"Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent" (Luke 24:29).

  

Source

2014 Clergy Seminar Antiochian Diocese of the West

by

Monk Maximos from Simonopetra Monastery in 

Mount Athos, Greece

Professor of Theology
Hellenic College and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School
of Theology.Father Maximos appeared on CBS's 60 Minutes
Mount Athos program.

He is a native New Yorker, and a graduate of Hellenic College
and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. He holds 

a Ph.D. in patristics, has twice been a fellow at Dumbarton
Oaks, and for many years was a professor at Holy Cross and
subsequently at Harvard Divinity School.

The author of many scholarly books, articles, and translations,
his edition and translation of St. Maximos the Confessor's
Ambigua will be published later this year by Harvard University
Press. Source
THEME:
"Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far
spent" (Luke 24:29).

These lectures are awesome! Fr Maximos presents the problem
of our distracted lives, broken attention, and excess gadgets. Then
he teaches on how to gather our distracted nous (our inner being)
and go inside and try to achieve inner stillness and prayer.

I think this information would be great for Orthodox schools and
for families with children, so we may teach them (and ourselves)
how to disconnect from the impersonal social media and gadgets
and heal ourselves from this inner dysfunction and brokenness.
At the beginning of the 1st talk, you will listen to the last words
of introduction to the talks by Archbishop Joseph. His words are
directed at his clergy in whose presence the talks were given.
Please wait a few minutes and the talk proper will begin.

Presentation 1

Presentation 1 Questions & Answers

Presentation 2

Presentation 2 Questions & Answers

Presentation 3

Presentation 3 Questions & Answers

Presentation 4

Presentation 4 Questions & Answers

Presentation 5

Presentation 5 Questions & Answers

Presentation 6

Presentation 7

"Arise, cry aloud in the night." Lamentations 2:19

Hermit in Mount Athos

"Arise, cry aloud in the night. At the beginning of the night watches; pour
out your heart like water before the Presence of the Lord; lift up your
hands to Him, " Lamentations 2:19

An old monk wearing a worn-out, patched-up black rasso wakes up in
the middle of the night, and rises from the floor of his cave in Katunakia,
Mount Athos, Greece, to pray. His meal the previous evening
consisted of a piece of dried stale hard bread and some rain water
collected in an aluminum can. He has been rising for prayer for the last
forty years and his legs no longer allow him to stand without pain but he is undeterred. His callous arthritic shaking hand reaches out for some
matches which he is able to find, always in the same place, in spite of the
stark darkness that shrouds him, and he lights up what remains of the
candle he used the previous night.

The Spartan conditions of his dwelling are intimidating. The cave is cold
and narrow. Its jagged walls are naked and the floor where he stands
consists of the dirt and lose rocks of the cave. Years ago he managed to
gather some thrown away wood, by the monasteries not so near him, and he was able to put together an iconostasis and an altar. The paper icons are few and damaged but the faces of the saints encourage him.

Holy Altar inside a cave in Mount Athos, Greece

As the monk begins the prayers with the opening benediction of the
Midnight Office, he considers himself to be the most blessed of men,
"Blessed is our God, always, now and ever, and unto ages of ages."
The flickering candles communicate warmth, light and spiritual depth
to this sacred space. This cave is Heaven! When the time for the
Divine Liturgy comes, the priest-monk is already rapt in God, his face
radiant, like Moses, as one who clearly beholds the other world.

Elder Archimandrite Sophrony of Essex

Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos was once blessed to be present in
a cave like this one during one of these Divine Liturgies,

"There were only a few oil lamps lighting the church, enough to show the 
icons of the Saints and the Most Holy Mother of God and of Christ. The
three disciples with their Gerondas, stood motionless on the old pews
and lived the Mystery. They were not simply attending, but they were
celebrating the Liturgy with me! Their faces looked like the faces of the 
Saints in iconography. It was as if they had come down from the walls
and were living the resurrection. Their voices were soft, weak, stifled by
their compunction. Their chanting was coming out of a heart wounded
by divine love; it was coming out of the depths of their soul, which has
been pierced by divine love." from 'A Night in the Desert of the Holy Mountain'
p.173 by Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos, Trans. by Effie Mavromichali, Birth of theTheotokos Monastery, 1991
During the next few weeks, the blessed time of Lent, we will also arise
at night for prayer. The deserts of our cities are no less isolated than
the dwelling of the monk. The sumptuousness of our palatial homes is
no less jagged than the naked walls of his cave. With God's help we
will  arise, and cry aloud in the middle of the night, "Lord Jesus Christ
have mercy on me!". May God bless us with the warmth of His Grace
in our hearts, in that moment!

"My soul waits for the Lord more than the watchmen for the morning;
indeed, more than the watchmen for the morning. O Israel, hope in the
Lord; For with the Lord there is loving-kindness, and with Him is
abundant redemption. And He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities."
Psalm 130:6-8

St John Climacus a Physician for the Soul during Lent

St John Climacus Source

The blessed time of Lent is very near. In Orthodox monasteries
around the world, The Ladder of Divine Ascent by St John 

Climacus is read out loud during the common meals. Orthodox laymen also read it for their edification.

The writings of our holy Father among the saints, John,  are
the expression of his life in Christ and the fruit of many years
of observations as a spiritual father in the Monastery of
St. Catherine, in the desert of Sinai, Egypt.

St John truly, profoundly, knows human nature both in virtue
 and in spiritual illness. He is able to diagnose both the illness
and the cure for all the maladies that affect man. His wisdom
is universal and timeless.

His words are like sharp and precise surgical knives effectivelyremoving the cancers from our souls. Reading his words hurts but if this pain is accepted and endured with patience, if one follows the treatment prescribed by this physician of the soul,the end result will be wholeness and eternal life.

I can't help being in awe when I read;

“Simplicity is a constant habit of soul that has become

immune to crafty thinking. 

Guilelessness is a joyous state of soul far removed from all

ulterior motive. 

Guile is a perversion of honesty, a deluded way of thinking,

a lying disposition, false oaths, ambiguous words, a dark

secrecy of heart, an abyss of cunning, deceit that has become

habit, conceit turned into nature, a foe to humility, a pretense

of repentance, an estrangement from mourning, hostility to 

confession, a teacher of willfulness, a cause of falls, a hindrance

to resurrection, a smiling at offences, affected frowning, sham

reverence, diabolical life.” 

St John Climacus in The Ladder of Divine Ascent, p.146-147,

Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Brookline MA 1979

Spanish translation by David Robles:
“La sencillez es un hábito constante del alma que se ha vuelto

inmune al pensamiento astuto. 

La inocencia es un estado feliz del alma libre de todas segundas

intenciones.

La astucia es una perversión de la honestidad, una manera ilusa 

de pensar, una disposición mentirosa, falsos juramentos, palabras

ambiguas, un secreto oscuro del corazón, un abismo de sagacidad, 

el engaño que se ha convertido en hábito, la presunción convertida

en carácter, un enemigo de la humildad, una pretensión de 

arrepentimiento, el distanciamiento del lamento (espiritual), la 

hostilidad a la confesión, una maestra de testarudez, una causa de

caídas, un obstáculo para la resurrección, sonreirse cuando 

ofendido, un ceñudo afectado, reverencia fingida, una vida diabólica."
San Juan Clímaco

The Jesus Prayer Method by Archimandrite Sophrony of Essex