Pain of Heart according to Fr Seraphim Rose

This book is available from St Herman Press

In my search for those things that can help me in my purpose to

achieve the purification of my heart, I pay particular attention to

those words, writings and personal encounters in which I come 

face to face with real Orthodox spiritual experience. It is very hard
to describe it. The gift of spiritual discernment is given to those
advanced in the spiritual life but, at a more humble level, there is
something to be said about the simplicity of a soul that intuitively
recognizes the still small voice of her Creator, our Lord Jesus
Christ, in the humble disguise of our fellow human beings who
know Him, and in the providential circumstances of our lives.

Fr Seraphim Rose knew very well how to recognize this small

voice and the state of a heart that is perceptive and open to
divine grace. He calls it 'pain of heart'. His disciple Fr
Damascene, describes this spiritual state in page 471 of the
book 'Father Seraphim Rose His Life and Works',
"Pain of Heart. In this is found the last and most crucial key to 

Fr. Seraphim's entry into the mind of the Fathers.In the Patristic

writings, 'pain of heart' generally refers to an elemental
inward suffering , the bearing of an interior cross while
following Jesus Christ, and a spirit broken in contrition.

'Suffering', Father Seraphim stated, 'is the reality of the human

condition and the beginning of true spiritual life'. From Archbishop 

John (of San Francisco), who had utterly crucified himself in this life,
Fr Seraphim had learned how to endure this suffering in thankfulness
to God, and from him he had learned its fruits. If used in the right way,
suffering can purify the heart and 'the pure in heart shall see God'
(Matthew 5:8). 'The right approach' wrote Fr. Seraphim ' is found
in a heart which tries to humble itself and simply knows that it
is suffering, and that there somehow exists a higher truth which
can not only help this suffering, but can bring it into a totally
different dimension.'

According to St Mark the Ascetic (fifth century), 'Remembrance of God
is pain of heart endured in the spirit of devotion. But he who forgets
God becomes self indulgent and insensitive'. And in the words of
St Barsanuphius the Great of Egypt, whose counsels Fr. Seraphim
translated into English, 'Every gift is received  through pain of heart'.

Besides its general meaning, 'pain of heart' has a liturgical meaning
in the writings of the church Fathers, for when the heart is
concentrated in fervent prayer to Christ, it may be actually
pained. As Fr. Seraphim noted, in Patristic terminology the
'heart' does not mean mere 'feeling', but 'something much
deeper - the organ that knows God'. The heart is both spiritual
and physical: spirituality is the center of man's being, identified
with his nous (spirit); physically, it is the organ where the nous
finds its secret dwelling place. Concentrated within the spiritual
heart, the nous cries out to the Savior, and such a heart-cry
born in pain and desperation, yet hoping in God - calls down
Divine grace. 

This is seen especially in the Orthodox practice of the Jesus Prayer.
(Note: The Jesus Prayer reads, 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have
mercy on me,  the sinner'. It is very common to use an abbreviated form
such as, 'Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me'). When we approach
the Jesus Prayer simply, says Elder Paisios of Mount Athos (+1994),
'we will be able to repeat it many times, and our heart will feel a sweet
consolation inside our heart'.


'The Patristic teaching on pain of heart', Fr Seraphim wrote, 'is one
of the most important teachings for our days when head-knowledge is
so over-emphasized at the expense of the proper development of 
emotional and spiritual life. The lack of this essential experience is 
what above all is responsible for the dilettantism (superficiality, lack
of discipline), the triviality, the want of seriousness in the ordinary
study of the Holy Fathers today; without it, one cannot apply the
teachings of the Holy Fathers to one's own life....without pain of heart,
one can be a barren fig tree, a boring 'know it all' who is always
correct...(one) who does not know and cannot convey the true spirit of
the Holy Fathers."
From Fr Seraphim Rose - His Life and Works p. 471-472, by Hieromonk Damascene,
St Herman Press 2003
   

Sermon on St Dionysius the Areopagite

Archpriest Andrew PhillipsSermon on St. Dionysius the AreopagiteAfter the martyrdom of his spiritual father the Apostle Paul, Dionysius conceived of the desire to follow in his footsteps. Thus, he left Athens and travelled to Greek settlements in the West. According to tradition, he ended up, not among the many Greeks in Rome, but elsewhere among Greeks in the Roman Empire, in Gaul, in what is today Paris. It was here at the end of the first century that the elderly Dionysius found martyrdom.

The Ladder of Divine Ascent - A Treasure of Orthodox Christian Tradition

Available from Orthodox Christian Recorded Books

This ancient classic of Orthodox spirituality is now in audio CD
format. The writings of St John of the Ladder are deep, and
require reflection and prayer for us to be able to understand
and assimilate. The Ladder represents, in a nutshell, the
mindset of the Orthodox way of life. How wonderful that this
resource is now available in the form of this readily 
accessible media!
"Saint John's Ladder expresses the Orthodox view that spiritual
perfection, theosis, salvation is not something attained all at
once, as by a leap, but comes after a long arduous process
spiritual striving or askesis. In this process, with sustained effort
one rises gradually from lower to higher and higher levels of
spiritual development. Thus, in the ninth step, St John remarks:
"The holy virtues are like Jacob's Ladder. For the virtues, leading
from one to another, bear him who chooses them to Heaven."

Commenting on this, Saint Symeon the New Theologian says:
"Those who want to climb these steps climb the first rung of the
Ladder, then the second, then the third, and so on.... In this way
one can rise from earth to Heaven" (Tou Hosiou Symeon tou
Neou Theologou ta Heuriskomena Panta, p. 368). The first step

of spiritual ascent, says Climacos, "consists in these three 

virtues: guilelessness (or truthfulness), fasting, and temperance.
All babes in Christ begin with these virtues, taking as their
model natural babes. For in these you will never find anything sly
or deceitful. And they have no insatiate appetite, no insatiable
stomach, no body that is on fire or bestialized." These three
virtues will serve, he says, as a secure foundation for the rest."
 Source

 

 
Patriarch Jacob' Dream Source

On Slander

Source

Our Orthodox Faith has everything we need to grow and be healed.
We all, at one time or another, have been victims of unfair criticism
and judgment. Unfortunately, most of us have at some time said or
thought something negative about someone else. Our Church has
a spiritual cure for this problem.

As a general rule, we should never accept it when anyone comes to us
with negative ‘information’ about our brother. A fragment from a Church
Father from the 2nd century (Antonius, Book 2 Sermon 69) states,
“Never be afraid of the slanderer who addresses you. But rather say;
“STOP, brother; I daily commit more grievous errors, and how can I
judge him?”

For you will gain two things, healing with one plaster both yourself and
your neighbor. He shows what is really evil. Whence by these arguments,
God has contrived to make each one’s disposition manifest”.

It is not virtue what moves that person to speak against his or her brother but the evil one, the passions. St John Chrysostom says that even when the gossip is true, it is still slander because the intention is to destroy our brother. If there is something that needs our assessment we should go to our spiritual father and ask him. We should also trust our priest, the man that will answer to God for our soul, with the government of the house of God and whatever evaluation and course of action that any particular situation requires.

But more often than not, what is spread around is a lie. St John
Chrysostom in his explanation of the Gospel of St Matthew
says; “Wherefore not those that are slandered but the
slanderers have need to be anxious and to tremble. For
the former are not constrained to answer for themselves
touching the evil things that are said of them, but the latter
will, for the evil they have spoken. So that the persons
censured should be without anxiety, not having to give
account of the evil that others have said; but the censurers
have cause to be in anxiety, and to tremble, as being
themselves to be dragged before the judgment seat in that
behalf. For this is indeed a diabolical snare, and a sin having
in it no pleasure, but harm only. Yeah such a one is laying up
an evil treasure in his soul. Do not now, I warn thee, seize
upon the privilege of the Only Begotten (Jesus Christ). For
Him is the throne of judgment reserved”.

In the Homilies on First Corinthians, St John states; “Bearing in mind these things therefore let us have a care of our own members, and not sharpen the tongue against one another, nor speak words which may do hurt, undermining the fame of our neighbor, and as in war and battle, giving and receiving blows. For what after all is the good of fasting or watching, when the tongue is drunken, and feasts itself at a table more unclean than of dog’s flesh, when it is grown ravening after blood and pours out filth, and makes the mouth a channel of a sewer, nay rather something more abominable than that?

For “Judge not” said He “that ye be not judged” Matthew 7:1 since he too who spoke evil of the publican was condemned, although it was true which he laid to his neighbor’s charge.

But hast thou a fancy to avenge thyself on the other person? Why then punish thyself instead of him? Nay do thou, who art so earnestly seeking redress from those who have annoyed thee, avenge thyself as Paul recommended to take vengeance; “If thy enemy hunger, feed him, if he thirst, give him drink (Rom.12:20) But if thou do not so, but only plot against him, thou pointest the sword against thyself. Wherefore if that other speak evil, answer him with praises and commendations.

St John Climacus in the Ladder of Divine Ascent p. 89-92 has some very important things to say, "Slander is born of hatred and remembrance of wrongs. I have heard people slandering and I have rebuked them. And these doers of evil replied in self defence that they were doing so out of love and care for the person whom they were slandering. I said to them; ‘Stop that kind of love, otherwise you will be condemning as a liar him who said; “Him that privaly talked against his neighbor, did I drive away” Psalm 3:5. If you say you love, then pray secretly, and do not mock the man. For this is the kind of love that is acceptable to the Lord.

But I will not hide this from you: Judas was in the company of Christ’s disciples and the thief was in the company of murderers. Yet it is a wondrous thing, how in a single instant, they exchanged places.

I have known a man who sinned openly and repented secretly. I condemned him as a profligate, but he was chaste before God, having propitiated Him by a
genuine conversion. 

A charitable and sensible mind takes careful note of whatever virtues
it sees in anyone. But a fool looks for faults and defects. Do not
condemn, even if you see with your eyes, for they are often
deceived”.

Elder Ephraim writes in 'Counsels from the Holy Mountain' p.208
“Each person must bear the weaknesses of others. Who is perfect?
Who can boast that he has kept his heart undefiled? Hence, we are
all sick, and whoever condemns his brother does not perceive that
he himself is sick, because a sick person does not condemn another
sick person”.

"Spread your cloak over the man who is falling and cover him. And
if you cannot take upon yourself his sins and receive his chastisement
in his stead, then at least patiently suffer his shame and do not
disgrace him". St Isaac the Syrian, in Homily 51 of the 1st part as
quoted by Matthew the Poor in 'Orthodox Prayer Life' p.143 no.165,
St Vladimir Seminary Press, N.Y. 2003