Following the Footsteps of the Invisible - St Diadochus of Photikê

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St Diadochus of Photikê is one of the two Church Fathers 
recommended to St Symeon the New Theologian by his spiritual
father - St Symeon the Pious, the other being St Mark the Ascetic.
St Diadochus, a fifth century Father, is also considered to be the
earliest Church Father that mentions the Jesus Prayer in his 
writings. Therefore his importance for the proper understanding
and practice of the Jesus Prayer is immense.
Fr. Cliff Ermatinger has made a significant contribution to the 
theological field of Patristics with this book, the first translation of
the complete works of St Diadochus into English. 
In Chapter 57 of the Discourses on Judgment and Spiritual
Discernment p.94 St Diadochus states, "The one who dwells 
in the depths of his own heart escapes from this life's 
enchantments, for walking according to the Spirit, he cannot
know the desires of the flesh. Such a person walks ahead in 
strength of virtue, finding in those virtues the sentinels of the
fortress of purity. In this way the devils machinations against
him result ineffective, even should his darts of vulgar love - so to
say - penetrate the gates of his nature."


St Diadochus continues in Chapter 85. "If one were to think that 
because we have both good and evil thoughts, both the Holy Spirit
and the devil dwell together in the intellect, let him understand that
this occurs because we have neither tasted nor seen how good the
Lord is. In the first place, to be sure, and as I have said above, 
grace hides its presence in the baptized, awaiting the soul's
movement. When the entire person turns toward the Lord, then
she (grace), in an ineffable movement, manifests her presence
in the heart and awaits once again the soul's movement, 
permitting that the devil's darts penetrate unperceived unto the 
most intimate sense, so that even in a more fervent resolve and
humble disposition, the soul seeks God. For the rest, if the person
begins to advance in the observance of the commandments and
continuously invokes the Lord, then the fire of holy grace
spreads even to the external senses of his heart, burning the chaff
of the human soil completely. Thus, even the demonic darts land
far from these parts and only lightly pierce the passionate part of
the soul. Finally, when the combatant has dressed himself in all
the virtues and, above all, perfect poverty, then grace illumines
all of his nature with an ever deeper sentiment, setting it ablaze
with great love for God. From that moment onward, the demonic
bowshots are extinguished outside of the body's senses. Thus
the breeze of the Holy Spirit which moves the heart toward the 
winds of peace extinguishes even those demon-borne fiery darts
in midair."


Fr Cliff then writes in p.32 or the Introduction, "Here the role of the
Jesus Prayer and its part in the reintegration of the sense is laid
out: Fidelity to God's commandments makes the invocation 
of the Holy Name (Jesus Christ - emphasis mine) fruitful. The 
Name brings about the memory of God, which, in turn, prepares 
the path to union with God. St Diadochus often mentions obedience
to God's commandments and the invocation of Jesus / mnêmê 
theou in relation to each other. To attempt such obedience or
recollection is only possible for those under the Holy Spirit's
influence, for it is a realization of the second baptismal gift. 
Baptismal grace bestows two gifts on the soul: a renewal of 
one's status as image of God and the opportunity to restore
the divine likeness. In bestowing the second gift, infinitely 
surpassing the first, the Holy Spirit hopes to bring about (this 
transformation) with our cooperation."
From, Following the Footsteps of the Invisible, The Complete
Works of Diadochus of Photikê, Introduction, Translation and 
Notes by Cliff Ermatinger, Cistercian Publications 2010  

St Symeon the New Theologian- A Guide to the Heart

St Symeon the New Theologian Source

Commemorated on March 12

Saint Simeon the New Theologian was born in the year 949 in the city
of Galatea (Paphlagonia), and he was educated at Constantinople.
His father prepared him for a career at court, and for a certain while
the youth occupied a high position at the imperial court. When he was
fourteen, he met the renowned Elder Simeon the Pious at the Studion
Monastery, who would be a major influence in his spiritual develop-
ment. He remained in the world for several years preparing himself for
the monastic life under the Elder's guidance, and finally entered the
monastery at the age of twenty-seven. St Simeon the Pious
recommended to the young man the writings of St Mark the Ascetic
(March 5) and other spiritual writers. He read these books attentively
and tried to put into practice what he read.
Three points made by St Mark in his work "On the Spiritual Law"
(see Vol. I of the English Philokalia) particularly impressed him. First,
you should listen to your conscience and do what it tells you if you
wish your soul to be healed (Philokalia, p. 115). Second, only by
fulfilling the commandments can one obtain the activity of the Holy
Spirit. Thirdly, one who prays only with the body and without spiritual
knowledge is like the blind man who cried out, "Son of David, have
mercy upon me (Luke 18:38) (Philokalia p. 111). When the blind man
received his sight, however, he called Christ the Son of God
(John 9:38). St Simeon was wounded with a love for spiritual beauty,
and tried to acquire it. In addition to the Rule given him by his Elder,
his conscience told him to add a few more Psalms and prostrations,
and to repeat constantly, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me."
Naturally, he heeded his conscience. During the day, he cared for the
needs of people living in the palace of Patricius. At night, his prayers
grew longer and he remained praying until midnight. Once, as he was
praying in this way, a most brilliant divine radiance descended upon
him and filled the room. He saw nothing but light all around him, and
he was not even aware of the ground beneath his feet. It seemed to
him that he himself became light. Then his mind rose upward to the
heavens, and he saw a second light brighter than the light which
surrounded him. Then, on the edge of this second light, he seemed
to see St Simeon the Pious, who had given him St Mark the Ascetic
to read. Seven years after this vision, St Simeon entered the
monastery. There he increased his fasting and vigilance, and learned
to renounce his own will.

The Enemy of our salvation stirred up the brethren of the monastery
against St Simeon, who was indifferent to the praises or reproaches
of others. Because of the increased discontent in the monastery, St
Simeon was sent to the Monastery of St Mamas in Constantinople.
There he was tonsured into the monastic schema, and increased his
spiritual struggles. He attained to a high spiritual level, and increased
his knowledge of spiritual things through reading the Holy Scriptures
and the writings of the Fathers, as well as in conversation with holy
Elders.
Around the year 980, St Simeon was made igumen of the monastery
of St Mamas and continued in this office for twenty-five years. He
repaired and restored the monastery, which had suffered from neglect,
and also brought order to the life of the monks. The strict monastic
discipline, for which St Simeon strove, led to great dissatisfaction
among the brethren. Once, after Liturgy, some of the monks attacked
him and nearly killed him. When the Patriarch of Constantinople
expelled them from the monastery and wanted to hand them over to
the civil authorities, St Simeon asked that they be treated with
leniency and be permitted to live in the world. About the year 1005,
St Simeon resigned his position as Igumen in favor of Arsenius, while
he himself settled near the monastery in peace. There he composed
his theological works, portions of which appear in the Philokalia.
The chief theme of his works is the hidden activity of spiritual
perfection, and the struggle against the passions and sinful thoughts.
He wrote instructions for monks:"Theological and Practical Chapters,"
 "A Treatise on the Three Methods of Prayer," (in Vol. IV of the English
Philokalia) and "A Treatise on Faith." Moreover, St Simeon was an
outstanding church poet. He also wrote "Hymns of Divine Love,"
about seventy poems filled with profound prayerful meditations. The
sublime teachings of St Simeon about the mysteries of mental prayer
and spiritual struggle have earned him the title "the New Theologian."
These teachings were not the invention of St Simeon, but they had
merely been forgotten over time. Some of these teachings seemed
unacceptable and strange to his contemporaries.
This led to conflict with Constantinople's church authorities, and St
Simeon was banished from the city. He withdrew across the
Bosphorus and settled in the ancient monastery of St Makrina.
The saint peacefully fell asleep in the Lord in the year 1021. During
his life he received the gift of working miracles. Numerous miracles
also took place after his death; one of them was the miraculous
discovery of his icon. His Life was written by his cell-attendant and
disciple, St Nicetas Stethatos. Since March 12 falls during Great
Lent, St Simeon's Feast is transfered to October 12.Source


This is the story of how St. Symeon the New Theologian met his
spiritual father, St Symeon Eulabes (The Pious). "This story
illustrates the close bond uniting the master and the disciple, and
how such love overcomes all fear. It also shows that before choosing
and following a spiritual father one must first believe in him;
It was he (St Symeon the Pious), who invited Symeon to follow him.
'Come, my child I will lead you to God'. When Symeon hesitated, his
spiritual father told him: 'Light a great fire, that I may pass into the
center: do not follow me if I do not remain untouched! 'These words
confused me', Simeon wrote, 'and I did what he had commanded.
And the flame burned and he stood in its center, intact, unconsumed,
and he called me to him. I said I'm afraid master, I am a sinner! He
advanced, came to me and embraced me saying , Why were you
afraid? Why this fear and trembling? This is a great and frightening
wonder: you will see even greater things!' Finally to subdue Symeon's
fear, his spiritual master made him approach: 'He enfolded me with
his arms, and he kissed me again with a holy kiss, and he yielded a
fragrance of immortality. I believed, I chose to follow him, and I
desired to become his slave, his alone."
Archbishop Basil Krivocheine, In The Light of Christ, p.98-99, SVS Press 1986.


That We Must Seek a True Physician of the Soul

"7.Seek out one who is, if you will, an intercessor, physician and a
good counselor. A good counselor, that he may propose ways of
repentance which agree with good advice. A physician that he may
prescribe medicine which is appropriate for each of your wounds, and
finally an intercessor, that he may propitiate God by standing before
Him face to face and offering Him prayer and intercession on your
behalf. Do not try to go and find some flatterer or slave to his belly
and make him your counselor and ally lest, accomodating himself to
your will and not to what God wants, he teach you what you want to
hear and leave you in reality an unreconciled enemy. Nor should you
choose an inexperienced physycian lest, by extreme severity and
untimely operations and cauterizations, he plunge you into the depths
of despair or - and this is the worst possible course - allow you by
inappropriate sympathy to think that you are getting better when in 
fact you are still ailing, and so deliver you over to what you had
hoped to avoid, I mean to eternal punishment. For this course of
action does no more than furnish us with the illness that is already
killing the soul. From 'St Symeon the New Theologian On the Mystical Life:
The Ethical Discourses' by Alexander Golitzin : Letter on Confession,  p.193,
St Vladimir Seminary Press 2007.

"Hymn 57
I am held captive by darkness and I see the truth
which is nothing but certain hope.
What kind, therefore, of hope?
Such as eyes have not seen.
In what does it consist?
It is life, which every man desires.
But this life, what is it if not God, the Creator of all?
Love Him and hate the world!
The world is death for what does it possess
that is lasting?

Hymn 41
You know my poverty, my abandonment,
You know my isolation, You see my weakness and infirmity.
O God, who have made me,
You do not ignore me, but You have a concern for me
and You know all things.
Look at my humble heart, look at my contrite heart.
Look at me as I approach you in despair, my God.
And from on high give me Your grace, give me Your Divine Spirit!"
From Hymns of Divine Love by St Symeon the New Theologian, Introduction
and Translation by George A. Maloney S.J.  p.287 and 209, Dimension Books,
Denville, New Jersey

God is Greater Than Our Environment

Parable of the Good Samaritan in the Church of Panagia Dexia
Thessaloniki, Greece


I would like to share a few selections (with a few abridgments) from
a book which is perhaps one of the most significant Orthodox
writings I have ever read. Mrs. Pennock knows the Church Fathers
and has an unparalleled ability to explain them. For those willing to
listen, reading this book can be a life changing experience. I am
most grateful to her for broadening my perspective and understan-
ding. I urge everyone reading this post, do not deprive yourself of
the blessing of reading this book and get your copy asap!


Selections from chaper 5 ‘God is Greater than your Environment’
Path to Sanity, Dee Pennock, , Life & Life Publishing Company
2010, ISBN 978-1-933654-26-3

Note:
The new edition of this book is entitled, God's Path to Sanity:
Lessons from Ancient Holy Counselors on How to Have a Sound Mind
by Dee Pennock  This book is available from Light & Life 

Publishers.  Available here 


Using your environment as a way to justify any problems or weak-
nesses you might not want to see in yourself, or might not want others
to see in you, lets you always be seen as standing in the ‘right’ place.
So with the system of self-justification that much modern psychology
gives us, what happens? Psychological and spiritual paralysis is
what happens. If you are standing in the ‘right’ place, why move?
It’s only if you see yourself standing in the wrong place that you are
going to want to change and move to where you think you should be.


Let’s look at the saints who have chosen as their environment the
Lord Jesus Christ. People who are all redeemed from their earthly
environments (and even from their inborn passions), who have not
remained spiritually affected by them. People whose souls have
been shaped by God, not by their earthly environments. God
becomes your environment by your own use of your free will in
desiring Him, and by His loving and abundant responsive Grace.


Then haven’t our families and environments anything to do with
shaping us? Yes, obviously they have, depending upon how much
we accept or reject their influence. Many of the people who served
God had to endure abusive environments to prepare them for their
calling. One was Joseph, who was sold to be a bond-servant…”Until
the time came when his cause was known, the word of the Lord tried
him” Psalm 105:17-19.


It is no different today. Our circumstances are connected with our
calling. “As the Lord placed Joseph in Egypt in the position to feed
his brethren in time of famine, so he placed you in the position to
serve the community”. St Barsanuphius


Your environment is given to maximize your discovery of what and
who you are, to maximize your realization of your sin and need for
God, to maximize your incentive to reach out to Him and receive
“Christ in you, the hope of glory”. Col. 1:27


We never inquire into God’s reasons for giving others their particular
environments or providential circumstances that may be puzzling to
our carnal way of thinking. Even when Peter asked Him about John,
 “And what shall this man do? Jesus said to him, If I will that he tarry
until I come, what is that to you? You come and follow me".
John 21:21-22.


Look at your own environment and the people in it, to see how God
means for you to use that environment and what it can reveal to you
about yourself. Environment can have wonderful influences in your
various accomplishments….but environment HAS NO EFFECT AT
ALL on the sins and passions you retain inside yourself. So we may
not blame persons in our environment for anything that is spiritually
wrong with us, for any weaknesses or faults we may have, nor for
any of the passions that afflict us.


Take the passion of anger. Someone says, “I know I lose my temper
too much. But I’m living with a man so unreasonable it would try the
patience of a saint”. But nobody can elicit anger in you if there is no
anger in you to inflame- as we see from the saints who experienced
abuse and martyrdom without any anger.


“Many passions are hidden in our souls, but they are discovered only
when the object or cause which arouses them appears” Hesychius of
Jerusalem


“The reason for our anger springs from our own impatience, but not
from the fault of the brethren. And while we lay blame for our anger on
others, we shall never be able to reach the goal of patience”.
John Cassian


Do you see the point? Our environments and persons who bring our
passions into the spotlight have only shown that the passions are
there. They haven’t created any passions that weren’t already
present in us.


“For no one is ever driven to sin by being provoked to another’s fault,
unless he has the fuel of evil stored up in his own heart”. John Cassian


The passion of anger is what matters; how it got stirred up is irrelevant,
because the craving was already there. Our environment doesn’t
create our passions. It only gives us a chance to discover them.


If we have persons in our environment who cause our inborn passions
to flare up in an obvious way, it can be a blessing for us. This distur-
bance, like the angel’s troubling of the water in the pool of Bethesda
(John 5:2-9), can send us into the pool of God’s mercy for help.
Without such trouble we might not have stepped in and been healed.


Healing is the purpose of conditions that reveal our passions… If a
sin is not yours, you can’t repent and be healed of it. We can’t be
healed of someone else’s sin, only of our own. If we disown our sin
and make it somebody else’s, then we never become free of it. This
is something the saints emphasize. You will never end any psycholo-
gical unpleasantness by blaming others. No matter how overwhelming
the evidence may appear, our psychological and spiritual state of
being is not related to anyone else’s sin but our own. Our own sin we
can handle with repentance; the sin of others we can’t. Faith in this
truth eventually brings perfect freedom, quietness, peace of soul.


Listen to what the saints teach. They say that whenever you keep
feeling bothered by someone, tempted to impatience or anger or
revenge, it’s not because of the sin in the other person. No, it’s NEVER
because of the sin in others; it is ALWAYS because of the sin in you.


Very often, some passion or self-indulgent motive in you has been
inviting the offense. Or slipping into a wrong relationship. Or refusing
to go where God is trying to lead you. Or being touchy, wanting to be
in control, not having patience- or just a need to notice your own sin.


You will find that repentance always works, enlightenment always
comes, and the circumstances are always changed. The practice of
looking for your own sin, when somebody else’s sin seems to be the
one that’s bothering you, will bring you this reward:


It will put you, and not the other person, in control of the situation- in
control that is, of your own soul and the peace there will be in it.


“For confusion arises within us. It does not come from the nature of
circumstances, but from the infirmity of our minds. If we were
disturbed because of what befalls us, then all people would have to
be troubled. For we all sail the same sea; it is impossible to escape
the waves and the spray.


But if there are some who stand beyond the influence of the storm
and the raging sea, then it is clear that it is not the outward
circumstances which make the storm within us. Rather, it is the
disposition or condition of our own minds.


Therefore, we should so order the mind that it may bear all things
contentedly in Christ. Then we shall have no storm, nor even a
ripple, within us but always a clear and steady calm”.
St John Chrysostom


If we don’t or we won’t see our own sins, we retain in ourselves
that profound ignorance known as the passion of PRIDE.
(Remember that’s ignorance of yourself and of your need for God).
Without somebody stirring up our sin, we could remain ignorant of
it, blinded by that pride.


“If passions are inactive merely because the causes which arouse
them are removed (absent), pride follows”. Hesychius
 Trials that seem at the time to be harming us, they say, will be the
means of saving us if we let them draw us to God in repentance.


“Look to the end of every involuntary suffering, and you will find
in it the removal of sins”. Mark the Ascetic


To be free we have to take full responsibility for what we are
spiritually, to leave no blame on anyone or anything else.


“None can harm him who will not harm himself”.
John Chrysostom


Selections from Chaper 6 ‘The Passion that Enslaves the Will’,
(VAINGLORY and SELF-LOVE) emphasis mine.


Vainglory (meaning empty glory) causes what the saints call man-
pleasing or people-pleasing. It makes us want to do everything we
can to please other people, in order to win their admiration and thus
bring a sort of ‘glory’ to ourselves. Within that slavery, which is
people-pleasing, a person is shut off from obeying and serving God.


Social isolation is a common outcome of this passion of people-
pleasing. It comes from two things. First the audiences cause it, by
rejecting the performance. They sense no real friendliness in people-
pleasers, only a vainglorious display of interest that doesn’t come
across as natural- because it’s not natural.


Second the people-pleasers do their own separation from others.
They are trying to use others to satisfy their craving for approval.
When audiences are not applauding, praising them…-when that
happens, they don’t care for those audiences….The larger isolation
hanging over souls immersed in vainglory is isolation from God.
That’s because love is never present with vainglory.


“A person who has been illumined through love is never puffed up
by the spirit of vanity: but a person who has not attained to it is
easily swayed by the latter”.Maximus the Confessor


Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery because of the selfishness
in their hearts. VAINGLORY is like Joseph’s brothers. It has the
same selfishness motivating it. And it sells us into the slavery of
people-pleasing. The name of that underlying selfishness is SELF-
LOVE, which is a passionate attachment to one’s own physical
and psychological being. It’s a lust to satisfy the appetites aroused
in the carnal self, weather by bodily or other passions, especially the
passion of vainglory. Vainglory is a powerful motivator, and will often
keep self-love under control, say the saints. They describe monks
whose gluttony urges them to overeat but who, motivated by vainglory
(what people will think) restrain themselves…


A common symptom of lustful self-love, say the saints, is laziness-
being weigh down by the inertia of the flesh, as St Antony calls it.
This laziness fosters restlessness and depression.


….The passion of Self-Love makes people very dissatisfied with
places or persons or circumstances that fail to give them material
pleasures and personal prestige.


SELF-LOVE produces “lovers of their own selves…without natural
affection ( 2 Tim. 3:2-3) It is always characterized by hardness of
heart, by disdain and contempt of others, as John Cassian points
out- especially toward any persons who fail to satisfy one’s thirst for
self-esteem. With self-love people who appear to be kind and
caring (because of vainglory) can easily dismiss the sorrows, fears,
discomfort, and pain of other persons and creatures. There is cruelty
here, as in the hearts of Joseph’s brothers. And a person possessed
by self-love will be taking it all in stride, because it concernsw some
other creature and not oneself.


For those moved by Self-love and vainglory, other people are not
seen and accepted as individuals separate from and other than,
oneself. They are more like clothes a person tries on…are they
comfortable for effortless lounging around? How should they be
altered to fit me better?...


A soul bound in the unhappiness of and pain and isolation of
self-love and vainglory can, like Lazarus bound in his grave clothes,
receive from the Lord a blessed deliverance by praying, perhaps for
a very long time:


Lord Jesus Christ, deliver me from , Self-Love and Vainglory,..... and
give me Love!


Prayer That Brings Self-Discovery

From Chapter 4 p.62


People sometimes pray over and over to be delivered from a bad
habit or an addiction, but are not freed from it. And they become
discouraged when God does not answer their prayer. Here's why
that happens. Whenever prayer is not delivering us from the sin or
addiction we are praying to be rid of, it's because that sin is
anchored by some other sin underneath it, like a boat being held in
check by a submerged weight. For example (as we'll see later on),
underlying an addiction to food or alcohol is the big passion of
Self-Love. So we often need to pray for God to deliver us from
Pride and show us the deeper sin anchoring the one that's a
problem.

When we pray to God to show us what sin is underlying the difficult,
involuntary sin we can't overcome, it will always bring us to some
voluntary sin that we can get hold of and repent, an anchor we're able
to pull up. In that way, even persons who are very weak, say the saints,
will find a point where they can begin to turn themselves around and
change the whole course of  their lives. Mark the Ascetic writes,
"According to Scripture, the cause of all sin that is involuntary lies in
what is voluntary".


"He who is drawn away by sin against his will ought to understand that
he is being mastered by some other previous sin, which he serves
willingly, and is hence-forward led under its power even to things which
he does not wish." Basil the Great

God's Path to Sanity: Lessons from Ancient Holy Counselors on How to Have a Sound Mind
by Dee Pennock

Format: Soft Bound

Description:
This book brings the reader together with holy physicians of the soul in ancient Christian Traditions, offering superbly clear examples of the patristic method of diagnosing and healing many disorders of the soul that are now being widely treated with brain-crippling drugs. Addresses violent mood swings, uncontrollable willfulness, anger, depression, suicidal urges, ambivalence in decision-making, built-in self-defeating programs, ignorance of oneself, inability to control thoughts, being "possessed" by passions, compulsive physical appetites, social isolation, inability to love and feel loved, demonstrating just what the Fathers say about recovering sanity in the love of Christ. The author, a Stanford graduate and a veteran editor and author, worked at Harvard with Fr. Georges Florovsky. Early reviewers have dubbed this book a "must read" for spiritual health and sanity. Discussion questions have been added at the end of each chapter.

Available here