Adam's Nakedness, the False Self, and Narcissism

Lent is approaching. It is a school of repentance. It gives us the opportunity and resources to deal with the problem of self love. In fact, this is so important that the first prayers we encounter at the beginning of lent are the prayers of the Canon of St Andrew of Crete. This Canon painstakingly describes our fallenness, shame and need.

The problem of malignant self love is as old as humanity itself. In the case of narcissists, the intensity of self love and the denial of their brokenness reaches toxic proportions and the narcissists leave a wave of destruction in their wake.

But they are not the only ones facing the dilemma of what to do when confronted with the fact of their own nakedness and brokenness. Adam realized that he was naked after eating of the fruit. The pleasure of eating what was forbidden was followed by the pain of the awareness of his own destitute state. And he could not bear it. Adam could not look at it. He refused to accept his nakedness and go to God in repentance to be clothed. Instead, Adam covered himself with leaves. He created an illusion to hide the reality of who he was. Of course this false mask is utterly rejected by God. It is an abomination.

The Lord Himself warned about this when he approached the fig tree and found only leaves. He did this in direct reference to Adam. And He cursed the leafy fig tree for not bearing fruit. The tree was externally beautiful enough to be inviting, to give the impression of health. But on closer look, it was empty. It had no fruit. This is unacceptable to God. And the Lord cursed it.

There is a point in our Christian walk when we are all confronted with who we really are. This is a crucial moment. The true spiritual life begins at the moment when we see the horror of our spiritual destitution and decide. We must choose. Do we run to God to be clothed, to be purified and sanctified, to be granted real holiness; or do we hide our brokenness behind a lie, the make believe creation of our pride and self love?

We must be aware that the garment of leaves, the mask, the lie, the illusion, will be utterly rejected and cursed by God. The choice is ours to make. Lord have mercy!
This is a summary in my own words of the first chapter of the book, The Way of the Spirit, by Archimandrite Aimilianos of Simonopetra.

Watch the video below, for the dynamics of how the false self is created, as a denial and in defense of brokenness.

https://youtu.be/0IIJZ71KbMM

Adam hid behind leaves but that did not work, and God took the leaves off and clothed him.The leafy fig tree was exposed by the Lord and cursed. It died. The Church of Laodicea also was complacent in her image. She could not even see how destitute she was. The Lord calls her, and us, to repentance, to ask God to reveal our nakedness  and sins to us, that we may see and cling to Him for our true Life.

“To the angel in the church of Laodicea write,
Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent."- Revelation 3:17-19

Preconditions for the Orthodox Participation in the Holy Mysteries by Abbott Joseph of Xeropotamou

Abbott Joseph of Xeropotamou,
Mount Athos, Greece Source

The Mysteries or Sacraments of the Church are the very center of the Orthodox life, beginning with Holy Baptism and Chrismation and culminating in Holy Communion. In the Mysteries we meet God Himself and thus we are called to believe and prepare for participation in them, to the salvation of our souls.

In the summer of 2013, Elder Joseph, abbot of Xeropotamou Monastery on Mt. Athos, offered a lecture to a group of American seminarians gathered in the Greek village of Petrokerasa, outside Thessaloniki concerning the "presuppositions" that ought to met in order to participate in the Sacraments of the Church. His words come from his deep experience on Mt. Athos and throughout Greece, addressing contemporary issues in Church practice:

* * *

As all of us should know, and hopefully do know, that just because we are formally Orthodox does not mean we have the right to participate in the Sacraments, or Mysteries, of the Church, but rather, there are preconditions to participation—that is, we are called to prepare ourselves to receive grace and meet the Lord through these Mysteries.

When we say “Mysteries” in the plural, it typically refers to all the other Sacraments except for the Eucharist, which holds a place of distinction of its own, being the very summit of the Christian life. Unfortunately we have many secularized Christians who do not ascend this height, but rather go to church but to light a candle, or to services such as Weddings and Baptisms and funerals, and perhaps even Nativity and Pascha, but this remains the extent of their life in the Church, especially among the cradles. This tends to be more common among the cradle Orthodox. I think that this issue is more prevalent in the Greek Church—this is a common conversation among Greek priests—but the way in which we confront and solve this problem could have wider spiritual implications for Orthodox worldwide, for better or worse.

The issue here is the general problem of secularization, where the Mysteries tend to become more or less social events. Even priests, given the way that the Mysteries are celebrated, are unable to pray, because no one else is praying or paying attention. Even the priest is affected. One issue here is that the Mysteries were formerly celebrated during the Divine Liturgy, but with their separation came a degradation of proper piety and approach. If the Sacraments would return to the Liturgy, which would mean tremendous liturgical changes, then they could once again properly serve as boundaries of the Church.

Of course the Church does have its boundaries which are not confused or blurred: the Orthodox faith and indeed the Mysteries, firstly Holy Baptism. That which confuses the boundaries is that there are those faithful who commune and those who remain outside of communion—the ex-communicants. A lack of faith, lack of catechizing, and general worldliness are the causes of these lukewarm Christians staying away from the Eucharist, coming only for the other Mysteries. They don’t know how to pray; they don’t have or understand proper piety. These are people outside the Church, of the phenomenon of worldliness.

That the Holy Mysteries might not degrade into secularized empty forms, but that the faithful might be truly prepared that the Mysteries might truly impart the grace of the Holy Spirit, there are certain conditions to be met:

1. Celebrants and participants must dispose themselves in a prayerful state of mind;
2. They must understand and believe what they pray—they must have faith;
3. They must adhere to Christian morals and the Patristic and canonical Tradition of the Church—Christ says If you love Me you will keep My commandments, and Divine worship is an expression of love for Christ;
4. Participants must not be ex-communicants (that is, not separated from Christ by grave sin) and must comply with the rules of reverent behavior and apparel in Church

Continues...

Please continue reading from, Pravoslavie.ru

Abba Sisoes the Great, On What to do When One Falls into Sin

Icon of St Sisoes the Great teaching those who went into the desert seeking his advice Source

"A certain brother asked Abba Sisoes:
'Counsel me, Father, for I have fallen to sin. What am I to do?'

The Elder said to him:
'When you fall, get up again.'
With bitterness the sinning brother continued:
'Ah! Father, I got up, yet I fell to the same sin again.'
The Elder, so as not to discourage the brother, answered:
'Then get up again and again.'

The young man asked with a certain despondency:
'How long can I do that, Father?'

The Elder, giving him courage, said to the brother:
'Until the end of your life, whether you be found in the commendable attempt at lifting yourself up from sin or falling again to it.  For wherever it is that a man is found at the last moment of his life on earth, whether it be in things good or evil, there he will be judged, going forth either to punishment or to reward."
St Sisoes the Great in The Evergetinos volume 1, p.6, Edited by Archbishop Chrysostomos and Hieromonk Patapios, Center for Traditionalists Orthodox Studies, 2008

Trusting in God's Providence, by Archimandrite Ephraim of Arizona

Archimandrite Ephraim of St Anthony's, Florence AZ



"You say that your brother was hungry, thirsty, and so on when he was sick, and he blasphemed. You also said that your brother was committing a mortal sin.

God, though, Who is very compassionate, wanted to bring him to a realization of his guilt so that he would repent, so He gave him this illness out of paternal love as a spiritual medication to cure his soul of its illness. 

If you had looked after your brother and offered him every bodily comfort, what pains would he have suffered for God to see and have pity on him? You should realize that the more he was tormented, the more his penalty was lightened!

God gave him the illness and allowed the brethren to neglect their duty towards him so that his conscience would make him feel remorse and repent. He is like a patient who is given medicine by a doctor, but lacks the necessary patience. Thus, he curses and grumbles at the doctor, which only leads to his own demise."

Elder Ephraim of Arizona

Source

Tears of Repentance; Memories of a Taxi Driver in Thessaloniki, Greece

Tears of Repentance is available from St Nicodemos Publications

"Athanasios Katigas of Sykies (suburb of Thessaloniki, Greece), answered the divine call to a life of repentance after the fervent prayers of his quadriplegic childhood friend Savvas, and the sound instruction of a lay preacher, Panagiotis Panagiotides. Thanasi used the therapeutic discipline of our Church, to free himself from the nets of human passions by practicing strict obedience under his seasoned spiritual father Triantafyllos Xeros. Thanasi's love for Christ did not permit him to leave our Lord at home (as most of us do), but he took Him along on his daily route as a Cab driver. Thanasi's zeal for the word of God initiated hundreds of spiritual conversations, awakenings and transformations in his cab, with clients from all walks of life. Thanasi's genuine simplicity, a simplicity likened to the fishermen of Galilee served as pure oxygen for hundreds of souls that shared the space of his taxi, some battered and gasping for air from the oxidants of the secular lifestyle. In "The Tears of Repentance", printed multiple times in Greece, and hailed by dozens of Bishops, Thanasi relives some of the most intriguing personal and life changing encounters in his 25 year taxi career.

The translation rights were assigned to St. Nicodemos Publications and by the joined effort of Fr. N. Palis/C.Zalalas and not a few volunteers, the Anglophone readers will highly rejoice and find much encouragement in their own journey by contemplating on the power of Christ's word who often bypasses trained theologians "choosing the foolish things in the world to shame the wise" (Cf. 1 Cor. 1:27).

Softcover, 255 pages, published by Saint Nicodemos Publications, October 2015.

$21 per copy, includes free shipping in the Continental United States only.
Churches, Organizations, Monasteries 40% discount with a 10 book minimum."

On Repentance by St Silouan the Athonite

Archimandrite Sophrony and his Elder,  St Silouan the Athonite (sitting)

"The truly repentant man readily bears every affliction - hunger and nakedness,  cold and heat,  sickness and poverty,  humiliation and exile,  injustice and slander; for his soul is turned with longing towards God,  and he has no care for earthly things but prays to God with a pure mind.

But the man who is attached to worldly goods and riches can never have a pure mind in God,  since in the depths of his soul he is constantly preoccupied with his possessions; and if he does not repent wholeheartedly,  and mourn at having grieved God,  he will die bearing the burden of his passions,  without having come to know the Lord."  St Silouan the Athonite
From St Silouan the Athonite by Archimandrite Sophrony of Essex, p. 349, translated by Rosemary Edmonds, SVS Press, Crestwood NY, 1991

St Silouan the Athonite (sitted) and his disciple Archimandrite Sophrony (behind his left shoulder)

What the Last Judgment will be like, when Christ Returns

Icon of the Last Judgment

Our Lord Jesus Christ who is God's only begotten Son,  lived, died,  and was risen from the dead for the total healing of man (not just so that man could escape death and hell). He was not trying to appease an angry Father. God the Father was never our enemy. It was us who were in enmity with Him.

The Grace of God is experienced by the righteous and the sinners in a different way, even in this life! As we can read in the Book of Daniel, there flows a river of Fire from the throne of God. At the last judgment all mankind will experience God in this Fire. In the Gospel of St Mark 9:49, we read, "For everyone shall be salted with fire.. ", "that is,  shall be tested. Paul also says that all things shall be tried by fire, 1 Corinthians 3:13." (Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria in The Explanation of the Gospel of St Mark p. 80).

The righteous, the saved,  that is,  those who love God and want to be united to Him; will see the Fire as light and blessedness. The sinners and lost,  that is, those who love their sin and refuse to repent will experience Fire, Darkness and Torment.

Ultimately Heaven and Gehenna are the same Reality,  the Uncreated  Energy of God; the Grace and Glory of God in Uncreated Light,  which will be blessedness for the saved and torment for the lost.

Today is the day of salvation. We must repent from our sins, and purify our hearts so that on the day of judgment we may experience God as Light and not as Fire.

The biblical basis for this truth is found in the book of Daniel. The Prophet writes in Daniel 7:9-10,

"I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.

10 A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand of thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened."

St Basil the Great (see Note)  explains, "the nature of the fire will be divided, and the light will be assigned for the pleasure of the just, but also for the painful burning of those punished"

This is what the Psalms mean when we read, Psalm 29:7 "The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire."

Lord have mercy! We must be prepared, before the Lord comes in His Glory.

For more on this subject please read,  The River of Fire by Dr Alexander Kalomiros

Note
St Mark of Ephesus in Oratio Altera page 59, quotes St Basil's Hexaemeron, 6,"the nature of the fire will be divided, and the light will be assigned for the pleasure of the just, but also for the painful burning of those punished"

The Sunday of Desire

                                    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 dirt floor where he stands is littered with loose rocks. Years ago he managed to gather some wood that had been thrown away, 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

Tomorrow Sunday is Zacchaeus' Sunday. Fr Alexander Schmemann, in his book,Great Lent: Journey to Pascha reminds us that, "long before the actual effort of Lent is to begin, the Church calls our attention to its seriousness and invites us to meditate on its significance. Before we can practice Lent we are given its meaning. This preparation includes five consecutive Sundays preceding Lent , each one of them - through its particular Gospel lesson - dedicated to some fundamental aspect of repentance.

The very first announcement of Lent is made the Sunday on which the Gospel lesson about Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10) is read. It is the story of a man who was too short to see Jesus but who desired so much to see Him that he climbed up a tree. Thus the theme of this first announcement is desire...Man follows his desire...A strong desire overcomes the natural limitations of man; when he passionately desires something he does things of which normally he is incapable. Being 'short' he overcomes and transcends himself.

Zacchaeus desired the right thing; he wanted to see and approach Christ. He is the first symbol of repentance, for repentance begins as the discovery of the deep nature of all desire: the desire for God and His righteousness, for the true life...And if we desire deeply enough, strongly enough, Christ will respond."p.17-p.18, Great Lent: Journey to Pascha by Fr Alexander Schmemann, St Vladimir Seminary Press, 1996 ISBN 0-913836-04-4

During the coming 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

The Cry that the Lord Answers

Prophet Isaiah's Vision by Dore

"6 Is this not the fast which I choose,
To loosen the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the bands of the yoke,
And to let the oppressed go free
And break every yoke? (How amazing this verse is! God clearly states that what pleases Him the most is repentance, to forsake evil and the passions, acquire virtue, and thus be freed from the bondage and yoke of sin)

7 Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry
And bring the homeless poor into the house;
When you see the naked, to cover him;
And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

8 Then your light will break out like the dawn,
And your recovery will speedily spring forth;
And your righteousness will go before you;
The glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.

9 “Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’

(In Brenton's Septuagint this verse reads, 'Then
shalt thou cry, and God shall hearken to thee; 

while thou art yet speaking He will say, Behold,

I am here.')

If you remove the yoke from your midst,
The pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness,
(God mentions two sins that particularly deprive man
from His Grace, His Presence and His response; judging 
and accusing another, and speaking wickedness which
includes slander, gossip, lying and false witness)

10 And if you give yourself to the hungry
And satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
Then your light will rise in darkness
And your gloom will become like midday."
Isaiah 58:10 NASB

St Cyprian of Carthage comments,

"Finally, beloved brethren, the divine admonition of the scriptures old as well as new, has never failed, has never been silent in urging God's people always and everywhere to works of mercy. And in the strain and exhortation of the Holy Spirit, everyone who is instructed into the hope of the heavenly kingdom is commanded to give alms."

and St John Chrysostom writes,

...God stands continually waiting, if any of His servants should perchance call Him; and never, when we have called as we ought, hath He refused to hear. Therefore He saith, 'While thou art yet speaking', I do not wait for thee to finish, and I straightway hearken"

from The Lives of the Holy Prophets, p.143, published by Holy Apostles Convent 1998,

ISBN 0-944359-12-4

The Lord's goodness toward us is indescribable. Even 
before we have been able to offer Him fruits worthy of
repentance, if we have mercy on the poor, clothe the
naked and feed the hungry; the Lord will hear our prayer.
He will quickly respond to our cry.

"Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy"
The Gospel of St Matthew 5:7 KJV

On Atonement by Fr John Peck

Icon of Christ bearing His Cross inside the Church of Panagia Dexia
Thessaloniki, Greece

"Christ unites us all. Christ heals the rift between God and man,

because he IS the healing of that rift. His crucifixion destroyed sin. 

His death destroys death. Uniting ourselves to him heals us of every

infirmity and makes up whatever is weak and lacking. Christ heals.

That is Atonement. That is Salvation. The healing and re-integration

of the human person, body, soul and spirit. And to access this grace,

we need to access Him. And how do we do that? Today’s Gospel tells

us. Humility. Repentance."

From Fr John's Post Some Profound Heresies on Atonement

To read this post in its totality please visit Fr John Peck's Blog

Do Not Lose Heart, There is Hope, and it is Christ

St. Ephraim the Syrian 14th c. (Panselinos) Source

"Do not lose heart, O soul, do not grieve; pronounce not over

thyself a final judgement for the multitude of thy sins; do not

commit thyself to fire; do not say: The Lord has cast me from

His face. 

Such words are not pleasing to God. Can it be that he who has

fallen cannot get up? Can it be that he who has turned away

cannot turn back again? Does thou not hear how kind the 

Father is to a prodigal?

Do not be ashamed to turn back and say boldly: I will arise and

go to my Father. Arise and go!

He will accept thee and will not reproach thee, but rather

rejoice at thy return. He awaits thee; just do not be ashamed

and do not hide from the face of God as did Adam.

It was for thy sake that Christ was crucified; so will He cast 

thee aside? He knows who oppresses us. He knows that we have

no other help but Him alone.

Christ knows that man is miserable. Do not give thyself up to

despair and apathy, assuming that thou hast been prepared for

the fire. Christ derives no consolation from thrusting us into the

fire; He gains nothing if He sends us into the abyss to be

tormented.

Imitate the prodigal son: leave the city that starves thee. Come

and beseech Him and thou shalt behold the glory of God. Thy

face shall be enlightened and thou wilt rejoice in the sweetness

of paradise. Glory to the Lord and Lover of mankind Who saves

us."

From 'A Spiritual Psalter' No. 27 p.54, excerpted by Bishop

Theophan the Recluse from the works of our Holy Father

Ephraim the Syrian, Trans. by Br. Isaac E. Lambertsen, 

The St. John of Kronstadt Press, Liberty TN 1997

ISBN 0-912927-40-2

 Image Source

A Spiritual Psalter is available from St John of Kronstadt Press

It has been my favorite prayer and devotional book for years.

Homily by Metropolitan Athanasius of Limassol, Cyprus

Metropolitan Athanasius of Limassol, Cyprus

Curing the Sickness of Pharisaism

From OODE
Transcript of a tape-recorded homily by
Metropolitan Athanasius of Limassol, Cyprus
Transcript by: U.D.
Audio file source



Most people know that the famous "Fr. Maximos" in the well known book "Mountain of Silence" is the Metropolitan of Lemessos, Athanasios. He was a monk on Athos, who had the opportunity to spend time with such holy elders as Elders Paisios and Ephraim of Katounakia and others. He was, at the time of the writing of the book, the abbot of the monastery of the "Panaghia Machera". Since then he was consecrated bishop of Lemessos (or Limassol). His Eminence gives talks almost weekly and these talks - in the thousands - have now circled the globe, being reproduced by his spiritual children.



Metropolitan Athanasios:

“Having promised yesterday that we would say a few words on the topic, I will say a few things, just so that I won't be untrue to yesterday's promise.


As a follow-up to all those things, one wonders: all these things that take place - everything that we do - our pilgrimages, our candles, our night-vigils, our prayers, our fasts, our gestures of charity - everything that we do in our life - are for what purpose and what is the reason that we do them? The answer to this question is very important, because our correct or incorrect spiritual life is dependent on it.



Let me give you an example: I ask the children at the summer camps that we have now: "what is God's greatest commandment? What is God's most important commandment, my children?" And all the children - all of them - quote various commandments: do not steal...do not lie....do not be unjust to your fellow-man....respect your parents.... how should I know?......love your neighbour... but not one child has suspected that none of these commandments is God's first commandment.



People think that the first commandment is "love thy neighbour", and when I'd tell the children "no, that is not the first commandment", a child would reply "yes, yes, I know which one it is...". "Which is it?" I would ask. "Increase and multiply". Well, of course that wasn't the first commandment either, right?



God's first and only commandment - the first and only one, as all the other commandments are the result of this first one - is to love God with all of your heart. Christ Himself said that the first commandment is: "You shall love the Lord your God with all of your soul, with all of your heart, with all of your might and with all of your mind."



And a second commandment - a second one, similar to the first - which springs from within the first commandment - is the one that says "love your neighbour". Everything else is a result of these. If you love your neighbour, you will not rob him, you will not lie to him, you will not be unjust with him, you will not take his things, you will not tamper with his wife, you will not interfere with his home, you will not censure him...that's what we mean by "results of the first commandment". The "love your neighbour" is likewise a result of the first commandment. If you truly love God, it is impossible to not love your neighbour. A person who loves God will have - as a natural result of his love towards God - a love towards his brethren also.



Therefore, the first and only commandment by God is to love God Himself with all our heart. Subsequently, whatever we do in church, has that precise purpose. And that is why we go to pilgrimages, why we fast, why we pray, why we go to confession, why we light candles, why we read the lives of saints, why we do everything: it is our way of loving Christ.



Now, where is the mistake? The mistake is that unfortunately, we say that we do all these things in order to just become good people.... to become better people....and that is where the big hoax lies. It is the step that we all stumble over. Because, if the purpose of the church was just to make us better people, then there wouldn't be any need for a personal relationship with Christ, nor would there be any reason for Christ to have come to the world. Why do you think we aren't able to understand the saints? Or, to say something simpler, why we can't understand those who love God.



We tend to say "is it necessary to do this thing in order to be saved - to be near to God? Is it necessary -let's say- to depart to the mountains? Must we go and do all these things?" Of course not. It is not a necessity. If we could understand that our relationship with God is not only for the sake of salvation, but is a relationship of love, only then will we understand the saints also and why they did the things they did (which can't be interpreted rationally). This is because love transcends logic. Even secular love - the way that one person loves another person - for example when one wants to get married he loves his wife; he loves the young lady that he will wed - and the same applies to the young lady - then they do things that seem totally irrational. If -for example- you were to ask her or him who is the most beautiful or handsome one in the world, they will probably say it is their beloved. Naturally, they are seeing the other through their own eyes.... Our eyes see other things.... If, for example, you were to ask her who the best man in the world is, she will describe the man she loves with the finest words. She sees no flaws in him, no faults... she can't see anything bad about him, because love transcends all these things.



Love cannot be forced into the molds of logic. Love is above logic. That is how God's love is. God's love surpasses human logic. That is why we can't judge with logical criteria those people who love God. That is why the saints reacted with a logic of their own - they had a different kind of logic, and not the logic of humans; because their logic was the "logic" of love. So, the church does not teach us just to become good people - not in the least. It is only natural, that we have to become good people, because if we don't, then what have we succeeded in doing? These are nursery school things. Our Church teaches us to love Christ - to love the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.



Inside the church, a relationship develops. It is a personal relationship between man and Christ; not with the teaching of Christ - no - not with the Gospel. The Gospel is something that helps us to reach the point of loving Christ. When we reach that point of loving Christ, the Gospel will no longer be needed. Nothing will be needed...all these things will cease...only man's relationship with God will remain. That is the difference between the church and religion.



Religion teaches you to do your duties, the way the idolaters did. An example: let's say that we went to our pilgrimage sites, paid our respects, left some money in the charity box, left some lit candles, some oil, or even our entreaties, our names, our offering-bread, everything. All these things are religious duties, but our heart has not changed in the least. The hour of duty ends, and we are the same as we were before: we are ready to attack the other, ready to protest about the other, ready to be sour again, the way we were before.... Our heart doesn't change. We do not acquire that relationship with Christ, because we simply confine ourselves to duties - to religious duties.



And you must know that such people - you know, "religious" people - are the most dangerous kind in the church. Those religious people are truly dangerous. May God preserve us from them... Once, when I was officiating in church and we were citing the words "Lord, save the pious...", a Holy Mountain monk jokingly remarked: "Lord, save us from the pious..."... In other words, God save you from those "religious" types, because "religious person" implies a warped personality, which has never had a personal relationship with God. These types [of persons] merely perform their duties towards Him, but without any serious relationship involved and that is why God does not say anything about this type of person. And I too must confess that - from my own experience - I have never seen worse enemies of the church than "religious people".



Whenever the children of religious people, or of priests and theologians - or even of those who in church act like theologians and with self-importance - tried to become monks or priests, they [the parents] became even worse than demons. They would become exasperated with everyone. They became people's worst enemies. I remember parents who would bring their children to homilies, and when their child moved one step further, they became the worst of people, who would say the worst about others. And I would say to them: "but you were the ones who brought the child to the homily; I didn't bring it."



One other time, I told a father whose daughter I could tell had a zeal for the church: "Make sure you don't bring her again to any homily. Don't bring her to talk with me, because your daughter will become a nun and afterwards you will say that I was to blame." He replied: "Oh no, father, far be it! We adore you!" And his daughter did in fact become a nun.... It has been seven years now, and he still isn't talking to me...



People who wouldn't miss a homily - not a single homily... those who were always the first... at homilies, night-vigils, reading books.. I don't know... at doing everything.... they would also bring their children along, but when the time came for the child to exercise its freedom - to decide by itself which path to choose - then those people would move to the extreme opposite camp, thus proving that Christ had never spoken to their hearts.... They were merely "religious people". That is why religious people are the toughest kind in the church. Because you know what? Sometimes, people like these will never be cured, because they only think they are close to God.


Sinners, on the other hand - the "losers", so to speak - at least they know they are sinners. That is why Christ said that publicans and whores will go to the Kingdom of God, whereas to the Pharisees He had said: "You, who are 'religious', shall not enter the Kingdom of God. Because the word of God had never changed your heart." They had merely adhered to the observance of religious formalities.


Therefore, we should all pay close attention and understand that the church is a hospital that cures us and helps us to love Christ, and our love for Christ is a flame that ignites inside our heart so that we can examine ourselves, to see if we are within God's love. If we discern all those forms of malice and selfishness and wickedness inside us, then we should be concerned, because it is not possible for Christ to be in our heart when we are full of "vinegar" inside. How can you be praying and at the same time be full of bile towards another person? How is it possible to read the Gospel and not accept your brother? How is it possible to say "I have been in the church for so many years" - either as a monk or a priest or whatever - and yet, where is that alpha and omega, which is love? Where is that patience - showing some patience towards your brother? By not embracing that, it means you have accomplished nothing. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. 

 We saw how Christ reached the point of telling those virgins that He would have nothing to do with them. He threw them out of the wedding hall even though they had all the virtues, because what they didn't have was love. Because He would have wanted to tell them that "you may have external virtues, you may have remained virgins, you may have done a thousand things, but you didn't achieve the essence of that which is the most important." If you can't achieve that, then what do you need the rest for? What's the use, whether I consume olive oil today, or I don't? I may [fast and] not eat olive oil - for example - but I devour my brother from morning to night.... They used to say on the Holy Mountain "don't ask if I eat fish; as long as one doesn't eat the fisherman, he can eat fish"; or, "as long as you don't eat the oil-bearer, you can have a drop of olive oil to eat"... To "devour" someone with a sharp tongue is far worse than consuming a spoonful of olive oil. And yet, we focus on things like that: we eat oil - we don't eat oil; we eat fish - we don't eat fish...


I don't know what to say... someone may dip his spoon into another dish and this could be the cause of an argument - a cause for a huge quarrel with another person, just because he dipped his spoon earlier on into another dish... You can see how ridiculous these things are and how the demons make fun of us, as well as they who are outside the Church. And when they do approach us, instead of seeing the people of the Church transformed into Jesus Christ, into sweet-natured people and mature people - well balanced, fulfilled people - full of harmony inside them, unfortunately, with all those passions of ours and all that sourness, they will inevitably say: "What? And become like one of them? I'd rather not!"

You, who are a churchgoer, tell me how the church has benefited you. As we said yesterday you went to the pilgrimage sites, you saw the fathers, you saw the holy relics, you saw the Holy Mountain, the Holy Mother at Tinos Island - all those places that we went to, and returned. What was the end benefit of all those things? Was our heart transformed? Did we become humbler people? Did we become more sweet-natured? Did we become meeker people in our homes, our families, our monastery? Or at our place of work? That is what counts. If we did not achieve those things, at least let us become humbler... from within our repentance....let us become humbler... If we didn't manage that either, then we are worthy of many tears - we are to be pitied. Because unfortunately, Time flies, and we are counting years....



When asked how many years he had lived on the Holy Mountain, the Elder Paisios used to say: "I came here the same year as my neighbour's mule." (His neighbour, old Zitos, had a mule - and you know how every cell on Mount Athos has an animal, a mule, for carrying their things. That animal has a long life span; you don't buy a mule every day - they are too expensive). "Well, the year that I came here, to the Holy Mountain, my neighbour purchased his mule in the same year. We have the same number of years on the Holy Mountain, and yet that poor beast remained a mule, but then so did I. I didn't change at all."



So, we quite often say "I've been here for forty years" - and we priests and monks tend to say these words: "I have been in the monastery for forty years". But what you don't realize is that those years are not in your favour. God will say to you "Forty years, and you still haven't managed to become something? You are still angry after forty years, you still censure, you still contradict, you still resist, you still don't submit? You've had forty years, and you still haven't learnt the alpha - the first thing - about monastic life, about Christian life? What am I supposed to do with your years? What am I to do with you, if you have spent fifty years with confessions and you can't respond to another person with a kind word? What use are all these things to me?"


These all weigh against us. And I am saying all these things, firstly about myself. Because they apply to me first... And because I know these things from myself, that is why I'm telling you about them (and why you must think I'm saying them to each one of you). People think that I'm referring to them, but it is not you I'm referring to. It is firstly about me that I mentioned these things... about me first....


We need to say these things to at least humble ourselves; to keep our mouth shut, as all those egotistic and other displays unfortunately ridicule us and make us look foolish in the presence of the Lord. If we humble ourselves and cease to have grand ideas about ourselves, maybe then can a person begin to correct himself gradually through repentance - which is born out of humility. A person who doesn't strive to justify himself truly repents. He who keeps justifying himself will never repent; and that person who always justifies himself - either externally or internally - will never learn what repentance means. That is why we should always examine ourselves. "Test yourselves, brothers" the Apostle says. Test yourself, to see if there is a love of God inside you. And not so much that, but more so if we are living within the realm of repentance, so that God can cure our existence - so that this kind of association with the Church can heal us, and so that we can become people who have been cured of their passions and their sins.


Many ask how we can reach that point. How do we get there? Well, when we leave ourselves in the hands of the good physician - God; when we leave ourselves trustingly in God's hands; because when we are in various circumstances, in difficulties, God knows what is best for each one of us and will lead us along those paths that will slowly, slowly, slowly over the years perfect us - they will perfect us... All we need to do is give ourselves to God with trust, the way we give our trust to a doctor, or - say - the captain of a ship. We show trust. He leads us, and we don't worry about the destination and when we will arrive, because we know that the one steering the ship is mindful, vigilant, and he knows the way and is careful.

Another important element that I would like to say something more about (also because some of you have asked me to) is the matter of time.

Did you notice during these days that we have been spending on this ship, how we had no external distractions? We had nothing to draw our attention elsewhere, like at home - for example television. Did you see how much time we had available? We even conversed among ourselves. You who are married had time to talk to each other - the spouses and the children. The children played together, they talked amongst themselves, and we had lots of time to ourselves and we communicated with each other, and that is the most important element of all: that we could communicate. The most tragic thing is at home, when everyone is sitting in front of the television and they don't talk to each other... time slips away and people do not communicate with each other. And the worst of all? It is the things we see on television... that's the source of the worst corruption for the ones close to us, our children and our souls. 

One of these days, when we had disembarked and were walking about the place, I noticed in one of those places where the youngsters serve different things, where they are offered refreshments, that they had a television switched on which was playing, and even though nobody was paying attention to it, it was still on. So I stood there for a moment, to see what it was showing - although I don't know what kind of film it was... I guess it was something... it was showing some people who were chasing after some other people all the time, and there was a constant chase....there were guns, bullets, cars, explosions, jumping from one house to another... But these are things that your children - your young children - sit and watch; so much violence... and I'm not even talking about all the other obscenities that I don't want to mention, which have even destroyed elderly people. And don't you tell me that it's not like that, because I know it is, first hand: these are admissions that we hear during confession. 

Elderly people, very old people, who are otherwise very respectable, have been ruined by television, from all that vulgarity that they are exposed to every day. I'm not referring to that specific damage right now; I am referring to all the other things - all the violence that the television projects. How do expect the children to not become familiarized with violence? They will naturally become unruly and disobedient and do things that are entirely foreign to their nature!


Have you any idea what an ugly sight it is, when you see young children mimicking older people? They mimic adults, and they destroy their innocent childishness. Sometimes, when I 'm invited to an event, they bring along tiny toddlers and tell them to dance. And you see these little girls or boys, ten or twelve years old, full of innocence, making dance moves that they have seen older women do - women who are entirely disgraceful, with another morality altogether. You can actually see how those children are being destroyed, with their emulations of the adults that they see on television. And also doing all sorts of things and entertaining themselves with choices that are catastrophic. 

 And I am not saying this from the spiritual aspect only, but from every aspect - psychological and social and family. Keep them as far away as you can from all these things. Help your children to not be dependent on television, because they will be filled with all those obscene images, and so will you. If you don't allow your children to watch obscene movies, but you the adult does, then what's the use? And what about those silly warnings that they write on screen - that the movie is not suitable under 18 or something... or whatever else it says... younger than 12 or something like that.... Does that mean that if they turn 12 the sight is a suitable one? Of course those warnings only arouse the youngsters' curiosity and every one of them will inevitably watch the film. They think to themselves that if this movie is forbidden for those younger than 12, it must have something that is deserving of every curiosity...


In my opinion, the destruction that is inflicted on people's inner world is incalculable. Because, as we said yesterday, all positive images, all the good images that one absorbs are extremely beneficial in one's spiritual life. The same applies in reverse, with the bad images that a person observes - they create so many bad situations, that the damage caused is literally incalculable and sometimes we can't tell if it can be cured. But if someone were to observe matters and study them, he will see just how great a catastrophe television can wreak on a person's psyche, and especially in younger people. But it is not only that; you see, one evil will bring on another. It will be a whole chain of evils, because it destroys communication, it destroys time, it destroys the innocence of a person's soul, and then man becomes exhausted, and being exhausted, he has no desire to do anything. Because his soul was filled with things that wearied him, and then he wonders why he is tired - he can't understand why... Try to experiment, by eliminating or at least minimizing these evils, and you will see how much more relaxed you will become and how much free time you will have at your disposal, which will be far more fruitful for anything else that you may do.



Naturally, these things are not unrelated to our spiritual life, because a person's spiritual life is a product of all the activities that a person has. By this, I don't mean to say stop watching television altogether. I am not against it per se; it's just that things like these make our life more difficult instead of making it easier, and they destroy it, the way it was destroyed by technological "progress" which has -otherwise- facilitated our lives. You catch a plane, and you're there. You get on a ship, and you get there quickly - you don't need to row with oars like they used to do in olden times.... or a thousand other conveniences... which in the long run are conveniences that may have facilitated our lives, but they also trapped us inside one big difficulty and made us lose ourselves, they made us lose the beauty of our life and we eventually destroyed the world we live in, and now we want even more sciences and discoveries, to see if we can salvage what is left of it...



Of course all these things that constitute the tragedy of our Fall and the mangling of our personality make it abundantly clear just how impossible it is to humanly tackle the problem, and yet, if one turns to God, then we will see that which Christ had said: that whatever is impossible for man to accomplish, is possible by God. Whatever seems impossible for people is possible for God - and we can see around us that miracle by God, which, even in our day, with all the information and all these provocations taking place around us, and the accessibility to sin, still, there are people who love God and from among the thorns, we see roses spring forth... Roses blossom from among the thorns, and the immense miracle of man's salvation becomes reality, regardless of our own human weaknesses, our wretched state, our problems, the difficulties with our self, our church, our family, our society and the other elements that unfortunately bombard every person. 

 That is why - to return from all these things - we need to return where we started from, when we said that the solution and the answer to all problems is for man to turn towards loving God, and that when man loves God, then God will cure him, God will resurrect him - even if that person is dead and decomposing - God will restore him, provided man discards from inside him all that is useless and put in his heart a love for God, and build his life around that love for God, and atop that love for God - to build his life, his marriage, his family, his path, his studies, his course. If man does that, then he will truly come to enjoy life and his life will become a paradise, because paradise is nothing more than God's love, whereas "hell" is nothing more than the absence of God's love.


So, it is my wish, as a conclusion to our broadcast, that the love of God will always accompany all of you, and that we should not forget that everything we do, we must do for that reason, and not just to be religiously behaving people. We must become God-loving people, so that our lives can be transformed correctly and we ourselves be transformed into Jesus Christ our Lord.


Finally, I would like to also thank you for attending this excursion of our Metropolis... To thank you, because we had a truly good time; beautiful, peaceful, with no significant difficulties... well, maybe a few minor things that we encountered, but they were insignificant. I believe that all of us were spiritually benefited by this excursion. I must thank God above all, for sheltering us from every evil. We went, and we returned, all safe and sound. And I must also warmly thank our captain and the others - and Lenia Orfanidou - who undertook the planning of this excursion and who helped us all so that things would flow smoothly with the appropriate correctness and precision, because you should know that this excursion was not prepared in a day, but is the result of labours over many months. It takes a lot of work and a lot of trouble to organize even what we have to eat for lunch and dinner, with the utmost precision.


So, I pray that we will all have the shelter and the love of God in our lives, and the reciprocation by God to all those who toiled for this excursion. God be with you.”

Repentance According to St Gregory Palamas

Icon of St Gregory Palamas in front of his reliquary in Thessaloniki, Greece

The article below appeared in the Orthodox blog Pemptousia. I am unable

at this time to link to the original document. The author seems to be

anonymous. Normally, I would only post a paragraph  or small portion and

then link to the original source. If anyone reading this is able to help me 

with the information I need, I would really appreciate it. Thank you.

As we all know, St Gregory Palamas is a great luminary of the Orthodox Church, who with the whole of his theology- the fruit of his life in Christ- managed, in his day, to revive Orthodox theology in all its profundity. It is said on the Holy Mountain that St Gregory Palamas’ theology covered all the ages from the past and the future.

The Athonite saint began his life on the mountain at the monastery of his
“repentance”, i.e. where he was tonsured, the Great Monastery of Vatopaidi,
being taught the tasks of the spirit and the ascetic life by St Nikodemos the
Hesychast the Vatopaidan. Illumined by the uncreated energies of the Holy
Spirit, St Gregory acquired spiritual wisdom and became an outstanding
teacher of the virtues and of the life according to God.

Following in the pure Patristic tradition, he did not accept a moralist view of the spiritual life, which some people were attempting to bring from the West and to project onto the sphere of Orthodoxy.

Throughout the whole of the Patristic tradition it is emphasized that repentance is not exhausted by certain objective improvements in behavior, nor in external formalities and patterns, but rather that it has to do with a more profound and more general change within a person. It is not a passing feeling of being crushed by the awareness of having committed some sin or other, but rather a permanent spiritual state, which means that the person turns steadfastly to God and has an enduring readiness for reform, cure and engagement in the spiritual struggle. Repentance is a new outlook, a new, correct spiritual direction which should accompany people until the time of their death. Repentance is the dynamic progression from the unnatural state of the passions and sin into the area of naturalness and virtue, it is the total rejection of sin and the road of return to God

Saint Gregory Palamas repeatedly points out this truth. “Repentance”, he says, is to hate sin and love virtue, to abjure evil and to do good”. It is perfectly clear from this definition that the holy father was unable to see repentance as a formal, mechanical change, since he defines it as an ontological renewal of the person. For precisely this reason, the fact of repentance cannot be objectivized within the dimensions of an impersonal recipe or tactic, but it is always a contingent personal revelation. “A person who repents from the soul reaches God by good intentions and avoidance of sin” (Homily 3, PG 151, 44B)

For Palamas and all the Holy Fathers in general, this personal nature of repentance precludes any of the shades of piety that the West has wanted to give to repentance, and in consequence, to the whole of the spiritual life. The holy Hesychast stressed that:
“Godliness is not in our words but in our actions”. (To Filotheos 6, Writings II, p.521)

But since repentance is the beginning and the end of the life in Christ and since it is the aim of that life, it follows that everything will be seen through it and will acquire merit or demerit. Even “faith is beneficial if people live their lives in good conscience and re-purify themselves through confession and repentance” (Homily 30, PG 151, 185A). This in any case is given as a promise and agreement at the moment of Holy Baptism.

A fundamental stage, which precedes repentance is the recognition and awareness of sins “which is the great cause of propitiation”, as the Holy Archbishop of Thessaloniki put it. (Homily 28, P.G. 151, 361C). According to Palamas, for people to come to repentance it is sufficient that they first arrive at recognition “of their own transgressions” and show remorse before God, to Whom they have recourse “with a contrite heart”. They cast themselves upon the sea of His mercy and believe, like the Prodigal Son, that they are unworthy of God’s clemency and to be called His children. And when with recognition and awareness of their sinfulness they draw upon themselves the mercy of God, they obtain complete release through self-censure and confession.

In his efforts to define all the stages of repentance, the wise Father said this: “Recognition of one’s own sins is followed by self-condemnation: this is the sorrow for one’s sins which Paul declared to be godly. He tells us that this sorrow is followed by confession to God with a contrite heart, by supplication and by the promise to avoid evil in the future, and this is repentance.

As a new condition in people’s lives, repentance is accompanied by certain consequences which, in biblical and Patristic language are called “the fruits of repentance”. The first of these is highlighted by Saint Gregory as being confession, since, through this, the cure and purification of the soul of the believer is gained and the new life inaugurated.: “For the confession of sins is the beginning of this cultivation, that is to say repentance and the preparation for people to receive within themselves the seed of salvation, that is the Word of God” (Homily 56).

Confession is not however, the only fruit of repentance. In calling people to repentance through his preaching, Saint John the Baptist urged people to embrace charity, justice, humility, love and truth, as well as confession, because these are the attributes of the transforming power of the truth.

In Homily 23, the saintly Athonite hierarch emphasizes that people who really live their repentance do not return to their former sins, nor attach themselves to people and things of corruption, nor engage in doubtful pleasures, but rather they scorn the present, look to the future, struggle against the passions, pursue the virtues, are vigilant in prayer, do not seek unfair profits, are lenient to those who have done them harm, compassionate towards those who plead, and willing to help, with words, deeds or even sacrifices those who have need. And when Saint Gregory urges Christians to acquire works of repentance, he particularly stresses a humble outlook, compunction and spiritual grief. Summarizing all the attributes of those Christians who live their repentance, he says that they are serene and calm, full of mercy and sympathy towards others, they desire justice, seek purity, have peace and bring it, suffer pain and trouble patiently and feel joy and satisfaction in persecutions, insults and slander, losses and anything else they suffer for the sake of justice and truth (Homily 31, PG, 151, 392C).

The path of correction through repentance, of escape from enslavement to the passions and of asceticism in order to follow the divine commandments is that of holy beings who have been glorified. Starting with this truth, Saint Gregory emphasizes the following: “If not all Christians can equal the Saints and the great and wonderful achievements which characterize their lives and are, as a whole, inimitable, they can and should emulate and follow them on their path towards repentance. Because on an everyday basis, “they are unwittingly at fault in many things” and the sole hope of salvation for all of us remains, according to Saint Gregory, the embracing and experiencing of “abiding in repentance” (Homily 28, PG, 151, 361C).

Remorse as a condition for asceticism

A fundamental condition for the escape from the bonds of the passions and, at the same time, for the beginning and source of repentance is godly remorse, what the Fathers call “mourning”. In his texts, Saint Gregory refers very frequently to this mourning and to the painful but also joyful condition through which Christians have to pass if they want to live the real life. This is why he does not hesitate to call Great Lent the supreme period of mourning and spiritual struggle, as a symbol of the present age and a pre-condition for resurrection for the lives of the faithful.

Saint Gregory, who really did live godly repentance and who said that his deep sighs “illumined my darkness”, rightly could not see how anyone could pass from the life of sin into “real life” without remorse and repentance. He said that when the faculty of direct perception, the “nous”, is liberated from every perceptible thing, it rises above the maelstrom of earthly things and can see the inner person, since it is able to perceive what he calls the “hateful mask” which the soul has acquired through its vagrancy among worldly things. At this point it hastens to scour the defilement with tears of repentance (Discourse on Peter the Athonite, PG, 150). The more people distance themselves from worldly cares and return to themselves, the more receptive they become as regards divine mercy. Christ commended those who mourn for their sins and for the loss of their salvation, which is caused by sin. This is, in any case, the reason why this remorse is called “blessed”.

While according to the Patristic and ascetic tradition, mourning is a fruit of God, it still presupposes the co-operation of people themselves, and this requires humility, self-censure, mortification, fasting, vigilance and above all, prayer. And this persistence in cultivating the virtues and striving to achieve godly remorse is reinforced by the experience of hesychasm, which testifies that this mourning does not cause debility and hopelessness but creates in people the conditions to experience spiritual gladdening, comfort and, according to Palamas “the procurement of sweet joyfulness” (to Xeni, PG 150) And when it assists the nous to lift the veil of the passions, it softly introduces it into the true treasuries of the soul and habituates it in the prayer “in secret” to the Father.

There are many reasons which should cause the faithful to mourn. Just as the Lord’s disciples were saddened when they were deprived of the “truly good teacher, Christ”, so we, who experience the same deprivation and absence of Christ from our lives, ought to have within us and cultivate this same sorrow (Homily 29, PG, 151). But there is another reason to mourn: the ejection from the realm of truth in Paradise to that of pains and passions. This fall is so painful because it contains the whole drama of the banishment from God, the withdrawal of the “person to person” discourse with Him, of eternal life and co-glorification with the angels. Saint Gregory asks; who has ever completely realized the deprivation of all these things and not mourned? And he urges all the faithful who live “in awareness of deprivation” to mourn and to wash away with godly remorse “the stains of sins” (Homily 29, PG, 151). This exhortation on the part of the saint is completely in accord with the exhortation and experience of the Church, which in the hymnography for the Sunday of Cheese-week, calls upon Christians on the eve of the Great Fast, to remember their banishment from forfeited Paradise and to mourn their loss.

According to Saint Gregory, mourning is the most natural and spontaneous expression of the soul wounded by sin and coming to repentance. The saint uses a wonderful simile to prove that it is people’s wounds that cause the pain, not the fact of repentance itself, which brings only joy and comfort to the soul. Just as, if someone’s tongue has suffered damage, honey might seem tart to them and they need to be cured in order to taste the sweetness, the same is true of the fear of God: in souls where it is endangered, on hearing the message of the Gospels, it causes sorrow, since these souls are still surrounded by the wounds of their sins: but as soon as they cast these off, through repentance, they feel the joy of the good news (Homily 29, PG, 151). This is , in any case, why godly sadness is also called “joyous”.

Investing the Lord’s second beatitude, which refers to mourning, Palamas justifies Christ’s placing of it immediately after the beatitude about spiritual poverty by the fact that mourning co-exists with spiritual poverty.

A typical attribute of those who mourn in a godly way is the refusal to transfer or pass off the responsibility for their sins onto other people. It is a basic principle which Palamas sets out, in discussing godly remorse, that we should flay ourselves for our sins and avoid transferring the responsibility for them unto others (Homily 29, PG, 151 369C). In any case it was Adam and Eve’s transfer of the responsibility for ignoring God’s commandment that deprived them of the salvation of penitential mourning
(Gen. 3:12-13). Because, since God gave Adam and Eve self-determination and they received, according to Palamas, “the imperial office over the passions within the realm of their souls” and “there was nothing withheld from or imposed upon them” (Homily 29, PG, 151 369C), then, through self-censure and Godly sorrow they would have been able to regain what they had lost by their refusal to accept responsibility for their sin. This is why Saint Gregory, in an effort to give a definition of mourning says, “for this is godly sadness for our salvation, to find the reason in ourselves and not in any of the things which other people have done inadequately. And we should be sad ourselves and, through the confession of our sins and sorrowful contrition over them conciliate God” (Homily 29 PG, 151, 369C).

Self-censure is an integral state of the soul where there is humility. Initially, it leads to fear of Hell. It brings to mind the dreadful punishments, as described by the Lord in the Gospel, which become even more terrifying by the eternal dimension they acquire. So people who mourn their sins here and censure themselves because of them, avoid the useless, comfortless and endless mourning engendered in those who come to recognition of their sins through punishment. There, with no hope of redemption or salvation, the pain of mourning is increased by the unwanted reprimands of the conscience. And this permanent and abiding mourning, since it has no end, causes more mourning and dreadful darkness and searing heat, with no respite, and this leads to the inexpressible depth of dejection (To Xeni, PG, 150, 1076D-1077A). In contrast to Adam and Eve, Palamas refers to Lamech as an example of someone who came to self-censure and contrition for his sins (Homily 29, PG 151, 369D).

It should be especially emphasized that within Orthodox Christian tradition, asceticism is completely interwoven with grief. The pain of the fall and the joy of the resurrection are experienced by monks with joyful mourning. With bodily poverty and humility, which is hunger, thirst, hardship and affliction of the body, means by which the sensations of the body are brought within rational control, not only is mourning engendered, but also tears begin to flow. Saint Gregory gives a clear explanation for this spiritual state in his letter to the nun Xeni. He says that, just as bodily ease, relaxation and pleasure cause callousness, insensitivity and a hard heart, so plain, meager fare, eaten with restraint bring a broken and contrite heart. Through these, the activities of evil are thwarted, and inexpressible and sweetest joy is given to the soul. Without a contrite heart, no one can be liberated from the passions. And the heart comes to contrition only through restraint as regards sleep, food and bodily comforts. When the soul is liberated from the passions and the bitterness of sin through contrition, it then receives spiritual delight (To Xeni, PG 150, 1076B). This is the comfort which the Lord says will be the portion of those who mourn. Only in this way can we explain how the alteration of sorrow into joy, about which the Lord spoke to His disciples, becomes an experience with which the monk is acquainted on a daily basis. Mourning becomes joyful and blessed because it brings to fruition in people the pledge of eternal joy.

Self-censure and sense of sinfulness are the conditions which prepare the soul for mourning. For a long time, says Saint Gregory, like an intelligible weight on the scrutinizing part of the soul they press down and crush in such a way that the saving wine “that gladdens people’s hearts” is distilled. This wine is contrition, which, thanks to mourning and the active part of the soul, also crushes the passionate aspect. And once it liberates it from the dark weight of the passions, it fills the soul with blessed joy (to Xeni, PG, 150, 1077B).

However painful this mourning may be in the initial stages, because it exists alongside the fear of God, so much greater with the passing of time and as the soul prospers spiritually, so does it become joyful because people really do see blessed sweet fruits. The longer mourning lingers the soul, the more the love of God increases and in a manner beyond conceiving is united to it. When the soul experiences mourning profoundly, it tastes the consolation of the benevolence of the Comforter. For the soul, this is such a sacred, sweet and mystical experience that those who have no personal taste of it cannot even suspect its existence. (To Xeni PG 150, 1077B).

A fundamental view in the theology of mourning is that it is not only the soul that participates but also the body. And the “consolation” which the Lord said would be a blessing for those who mourn is a fruit which not only the soul, but as Saint Gregory says, “the body also receives in a variety of ways” (On the Hesychasts 1, 3, 33). The clearest proof of this reality, he says, is “the sad tears with which they mourn their sins” (Ibid.)

Another fruit of Godly remorse is that people become steadfast in virtue since, as the Apostle says: “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret” (II Cor. 7:10). Because, according to Palamas, people can become poor in a godly manner and be humbled but unless they also acquire remorse, their disposition alters easily – they may well return to the inappropriate and sinful actions they have abandoned and once more transgress against God commandments, given that a desire and appetite for a sinful life will again arise within them. But if they remain in the poverty that the Lord declared blessed, and cultivate spiritual mourning within themselves, then they become steadfast and secure in the spiritual life, thus expelling the danger of returning to the point where they began (To Xeni, PG 150, 1085C)

So this Godly mourning does not merely draw down consolation and God’s forgiveness, offering the pledge of eternal rejoicing, but at the same time, guards the virtues the soul has, since according to Saint Gregory, the soul that has learned to mourn is much less likely to be moved to evil (To Xeni, PG 150,1085D).

Finally, the Athonite Hesychast and Archbishop of Thessaloniki, in his essay on the passions and the virtues, which to a great extent is dedicated to mourning, uses a most expressive example to demonstrate the path people follow towards remorse. He compares the beginning of mourning with the return of the Prodigal Son, which is why the remorseful person is cheerless and is brought to repeating the words: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight”. And then again, he pictures its end with the imperative and wide-opened embrace of the Father “in which the richness of the incomparable poverty he had suffered, and having acquired great joy and frankness through it, kissed and was kissed, and on entering, sat down with the Father, both enjoying heavenly bliss” (To Xeni, PG 150, 1085C). This is why the term “bright sorrow” , which is commonly used by ascetics to describe the experience of eschatological transcendence of pain, is perhaps the most expressive symbol of the whole of their ascetic life, a life mostly of tears and mourning (see G. Mantzaridis “H peri θεωσεωσ didaskalia” in Palamika 1973, p..215). 

In this brief, and one might say rough presentation of the position of Palamas on repentance, we see that Saint Gregory, as the outstanding person of the inner life, was interested not only in us correcting our external shortcomings, but in our inner repentance, with mourning and tears. Saint Gregory was himself a man of repentance and also a true preacher of it.

Now that the period of Great Lent is approaching, we humbly pray that in what is according to Saint Gregory the principal period of repentance, we may “fall down and weep before our God” so that we may taste the blessedness of His Kingdom. Let us not forget that correction of ourselves, and indeed of society as a whole, begins and is founded upon the personal repentance of each of us. In any case, “enduring repentance” is, as Saint Gregory emphasizes, the spirit of Athonite monasticism.

Amen.