My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God, and Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
The Spiritual Message Revealed through the 30 Rungs of
Saint John’s "The Ladder of Divine Ascent." [Part II]
Step 11
ON TALKATIVENESS AND SILENCE
"Talkativeness IS THE THRONE OF VAINGLORY on which it loves to preen itself and show off. Talkativeness IS A SIGN OF IGNORANCE, A DOORWAY TO SLANDER, A LEADER OF JESTING, A SERVANT OF LIES, THE RUIN OF COMPUNCTION, A SUMMONER OF DESPONDENCY, A MESSENGER OF SLEEP, A DISSIPATION OF RECOLLECTION, THE END OF VIGILANCE, THE COOLING OF ZEAL, THE DARKENING OF PRAYER.
Intelligent silence is the mother of prayer, freedom from bondage, custodian of zeal, a guard on our thoughts, a watch on our enemies, a prison of mourning, a friend of tears.. For the person who recognizes his sins has taken control of his tongue, while the chatterer has yet to discover himself as he should.
The lover of silence draws close to God. He talks to Him in secret and God enlightens him. Jesus, by His silence, shamed Pilate; and a man, by his stillness, conquers vainglory… The man who is seriously concerned about death reduces the amount of what he has to say, and the man who has received the gift of spiritual mourning runs from talkativeness as from a fire. The lover of stillness keeps his mouth shut, but the man who likes to ramble outside is driven from his cell by this passion…"
Step 12
ON FALSEHOOD
"From flint and steel comes fire; from chatter and joking comes lying. Lying is the destruction of charity, and perjury the very denial of God…Hypocrisy is the mother of lying and frequently its cause. Some would argue that hypocrisy is nothing other than a meditation on falsehood, that it is the inventor of falsehood laced with lies. The man gifted with fear of the Lord has given up lying, for within him he has conscience, that incorruptible judge… Only when we are completely free of the urge to lie may we resort to it, and then only in fear and our of necessity. A baby does not know how to lie, and neither does a soul cleansed of evil."
Step 13
ON DESPONDENCY
"Despondency or tedium of the spirit, as I have often said, is frequently an aspect of talkativeness and indeed is its first child… Tedium is a paralysis of the soul, a slackness of the mind, a neglect of religious exercises, a hostility to vows taken. Tedium loves to be involved in hospitality, urges the hermit to undertake manual labor so as to enable him to give alms, and exhorts us to visit the sick, recalling even the words of Him Who sais, "I was sick and you came to visit Me" (Matthew 25:36). Tedium suggests we should call on the despairing and the fainthearted, and she sest one languishing heart to bring comfort to another. Tedium reminds those at prayer of some job to be done, and in her brutish way she searches out any plausible excuse to drag us from prayer, as though with some kind of halter.."
Step 14
ON GLUTTONY
"Gluttony is hypocrisy of the stomach. Filled, it mons about scarcity; stuffed, and crammed, it wails about its hunger. Gluttony thinks up seasonings, creates sweet recipes… Gluttony has a deceptive appearance: it eats moderately but wants to gobble everything at the same time. A stuffed belly produces fornication, while a mortified stomach leads to purity. The man who pets a lion may tame it but the man who coddles the body makes it ravenous… Give yourself food that is satisfying and easily digestible, thereby counteracting endless hunger by giving yourself plenty. In this way we may be freed from too great a longing for food as though from a plague by rapid evacuation. And we should note too that most food that inflates the stomach also encourages desire…
Control your appetites BEFORE THEY CONTROL YOU, AND SHAME WILL GREATLY HELP YOU TO MAINTAIN SUCH MASTERY…Begrudge the stomach and your heart will be humbled; please the stomach and your mind will turn proud… Fight as hard as you can against the stomach and let your vigilance hold it in. Make an effort, however little, and the Lord will quickly come to help you…
To fast is to do violence to nature. It is to do what whatever pleases the palate. Fasting ends lust, roots out bad thoughts, frees one from evil dreams. Fasting makes for purity of prayer, an enlightened door of compunction, humble sighing, joyful contrition, and end to chatter, an occasion for silence, a custodian of obedience, a lightening of sleep, health of the body, an agent of dispassion, a remission of sins, the gate, indeed, the delight of Paradise…"
Step 15
ON CHASTITY
"… To be chaste is to put on the nature of an incorporeal being. Chastity is a supernatural denial of what one is by nature, so that a mortal and corruptible body is competing in a truly marvelous way with incorporeal spirits. A chaste man is someone who has driven out bodily love by means of divine love, who has used heavenly fire to quench the fires of the flesh… CHASTITY IS A NAME COMMON TO ALL VIRTUES. A chaste man feels no stirrings or change within himself even when he is asleep… The beginning of chastity is refusal to consent to evil thoughts and occasional dreamless emissions… The chaste man is not someone with a body undefiled bur RATHER A PERSON WHOSE MEMBERS ARE IN COMPLETE SUBJECTION TO THE SOUL, FOR A MAN IS GREAT WHO IS FREE OF PASSIONS .."
Step 16
ON AVARICE
"… Avarice is a worship of idols and is the offspring of unbelief… The miser sneers at the Gospel andis a deliberate transgressor. The man of charity spreads his money about him, but the man who claims to possess both charity and money is a self-deceived fool. The man who mourns for himself has renounced even his body and does not spare it in due season… The man who has conquered this vice has cut out care, but the man trapped by it can never pray freely to God…"
Step 17
ON POVERTY
"The poverty of a monk is resignation from care. It is life without anxiety and travels light, far from sorrow and faithful to the commandments. The poor monk is lord of the world. He has handed all his cares over to God, and by his faith has obtained all men as his servants. If he lacks something he does not complain to his fellows and he accepts what comes his way as if from the hand of the Lord. In his poverty he turns into a son of detachmen and he sets no value on what he has. Having withdrawn from the world, he comes to regard everything as refuse. Indeed he is not genuinely poor if he starts to worry about something. A man who has embraced poverty offers up prayer that is pure, while a man who loves possessions prays to material images…"
Step 18
ON INSENSITIVITY
"…The insensitive man is a foolish philosopher, and exegete condemned by his own words, a scholar who contradicts himself, a blind man teaching sight to others. He talks about healing a wound and does not stop making it worse. He complains about what has happened and does not stop eating what is harmful. He prays against it but carries on as before, doing it and being angry with himself… He talks profountly about death and acts as if he will never die. He groans over the separation of soul and body, and yet lives in a state of somnolence as if he were eternal.."
Step 19
ON SLEEP, PRAYER AND
THE SINGING IN CHURCH
OF PSALMS
Sleep is a natural state. It is also an image of death and a respite of the senses. Sleep is one, but like desire it has many sources. That is to say, it comes from nature, from food, from demons, or perhaps in some degree even from prolonged fasting by which the weakened flesh is moved to long for repose… Some get us in our laziness to hurry up with the singing, while others suggest we should sing slowly in order that we may take pleasure in it. However, the person who considers with sensitivity of heart that he is standing before God will be an immovable pillar in prayer, and none of the demons mentioned above will delude him.
The truly obedient monk often becomes suddenly radiant and exultant during his prayers. He is like a wrestler who was earlier trained and made eager for his enterprise. Everyone can pray in a crowd. For some it is a good thing to pray with a single kindred soul. But solitary prayer is only for the very few.
When chanting hymns with others it may be impossible to pray with the wordless prayer of the spirit. But your mind should meditate on the words being chanted or read…no one should undertake any additional task, or rather, distraction, during the time of prayer…"
Step 20
ON ALERTNESS
"Alertness keeps the mind clean. The alert monk does battle with fornication, but the sleepy one goes to live with it. Alertness is a quenching of lust, deliverance from fantasies in dreams, a tearful eye, a heart made soft and gentle, thoughts restrained, food digested, passions tamed, spirits subdued, tongue controlled, idle imaginings banished. The vigilant monk is a fisherman of thoughts, and in the quiet of the night he can easily observe and catch them…"
[Resources: The Ladder of Divine Ascent]
(To be continued)
_______
"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
– Saint John Chrysostomos
+ + +
With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George
The Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethos 