What Was Fr. Seraphim Rose's Critical Advice to New Converts in the ☦️ Orthodox Church?

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]Father Saraphim never lost his zeal per se. He never he never became a modernist or an accuminist or a relativist or anything like that. He never slackened in his aesthetic struggle. In fact, he only grew more and more strict with himself over time. But at the same time, his personality he mellowed a lot and um there's all these stories that uh Father Herman tells about um how he uh he he developed a love for practical jokes. He liked to play jokes on visitors when they would come. He loved to play catch or have snowball fights with, you know, with with children that would come to visit the monastery. And Father Herman says something like, "When I when I first met him, Father Sarapim never would have lowered his dignity as a monastic to have to start a snowball fight with a bunch of boys." Um, he said, "But as he got older, he became more childlike. He and he matured and he became uh he became more more gentle, more um again not more lax um but more strict with himself and more and more mild with others. And his letters to his spiritual children are full of this advice. And I think that this is why um you know, father the answer to to honestly truly the answer to all the concerns that we have about Orthob quote unquote um is found in Father Sarapim's writing. If if the if the if these kind of zealous young converts read his letters and read him saying things to his spiritual children like um it would be better if you were less correct and more gentle and more humble or um you know he saying things like what matters most is not being correct. What matters most is Christian love and harmony. um and saying that he he has one of his spiritual sons who writes to him and complains about the music in his church.

[00:01:48]And he says he says even if you are correct that the music is bad, especially if you are correct that the music is bad, you have to stop worrying about that because you're going to destroy the community, the the inner life of your parish. Don't complain to the choir director. Don't complain to your priest. Just be grateful that you have the divine services available for you and that you're able to receive the sacraments. over and over again he talks about the dangers of correctness disease or um or ultracorrectness. Um he says I have a quote pinned on my my Twitter account um where he says uh we need less we need less we need more orthodoxy of the heart and less orthodoxy of the mind and less canonical thinking that leads to disunityity and schism. So he's uh he you know his his we all the the orthodose like me we all fall in love with father Sarapim because he is so um he is such an incredible aesthetic. He is such an incredible penitant. He has all of these incredible warnings to give about the dangers of radical accuminism of um you know of the occult and all these things. But when you when you enter more deeply into his life, into his writings, what you get is admonitions to to be gentle to other people, to not be quarrelome, to not argue, to focus on your own repentance.

[00:03:04]And uh and I think that that's I'm I'm hoping that um now that he's glorified, his influence will grow and become fuller and more complete and that we'll get more of that part of Father Saraphim informing our orthodoxy. um in addition to the zeal and the the you know the true the little o orthodoxy that is uh that we associate more with him at this point.

[00:03:26]>> I mean it's the fruit of the holy spirit right love joy peace patience gentleness self-control all that St. Paul lists and the desert fathers list off. Father Saraphim is like saying the same the same things and and when we ever emphasize one thing over the rest that's when we got kind of get a little distorted >> at least in my own life at least that's what I tell myself uh you know like hold these principles fast they're very important but there are times where hospitality and love like for example father s from throwing snowballs with kids >> becomes the overriding principle I guess we'll call it the snowball principle I don't I like it though.

[00:04:06]>> I hadn't heard that story, Michael.

[00:04:08]Thanks for sharing that. That's great.

[00:04:09]>> Absolutely. I'm gonna have a big quote of all the things that he of uh in my Substack post. It's going to I'm going to just take that whole section of uh talking about his kind of whimsical side. Um because people need to know about that. People need to know that you know he uh he was even if he was at the beginning of his monastic career some somewhat more dower and more serious you know he uh Christ says that we unless we become like little children we can't inherit the kingdom of heaven and you know this is why you see you know some you every time you see a photo of a great monastic elder like St. Pius St. Pfurious because of Ghiba and like you know Elder F of Arizona they're always smiling they're always joyful um and that's uh and and that's because they're that's because they grow young in the spiritual life right you don't grow old as a monastic you grow younger and younger until and they said this about about I think I I don't know if I we talked about this in our last stream but there's a story about St. Seraphim of Sarav um where he uh he he he got more visitors than he wanted, right? He was a hermit, but he was constantly being besieged by pilgrims. And so there's a story about a family that went to visit him once and they went to his to his cell in the woods and they were looking around for him. They couldn't find him and then they saw this like old bearded man peeking through this bush and they said, "Is that you, Father Sarah?" And then he pretended like he was he just jumped up and said, "By joy, Christ is risen." And then he went over and talked to them. And so they're leaving and they uh and the um the little the daughter of the f little girl said, "You know, he looks like an old man, but he's really just a child like us." And I think you would say that about St. Picus, you know, or like or father Sarapim. They become they get they get, you know, they grow young, they become childlike because that's what holiness is, is childlikeness.

[00:06:05]>> Yeah. I mean, St. Paul says the body is outwardly decaying. Talks about this in second Corinthians. But yet we're being uh inwardly renewed day by day.

[00:06:18]And that doesn't mean, you know, stubborn and prideful. It means humble, repentant, open, you know, open to the surprises that God God has for us. And um >> and that's so true, like to be to be that kind of having that childlike wonder. I think that is um that openness to the gifts of God uh to be open to what he wants to do is is a very key component to when you when you really look at the lives of the saints.

[00:06:45]>> Yeah, >> that's right.

[00:06:47]>> We've been talking about doing a stream too, you and I, about saints who had special relationships with animals. And I think um I think a key component to that as well, you know, we we we talked about this interesting parallel that it's um the saints that have the close relationship with animals are usually great aesthetics. Um and I think a key component of that is, you know, part of part of what the reason that we fast, right, is so that we um is that we don't take God's gifts for granted. That we uh that we we Kalisto wear talks about this. He says, you know, that um when you've been fasting for if you haven't eaten for 24 hours, um a a little crust of bread is going to taste so much better than like the 12 oz ribeye steak you had, you know, after, you know, eating for having as your fourth meal of the day or whatever. And um and you become so much more, you know, fasting, part of the reason that we fast is because you become so much more alive to those to the little to the very the little the littlest blessings in your life that God gives you. And I think that that's part of um this is kind of a Chestertonian turn, but you know, Chester talks about how the reason that saintthood children are, you know, saints are compared to children. were told to become like children because children have this kind of wideeyed awe at every at every little thing in it because everything's new to them.

[00:08:12]>> And so, you know, like h having fingers is so interesting if you've never been aware that you have fingers and which is why babies can just do this all day and they're very interested by it. And um and so I I think that really the when Christ says become like little children, a lot of what he's talking about is um just become more attentive, more alive to the little blessings that you have in your life. And one of my favorite stories about Father Saraphim that Father Herman talks about is every every morning even before they had mattens before church services, Father Sarapim would walk around the monastery greeting the trees. He would um he would say good morning to the trees. would kiss them and embrace them. And uh even Father Herman thought he was a little odd for that. But it was um it was this thing where he, you know, the the the saints have this this pre-lapserian like edenic um familiarity, love, intimacy with not just animals, which they do, but I mean everything, trees, rocks, because everything is a creature.

[00:09:16]Everything like us, everything is a gift of is a creation of God. um in a in a gift from God to us just as we are supposed to be a gift of God to the animals who are you know we're supposed to be their good master and take care of them which we fail in constantly but that's you know that's this but you know the the saint is you know is that kind of that childlike um person who has this um deep incredible intense love awe but also interest in everything and everyone and father serapim embodied that so much >> first Christian himnel. Dr. Shoemaker dates most of these hymns kind of 350 to 400s. Not just like a little bit of hymns that are praising the saints, but I mean like robust complex.

[00:10:04]Yeah. They're not just in Jerusalem like they're showing up universally. I'll be doing a miniseries probably five or six classes by theme that show up in this.

[00:10:11]It's going to be a lot of fun. So you subscribe to barrel age faith and you can get that. The wise phone too which I currently use as my phone. It's an amazing phone that helps you not doom scroll or be addicted to social media and other devices because it doesn't have a web browser, but it does function like a phone. You can call, you can text, you can take pictures, you can do videos. It even has apps like Uber and Lift. You can order food, maps to get around town. All the things that you kind of need in this modern life while at the same time being able to have a boundary between you and work or you and distractions so you can be more present with your family, with your kids, with your spouse, whomever. This has been a very freeing experience for me to have the wise phone too. Again, you can get $40 off through my discount code king today. At >> the beginning of Ephesians, we read of the recapitulation of heaven and earth in the person of Jesus Christ unites all things in him. And then near the end of Ephesians, we read about male and female reconciled, harmonized, and put in right order through the work of Jesus Christ and through the imaging of the divine bridegroom in the life of the particular human bridegroom.

[00:11:15]>> This first episode is going to be free to all of you and the rest will be for paid subscribers. Sarah, thank you for preparing this uh Bible study through Ephesians.

[00:11:28]Hey guys, I just want to share a few books with you that have left a big impact on my life. One of them is Bearing God, the life and works of St. Ignatius of Antioch, the Godbearer by Father Andrew Steven Damick. Many people have a paradigm shift when they begin reading the letters of St. Ignatius of Antioch. Well, this little book by Father Andrew is so helpful in navigating his letters and summarizing the key themes. So, I think you'll enjoy this book. Another book that's very popular, left a big impact on my life is the religion of the apostles by Father Steven D. young. This is quickly becoming a classic. It's helped people sort of understand how the Old Testament and New Testament have a continuity with the early church, the church fathers.

[00:12:04]I've also had Father Joseph Lucas in the show. I think this is going to be a classic. It just came out last year. How to read the Holy Fathers, a guide for Orthodox Christians. And it takes you through the different genres, different styles of writing by the church fathers.

[00:12:18]Because you're going to read poetry and hymns differently than you're going to read advances to heretics. So check out these books and more. Many of them are by Ancient Faith Publishing. All right, guys.