The Wisdom of Elder Porphyrios - In the Church we are all one and Christ is the head.

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The Wisdom of Elder Porphyrios

 In the Church we are all one and Christ is the head

The head of the Church is Christ and we humans, we Christians, are the body. The Apostle Paul says: He is the head of the body, of the Church. (Col 1:18)

The Church and Christ are one. The body cannot exist without its head. The body of the Church is nourished, sanctified and lives with Christ. He is the Lord, omnipotent, omniscient, everywhere present and filling all things, our staff, our friend, our brother: the pillar and sure foundation of the Church. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the basis - everything. Without Christ the Church does not exist. Christ is the Bridegroom; each individual soul is the Bride.

Christ united the body of the Church with heaven and with earth: with angels, men and all created things, with all of God’s creation with the animals and birds, with each tiny wild flower and each microscopic insect. The Church thus became the fullness of Him who fills all in all, (Eph. 1:23) that is, of Christ. Everything is in Christ and with Christ. This is the mystery of the Church.

Christ is revealed in that unity between His love and ourselves: the Church. On my own I am not the Church, but together with you. All together we are the Church. All are incorporated in the Church. We are all one and Christ is the head. One body, one body of Christ: You are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (1 Cor. 12:27) We are all one because God is our Father and is everywhere. When we experience this we are in the Church. This is our Lord’s wish for all the members of the Church as expressed in His great high-priestly prayer: that they may be one. (John 17:11,22) But that’s something you can only understand through grace. We experience the joy of unity, of love, and we become one with everyone. There is nothing more magnificent!

The important thing is for us to enter into the Church - to unite ourselves with our fellow men, with the joys and sorrows of each and everyone, to feel that they are our own, to pray for everyone, to have care for their salvation, to forget about ourselves, to do everything for them just as Christ did for us. In the Church we become one unfortunate, suffering and sinful soul.

No one should wish to be saved alone without all others being saved. It is a mistake for someone to pray for himself, that he himself may be saved. We must love others and pray that no soul be lost, that all may enter into the Church. That is what counts. And it is with this desire one should leave the world to retire to a monastery or to the desert.

When we set ourselves apart from others, we are not Christians. We are true Christians when we have a profound sense that we are members of the mystical body of Christ, of the Church, in an unbroken relationship of love - when we live united in Christ, that is, when we experience unity in His Church with a sense of oneness. This is why Christ prays to His Father saying, that they may be one. He repeats the prayer again and again and the apostles emphasize it everywhere. This is the most profound aspect, the most exalted meaning, of the Church. This is where the secret is to be found: for all to be united as one person in God. There is no other religion like this; no other religion says anything of this sort. They have something to say, but not this mystery, this exquisite point of the mystery which Christ demands and tells us that this is how we must become, that he wants us to be His.

We are one even with those who are not close to the Church. They are distant on account of ignorance. We must pray that God will enlighten them and change them so that they too may come to Christ. We see things in a human light, we move on a different plane and imagine that we love Christ. But Christ, who sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous, (Matt. 5 :45) tells us: Love your enemies (Matt. 5:44). We need to pray that we may all be united, united in God. Then, if we live out this prayer, we will achieve corresponding results; we will all be united in love.

For the people of God there is no such thing as distance, even if they be thousands of miles apart. However far away our fellow human beings may be, we must stand by them. Some people regularly telephone me from a town on the edge of the Indian Ocean - Durban is what it’s called, if I am pronouncing it correctly. It’s in South Africa, two hours drive from Johannesburg. Indeed, a few days ago they came here. They were taking a sick person to England and they came here first to ask me to read a prayer. I was very moved.

When Christ unites us, distances don’t exist. When I leave this life it will be better. I’ll be closer to you.

The Christian religion transforms people and heals them

Our religion is the religion of religions. It is from revelation, the authentic and true religion. The other religions are human, hollow. They do not know the greatness of the Triune God. They do not know that our aim, our destiny, is to become gods according to grace, to attain likeness with the Triune God, to become one with Him and among ourselves. These are things the other religions do not know. The ultimate aim of our religion is that they may be one. (John 17:11,22) Here the work of Christ finds completion. Our religion is love, it is eros, it is enthusiasm, it is madness, it is longing for the divine. All these things are within us. Our soul demands that we attain them.

For many people, however, religion is a struggle, a source of agony and anxiety. That’s why many of the ‘religiously minded’ are regarded as unfortunates, because others can see the desperate state they are in. And so it is. Because for the person who doesn’t understand the deeper meaning of religion and doesn’t experience it, religion ends up as an illness, and indeed a terrible illness. So terrible that the person loses control of his actions and becomes weak-willed and spineless, he is flied with agony and anxiety and is driven to and fro by the evil spirit.

He makes prostrations, he weeps, he exclaims, he believes he is humbling himself, and all this humility is a work of Satan. Some such people experience religion as a kind of hell. They make prostrations and cross themselves in church and they say, ‘we are unworthy sinners’, then as soon as they come out they start to blaspheme everything holy whenever someone upsets them a little. It is very clear that there is something demonic in this.

In fact, the Christian religion transforms people and heals them. The most important precondition, however, for someone to recognize and discern the truth is humility. Egotism darkens a person’s mind, it confuses him, it leads him astray, to heresy. It is important for a person to understand the truth.

Long ago when people were in a primitive state they didn’t have houses or anything. They would go into caves without windows. They would block up the entrance with stones and branches so that the wind didn’t blow in. They didn’t realize that outside there is life, oxygen. When he is enclosed in a cave, a person is worn down, he becomes ill, he is destroyed, whereas when he is outside he is revitalized. Can you understand the truth? Then you are out in the sun, in the light; you see all the magnificence of creation; otherwise you are in a dark cave. Light and darkness. Which is better? To be meek, humble, peaceful and to be filled with love, or to be irritable, depressed and to quarrel with everyone. Unquestionably the higher state is love. Our religion has all these good things and is the truth. But many people go off in another direction.

All those who deny this truth are psychologically ill. They are like those children who became delinquent or anti-social because they lost their parents, or because their parents divorced or quarreled. And all those confused people find their way into various heresies. The confused children of confused parents.

But all these confused and ant-social persons have a strength and perseverance and achieve a great many things. They succeed in bringing normal and peaceable people into subjection. They influence other like-minded people and they prevail in the world because they are in the majority and find themselves followers. Then there are others who, although they do not deny the truth, are nevertheless confused and psychologically ill.

Sin makes a person exceedingly psychologically confused. And  nothing makes the confusion go away – nothing except the light of Christ. Christ makes the first move: Come unto me all you who labour… (Matt. 11:28) Then we accept this light with our good will, which we express through our love towards Him, through prayer, through our participation in the life of the Church, and through the sacraments.

Often neither labour, nor prostrations, nor crossing ourselves attract God’s grace. There are secrets. The most important thing is to go beyond the formal aspects and go to the heart of the matter. Whatever is done must be done with love.

Love always understands the need to make sacrifices. Whatever is done under coercion always causes the soul to react with rejection. Love attracts the grace of God. When grace comes, then the gifts of the Holy Spirit come. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-sufferance, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control. (Gal. 5:22-23) These are the things which a healthy soul in Christ should have.

With Christ a person is filled with grace and so lives above evil. Evil does not exist for him. There is only good, which is God. Evil cannot exist. While there is light there cannot be darkness. Nor can darkness encompass him because he has the light.

SOURCE : Wounded by Love - The Life and the Wisdom of Elder Porphyrios

http://www.sprint.net.au/~corners/Oct06/ElderPorphyrios.htm

Yoga and Meditation

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Monk Arsenios Vliagoftis, Graduate of Theology and Philosophy,
Commissioned by the Sacred Metropolis of Cassandria on matters of heresies


Source:   "DIALOGOS" magazine, issue No.22 (2000)

http://www.oodegr.com/english/anatolikes/boudismos/yoga_meditation.htm

"....They are contrary to, and irreconcilable with, Orthodox Christian ascesis, especially with Prayer..."

Our times are times of extreme spiritual confusion and apostasy from the Will of God. The father of this condition is the devil, who uses the people that he seduces into fallacy in order to succeed in his homicidal plan. This confusion is cultivated mostly by groups belonging to the so-called "New Age of Aquarius". Their basic dogma is that "all religions are the same; all of them are paths that lead to the same objective" - so they say.  However our Lord Jesus Christ Himself refutes them, when He says in the Gospel: "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life" (John 14:6).  Consequently, the paths to salvation are not many, but only one alone: Christ and His Church.

These heralds of confusion identify Christian prayer with yoga and meditation, which are techniques of oriental religions and occultism. With what will follow, I believe that this confusion will be cleared.

 

Ascesis has been legislated by our very Lord Himself, in the sacred Gospel.  Ascesis is the means for reaching the purpose of Christian living, which is to rid oneself of passions and become united with God (theosis by Grace).  Among the kinds of ascesis are fasting, night-vigils, prayer, sincere repentance and confession, humility; the severing of one's own will by being obedient to the will of God; by  not trusting our own nonexistent powers but only God's power; by attributing to God all good things and whichever progress we make on the path of virtue while putting the blame on ourselves for our sins. Along with these, we should add the study of God's word and the conscientious participation in the Sacraments of our Church - especially in the Sacrament of repentance and confession and the Sacrament of the Divine Eucharist.  Ascesis is not only for monks and clergy, but for every Christian, as clearly observed in the sacred Gospel and the lives of the saints of our Church.  This path of ascesis was the path followed by the millions of saints of our Faith.

Essentially, ascesis is Man providing the "I want to" from his part; the "I can" is provided by the Almighty God from His part.  In this way, the ailing person is cured of sin. This kind of healing is achieved only inside the spiritual hospital called "Church".  For the cure to be achieved, ascesis is imperative.

Within the Orthodox tradition of therapy, ascesis is not seen as a technique. It is not a sum of practices either.

On the contrary, it is our sincere response to God's love. In other words, to do what is humanly possible to cleanse the inner self, so that the Grace of God might come to reside within us.  After all, it is God Who makes the first move to meet Man, and not Man who seeks to find God. And so, we now come to a crucial point.

There are certain similarities between Orthodox ascesis and the ascesis practised in the non-Orthodox sphere, which can impress someone who stops at the apparent similarity of trees with regard to their foliage, but cannot see the differences in their trunks, their roots, and especially their fruits.

Prayer is the soul conversing with God. One that is very familiar to the monastic tradition is the Jesus Prayer ("Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me"); it has been cultivated and is still being cultivated by all God-loving souls, and not just by monks.

The external similarities of the so-called psychosomatic method of mental prayer with the techniques of meditation have given rise for much to be written on the topic, especially in recent years.  We should not forget here, that it is the fraudulent article that always mimics a genuine one.  The devil is able to transform himself even into an angel of light for the sake of misleading...

So, what is the so-called "psychosomatic method" generally comprised of?  Basically, the following:  The individual is seated on  a low stool with his head bent forward so that he can focus on a spot on the chest, slightly below the heart, and then tries to coordinate his breathing with the Jesus Prayer, on whose words and meaning he tries to focus his mind and warm his heart with them. However this is not suggested as a recipe - whether by all the teachers of the mental prayer, or by all those who would like to study it.

(We must also not forget that although the Prayer is of help, it is not an end on its own.  However, this detail will be tackled further along.)

On the other hand, meditation is defined by the Hindu guru Sathya Sai Baba as "the method from within which the mind learns to concentrate" (Sri Sathya Sai Baba, "Meditation", Sri Sathya Sai Publications, Athens, 1984, p.8, as quoted by the late fr. Anthony Alevizopoulos in his book "Meditation, or Prayer?", p.56).

 

In this relating of the mental prayer to meditation, a dishonest attempt is observed. It is the attempt to make it appear as though we have two paths - albeit different - but deep down closely related, which lead to the same objective - that we supposedly have two different traditions which however essentially describe the exact same experience. Unfortunately, even professors of Orthodox Theological Schools - as for example prof. Savvas Agourides - maintain this view (see article titled "The experience of divine light by Orthodox Hesychasts and enlightenment in Zen Buddhism" - an introduction to the Conference on God and God's Equivalents, organized by the Council of the World's Religions in Assisi, Italy, on the 16th May 1990).  The explanation is that Mr.Agourides is unfortunately a member of the "Unification Church" of the Korean pseudo-Messiah, Sun Myung Moon.

Naturally, this attempt to create confusion lies within the syncretistic framework in which the so-called "New Age of Aquarius" envisages things.  As mentioned earlier, they preach that "everything is the same", in order to mislead and proselytize those who lack any support elsewhere.  Deep down however, they themselves do not actually believe in this statement of theirs, because they are convinced that their faith belongs to the New Age, and that consequently they are in a higher, more evolved level than we Christians are. (According to their assertions, we have remained stuck in the Olden Age, that is, in the "Age of Pisces" which was -according to them- the "age of Christianity"!)

We could say many more things about the Christian Orthodox prayer's perception of God, Mankind and the world, on which it is based. On the other hand, we could say equally many things regarding the perception of God, Mankind and the world that Yoga and meditation presupposes. These two perceptions are entirely contrary to each other and entirely irreconcilable.  For us Christians, God is a Person; He created Man out of Love - Man also being a person.  God also created the world out of Love and cares about it, just as He cares about Man, even more so.  On the contrary, according to the religions of the Orient and the "New Age", God is an impersonal hyper-consciousness and identifies with the universe. In other words, we have here a "pantheism".   Likewise, Man is also - according to them - like a drop that needs to be dissolved in the ocean of that impersonal God-universe.  Freedom and responsibility do not exist, according to the anti-Christian perception of the "New Age".  They assert that everything is determined on the basis of the blind law of karma and reincarnation (which of course is not a law, but a religious belief of oriental religions and of occultism). According to this fallacy, the soul after our physical death supposedly enters another body - regardless if it is a human's or an animal's. It can supposedly even enter a plant or a rock, given that everything is the same in its essence, according to their theory.

With the above, we consider this important parenthesis closed.

The Orthodox placement - on the fallacious view that meditation and prayer are supposedly the same - is as follows:  Reading from the book "The Power of the Name" by His Eminence the Bishop of Diocleia, fr. Kallistos Ware, professor of the University of Oxford:

«Besides similarities, there are also differences. All pictures have frames, and all picture-frames have certain features in common; yet the pictures within the frames may be utterly different. What matters is the picture, not the frame. In the case of the Jesus Prayer, the physical techniques are as it were the frame, while the mental invocation of Christ is the picture within the frame. The ‘frame’ of Jesus Prayer certainly resembles various non-Christian ‘frames’, but this should not make us insensitive to the uniqueness of the picture within, to the distinctively Christian content of the Prayer. The essential point in the Jesus Prayer is not the act of repetition in itself, not how we sit or breathe, but to whom we speak; and in this instance the words are addressed unambiguously to the Incarnate Saviour Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of Mary».


And he continues:

The Jesus Prayer is not just a device to help us concentrate or relax. It is not simply a piece of ‘Christian Yoga’, a type of ‘Transcendental Meditation’, or a ‘Christian mantra’, even though some have tried to interpret it in this way. It is, on the contrary, an invocation specifically addressed to another person — to God made man, Jesus Christ, our personal Saviour and Redeemer. The Jesus Prayer, therefore, is far more than an isolated method or technique. It exists within a certain context, and if divorced from that context it loses its proper meaning.

And he continues:

The context of the Jesus Prayer is first of all one of faith. The Invocation of the Name presupposes that the one who says the Prayer believes in Jesus Christ as Son of God and Saviour. Behind the repetition of a form of words there must exist a living faith in the Lord Jesus — in who he is and in what he has done for me personally. Perhaps the faith in many of us is very uncertain and faltering; perhaps it coexists with doubt; perhaps we often find ourselves compelled to cry out in company with the father of the lunatic child, ‘Lord, I believe: help my unbelief’ (Mark 9:24). But at least there should be some desire to believe; at least there should be, amidst all the uncertainty, a spark of love for the Jesus whom as yet we know so imperfectly.

Secondly, the context of the Jesus Prayer is one of community. We do not invoke the Name as separate individuals, relying solely upon our own inner resources, but as members of the community of the Church. Writers such as St Barsanuphius, St Gregory of Sinai or Bishop Theophan took it for granted that those to whom they commended the Jesus Prayer were baptized Christian, regularly participating in the Church’s sacramental life through Confession and Holy Communion. Not for one moment did they envisage the Invocation of the Name as a substitute for the Sacraments, but they assumed that anyone using it would be a practicing and communicant member of the Church. (from the book, pages 66-68).

And to supplement the above thoughts:

Our aim in praying is to communicate with the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, and this communication certainly cannot be put into molds in order for us to be joined with Him (without this union abolishing our personal otherness), whereas with meditation, the aim is to dissolve the individual Self, like a drop of water dissolves in the ocean of "universal hyper-consciousness", which is not a person.

In meditation, one does not address any specific person that he is linked to with love; instead, one addresses the Self, in the belief that he himself is in essence God.  This of course is a demonic deception and fallacy, which, in the desire to impose it, they have misinterpreted and twisted the very words of Christ: "The Kingdom of God is within us"  (Luke 17:21), regardless that this quote does not imply that Man is God by nature - as the misled New Agers fallaciously believe and proclaim. What it implies is that when one is baptized, the uncreated Divine Grace (the Holy Spirit) resides inside him, and that whoever has Divine Grace inside him, has a foretaste of the Kingdom of God from now.

 

This closes the brief parenthesis.

Meditation therefore is not a move to abandon the self, or a move to be rid of one's egotism - in other words, a move of love; rather, it is a self-centered short-circuiting action.

In meditation, one concentrates on a so-called meditational object.  According to the followers of meditation, this could be the form of Buddha, a candle flame, or any other object (and we might add, why not the form of Lucifer, if that helps to "inspire" and "assist" one's meditation).

When they who exercise meditation approach Christians in order to proselytize them, they tell them that during meditation, they can likewise concentrate their attention on Jesus Christ.  And that is the way they cultivate confusion; they give a different meaning to the term "Christ". To them,  Jesus Christ is not the perfect God and perfect Man as we believe Him to be. They refer to Him as just another one of the many other "great teachers", but above all they claim that He is a "state" within us! They say that we are all "Christs by nature".  But we Orthodox do not believe in the demonic lie that we are supposedly Gods by nature; we believe that we struggle with the help of God to resemble Christ and that we consequently become God-like by God's Grace, the way the Saints are.  The difference is huge.  In the case of meditation, they promote the diabolical lie of self-salvation, as opposed to the case of praying, where a person becomes sanctified within a communion of Love and subordination to the one and only, Holy, Triune God.

The supporters of meditation also make reference to the «surpassing of the meditational object».

 

But this supposed «surpassing of the meditational object», is entirely foreign and irreconcilable to the Orthodox Prayer.  To us, Jesus Christ is not a meditational object, nor is it our aim to surpass Him in order to reach a "state of pure consciousness" or a "deeper awareness of the Self" (also in the book by fr. Anthony Alevizopoulos "Meditation or Prayer?").

Another point we must stress is that with the techniques of meditation, one elevates the self to extreme heights of pride, whereas with the Prayer, one humbles the self, one does not snub others and in fact, by having succeeded in getting to know one's own self thoroughly well and having experienced the presence of Divine Grace, he will consider himself as the worst person there is - even worse than reasonless animals. "Even lower than all of creation", as we read in the book of Elders (the "Gerontikon").

When the person meditating believes that in essence he is God, he is not in a state that will allow him to utter the words "have mercy on me" - the key words of the mental prayer. In other words, the follower of the dogma of "I want and I can" of the New Age "positive thinking" is unable to humble the self.

Besides, meditation in the long run only leads the one who meditates into a state of self-hypnosis; his perseverance in becoming joined to the object of his meditation (which is the chief aim of meditation) is nothing more than a case of fantasy; a fantasy which - according to the Orthodox ascetic therapeutic regimen - needs to be marginalized.  This movement within the sphere of fantasy (or rather, within the sphere where real and fantastic are confused) can reach the point of generating situations that belong to the area of Psychiatry. An example is the case of a follower who attempted (with his "power of the mind" as he believed) to stop a train. The result naturally was the loss of his life.  There is a plethora of similar outrageous examples.  The demonic element naturally assists in all of these situations.  For an in-depth examination of this "positive thinking" movement, I would recommend the book by the late Fr. Anthony Alevizopoulos, "Self-awareness, self-realization, Salvation".

Ascesis is not a technique. This becomes apparent with the comparison between the mental prayer and meditation. It is not a means by which we can extort God's freedom. Ascesis in the Orthodox tradition is not an end in itself. It is a means. Our aspiration with ascesis is to mortify our passions, and not harm the body. Abba Poemen in the "Gerontikon" had said:  "We were not taught to be body-wreckers, but passion-wreckers" ("Asteras" publications, page 101).

Given that ascesis is not an end in itself - as stressed earlier - that is why the Orthodox do not seek to see lights or visions, or to have 'experiences' or to perform miracles.  Wherever and whenever a case of "vision-worship" or "miracle-worship" appears, we need to know that these are definitely deviations from the Orthodox phronema (conscience) and ethos.  An Orthodox will deny the "experiences" that the devil is ready to offer, "here and now" and without being asked (let alone when asked).

There is a vast gaping chasm between a true prophet (that is, an Orthodox Saint) and an occultist sorcerer, fakir, conjurer, or a psychic/"medium".

To open a small parenthesis here, I would like to briefly quote the basic points of these differences, as analyzed in the late Fr.Anthony Alevizopoulos' book, "Occultism, Guruism, New Age" (pages 282-286):

1.  A prophet, a Saint, is not self-appointed; he is appointed by God.

2.  A true prophet is conscious of his insignificance, whereas a sorcerer, a conjurer, is full of demonic self-importance.

3.  A true prophet does not open a "business for services rendered", nor is he invited by people; he goes to them.

4.  The true prophetic word is usually unwelcome by those to whom it is addressed, and it provokes - not flatters - them, and

5.  The content of the true prophet's message is not new; it is old, and has been forgotten.

So, to return to the matter of visions and "experiences", we might add that:

The Grace of God may of course visit the purified and worthy ones, however and whenever it deems it beneficial either for them or for the edification of the Body of Christ, that is, the Church.  However, these experiences cannot be extorted, nor are they an end in themselves.

The Saints counsel us to seek repentance - which is likewise a gift of God - and which, according to Saint Isaac the Syrian, is loftier than all other virtues, «...for its opus can never be finished; it is befitting to everyone, to both sinners and the righteous, who wish to attain salvation» (Homily55 On Passions, publisher Hieromonk Joachim Spetsieris, p.220). So, it is repentance that we should be seeking, and not the ability to work miracles - which, if we lack humility, can seriously harm us or even destroy us.

 

The manner in which the Saints avoid the temptation to desire "experiences" is by maintaining a humble conscience.

 

In the bios of the late Elder Paisios of the Holy Mountain - who was reposed in 1994 - the following incident is mentioned:  One evening as he lay awake praying, he thought that the ceiling of his hut was about to open wide and that Christ was going to appear there and bless him.  "My God, who am I to be so worthy as to behold You?" was the humble thought that immediately came to his mind, upon which, the vision that the devil was preparing to show him vanished like a flash.

The criterion for the verifiability of Orthodox ascesis is that it should be done conscientiously (a detail that the Elder Paisios stressed especially) and with love, with humility and discernment, and without of course following after our personal will - in other words, that it be done with obedience and in fact a "joyous obedience", to remember the words of another great contemporary holy Elder that is now reposed: the Elder Porphyrios.

One may perhaps easily perform five hundred prostrations while preserving his own will, his own opinion, his own judgment, and placing trust in himself.  But, to perform only a hundred prostrations with obedience is far more difficult, because in that case, the evil one places impediments and wages war against him, whereas in the first case, the devil actually empowers and reinforces him.

The difference between Orthodox ascesis on the one hand and the demonic "ascesis" on the other can be seen in the narration of the "Gerontikon" that refers to Abba Makarios the Egyptian. Let's listen to it:

«Once, when Abba Makarios was walking back from the marshes to his cell, laden with palm fronds, he was accosted on the path by the devil holding a sickle.  And although he attempted to strike the Elder, he was unable to harm him.  So he remarked:

"I find a lot of resistance in you, Makarios, making me unable to harm you. And yet, whatever you do, I also do. Do you fast? I too eat nothing. Do you hold night-vigils? I too do not sleep at all. Yet you have one thing that I don't."

"And what is that?" Abba Makarios asked him.

And he replied: "Your humility. That is what incapacitates me!»

(«Gerontikon» in the modern Greek rendition by Vas.Pentzas, ASTERAS publications, p.152).

Of everything that has been mentioned so far, I believe that Orthodox ascesis and especially Prayer, does not have any similarity or affinity in essence to yoga and meditation which are cultivated by oriental religions and the groups of the so-called "New Age of Aquarius".  Those who say otherwise are either misleading people by cultivating that New-Age confusion through heresies, or themselves fall prey to that confusion.  The only safe way for one to not be trapped by heresies is to belong consciously and organically in the Orthodox Church, which is the sole Ark of Salvation for mankind, as it has preserved unadulterated the Gospel and the tradition that the Holy Spirit bequeathed us through the Holy Apostles and their successors. Only then will he be sheltered by Divine Grace, enlightened by the Holy Spirit and guided safely towards Salvation.

Translation by K.N.

Melancholy, sadness, anxiety

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Sometimes, and perhaps more often, I have found it is so beneficial to read something like the following by Elder Porphyrios, rather than theological and philosophical treatises.  A bit long but well worth the read.

Melancholy, sadness, anxiety

by Elder Porphyrios

The crucial thing is to enter the Church – to unite with our fellow beings, with everyone's joys and sorrows, to feel them as our own, to pray for all, to ache for their salvation, to forget about ourselves, to do everything for others, like Christ did for us. In the Church we become one with every sorrowful, aching and sinful person. Nobody should want to be saved alone, without the salvation of others. It is wrong for one to pray for himself to be saved. We must love others and pray that no one be lost; that everyone enters the Church. This is what matters. And it’s with this desire that one should leave the world to go to the monastery or the desert.


In the Church, which has the mysteries that save, there is no desperation. We may be extremely sinful. However, we confess, the priest reads the prayer over us and so we are forgiven and we move towards immortality, without any anxiety, without any fear.


Whoever lives in Christ, becomes one with Him, with His Church. He lives something crazy! This life is different to human life. It's joy, light, gladness, an uplift. This is the Church's life, the Gospel's life, God's Kingdom. “The Kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). Christ comes in us and we are in Him. And just like a piece of iron placed in fire becomes fire and light; outside the fire, again it turns to dark iron, darkness.

The ones blaming the Church for its representatives' mistakes, aiming supposedly at helping in its correction, are greatly mistaken. They don't love the Church. Nor, Christ to be sure. We love the Church; when in prayer we embrace every part of it and we do as Christ does. We sacrifice ourselves, remain alert, do everything, just like Him, the One “who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten” (1 Peter 2:23).


We need to pay attention to the basic part too. We need to live the mysteries, especially the mystery of Holy Communion. It’s in these that Orthodoxy is found. Christ is offered to the Church through the mysteries and primarily through Holy Communion.


For many, however, our religion is a struggle, agony and anxiety. For this reason many “religious” people are considered unhappy, because others see their bad state. Indeed, if one is unable to see the depth of the religion and does not live it, the religion ends up a sickness and a terrible one. So terrible, that one loses control over his actions, becomes weak-willed and powerless, is in agony and under stress and behaves under the influence of an evil spirit (meaning demonic energy). He does prostrations, cries, shouts, is supposedly humble, and all this humility is a satanic act. For some of these people the religion is like a type of hell. In church they do prostrations, make the sign of the cross, they say “we are sinners, unworthy,” and as soon as they get out, start blaspheming all things holy when someone annoys them just a little. It is obvious that there is a demon in the middle.


In reality, Christianity transforms a person and heals him. The most important prerequisite, however, for someone to perceive and distinguish truth is humility. Egoism darkens one's mind, confuses him, leads him into deception, into heresy. It is very important for one to comprehend the truth.


All the confused are going to the heretical groups – confused children of confused parents.


Often, neither toil, nor repentance, nor the sign of the cross attract grace. There are secrets. The most important one is to avoid forms and go to the substance. Everything that happens must happen with love.


When you don't live with Christ, you live in melancholy, in sadness, in stress, in grief. You don't live correctly. So then many anomalies appear also in the body. The body gets affected, the endocrinous glands, the liver, the spleen, the pancreas, the stomach. You are told: “In order to be healthy, you must have some milk in the morning, an egg, butter and a couple of rusks.” And yet, if you live correctly, if you love Christ, you are just fine with an apple and an orange. The greatest of all medicine is to offer oneself in devotion to Christ. Everything gets healed. Everything functions properly. God's love transforms all; it alters, it sanctifies, it corrects, it changes, it modifies everything.


Love for Christ is unlike anything else. It doesn't end, you can't have enough of it. It transmits life, gives strength, grants health, it keeps giving...and the more it gives, the more one wishes to fall in love. Whilst human love may wear one out, drive him crazy. When we love Christ, all other loves recede. Other loves have a saturation point...Love for Christ doesn't have one. Carnal love has a saturation point. Jealousy, complaining or even murder may follow. It may convert to hate. Love in Christ does not deteriorate. Worldly love can be maintained for a little while and then it slowly fades, whereas divine love keeps growing and deepening. Any other love may bring a person to despair. Yet divine love, raises us to God's domain, gives us serenity, joy, completion. Other pleasures tire while this one you can't have enough of. It's an insatiable pleasure, that no one ever gets tired of. It's the utmost of goods.


When you love Christ, despite all your weaknesses and their conscious acknowledgment, you still have the certainty that you have overcome death, because you reside in the communion Christ's love.


We need to feel Christ as our friend. He is our friend. He confirms this Himself when He says: “You are my friends...” (John 15:14). We need to look at Him and approach Him as a friend. Do we fall? Do we sin? We should run to Him with feelings of familiarity, in love and trust; not in fear of punishment but in courage granted by the sense of friendship. And say to Him: “Lord, I did it, I fell, forgive me”. But at the same time we need to feel He loves us, and tenderly accepts us with love and forgives us. We need not be separated by sin from Christ. When we believe that He loves us and we love Him, we will not feel estranged and divided, even when we sin. We have secured His love and no matter how we may behave, He loves us.


The Gospel surely states symbolically that the unjust will be found where there is “crying and gnashing of teeth”; this is what it’s like away from God. And from the neptic Fathers of our Church many speak of fear of death and hell. They say: “always bear death in mind”. If we examine those words deeply, they create a fear of hell. As man tries to avoid sin, he brings those thoughts to mind so that his soul gets overrun by the fear of death, hell and the devil.


They all have their meaning, time and occasion. Fear, as a concept, is good during the first stages. It is for beginners, for the those in whom their old self still lives. The beginner, not having been refined yet is retained from evil by fear. And fear is necessary while we are still material and succumbed. But this is a stage, a low degree of relationship with the divine. We take it in as a transaction so that we can win Paradise or escape hell. If we cross examine it, it indicates self-interest, benefit. I don't like this way. When man advances and enters into God's love, what need is there for fear? Whatever he does, he does so from love, and this is of so much more value. Becoming good due to fearing God and not out of love is of little value.


Whoever wants to become a Christian must first become a poet. If the soul gets crushed and becomes unworthy of Christ's love, Christ ceases relations, because Christ doesn't want 'unrefined' souls next to Him.


Let nobody see you, nobody understand your gestures of devotion towards the divine. Do everything in private, in secrecy, like the ascetics. Remember what I told you about the nightingale? It chirps in the woods. In silence. As if someone is listening, praising? What beautiful chirping in the wilderness! Have you seen the way their larynx puffs up? That's what happens to him who falls in love with Christ. If they love, “their throat puffs up, they are taken up, their tongue can't stop”. They go into a cave, a dale and live God in secret, “silent sighing”.


Scorn passions, do not preoccupy yourselves with the devil. Turn to Christ.


Divine grace teaches us our duty. To attract it, we need love, yearning. God's grace needs divine love. Love is enough, to get us into the right 'shape' for prayer. Christ will by himself pore over our heart, as long as He can find some things that please Him: good intention, humility and love. Without these we cannot say, “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me”.


Even the smallest grumbling against your neighbor negatively affects your soul and you are unable to pray. When the Holy Spirit finds the soul in this state, it does not dare approach.


We need to ask that God's will is done; this is the most beneficial, the safest for us and for those we pray for. Christ will grant us everything abundantly. When there is even just a little egoism, nothing happens.


When God won't give us what we persistently ask for, He has His reason. God has His secrets too.


If you aren’t obedient (to a spiritual father) and have no humility, the prayer (that is, Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me) won't take effect and there is even the fear of delusion.


Let not the prayer (Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me) become tedious work. Pressure may bring about a reaction internally, may do harm. Many people have gotten sick through the prayer because they pressed themselves. Certainly, you can do it, when it becomes tedious work, but it's not healthy.


It's not necessary to particularly focus to say the prayer. You don't need to put effort into it when you have divine love. Wherever you are, on a stool, on a chair, in a car, anywhere, in the street, at school, in the office, at work you can say the prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me”, softly, without pressure, without strain.


What’s important in prayer is not the duration but the intensity. Pray even just for five minutes, but given to God with love and yearning. Someone may pray all night, yet this 5 minutes of prayer be superior. It's a mystery, but that's the way it is.


A person of Christ makes prayer out of everything. He turns difficulty and sorrow into a prayer. Whatever happens to him, he immediately says: “Lord Jesus Christ...”. Prayer benefits in all, even the simplest things. For example, do you suffer insomnia; do not think of sleep. Get up, go outside, come back into the room, fall back into your bed as if for the first time, without thinking if you will sleep or not. Concentrate, say the doxology and then three times “Lord Jesus Christ...” and in this way you will fall asleep.


Everything is inside us, instincts and all, and are asking for fulfillment. If we don't fulfill them they will take their revenge, unless we redirect them elsewhere, towards the higher, towards God.


You don’t become holy hunting down evil. Forget about evil. Look towards Christ and He will save you. Instead of standing outside the door to drive away the enemy, ignore him. Is evil coming this way? Gently let yourself go the other way. Meaning, is evil coming to attack you, give your internal strength to the good, to Christ. Plead: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me”. He knows how to have mercy on you, in what way. And when you are filled with good, you won't turn to evil anymore. You will become good by yourself, with God's grace. How can evil find any ground anymore? It disappears!


Does a phobia or disappointment get a hold of you? Turn to Christ. Love him in simplicity, with humility, without demands and He will free you.


Do not choose negative ways to correct yourselves. You don't need to be afraid of the devil, or hell, or anything. They create a reaction. I too have a little experience in those things. The point is not to sit, to beat or strain yourselves to improve. The point is to live, to study, to pray, to advance in love, in Christ's love, in the Church's love.

Leave all your weaknesses so that the opposing spirit (the devil) won't become aware of it and immerse you and hold you down in grief. Do not make any effort to free yourselves from them. Strive in gentleness and simplicity, without strain and anxiety. Do not say to yourselves: “Now I will strain myself, I will pray to obtain love, to become good, etc”. It's not good to strain and beat yourself in order to become good. In this way you will only react more. Everything must happen in a soft way, freely and with no rush. Neither should you say: “God free me from it,” for example, from anger, or sadness. It's not good to think and/or pray about a particular passion. Something takes place in our soul and we get more tangled up. Dash yourself to overcome the passion and you will see that it will entwine you, grasp you and you won't be able to do anything.

Freedom cannot be won, if we do not free ourselves internally from confusion and the passions.

This is what our Church is, this is our joy, this is everything for us. And this is what man today is looking for. And he takes poison and drugs so that he can enter joyous worlds, but fake joy. He feels something at that particular moment but the next day he feels torn. One thing scrapes him, eats him up, smashes him, burns him. While the other, that is being given to Christ, enlivens him, gives him joy, makes him enjoy life, feel strong, magnificence.


The ability to sanctify your soul is a great art. One can become holy anywhere. Even in Omonia (the main square in Athens) one can be sanctified, if he wants. You can become saints at work, no matter what it is – in calmness, patience and love. Each day make a new beginning, a new mood, enthusiastically and with love, prayer and silence – not with stress and a heavy heart.


Work vigilantly, simply, gently, without anxiety, joyfully and gladly, in a good mood. Then divine grace comes.


All unpleasant things, that remain in your soul and make you stressed, can become a reason for worshipping God and so stop hurting you. Trust in God.


There is no need in trying hard and strain yourselves. All your effort should be focused on gazing at the light, attaining the light. In this way, instead of turning to grief which is not of God's Spirit, you should turn yourselves to praising God.


Grief shows that we don't entrust our life to Christ.


When communication with Christ takes place simply, softly, under no pressure, it causes the devil to flee. Satan won't flee from pressure, strain. He distances himself from calmness and prayer. He retreats when he sees the soul ignore him and turn to Christ with love. He cannot take disregard because he is arrogant. But the evil spirit understands it when you push yourselves, and it fights you. Don't bother with the devil, don't even ask that he flee. The more you ask that he flee, the more he will entangle you. Ignore the devil. Do not fight him directly. When you stubbornly fight against the devil, he attacks you back like a tiger, a wildcat. When you shoot bullets at him, he throws back a grenade. When you throw a bomb at him he shoots back a missile. Don't look at evil. Look into God's arms, fall into His arms and move on.


A humble person is conscious of his inner state, and no matter how ugly it is, he does not lose his personality. He does not lose his balance. The opposite happens with the egoist, the one who has feelings of inferiority. In the beginning he resembles a humble person. But if one tempts him just a little, he loses his peace, gets irritated, gets upset.


When a person lives without God, without peace, without trust, in anxiety, depression, hopelessness, he develops physical and psychological illnesses. Psychological illness, neurological illness, discord are demonic states. It is also demonic to speak as though humble. It is called a feeling of inferiority. Real humility does not speak out, does not pretend to be humble, that is to say: “I'm a sinner, unworthy, the least of all...”. A humble person is afraid that they may fall into vainglory. God's grace does not draw near that. In contrast, God's grace can be found where there is real humility, divine humility, perfect trust in God, dependence on Him.


The vainglorious person alienates his soul from eternal life. Ultimately, egoism is complete foolishness! Vainglory makes us hollow. When we engage in showing off, we end up completely empty. We must do whatever we do to please God; selflessly, without vainglory, without pride, without ego, without, without...


Our soul must not rebel and say: “why did God do this thing, why did He do the other thing that way, couldn't He have done it differently?” All this indicates internal small-heartedness and reaction. It shows the big opinion we have of ourselves, our pride and our great ego. Those “whys” greatly torture a person, create what people call “complexes”. For example, “why should I be so tall?” or – the opposite – “very short?”. It remains inside. And one may pray and stay awake (to do so), but get the opposite result. And he may suffer and exasperate himself pointlessly. Whilst with Christ, with grace, it all disappears. There remains this “something” deep down, meaning “why,” but God's grace overshadows man and while the root may be a complex, a rosebush grows over it with beautiful roses, and the more one waters it through faith, love, patience and humility, the more evil loses its power and ceases to exist; that is, it doesn't disappear, but it withers. The more the rosebush isn't watered, the more it withers, dries up, disappears and thorns grow out of it instead.


We tempt God when we ask something of Him, but our life is far from God. We tempt Him when we ask for something but our life is not in accordance with His will – that is, (we ask for) things against God: stress and anxiety on one hand, but on the other we entreat Him.


Your spiritual father may tell you: “How I would have liked to be in a quiet place, free from all other affairs and to hear about your life right from the beginning, from when you felt yourself; all the things you can remember and the way you dealt with them, not only the unpleasant but also the pleasant, not only your sins but also the good. Successes and failures. Everything, everything that is part of your life”.


I've applied this type of general confession many times and have seen miracles happen. During the time you speak to the confessor, divine grace comes to relieve you from all your ordeals and wounds and psychological traumas and guilt; because, as you are speaking your confessor sincerely prays for your deliverance.


Let us not go back to the sins that we have confessed. The remembrance of sins wounds. Did we ask for forgiveness? It's over. God forgives everything through confession. I also believe that I sin. I'm not in the right path. But whatever bothers me I pray about; I don't keep it inside me. I go to my spiritual father. I confess it, it's over! Let us not turn back and talk about what we did not do. The important thing is what we will do now, from this moment on.


Desperation and disappointment is the most terrible thing. It's Satan's trap, to make a person lose his eagerness for spiritual things and bring him to desperation.


Almost all disease is due to the lack of trust in God and this causes stress. Stress is caused by the abolishment of religious feelings. If you don't feel love for Christ, if you don't occupy yourselves with holy matters, you will surely fill up with melancholy and evil.


Something that can also help the depressed is an occupation, interest for life. The garden, plants, flowers, trees, the country, a walk outdoors, a hike, all this can bring a person out of idleness and create other interests for him. They act like medicine. Occupying oneself with art, music, etc is very beneficial. But I attach the greatest value to the Church, to studying the Holy Scripture, to the services. By studying God's word, one is healed without being aware of it.


Let us not lose hope, or be in a rush, nor judge according to superficial or external things. If, for example, you see a nude or lewdly dressed woman, don't remain on the external image, but enter deep, into her soul. She may be a very good soul that has existential questions, that she may be manifesting through her extreme appearance. She has internal strength, the strength of projection, she wants people to look at her. However, in ignorance, she has twisted things. Imagine if she were to meet Christ. She would believe, and turn all this ardour to Christ. She would do everything to attract God's grace. She would become a saint.


Often, through our anxiety and fears and poor spiritual state, without knowing or wanting, we can hurt other people, even if we love them very much, like a mother her child for example. A mother can transmit to a child all her stress regarding his life, his health, his progress, even without talking to him directly or showing what she feels. This love, this natural love may hurt him at some point. This does not happen, however, with Christ's love, which is connected to prayer and the holiness of someone’s life. This love sanctifies a person, pacifies him, because God is love.

Source (greek):

Life and Words, pub. Holy Monastery of Chrisopigi of Chania

2003

Elder Porphyrios

Translate by: Holy Monastery of Pantokrator