year 255 during the reign of Emperor Valerian
Source: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_of_Nola
Also on this date: St. Sava of Serbia
Hilary of Poitiers (c. 300 – c. 368 ) was Bishop of Poitiers and is a Father of the Church. He was sometimes referred to as the “Malleus Arianorum” and the “Athanasius of the West”. His name comes from the Greek word for happy or cheerful.
Hilary was born at Poitiers about the end of the 3rd century A.D. His parents were pagans of distinction. He received a good education, including what had even then become somewhat rare in the West, some knowledge of Greek. He studied, later on, the Old and New Testament writings, with the result that he abandoned his Neo-Platonism for the Catholic Faith, and with his wife and his daughter (traditionally named as Saint Abra) received the sacrament of baptism.
So great was the respect in which he was held by the citizens of Poitiers that about 353, although still a married man, he was unanimously elected bishop (clerical celibacy was not required by the church until the late Middle Ages). At that time Arianism was threatening to overrun the Western Church; to repel the disruption was the great task which Hilary undertook. One of his first steps was to secure the excommunication, by those of the Gallican hierarchy who still remained orthodox, of Saturninus, the Arian bishop of Arles and of Ursacius and Valens, two of his prominent supporters.
About the same time, he wrote to Emperor Constantius II a remonstrance against the persecutions by which the Arians had sought to crush their opponents (Ad Constantium Augustum liber primus, of which the most probable date is 355). His efforts were not at first successful, for at the synod of Biterrae (Béziers), summoned in 356 by Constantius with the professed purpose of settling the longstanding disputes, Hilary was, by an imperial rescript, banished with Rhodanus of Toulouse to Phrygia, where he spent nearly four years in exile.
Thence, however, he continued to govern his diocese; while he found leisure for the preparation of two of the most important of his contributions to dogmatic and polemical theology: the De synodis or De fide Orientalium, an epistle addressed in 358 to the Semi-Arian bishops in Gaul, Germany and Britain, expounding the true views (sometimes veiled in ambiguous words) of the Eastern bishops on the Nicene controversy; and the De trinitate libri XII, composed in 359 and 360, in which, for the first time, a successful attempt was made to express in Latin the theological subtleties elaborated in the original Greek. The former of these works was not entirely approved by some members of his own party, who thought he had shown too great a forbearance towards the Arians; he replied to their criticisms in the Apologetica ad reprehensores libri de synodis responsa.
In 359 Hilary attended the convocation of bishops at Seleucia Isauria, where, with the Egyptian Athanasians, he joined the Homoousian majority against the Arianizing party headed by Acacius of Caesarea; from there he went to Constantinople, and, in a petition (Ad Constantium Augustum liber secundus), personally presented to the emperor in 360, repudiated the calumnies of his enemies and sought to vindicate his Trinitarian principles.
His urgent and repeated request for a public discussion with his opponents, especially with Ursacius and Valens, proved at last so inconvenient that he was sent back to his diocese, which he appears to have reached about 361, within a very short time of the accession of Emperor Julian.
The later years of his life were spent in comparative quiet, devoted in part to the preparation of his expositions of the Psalms (Tractatus super Psalmos), for which he was largely indebted to Origen; of his Commentarius in Evangelium Matthaei, an allegorical exegesis of the first Gospel; and of his no longer extant translation of Origen’s commentary on Job.
While he thus closely followed the two great Alexandrians, Origen and Athanasius, in exegesis and Christology respectively, his work shows many traces of vigorous independent thought.
Towards the end of his episcopate and with his encouragement Martin, the future bishop of Tours, founded a monastery at Ligugé in his diocese.
He died in 368; no more exact date is trustworthy.
Source:
Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilary_of_Poitiers
Sequence at Mass of the Epiphany of our Lord
All Glory to the Lord’s Epiphany!
When the wise men adore the Child of God,
Whose majesty and power infinite
For ages the Chaldeans venerate;
Whom all the holy prophets have foretold
Should come to give salvation to the Gentiles:
Who deigned so His majesty to humble,
That on Him He did take the form of servant:
He Who before the world, before all time,
Was God, of blessed Mary was made man.
Whom predicting Balaam said:
Out of Jacob, seen from far,
There shall come a flaming star
With mighty power to smite the host
Of Moab to his utmost coast.
To Him their costly offering,
Gold, incense, myrrh, the Magi bring.
By incense God they Him proclaim,
By gold a King of Mighty Name,
Bt myrrh a man of mortal frame.
These in a dream an Angel warns,
To Herod’s ear no word to bring,
Troubled about the new-born King,
For much he feared in rage and hate
Lest he should lose his royal estate.
Again the star before them went,
And led them on their journey bent,
Rejoicing to their native land,
Unheeding of the King’s command.
Transported with exceeding ire
He issues forth his mandate dire,
Throughout all Bethlehem’s coasts to seek
And put to death the infants meek.
Let all the choir their voice unite
With trumpet’s swell, in mystic rite
Bringing to Christ, the King of Kings,
Praises and costly offerings;
Beseeching that He will defend
All kingdoms of the earth, world without end.
St. Seraphim (born Prohor Moshnin) was born in 1759 to a merchant family in Kursk. At the age of 10, he became seriously ill. During the course of his illness, he saw the Mother of God in his sleep, who promised to heal him. Several days later there was a religious procession in Kursk with the locally revered miracle-working icon of the Mother of God. Due to bad weather, the procession took an abbreviated route past the house of the Moshnin family. After his mother put Seraphim up to the miracle-working image, he recovered rapidly. While at a young age, he needed to help his parents with their shop, but business had little appeal for him. Young Seraphim loved to read the lives of the saints, to attend church and to withdraw into seclusion for prayer.
At the age of 18, Seraphim firmly decided to become a monk. His mother blessed him with a large copper crucifix, which he wore over his clothing all his life. After this, he entered the Sarov monastery as a novice.
From day one in the monastery, exceptional abstinence from food and 
slumber were the distinguishing features of his life. He ate once a day, and little. On Wednesdays and Fridays he ate nothing. After asking the blessing of his starets (i.e., a spiritual elder), he began to withdraw often into the forest for prayer and religious contemplation. He became severely ill again soon after, and was forced to spend most of the course of the next three years lying down.
St. Seraphim was once again healed by the Most Holy Virgin Mary, Who appeared to him accompanied by several saints. Pointing to the venerable Seraphim, The Holy Virgin said to the apostle John the Theologian: “He is of our lineage.” Then, by touching his side with Her staff, She healed him.
His taking of the monastic vows occurred in 1786, when he was 27 years old. He was given the name Seraphim, which in Hebrew means “fiery,” or “burning.” He was soon made a hierodeacon. He justified his name by his extraordinarily burning prayer. He spent all of his time, save for the very shortest of rests, in church. Through such prayer and the labors of religious services, Seraphim became worthy to see angels, both serving and singing in church. During the liturgy on Holy Thursday, he saw the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, in the form of the Son of man, proceeding into the Church with the Heavenly host and blessing those praying. The saint could not speak for a long time after being struck by this vision,.
In 1793, St. Seraphim was ordained a hieromonk, after which he served every day and received Holy Communion for a year. St. Seraphim then began to withdraw into his “farther hermitage” — the forest wilderness about five kilometers from Sarov Monastery. He achieved great perfection at this time. Wild animals — bears, rabbits, wolves, foxes and others — came to the hut of the ascetic. The staritsa (i.e., eldress) of the Diveevo monastery, Matrona Plescheeva, witnessed how St. Seraphim fed a bear that had come to him out of his hand: “The face of the great starets was particularly miraculous. It was joyous and bright, as that of an angel,” she described. While living in this little hermitage of his, St. Seraphim once suffered greatly at the hands of robbers. Although he was physically very strong and was holding an axe at the time, St. Seraphim did not resist them. In answer to their threats and their demands for money, he lay his axe down on the ground, crossed his arms on his chest and obediently gave himself up to them. They began to beat him on the head with the handle of his own axe. Blood began to pour out of his mouth and ears, and he fell unconscious. After that they began to hit him with a log, trampled him under foot, and dragged him along the ground. They stopped beating him only when they had decided that he had died. The only treasure which the robbers found in his cell was the icon of the Mother of God of Deep Emotion (Ymileniye), before which he always prayed. When, after some time, the robbers were caught and brought to justice, the holy monk interceded on their behalf before the judge. After the beating, St. Seraphim remained hunched over for the rest of his life.
Soon after this began the “pillar” period of the life of St. Seraphim, when he spent his days on a rock near his little hermitage, and nights in the thick of the forest. He prayed with his arms raised to heaven, almost without respite. This feat of his continued for a thousand days.
Because of a special vision of the Mother of God he was given toward the end of his life, St. Seraphim took upon himself the feat of becoming an elder. He began to admit everyone who came to him for advice and direction. Many thousands of people from all walks of life and conditions began to visit the elder now, who enriched them from his spiritual treasures, which he had acquired by many years of efforts. Everyone saw St. Seraphim as meek, joyful, pensively sincere. He greeted all with the words: “My joy!” To many he advised: “Acquire a peaceful spirit, and around you thousands will be saved.” No matter who came to him, the starets bowed to the ground before all, and, in blessing, kissed their hands. He did not need the visitors to tell about themselves, as he could see what each had on their soul. He also said, “Cheerfulness is not a sin. It drives away weariness, for from weariness there is sometimes dejection, and there is nothing worse than that.”
“Oh, if you only knew” he once said to a monk, “what joy, what sweetness awaits a righteous soul in Heaven! You would decide in this mortal life to bear any sorrows, persecutions and slander with gratitude. If this very cell of ours was filled with worms, and these worms were to eat our flesh for our entire life on earth, we should agree to it with total desire, in order not to lose, by any chance, that heavenly joy which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
The miraculous transfiguration of the starets’ face was described by a close admirer and follower of St. Seraphim — Motovilov. This happened during the winter, on a cloudy day. Motovilov was sitting on a stump in the woods; St. Seraphim was squatting across from him and telling his pupil the meaning of a Christian life, explaining for what we Christians live on earth.
“It is necessary that the Holy Spirit enter our heart. Everything good that we do, that we do for Christ, is given to us by the Holy Spirit, but prayer most of all, which is always available to us,” he said.
“Father,” answered Motovilov, “how can I see the grace of the Holy Spirit? How can I know if He is with me or not?”
St. Seraphim began to give him examples from the lives of the saints and apostles, but Motovilov still did not understand. The elder then firmly took him by the shoulder and said to him, “We are both now, my dear fellow, in the Holy Spirit.” It was as if Motovilov’s eyes had been opened, for he saw that the face of the elder was brighter than the sun. In his heart Motovilov felt joy and peace, in his body a warmth as if it were summer, and a fragrance began to spread around them. Motovilov was terrified by the unusual change, but especially by the fact that the face of the starets shone like the sun. But St. Seraphim said to him, “Do not fear, dear fellow. You would not even be able to see me if you yourself were not in the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Thank the Lord for His mercy toward us.”
Thus Motovilov understood, in mind and heart, what the descent of the Holy Spirit and His transfiguration of a person meant.
The days of the commemoration of St. Seraphim are August 1 and January 15 (July 19 and January 2 by the church calendar).
Troparion of St. Seraphim, Tone 4
Thou didst love Christ from thy youth, O blessed one,/ and longing to work for Him alone thou didst struggle in the wilderness with constant prayer and labor./ With penitent heart and great love for Christ thou wast favored by the Mother of God./ Wherefore we cry to thee:/ Save us by thy prayers, O Seraphim our righteous Father.
Kontakion of St. Seraphim, Tone 2
Having left the beauty of the world and what is corrupt in it, O saint,/ thou didst settle in Sarov Monastery./ And having lived there an angelic life,/ thou wast for many the way to salvation./ Wherefore Christ has glorified thee, O Father Seraphim,/ and has enriched thee with the gift of healing and miracles./ And so we cry to thee:/ Rejoice, O Seraphim, our righteous Father.
From the Teachings of St. Seraphim of Sarov
God is fire, warming and igniting the heart and inward parts. So, if we feel coldness in our hearts, which is from the devil (for the devil is cold), then let us call the Lord: He, in coming, will warm our heart with perfect love, not only towards Himself, but to our neighbors as well. And the coldness of the despiser of good will run from the face of His warmth.
Where there is God, there is no evil. Everything coming from God is peaceful, healthy and leads a person to the judgment of his own imperfections and humility.
God shows us His love for man not only in those instances when we do good, but also when we affront Him with our sins and anger Him. With what longsuffering he bears our lawlessness! “Do not call God a rightful Judge,” says St. Isaac, “for His rightful judgment is not seen in your deeds. True, David called Him a righteous judge and rightly, but the Son of God has shown us that God is good and merciful even more. Where is His righteous judgment? We were sinners, but Christ died for us” (St. Isaac the Syrian, Word 90).
The Reasons for Christ’s Coming
Christ came because of: (1) God’s love towards the human race: “For so God loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16); (2) the restoration of the image and likeness of God in fallen man; (3) the salvation of human souls: “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:17).
And so, we, following the goals of our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, must lead our lives according to His Godly teaching, in order to save our souls by it.
Faith, according to the teachings of St. Antioch, is the beginning of our union with God: the true believers are the stone of the church of God, prepared for the edifice of God the Father, which is raised up to the heights by the power of Jesus Christ, that is, by the Cross and help of the grace of the Holy Spirit. “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:26). The works of faith are love, peace, longsuffering, mercy, humility, bearing one’s cross and life by the spirit. True faith cannot remain without works. One who truly believes will also surely perform good works.
All those having firm hope in God are raised to Him and enlightened with the radiance of eternal light.
If a person does not have superfluous care for himself, out of his love for God and for virtuous deeds, and knows that God will take care of him, then this hope is true and wise. But if a person places all his hope in his works, and turns to God in prayer only when unforeseen misfortunes befall him, then he, seeing that he lacks the means of averting them in his own abilities, begins to hope for help from God — but such a hope is trivial and false. True hope seeks the one Kingdom of God and is sure that everything necessary for this mortal life will surely be given. The heart cannot have peace until it acquires this hope. This hope pacifies it fully and brings joy to it. The most holy lips of the Saviour spoke about this very hope: “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mt. 11:28).
He who has acquired perfect love for God goes through this life as if he did not exist. For he considers himself a stranger to all that is visible, and awaits with patience that which is unseen. He is completely transformed into love for God and has abandoned all worldly attachments.
He who truly loves God considers himself a wanderer and newcomer on earth, for in him is a striving towards God in soul and mind, which contemplates Him alone.
As for care of the soul, a person in his body is like a lighted candle. The candle must burn out, and a person must die. But as our soul is immortal, so our cares should be directed more toward the soul than the body: “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Mt. 16:26)” for which, as is known, nothing in the world can serve as ransom? If the soul alone is worth more than all the world and the worldly kingdom, then the Kingdom of Heaven is incomparably more precious. We consider the soul as most precious for the reason stated by Macarius the Great, that God did not desire to bond and unite His spiritual essence with any visible creation except man, whom He loves more than any of His creations.
One must behave affectionately toward one’s neighbors, not showing even a hint of offense. When we turn away from a person or offend him, it is as if a rock settles on our heart. One must try to cheer the spirit of an embarrassed or dejected person with words of love.
When you see a brother sinning, cover him, as counseled by St. Isaac the Syrian: “Stretch out your vestment over the sinner and cover him.”
In our relations with our neighbors we must be equally pure towards everyone in word as well as in thought; otherwise we will make our life useless. We must love others no less than ourselves, in accordance with the law of the Lord: “Thou shalt love … thy neighbour as thyself” (Lk. 10:27). But not so much that our love for others, by extending past the boundaries of moderation, diverts us from fulfilling the first and main law of love towards God, as our Lord Jesus Christ himself taught: “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Mt. 10:37).
It is necessary to be merciful to those wretched and wandering. The great lightgivers and Fathers of the Church took great care concerning this. In relation to this virtue we must try by all means to fulfill the following law of God: “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful,” and, “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice” (Lk. 6:36; Mt. 9:13). The wise heed these saving words, but the foolish do not heed them. For this reason the reward is also different, as is said: “He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully” (2 Cor. 9:6).
The example of Peter the Breadgiver, who, for a piece of bread given to a beggar, received forgiveness for all his sins (as was revealed to him in a vision) may prompt us to be merciful to our neighbors — for even a small alms may contribute to the obtaining of the Heavenly Kingdom.
Giving alms must be done with a spiritually kind disposition, in agreement with the teachings of St. Isaac the Syrian: “If you give anything to him who asks, may the joy of your face precede your alms, and comfort his sorrow with kind words.”
Non-Judgment and the Forgiveness of Offenses
It is not right to judge anyone, even if you have seen someone sinning and wallowing in the violations of God’s laws with your own eyes, as is said in the word of God: “Judge not, that ye be not judged” (Mt. 7:1). “Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand” (Rom. 14:4). It is much better always to bring to memory the words of the apostle: “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12).
One must not harbor anger or hatred towards a person that is hostile toward us. On the contrary, one must love him and do as much good as possible towards him, following the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ: “Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you” (Mt. 5:44). If then we will try to fulfill all this to the extent of our power, we can hope that God’s light will begin to shine in our hearts, lighting our path to the heavenly Jerusalem.
Why do we judge our neighbors? Because we are not trying to get to know ourselves. Someone busy trying to understand himself has no time to notice the shortcomings of others. Judge yourself — and you will stop judging others. Judge a poor deed, but do not judge the doer. It is necessary to consider yourself the most sinful of all, and to forgive your neighbor every poor deed. One must hate only the devil, who tempted him. It can happen that someone might appear to be doing something bad to us, but in reality, because of the doer’s good intentions, it is a good deed. Besides, the door of penitence is always open, and it is not known who will enter it sooner — you, “the judge,” or the one judged by you.
One desiring salvation must always have a heart inclined towards penitence and contrition: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Ps. 51:19). With such a contrite spirit a person can avoid without trouble all the artful tricks of the devil, whose efforts are all directed towards disturbing the spirit of a person. By this disturbance he sows tares (i.e., weeds), according to the words of the Gospel: “Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, ‘An enemy hath done this’” (Mt. 13:27-28). But when a person struggles to have a meek heart and to keep peace in his thoughts, then are all the wiles of the enemy powerless; for, where there is peace of thought, God Himself resides: “In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling place in Zion” (Ps. 76:2).
We offend the greatness of God with our sinning throughout our entire lives, and so must always humbly ask the Lord forgiveness for our sins.
The leader of feats and our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, before setting out on the feat of redeeming the human race, fortified Himself with a lengthy fast. And all ascetics, proceeding to work for the Lord, armed themselves by fasting and did not set out on the path of the Cross without the feat of fasting. They measured the very success of their ascetism by their success in fasting.
Despite their fasting, and to the surprise of others, the holy fathers did not know weakness but always remained hearty, strong and ready for the task at hand. Illnesses were rare among them and their lives were extraordinarily prolonged.
During the time that the body of one fasting becomes thin and light, the spiritual life attains to perfection and reveals itself through miraculous manifestations. The spirit then performs its actions as if in a bodiless body. External feelings are as shut out, and the mind, renouncing the worldly, ascends to the heavenly and becomes completely immersed in the contemplation of the spiritual world. Yet not everyone can take upon himself strict rules of abstinence from everything, nor deprive himself completely of all that serves to relieve infirmities: “He that is able to receive it, let him receive it” (Mt. 19:12).
One should take enough food everyday to strengthen the body, so that it can be a friend and helper to the soul in accomplishing virtues: otherwise it can happen that through the exhaustion of the body the spirit can weaken. On Wednesdays and Fridays, particularly during the four Lenten periods, follow the example of the Fathers and take food once a day — and the Angel of the Lord will affix himself to you.
It is necessary always to be patient and to accept everything that happens, no matter what, with gratitude for God’s sake. Our life — is a minute compared to eternity. And for this reason “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18).
Bear the insults of your enemy in silence, and open your heart only to the Lord. Try in any way possible to forgive those who humiliate you or take away your honor, by the words of the Gospel: “Of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again” (Lk. 6:30).
When people curse us, we must consider ourselves unworthy of praise, imagining that if we were worthy, everyone would be bowing down to us. We must always, and before everyone, humble ourselves, according to the teachings of St. Isaac the Syrian: “Humble yourself and you will see the glory of God within yourself.”
The body is the handmaid of the soul, and the soul — its queen. Therefore it often happens that by the mercy of God our body is debilitated by illnesses. Passions weaken because of illnesses, and the person becomes well. Sometimes bodily illness itself is born of passions. To bear illness with patience and gratitude is regarded as a feat, and even more than one.
One elder, suffering from dropsy, told this to the brethren who came to him, desiring to heal him: “Fathers, pray, that my inner person is not subjected to a similar illness. But concerning the present illness, I ask God that he not suddenly relieve me of it, “for though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16).
The spiritual world is gained by sorrows. The scriptures say: “We went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place” (Ps. 66:12). For those who desire to serve God the path lies through many sorrows. How can we praise the holy martyrs for the sufferings which they bore for God, when we cannot even bear a fever?
Nothing so aids the acquiring of internal peace as silence, and as much as is possible, continual discussion with oneself and rarely with others.
A sign of spiritual life is the immersion of a person within himself and the hidden workings within his heart.
This peace, as some priceless treasure, did our Lord Jesus Christ leave his followers before His death, saying, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you” (John 14:27). The apostle also spoke this about it: “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:7); “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14).
In this way, we must direct all our thoughts, desires and actions toward obtaining God’s peace, and always cry out with the Church: “Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us” (Is. 26:12).
It is necessary by all means to try to keep one’s spiritual peace, and not to become provoked by insults from others. To do this, it is necessary always to restrain oneself from anger, and by careful watch to guard the mind and heart from unclean waverings.
Insults from others must be borne without disturbance; one must train oneself to be of such a nature, that one can react to insults as if they did not refer to oneself. Such an exercise can bring serenity to our heart and make it a dwelling of God Himself.
We see an example of such a lack of malice in the life of St. Gregory the Miracle-Worker. A certain immoral woman demanded payment from him, purportedly for a sin committed with her. He, not in the least angry with her, humbly said to one of his friends: pay her the price which she demands, quickly. The woman became possessed as soon as she accepted the unrighteous payment. The bishop then prayed and exorcised the evil spirit from her.
If it is impossible not to become indignant, then at least restrain your tongue according to the words of the Psalmist: “I am so troubled that I cannot speak” (Ps. 77:4).
In this instance we can take as examples for ourselves St. Spyridon of Tremifunt and St. Ephraim the Syrian. The first bore an insult when he entered the palace by the demand of the Greek emperor: one of the servants present in the emperor’s chamber, taking him for a beggar, laughed at him, did not allow him to enter the chamber and even struck him on the cheek. St. Spyridon, being without malice, turned the other cheek to him, according the word of the Lord (see Mt. 5:39). The Blessed Ephraim, living in the desert, was once deprived of food in the following fashion. His pupil, carrying the food, accidentally broke the vessel on the way. Blessed Ephraim, seeing the pupil downcast, said to him: “Do not grieve, brother. If the food did not want to come to us, then we will go to it.” And so the monk went, sat next to the broken vessel, and, gathering the food together, ate it. He was thus without malice!
In order to keep spiritual peace, it is necessary to chase dejection away from oneself, and to try to have a joyful spirit, according to the words of the most wise Sirach: “Sorrow has killed many, but there is no good in it” (Sir. 30:25).
In order to keep spiritual peace it is also necessary to avoid judging others in any way. Condescension towards your neighbor and silence protect spiritual peace. When a person is in such an state, then he receives Godly revelations.
In order not to lapse into judgment of others, it is necessary to be mindful of oneself, to refuse to receive any bad information from anyone and to be as if dead to others.
For the protection of spiritual peace it is necessary to enter into oneself more often and ask: Where am I? In addition, it is necessary to watch that the physical senses, especially sight, serve the inner person, not diverting the soul with mortal items, because the gifts of grace are received only by those who have inner workings and keep watch over their souls.
Blessed Seraphim told those followers who strove to take excessive feats upon themselves that not complaining and humbly bearing insults are our “verigi” and our hair shirt. (The word verigi in Russian means iron chains and various weights. A hair shirt is clothing made of thick, very coarse wool; some ascetics wore these things to burden their body.)
It is not necessary to undertake feats beyond one’s strength. Instead, one must try to keep our friend — our body — right and capable of performing virtues. One must follow the middle route, turning neither to the right hand nor the left (Prov. 4:27), giving the spirit the spiritual, and the body the physical things necessary for maintaining temporal life. One should also not refuse that which society legally demands, according to the words of the Gospel: “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s” (Mt. 22:21).
One should condescend to one’s soul in its infirmities and imperfections, endure one’s deficiencies as we bear the failings of others, not become lazy, and continually urge oneself to be better.
If you have eaten too much food or done anything else related to human weakness, do not be upset. Do not add injury to injury, but, urging yourself to correction, courageously try to keep spiritual peace according to the words of the Apostle: “Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth” (Rom. 14:22). This same meaning is contained in the words of the Saviour: “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 18:3).
Any success in any area we must assign to the Lord and say with the prophet: “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory” (Ps. 115:1).
We must continually protect our heart from unclean thoughts and impressions, according to the words of the author of the book of Proverbs: “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Prov. 4:23).
Purity is born within the heart from extended safekeeping of it, to which the vision of the Lord has access, according to the assurance of eternal Truth: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Mt. 5:8).
We should not reveal unnecessarily what is best in the heart, for only then does that which has been accumulated remain in safety from enemies visible and invisible, when it is kept as a treasure in the innermost heart. Do not open the secrets of your heart to everyone.
Identifying Movements of the Heart
When a person accepts anything Godly, then he rejoices in his heart, but when he has accepted anything devilish, then he becomes tormented.
Having accepted anything Godly, the heart of a Christian does not demand outside persuasion that it is from the Lord, but becomes convinced through the act itself that this acceptance is something heavenly, because he feels the spiritual fruits in himself: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Gal. 5:22-23). But if the devil were to transform himself even into an angel of light (see 2 Cor. 11:14), or presented thoughts of the most worthy appearance, the heart still would feel some sort of doubts, trouble in its thoughts and disturbance of feelings.
The devil is like a lion, hiding in ambush (Ps. 9:29). He secretly sets out nets of unclean and unholy thoughts. So, it is necessary to break them off as soon as we notice them, by means of pious reflection and prayer.
During the singing of psalms, feats and great vigilance are demanded for our mind to be in conformity with our heart and lips; for otherwise stench is added to the incense in our prayers. For the Lord disdains a heart with unclean thoughts.
Let us continually, day and night, fall before the face of the goodness of God with tears, that He purify our hearts of any evil thought, so that we might worthily bring Him the gifts of our service. When we do not accept the evil thoughts put in us by the devil, we perform a good deed.
The unclean spirit has a strong influence only on the passionate; but those purified of passions he touches only indirectly and externally. A person in his youth cannot avoid being disturbed by physical thoughts. But he must pray to the Lord God, that the spark of depraved passions dies out at the very beginning. Then the flame within him will not become more intense.
Excessive Care about Worldly Matters
Excessive care about worldly matters is characteristic of an unbelieving and fainthearted person, and woe to us, if, in taking care of ourselves, we do not use as our foundation our faith in God, who cares for us! If we do not attribute visible blessings to Him, which we use in this life, then how can we expect those blessings from Him which are promised in the future? We will not be of such little faith. By the words of our Saviour, it is better first to seek the Kingdom of God, for the rest shall be added unto us (see Mt. 6:33).
When the evil spirit of sorrow seizes the soul, then, by filling it with bitterness and unpleasantness, it does not allow it to pray with necessary diligence; it disrupts the attention necessary for reading spiritual writings, deprives it of humility and good nature in the treatment of others and breeds aversion to any discussion. For the sorrowful soul, by becoming as if insane and frenzied, can neither accept kind advice calmly, nor answer posed questions meekly. It runs from people as if from the perpetrators of its embarrassment, not understanding that the reason for its illness — is within it. Sorrow is the worm of the heart, gnawing at the mother that bore it.
He who has conquered passions has also defeated sorrow. But one overcome by passions will not avoid the shackles of sorrow. As an ill person can be identified by the color of his face, so is one overcome by passions distinguished by sorrow.
It is impossible for one who loves the world not to feel sorrow. But he who despises the world is always cheerful. As fire purifies gold, so sorrow in God — penitence — purifies the sinful heart.
The Active and the Contemplative Life
A person consists of a soul and body, and therefore his life’s path should consist of both physical and spiritual activities — of deeds and contemplation.
The path of an active life consists of fasting, abstinence, vigilance, kneeling, prayer and other physical feats, composing the strait and sorrowful path which, by the word of God, leads to eternal life (Mt. 7:14).
The contemplative life consists in the mind aspiring to the Lord God, in awareness of the heart, focused prayer and in the contemplation of spiritual matters through such exercises.
Anyone desiring to lead a spiritual way of life must begin with the active life, and only later set about the contemplative, for without an active life it is impossible to lead a contemplative one.
An active life serves to purify us of sinful passions and raises us to the level of functioning perfection; at the same time it clears the way to a contemplative life. For only those cleansed of passions and the perfect can set out on that other life, as can be seen from the words of the Holy Scriptures: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Mt. 5:8), and from the words of Gregory the Theologian: “Only those who are perfect by their experience can without danger proceed to contemplation.”
If it is impossible to find a mentor who is able to direct us on the path to a contemplative life, then in that instance we must be guided by the Holy Scriptures, for the Lord Himself commands us to learn from it, saying: “Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life” (John 5:39). One should not abandon the active life even when a person has so excelled in it that he has reached the contemplative, for the active life assists the contemplative and uplifts it.
In order to accept and perceive the light of Christ in one’s heart, it is necessary to divert oneself from the external as much as possible. First, by cleansing the soul with penitence and good deeds with true faith in the Crucified; then, by closing the physical eyes, it is necessary to immerse the mind in the heart and appeal to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ continually. Then, by measure of our zealousness and fervor of spirit for the Beloved (Lk. 3:22), a person with the calling of this name finds delight, which arouses a thirst toward greater enlightenment.
When a person internally contemplates the eternal light, his mind becomes clean and free of any sensory notions. Then, by being completely immersed in the contemplation of uncreated beauty, he forgets everything sensory, does not want to see even himself, but desires to hide in the heart of the earth, if only not to be deprived of this true good — God.
Acquiring the Holy Spirit
(from the Saint’s Conversation with Motovilov)
The true goal of our Christian life consists of acquiring God’s Holy Spirit. Fasting and vigil, prayer, mercy, and every other good deed performed for Christ — are means for acquiring the Holy Spirit of God. Only deeds performed for Christ give us the fruits of the Holy Spirit.
Some say that the foolish virgins lacking enough oil in their lamps is meant to be understood as a lack of good deeds (see Mt. 25:1-12). Such an understanding is not completely correct. How could there have been a lack of good deeds when they, though foolish, are still called virgins? For virginity is the highest virtue, as a state equal to the angels, and could by itself serve in place of all other virtues. I, the wretched, think that they did not have enough of the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God. These virgins, because of their spiritual injudiciousness, supposed in performing good deeds that it is only necessary to do good works to be a Christian: “We performed a good deed and thus did God’s will.” Whether or not they had received the grace of the Holy Spirit, whether they had attained it, they did not even bother to find out … But, this acquiring of the Holy Spirit is in fact that oil which the foolish virgins lacked. They are called foolish because they forgot about the essential fruit of virtue — the grace of the Holy Spirit — without which there is no salvation for anyone and cannot be. For “through the Holy Spirit every soul is quickened, and through its purification, it is exalted and illumined by the Triune Unity in a Holy mystery.” The Holy Spirit Himself settles in our souls, and this occupation of our souls by Him, the All-Ruling, and this coexistence of our spirit with His One Trinity, is granted only through the diligent acquiring, on our part, of the Holy Spirit, which prepares, in our soul and body, the throne for the coexistence of God the All-Creator with our spirit, by the immutable word of God: “And I will walk among you and will be your God, and ye shall be my people” (Lev. 26:12).
This is the very oil in the lamps of the wise virgins, which burned brightly and steadily; the virgins with these burning lamps could await the Groom coming at midnight, and enter the chamber of joy with him. The foolish ones, seeing their lamps going out, though they went to the market to buy oil, did not manage to return in time, for the doors were already locked. The market is our life; the doors of the bridal chamber — locked and not permitting entrance to the Groom — human death, the virgins wise and foolish, Christian souls; the oil, not deeds, but the grace of the All Holy Spirit of God received through them, transforming from decay to incorruption, from emotional death into spiritual life, from darkness to light, from the manger of our existence, where our passions are tied like beasts and animals, into a church of God, into the all-lighted chamber of eternal joy in Jesus Christ.
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Missionary Leaflet # EA08
Copyright © 2001 Holy Trinity Orthodox Mission 466 Foothill Blvd, Box 397, La Canada, Ca 91011
Editor: Bishop Alexander (Mileant)
My dearest brethren, our Saviour, the Son of God, coeternal with, and
equal to his Father, who was ever with him without beginning,
vouchsafed that he would on this present day, for the redemption of
the world, be corporally born of the Virgin Mary. He is Prince and
Author of all things good and of peace, and he sent before his birth
unwonted peace, for never was there such peace before that period in
the world, as there was at the time of his birth; so that all the
world was subjected to the empire of one man, and all mankind paid
royal tribute to him alone. Verily in such great peace was Christ
born, who is our peace, because he united angels and men to one family
through his incarnation…
The Lord was born in the city which is named Bethlehem, because it was
so before prophesied in these words, ‘ Thou Bethlehem, land of Judah,
thou art not meanest of cities among the Jewish princes, for of thee
shall come the guide that shall govern the people of Israel.” Christ
would be born on journey, that he might be concealed from his
persecutors. Bethlehem is interpreted Bread House and in it was
Christ, the true bread, brought forth, who saith of himself, “I am the
vital bread, which descended from heaven, and he who eateth of this
bread shall not die to eternity.” This holy bread we taste when we
with faith go to housel ; because the holy housel is spiritually
Christ’s body; and through that we are redeemed from eternal death.
Mary brought forth her firstborn son on this present day, and wrapped
him in swaddling clothes, and, for want of room, laid him in a bin.
That child is not called her firstborn child because she afterwards
brought forth another, but because Christ is the firstborn of many
spiritual brothers. All Christian men are his spiritual brothers, and
he is the firstborn, in grace and in godliness only-begotten of the
Almighty Father. He was wrapped in mean swaddling clothes, that he
might give us the immortal garment which we lost by the first created
man’s transgression. The Almighty Son of God, whom the heavens could
not contain, was laid in a narrow bin, that he might redeem us from
the narrowness of hell. Mary was there a stranger, as the gospel tells
us ; and through the concourse of people the inn was greatly crowded.
The Son of God was crowded in his inn, that he might give us a
spacious dwelling in the kingdom of heaven, if we obey his will. He
asks nothing of us as reward for his toil, except our soul’s health,
that we may prepare ourselves for him pure and uncorrupted in bliss
and everlasting joy. The shepherds that watched over their flock at
Christ’s birth, betokened the holy teachers in God’s church, who are
the spiritual shepherds of faithful souls : and the angel announced
Christ’s birth to the herdsmen, because to the spiritual shepherds,
that is, teachers, is chiefly revealed concerning Christ’s humanity,
through book-learning : and they shall sedulously preach to those
placed under them, that which is manifested to them, as the shepherds
proclaimed the heavenly vision. It beseemeth the teacher to be ever
watchful over God’s flock, that the invisible wolf scatter not the
sheep…
Then came the shepherds quickly, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the
child laid in the bin. Mary was, by God’s direction, betrothed to the
righteous Joseph, for the greater security ; because it was thus
customary among the Jewish people, according to the law of Moses, that
if any woman had a child, save in lawful wedlock, she should be slain
with stones. But God sent his angel to Joseph, when Mary was pregnant,
and commanded that he should have care of her, and be the child’s
foster-father. Then it seemed to the Jews that Joseph was father of
the child, but he was not ; because the Almighty Creator had no need
to be born of woman ; but he took human nature from the womb of Mary,
and left her a virgin undefiled, but hallowed through his birth. She
knew no society of man, and she brought forth without pain, and
continued in maidenhood. The shepherds saw and recognized the child,
as had to them been told. There is no happiness without knowledge of
God, as Christ himself said, when he committed us to his Father, “
That is eternal life that they acknowledge Thee, the true God, and him
whom thou hast sent, the Saviour Christ.” Now all who heard that
wondered greatly thereat, and at what the shepherds said. But Mary
held all these words, pondering them in her heart. She would not
publish Christ’s mystery, but waited until he himself, when it pleased
him, should divulge it. She knew God’s law, and in the book of the
prophets had read, that a virgin should give birth to God. Then she
greatly rejoiced that she might be it. It was prophesied that he
should be born in the city of Bethlehem, and she greatly wondered
that, according to that prophecy, she was there delivered. She
remembered that a prophet had said, ” The ox knows his master, and the
ass his master’s bin.” Then saw she the child lying in the bin, where
the ox and the ass usually seek food. God’s archangel Gabriel had
announced to Mary the Saviour’s coming into her womb, and she then saw
that his announcement was truly fulfilled. Such words Mary held,
pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned glorifying and
praising God for all those things which they had heard and seen, as
had been told unto them.
The memory of these three shepherds is preserved one mile to the east
of Bethlehem, and manifested in God’s church to those who visit the
place. We should imitate these shepherds, and glorify and praise our
Lord for all those things which he hath done for love of us, for our
redemption and eternal bliss, to whom be glory and praise with the
Almighty Father, in unity of the Holy Ghost, world without end.
Amen.
Source: B. Thorpe, ed and trans., Sermones Catholici or the Homilies
of Aelfric in the Original Anglo-Saxon with an English version, Volume
I. (London, The Aelfric Society, 1846), 29-45.
(Hattip to Brigid Ainley for bringing the above to our attention)
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I. All share in the joy of Christmas.
Our Saviour, dearly-beloved, was born today: let us be glad. For there is no proper place for sadness, when we keep the birthday of the Life, which destroys the fear of mortality and brings to us the joy of promised eternity. No one is kept from sharing in this happiness. There is for all one common measure of joy, because as our LORD the destroyer of sin and death finds none free from charge, so is He come to free us all. Let the saint exult in that he draws near to victory. Let the sinner be glad in that he is invited to pardon. Let the gentile take courage in that he is called to life. For the Son of GOD in the fulness of time which the inscrutable depth of the Divine counsel has determined, has taken on him the nature of man, thereby to reconcile it to its Author: in order that the inventor of death, the devil, might be conquered through that (nature) which he had conquered. And in this conflict undertaken for us, the fight was fought on great and wondrous principles of fairness; for the Almighty LORD enters the lists with His savage foe not in His own majesty but in our humility, opposing him with the same form and the same nature, which shares indeed our mortality, though it is free from all sin. Truly foreign to this nativity is that which we read of all others, “no one is clean from stain, not even the infant who has lived but one day upon earth [723].” Nothing therefore of the lust of the flesh has passed into that peerless nativity, nothing of the law of sin has entered. A royal Virgin of the stem of David is chosen, to be impregnated with the sacred seed and to conceive the Divinely-human offspring in mind first and then in body.
And lest in ignorance of the heavenly counsel she should tremble at so strange a result [724], she learns from converse with the angel that what is to be wrought in her is of the Holy Ghost. Nor does she believe it loss of honour that she is soon to be the Mother of God [725]. For why should she be in despair over the novelty of such conception, to whom the power of the most High has promised to effect it. Her implicit faith is confirmed also by the attestation of a precursory miracle, and Elizabeth receives unexpected fertility: in order that there might be no doubt that He who had given conception to the barren, would give it even to a virgin.
II. The mystery of the Incarnation is a fitting theme for joy both to angels and to men.
Therefore the Word of GOD, Himself GOD, the Son of GOD who “in the beginning was with GOD,” through whom “all things were made” and “without” whom “was nothing made [726],” with the purpose of delivering man from eternal death, became man: so bending Himself to take on Him our humility without decrease in His own majesty, that remaining what He was and assuming what He was not, He might unite the true form of a slave to that form in which He is equal to GOD the Father, and join both natures together by such a compact that the lower should not be swallowed up in its exaltation nor the higher impaired by its new associate. [727] Without detriment therefore to the properties of either substance which then came together in one person, majesty took on humility, strength weakness, eternity mortality: and for the paying off of the debt, belonging to our condition, inviolable nature was united with possible nature, and true GOD and true man were combined to form one LORD, so that, as suited the needs of our case, one and the same Mediator between GOD and men, the Man Christ Jesus, could both die with the one and rise again with the other [728].
Rightly therefore did the birth of our Salvation impart no corruption to the Virgin’s purity,because the bearing of the Truth was the keeping of honour. Such then beloved was the nativity which became the Power of GOD and the Wisdom of GOD even Christ, whereby He might be one with us in manhood and surpass us in Godhead. For unless He were true GOD, He would not bring us a remedy, unless He were true Man, He would not give us an example. Therefore the exulting angel’s song when the LORD was born is this, “Glory to GOD in the Highest,” and their message, “peace on earth to men of good will [729].” For they see that the heavenly Jerusalem is being built up out of all the nations of the world: and over that indescribable work of the Divine love how ought the humbleness of men to rejoice, when the joy of the lofty angels is so great?
III. Christians then must live worthily of Christ their Head.
Let us then, dearly beloved, give thanks to GOD the Father, through His Son, in the Holy Spirit [730], Who “for His great mercy, wherewith He has loved us,” has had pity on us: and “when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together in Christ [731],” that we might be in Him a new creation and a new production. Let us put off then the old man with his deeds: and having obtained a share in the birth of Christ let us renounce the works of the flesh. Christian, acknowledge thy dignity, and becoming a partner in the Divine nature, refuse to return to the old baseness by degenerate conduct.
Remember the Head and the Body of which thou art a member. Recollect that thou wert rescued from the power of darkness and brought out into GOD’S light and kingdom. By the mystery of Baptism thou wert made the temple of the Holy Ghost: do not put such a denizen to flight from thee by base acts, and subject thyself once more to the devil’s thraldom: because thy purchase money is the blood of Christ, because He shall judge thee in truth Who ransomed thee in mercy, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit reigns for ever and ever. Amen.
On the Feast of the Nativity, II.
I. The mystery of the Incarnation demands our joy.
Let us be glad in the LORD, dearly-beloved, and rejoice with spiritual joy that there has dawned for us the day of ever-new redemption, of ancient preparation [732], of eternal bliss. For as the year rolls round, there recurs for us the commemoration [733] of our salvation, which promised from the beginning, accomplished in the fulness of time will endure for ever; on which we are bound with hearts up-lifted [734] to adore the divine mystery: so that what is the effect of GOD’S great gift may be celebrated by the Church’s great rejoicings. For GOD the almighty and merciful, Whose nature as goodness, Whose will is power, Whose work is mercy: as soon as the devil’s malignity killed us by the poison of his hatred, foretold at the very beginning of the world the remedy His piety had prepared for the restoration of us mortals: proclaiming to the serpent that the seed of the woman should come to crush the lifting of his baneful head by its power, signifying no doubt that Christ would come in the flesh, GOD and man, Who born of a Virgin should by His uncorrupt birth condemn the despoiler of the human stock.[735] Thus in the whole and perfect nature of true man was true GOD born, complete in what was His own, complete in what was ours. And “ours” we call what the Creator formed in us from the beginning and what He undertook to repair. For what the deceiver brought in and the deceived admitted had no trace in the Saviour. Nor because He partook of man’s weaknesses, did He therefore share our faults. He took the form of a slave without stain of sin, increasing the human and not diminishing the Divine: because that “emptying of Himself” whereby the Invisible made Himself visible and Creator and LORD of all things as He was, wished to be mortal, was the condescension of Pity not the failing of Power [736].
II. The new character of the birth of Christ explained.
Therefore, when the time came, dearly beloved, which had been fore-ordained for men’s Redemption [737], there enters these lower parts of the world, the Son of GOD, descending from His heavenly throne and yet not quitting His Father’s glory, begotten in a new order, by a new nativity.
In a new order, because being invisible in His own nature He became visible in ours, and He whom nothing could contain, was content to be contained: abiding before all time He began to be in time: the LORD of all things, He obscured His immeasurable majesty and took on Him the form of a servant: being GOD, that cannot suffer, He did not disdain to be man that can, and immortal as He is, to subject Himself to the laws of death [738]. And by a new nativity He was begotten, conceived by a Virgin, born of a Virgin, without paternal desire, without injury to the mother’s chastity: because such a birth as knew no taint of human flesh, became One who was to be the Saviour of men, while it possessed in itself the nature of human substance. For when GOD was born in the flesh, GOD Himself was the Father, as the archangel witnessed to the Blessed Virgin Mary: “because the Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee: and therefore, that which shall be born of thee shall be called holy, the Son of God [739].” The origin is different but the nature like: not by intercourse with man but by the power of GOD was it brought about: for a Virgin conceived, a Virgin bare, and a Virgin she remained. Consider here not the condition of her that bare but the will of Him that was born; for He was born Man as He willed and was able. If you inquire into the truth of His nature, you must acknowledge the matter to be human: if you search for the mode of His birth, you must confess the power to be of GOD. For the LORD Jesus Christ came to do away with not to endure our pollutions: not to succumb to our faults but to heal them [740]. He came that He might cure every weakness of our corruptness and all the sores of our defiled souls: for which reason it behoved Him to be born by a new order, who brought to men’s bodies the new gift of unsullied purity. For the uncorrupt nature of Him that was born had to guard the primal virginity of the Mother, and the infused power of the Divine Spirit had to preserve in spotlessness and holiness that sanctuary which He had chosen for Himself: that Spirit (I say) who had determined to raise the fallen, to restore the broken, and by overcoming the allurements of the flesh to bestow on us in abundant measure the power of chastity: in order that the virginity which in others cannot be retained in child-bearing, might be attained by them at their second birth.
III. Justice required that Satan should be vanquished by GOD made man.
And, dearly beloved, this very fact that Christ chose to be born of a Virgin does it not appear to be part of the deepest design? I mean, that the devil should not be aware that Salvation had been born for the human race, and through the obscurity of that spiritual conception, when he saw Him no different to others, should believe Him born in no different way to others. For when he observed that His nature was like that of all others, he thought that He had the same origin as all had: and did not understand that He was free from the bonds of transgression because he did not find Him a stranger to the weakness of mortality. For though the true [741] mercy of GOD had infinitely many schemes to hand for the restoration of mankind, it chose that particular design which put in force for destroying the devil’s work, not the efficacy of might but the dictates of justice. For the pride of the ancient foe not undeservedly made good its despotic rights over all men, and with no unwarrantable supremacy tyrannized over those who had been of their own accord lured away from GOD’S commands to be the slaves of his will. And so there would be no justice in his losing the immemorial slavery of the human race, were he not conquered by that which he had subjugated.
And to this end, without male seed Christ was conceived of a Virgin, who was fecundated not by human intercourse but by the Holy Spirit. And whereas in all mothers conception does not take place without stain of sin, this one received purification from the Source of her conception. For no taint of sin penetrated, where no intercourse occurred. Her unsullied virginity knew no lust when it ministered the substance. The LORD took from His mother our nature, not our fault [742]. The slave’s form is created without the slave’s estate, because the New Man is so commingled with the old, as both to assume the reality of our race and to remove its ancient flaw.
IV. The Incarnation deceived the Devil and caused him to break the bond under which he held men.
When, therefore, the merciful and almighty Saviour so arranged the commencement of His human course as to hide the power of His Godhead which was inseparable from His manhood under the veil of our weakness, the crafty foe was taken off his guard and he thought that the nativity of the Child, Who was born for the salvation of mankind, was as much subject to himself as all others are at their birth. For he saw Him crying and weeping, he saw Him wrapped in swaddling clothes, subjected to circumcision, offering the sacrifice which the law required. And then he perceived in Him the usual growth of boyhood, and could have had no doubt of His reaching man’s estate by natural steps. Meanwhile, he inflicted insults, multiplied injuries, made use of curses, affronts, blasphemies, abuse, in a word, poured upon Him all the force of his fury and exhausted all the varieties of trial: and knowing how he had poisoned man’s nature, had no conception that He had no share in the first transgression Whose mortality he had ascertained by so many proofs. The unscrupulous thief and greedy robber persisted in assaulting Him Who had nothing of His own, and in carrying out the general sentence on original sin, went beyond the bond on which he rested [743], and required the punishment of iniquity from Him in Whom he found no fault. And thus the malevolent terms of the deadly compact are annulled, and through the injustice of an overcharge the whole debt is cancelled. The strong one is bound by his own chains, and every device of the evil one recoils on his own head. When the prince of the world is bound, all that he held in captivity is released [744]. Our nature cleansed from its old contagion regains its honourable estate, death is destroyed by death, nativity is restored by nativity: since at one and the same time redemption does away with slavery, regeneration changes our origin, and faith justifies the sinner.
V. The Christian is exhorted to share in the blessings of the Incarnation.
Whoever then thou art that devoutly and faithfully boastest of the Christian name, estimate this atonement at its right worth. For to thee who wast a castaway, banished from the realms of paradise, dying of thy weary exile, reduced to dust and ashes, without further hope of living, by the Incarnation of the Word was given the power to return from afar to thy Maker, to recognize thy parentage, to become free after slavery, to be promoted from being an outcast to sonship: so that, thou who wast born of corruptible flesh, mayest be reborn by the Spirit of GOD, and obtain through grace what thou hadst not by nature, and, if thou acknowledge thyself the son of GOD by the spirit of adoption, dare to call GOD Father. Freed from the accusings of a bad conscience, aspire to the kingdom of heaven, do GOD’S will supported by the Divine help, imitate the angels upon earth, feed on the strength of immortal sustenance, fight fearlessly on the side of piety against hostile temptations, and if thou keep thy allegiance [745] in the heavenly warfare, doubt not that thou wilt be crowned for thy victory in the triumphant camp of the Eternal King, when the resurrection that is prepared for the faithful has raised thee to participate in the heavenly Kingdom.
VI. The festival has nothing to do with sun-worship, as some maintain.
Having therefore so confident a hope, dearly beloved, abide firm in the Faith in which you are built: lest that same tempter whose tyranny over you Christ has already destroyed, win you back again with any of his wiles, and mar even the joys of the present festival by his deceitful art, misleading simpler souls with the pestilential notion of some to whom this our solemn feast day seems to derive its honour, not so much from the nativity of Christ as, according to them, from the rising of the new sun [746]. Such men’s hearts are wrapped in total darkness, and have no growing perception of the true Light: for they are still drawn away by the foolish errors of heathendom, and because they cannot lift the eyes of their mind above that which their carnal sight beholds, they pay divine honour to the luminaries that minister to the world. Let not Christian souls entertain any such wicked superstition and portentous lie. Beyond all measure are things temporal removed from the Eternal, things corporeal from the Incorporeal, things governed from the Governor. For though they possess a wondrous beauty, yet they have no Godhead to be worshipped. That power then, that wisdom, that majesty is to be adored which created the universe out of nothing, and framed by His almighty methods the substance of the earth and sky into what forms and dimensions He willed. Sun, moon, and stars may be most useful to us, most fair to look upon; but only if we render thanks to their Maker for them and worship GOD who made them, not the creation which does Him service. Then praise GOD, dearly beloved, in all His works and judgments. Cherish an undoubting belief in the Virgin’s pure conception. Honour the sacred and Divine mystery of man’s restoration with holy and sincere service. Embrace Christ born in our flesh, that you may deserve
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723 Job xix. 4.
724 Effectus: the older editions read affatus (sc. the utterances of the angel).
725 Dei genetrix (θεοτόκος): in opposing Eutyches, Leo is careful not to fall into Nestorianism. Bright’s note 3 should be read on this passage, and esp. his quotation from Bp. Pearson (note 2 on Art. 3) absit ut quisquam S. Mariam Divinæ gratiæ privilegiis et speciali gloria fraudare conetur.
726 S. John i. 1-3.
727 “Without-other” repeated in almost the same words in Letter XXVIII. chap. 3.
728 “Without-other” repeated in almost the same words in Letter XXVIII. chap. 3.
729 S. Luke ii. 14.
730 Bingham observes (b. xiv. c. 2, s. 1), that Leo here uses, though in a catholic sense, that form of doxology which had
become associated with Arianism. He could well afford to do as S. Athanasius had done, who ascribes glory to the Father
“through the Son” at the conclusion of four treatises. Bright.
731 Eph. ii. 4, 5.
732 Præparationis (viz. the day to which prophecies and types were leading up): another reading is reparationis (restoration), which is less apposite.
733 Sacramentum.
734 Erectis sursum cordibus, the phrase reminds us of the Eucharistic V. sursum corda R. habemus ad Dominum.
735 From “Thus” to the end of the chapter is repeated in Lett. XXVIII. (Tome), chap. 3.
736 From “Thus” to the end of the chapter is repeated in Lett. XXVIII. (Tome), chap. 3.
737 From “there enters” to “death” is repeated in Lett. XXVIII. (Tome), chap 4.
738 From “there enters” to “death” is repeated in Lett. XXVIII. (Tome), chap 4.
739 S. Luke i. 35.
740 For the impeccability of Christ involved in this statement, cf. Serm. LXIV. chap. 2, and Lett. XXVIII. (Tome) chap. 3, and especially Bright’s note 15 (to Sermon XXIII. chap. 2).
741 Verax, literally truth speaking, and so genuine, sincere, &c.
742 This sentence is found also in Lett. XXVIII. (Tome), chap. 3; but here instead of de matre Domini, natura there is a variant reading, de matre, hominis natura.
743 Dum vitiatæ originis præiudicium generale persequitur, chirographum quo nitebatur excedit. Cf. Col. ii. 14, and Lett. CXXIV. 7.
744 Captivitatis vasa rapiuntur: the passage in the writer’s mind is S. Luke xi. 21, 22, q.v.
745 Si cælestis militiæ sacramenta servaveris: here we have a return to the earlier classical meaning of sacramentum.
746 Such an idea is no doubt to be referred to the Manichæans.
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