1. The philosophy of the deserts into the cities - The Ascetics of the Parish, f. Savvas, 26-5-2026

Ajouté : 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]for Amen.

[00:00:20]Open sus.

[00:00:45]Amen.

[00:00:48]with uh the grace of uh our Lord, we are going to speak about a very important uh theme uh about u the introduce uh uh of philosophy of the deserts uh into the cities. It is a saying of St. John Chrisostom let us introduce the philosophy of the deserts that is the sastic asetic monastic life into the cities.

[00:01:29]Uh that means uh we are going to speak uh about uh the healing of the whole man who was uh achieved in the deserts uh through the askeetical life and the life of the mysteries of the holy ascets who are are teachers in this cleaning and deification of the whole man.

[00:02:03]Uh St. Justin Popovich had said that parises must be transformed into eskeetical centers. So as uh the people to be healed spiritually and also said John Christom said that you deceive yourself and are very much in error if you think that one thing is required of the lay man and another of the monk.

[00:02:35]For all people must ascend to the same height and what has overturned the whole world is precisely this notion. We think that only the monk is required to live with greater exactness while the rest are permitted to live carelessly.

[00:03:01]So all the people monastics and uh lay people have to struggle spiritually.

[00:03:08]There are not two different uh gospels, two different uh laws. The the law is common for monks and uh for the lay people.

[00:03:23]we go forward and we will be based on our book the aesthetics of the parish.

[00:03:33]Uh about 10 centuries ago one of the true theologian theologians of our holy church St. Simeon the new theologian speaking about the teaching of Christ said in all in all these things uh in the words of the gospel in the teaching of Christ we believe only with words while with other deeds we deny them.

[00:04:06]Is Christ not confessed everywhere in the cities, in the villages, in the monasteries, in the mountains?

[00:04:17]Yet look and investigate whether his commandments are been kept among thousands and tens of thousands.

[00:04:28]you will scarcely find one who is a Christian both in deeds and in word words.

[00:04:38]And uh this uh St. Simon told before 1,000 years if St. Simeon were alive today, he would likely say the same words, perhaps even harsher than those he spoke a thousand years ago about the Christians of his time.

[00:05:03]One Orthodox Christian writer notes that only a spiritually blind and indifferent person would deny that despite its relative well-being, external and material, what threatens the church comes from within and is nothing other than the danger of secularization.

[00:05:32]of deep spiritual decomposition the composition secularization in the church is due mainly to the secularization of the parish and of parish life because in orthodox reality the smallest unit of ecclesiastical life is the Paris. The secularization of the Paris in turn reflects the secularization of its members, the Orthodox Christians, clergy and lady who constitute the Christian families.

[00:06:19]The smallest ecclesiastical unit is the Paris as the echaristic assembly of the faithful. The local Paris is always in organic connection with the diosis to which it belongs and appears as the Catholic Church in that specific place and time.

[00:06:44]The believer lives the mystery of the church in the life and practice of his parish within which being sanctified and struggling he is uni united with Christ and with his brothers in Christ continually actualizing his existence in Christ his ecclesial being as our church history demonstrates.

[00:07:14]states the worldly Paris had the monastic one as its model and sought to imitate it. The monastic Paris in turn is the offending continuation of the apostolic and postapostolic Paris. Thus, as long as the worldly Paris imitated the monastic, it was essentially imitating apostolic life, the life of the first Christians, adapted to the circumstances of its era.

[00:07:53]Today, this effort uh toward imitation has in many ways been lost. As a result, the therapeutic effectiveness of the worldly Paris has largely disappeared and consequently the life in the Holy Spirit among its members.

[00:08:17]The secularized Paris has lost its model which is the first apostolic church and the monastic kenobium.

[00:08:27]The faithful who live who live in the world have likewise in many respects lost their spiritual models. The first Christians of the ancient apostolic Paris of the first two centuries and the monks who continued that apostolic life.

[00:08:51]According to St. John of the larger a light for those in the world are the monks.

[00:09:01]Uh when kinobitic monasticism and the early church function as the model for the orthodox parish and for the faithful living in the world then the salvific purpose of the church is fulfilled.

[00:09:21]The light of the monks is the light of God. That's why St. John of the ladder says that uh uh the light of those in the world of the lay people are the monks because they show them the way uh to heavens to the kingdom of God.

[00:09:45]So uh the kinobitic monasticism uh has to function as the model for the orex orthodox paris and for the faithful living in the world.

[00:10:01]The paris is healthy if uh it functions like this. It is alive and operates therapeutically for its members.

[00:10:13]As a result, every Christian family uh becomes a small community of diification for its members. Each individual believer is then a blessed person uh who together with his brothers in Christ enjoys the spiritual health that the Orthodox Church grants uh through the parish.

[00:10:43]The diification is the healing and the salvation.

[00:10:50]And when we speak about diification, first of all, we have to speak about the diification of noose which is the most important power of uh our soul.

[00:11:05]So we will begin by looking at the restoration of the function of the noose uh in the orthodox church which is the essence of the philosophy of the desert. The healing of the whole man which encompasses the soul and the body.

[00:11:29]Before healing we have to to speak about the sickness of the news. The darkening of the news as it is called from the holy fathers. The heart is the psychosomatic center of the human being.

[00:11:45]This is what is primarily restored to its natural function when someone is properly incorporated and remains organically integrated into the Orthodox church.

[00:11:59]This is an internal healing of the center of the human person and not an external one.

[00:12:08]The highest and purest power of the soul is the noose which according to the holy fathers is the eye of the soul. The noose has a sense and energy corresponding to God who has a sense divine and energy divine. In the human noose, the image of God is imprinted.

[00:12:38]When the news is passionate and darkened then the true image of God is not m manifested in the human being. Such a person has the according to the image darkened.

[00:12:57]The darken the darkening of the according to the image is due to the fall to sin to the attempt at dification without God to the submission of the noose to created things rather than to the creator to the carnalization of the spirit and in one word to the dysfunction of the noose. That is to the absence of unceasing prayer with the heart the heart of the human human being.

[00:13:36]Before the fall the human being had unseasing noetic prayer meaning his news was united with the heart with his heart and through his inner word he conversed unceasingly with God.

[00:13:56]After the fall, this function seized.

[00:14:00]The news through reason and the senses became scattered.

[00:14:07]More precisely, the energy of the news became separated from its essence and was dispersed among created things. The human being lost himself.

[00:14:22]He became outside of himself and like the prodigal in the parable he came to be feeding swin that is he came to to feed his passions submitting not to God God the father but to the ruler of this word the devil in the desert of the passions and in his tragic loneliness illness.

[00:14:52]The human being suffered beyond measure with the incarnation of the logos of Lord Jesus of the second person of the holy trinity. He was given uh the possibility of healing through repentance.

[00:15:12]If he desires, the human being can now come to himself.

[00:15:18]When the human being comes to himself like the repentant prodigal then and only then can he seek the father. For a person to come to himself uh in quotes this phrase is identical with the return of the news to the heart. That is the energy of the news uniting with its essence. This is true repentance.

[00:15:51]Then the next movement takes place. The news through itself as St. Basil the Gri teaches ascends to the conception of God of God.

[00:16:05]Then gradually through continual repentance the restoration of the nomatic function takes place and the brightening of the darkened according to the image in its normal spiritually healthy state.

[00:16:24]The energy of the noose is united with its essence which is located in the heart as in an instrument.

[00:16:34]According to the teaching of the holy fathers, the soul is not enclosed in the body as in a vessel but contains and gives life to the body. The noose uses the head as is its instrument and functions on the b bus basis of faith.

[00:16:58]The dania which is the immediately lower power of the soul after the noose uses the brain as its instrument and functions according to reason.

[00:17:14]Uh we can say da uh with the name uh intellect.

[00:17:21]When the noose is found in the heart it must spray unceasingly.

[00:17:27]In this way, it discovers the hidden baptismal divine grace and units with God in the heart by nature. There should be no other thought except the words and meanings of the noetic unseasing prayer that is the unseasing invocation of the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me. In the spiritually ill human being, the news is polluted by evil or even good thoughts that come from the da reason. This is an a consequence of the short sirui in quotes uh the expression uh that exists in the passionate inner human being between the noose heart and the daia brain.

[00:18:34]Thoughts that are generated in the diana from the stimuli of the environment descend uh from the dana into the heart. The news is darkened by the passions and instead of turning toward God, it turns toward created things.

[00:18:56]The person then confuses what belongs to his environment with what belongs to his god and becomes an idol latter and a worshipper of himself.

[00:19:12]Instead of worshiping the true God, he creates creates and worships idols. With the first idol being himself, becoming self-loving, he becomes a self idol. According to the expressions of St. Andrew of Crit, he also worships his environment becoming materialistic.

[00:19:40]Avaritio, aaricious, ambitious and pleasure loving. He subjects the news to reason and the senses.

[00:19:53]He knows and believes that something exists only in so far as it falls under his senses.

[00:20:05]the invisible God. Of course, he cannot know through the senses and through reason.

[00:20:12]Thus, he reaches the point of thinking and claiming that God does not exist. He identifies him with the environment, considers him a mere illusion, a product of the plane. He suffers this because he's searching for God with the wrong instrument instead of seeking him with a purified noose faith which is the only appropriate means by which a human being can know God.

[00:20:49]He seeks him with a servant of the noose with reason da subjecting himself to it and to its feeders which are the senses.

[00:21:02]However, the role of reason of da is not to govern the noose and in general the human person in the natural healthy spiritual condition. The reason is the helper of the noose. It is called to articulate in rational propositions what the noose sees and knows in quotes the words when it is illumined by the unccreated divine grace when it is praying unceasingly within the heart. Unfortunately in the passionate condition of the human being the helper has become master.

[00:21:52]The noose which would be the master the god illumined regulator of all things in the human person has become a slave to its helper.

[00:22:04]The rider, the noose has become the pack animal and the pack animal reason has become the rider.

[00:22:16]This is precisely what happened to the people of rationalism dominated western civilization.

[00:22:24]The scientification of everything is the hallmark of western culture. It is a culture of the fall. a culture of the passionate state of the unrepentant spiritually sick human being. The final result is what is observed daily an ever ever greater distancing from God and ever stronger carnalization of the spirit. Thus the western human being becomes increasingly darkened in news increasingly atheistic.

[00:23:05]Therefore the atheism that exists in the west and was important into the east through the enlightenment is the result of the sickness and lack of healing of the human noose.

[00:23:22]It is the final outcome of heresy which sprung from the alteration of the orthodox ethos. The arrogance and the unrepentance of western western man.

[00:23:41]The alter ethos that is the corrupted life always produces corrupted dogmas.

[00:23:50]People with a corrupted ethos create a corrupted faith. That is various heresies in order to house theoretically their alienated and corrupted way of life.

[00:24:09]Thus they remain unhealed since they fall away from the church. they fall into aidia that is interference toward the salvation of their soul. This interference uh leads them to ignorance of God and finally to atheism and idolatry. The dogmas are the therapeutic prescriptions.

[00:24:40]Without the orthodox dogma observes father John Romanis, one does not attain purification and illumination.

[00:24:52]Knowing this, the holy fathers struggled very hard to preserve them. They knew very well that if the orthodox dogmas were altered, the proper therapeutic method for the human being would be lost with the result that neither shepherds nor flock would be capable of being healed uh with the medicine of the church.

[00:25:23]The Orthodox Church preserves the correct dogmas which in turn define the correct way of life that is the orthodox ethos.

[00:25:37]By believing correctly and living in an orthodox manner, a person is incorporated into remains within the church where he is restored and becomes truly healthy.

[00:25:59]The daia reason with its rational arguments cannot unit us with God. Only the noose which is the center and eye of the soul is suitable for the union of our being with God. The church through its spiritual medicine frees the news heart from its slavery to the da reason.

[00:26:30]The medicine of the church consists in achieving the resolution of the short sui in quotes uh between noose and ya or in other words between heart and brain.

[00:26:48]Uh through its therapeic package the church brings about the return of the news to the heart. When the news returns to the heart, it is cleansed that is emptied of all thoughts, fantasies and memories.

[00:27:10]At the same time, the news is directed toward God and united with him through unseasing noitic prayer. Then provided that the believer preserves in unseasing prayer and in the life according to Christ illumination and theosis of the human being follow. St. Anthony the griat was uneducated.

[00:27:40]Yet he is the all wise dean of the desert. He spoke the highest truths which proceeded from his healed and spirit illumined heart. Truths that cannot be approached by those who may indeed be educated in worldly learning but lack the purification of the news and the heart.

[00:28:08]Orthodoxy is not a philosophical system nor a theoretical science. It is a practical experiential science that restores the human person to its natural functioning.

[00:28:27]It is the medicine of the noose and the hurt and the heart of the human being.

[00:28:33]It is indirectly a medicine of the body as well.

[00:28:40]When the human being is spiritually healed, then he's also healed bodily.

[00:28:46]Since body and soul are interconnected, the condition of one affects the condition of the other. The church practices healing also upon the body of the human being.

[00:29:02]The whole person is restored psychosomatically by the physician of our souls and bodies who is our lord Jesus Christ. The three stages of the spiritual life.

[00:29:18]Ecclesial therapy correspond to participation in the purifying, illuminating and diifying energy of God.

[00:29:31]The medical healing aspect of the church can be seen very clearly in the cases of miracles.

[00:29:41]People with incurable bodily illnesses are healed after first being healed of their spiritual illnesses through faith and repentance.

[00:29:57]Above all, by living within the Orthodox Church, the human being is delivered from the tyranny of the passions, of thoughts, of corruption, of sin, of the devil, and of death. The restoration of the human person is achieved through the sacramental and the sastic asetic life.

[00:30:22]The salvation of the human being in Christ which is the primary goal of orthodox spirituality takes place through the mysteries of the church and the eskeetic life throughout the entire ecclesiastical tradition. The combination between the mysteries and eskeeticism you see here is evident.

[00:30:52]Askeeticism precedes the mysteries and after them the eskeetic life follows again.

[00:31:02]Fasting like the other forms of a sketic practice, veil standing upright in prayer, fervent supplication to God, prostrations, sleeping on the ground are only the means. They are not the goal of the Christian life. The goal is the acquisition or rather the reactivation of divine grace which we received as an earnest at our holy baptism.

[00:31:38]The reactivation takes place through complete repentance.

[00:31:44]Repentance is true and complete when it is accompanied by escadic toil both bodily according to one's strength and seeking spiritual.

[00:31:58]The death the death of of a person who is organically integrated into the church uh is a new birth into the unending kingdom of God. By living in this life in repentance, the human being is restored attaining the according to likeness and thus he saved.

[00:32:24]He saved within the church and through the church acquiring spiritual senses. He overcomes death through his ecclesial life. The truly ecclesial elder Perferious said, "There is no death. It is nothing other than our birth into the other life." The saying of the illumined Elder Perfios backwards with the teaching of St. Maximus the confessor who points out that just as the embryo in order to live when it is born that is in earthly life must perfect within the mother's vom all its bodily organs.

[00:33:18]So also the human being in order to live that is when through death he is born in the other life must have perfected all his spiritual organs before his biological biological death otherwise he will die and this is spiritual death that is the eternal separation from the personal life who is Christ.

[00:33:50]The purpose of all of our earthly life is to acquire spiritually healthy sensory organs, living in repentance and confession, continually humbling ourselves, practicing aseticism and partaking in dification through the divine mysteries.

[00:34:14]Then even biological death which is the separation of soul from body will be the beginning of true life the endless life of in God.

[00:34:29]And so we finished with the grace of uh of our lord this uh first very important uh lesson about uh the darkening of the news uh because of the sin and the healing of news uh in the church. the healing of the whole man.

[00:34:55]And we go forward to speak uh about monasticism and what is an orthodox monk as we speak about the philosophy of the deserts and the spiritual healing which is achieved through the monastic life through uh the true apostolic life.

[00:35:25]St. John Christom comparing the royal dynasty with the monk teaches that the true king is the second that is the monk. The one who bears the title of king rules over cities. The monk rules over souls.

[00:35:48]The first fights barbarians. The second fights demons. The first gives his subjects gold. The second gives spiritual grace. The first trembles at death. The second receives it without passion. And the condition of the two in the world to come will be arranged accordingly, even if both have justly fulfilled their works.

[00:36:22]Monks studied at the height of spiritual philosophy and are not affected by anything are harmed by nothing that happens to us who live in the world. The Orthodox monk is the person who obeys the call of Christ.

[00:36:43]If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself.

[00:36:50]He proceeds bravely to the three renunciations.

[00:36:56]The renunciation of ambition, of sensual pleasure, and of love of money.

[00:37:05]As an antidote to these passions, he practices the virtues of obedience, chastity, and poverty respectively.

[00:37:17]In this way, he is filled with inexpressable spiritual wealth, is glorified with the light of Christ, and becomes a cause for God and his holy church to be glorified.

[00:37:35]Monnosticism was, is, and will be the boast, the adornment, the beauty, and the glory of the church of Christ.

[00:37:47]It is the salt of the earth and the light of the world. According to St. John of the Ladder, light for monks are the angels. Light for those in the world are the monks. It is a return to the ancient beauty.

[00:38:08]Purification from the passions, illumination andification by grace. The monk says together with the apostle Paul, "For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain and he lives the experience of the presence of Christ.

[00:38:30]It is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me. It is no longer I who live.

[00:38:38]That is I am dead to myself and to the world and to the devil. But Christ lives in me. That is Christ lives, acts and moves, thinks and understands, works and contemplates within me and through me.

[00:39:04]He who is life and the source of life.

[00:39:08]Light and the source of light.

[00:39:11]Resurrection and the source of resurrection.

[00:39:16]The alpha and the omega. The beginning and the end. The center of the monk's life is Christ and his saving teaching.

[00:39:29]Monasticism is the gospel put into practice in its most consistent form.

[00:39:37]Above all, monasticism is the awakening evangelical proclamation.

[00:39:44]Repent.

[00:39:46]The natural position of the monk in all the manifestations of his life is the humble posture of the publican.

[00:39:58]The monk is the laborer of repentance, of tears.

[00:40:04]He repents for himself, for others, for his neighbor, and for the whole world.

[00:40:12]He's a living image of mourning and contrition, of change, correction, and transformation brought about by repentance.

[00:40:25]Once some pilgrims on Mount Aos asked a hermit, "Father, what do you do here on the holy mountain?" And he replied with a single word, "We repent."

[00:40:41]The monk wearing the black cas and the likewise black belt expresses his mourning for his sins and his lifelong repentance. Repentance is the renewal of baptism. Repentance is an agreement with God for a new life, teaches St. John of the Lger.

[00:41:08]The monk uh confesses his thoughts daily to his spiritual guide, his elder. makes full prostrations and uses the prayer rope while saying unceasingly the prayer, Lord Jesus Christ, son of God of God, have mercy on me, the sinner, continually cutting off his will and his mindset through obedience and recognizing at every moment his insufficiency and nothingness.

[00:41:39]All this express his repentance and lead to likeness with a prototype who is Christ. The monastic life is prophetic, apostolic and marterical.

[00:41:54]Every Orthodox monk who lives rightly is an apostle of Christ, a martyr and a prophet. The monk is an apostle because he proclaims the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ. He's also a prophet because he reveals and manifests Christ. And he's a martyr because he practices obedience which is considered a bloodless martyrdom.

[00:42:24]And these three categories prophets, apostles, martyrs had a common life. The center of their life was Christ, the bodyless and incarnate Logos. They had communion with the word of God. They lived the entire method of orthodox piety and the stages of spiritual perfection which are purific purification, illumination and diification.

[00:42:58]St. Maximus the confessor speaks of practical philosophy purification, natural contemplation, illumination and mystical theology dification.

[00:43:14]Purification of the heart is the liberation of the human being from pleasure and pain. Illumination of the news is the liberation of the human being from forgetfulness and ignorance during which nitic prayer of the heart develops and diification is the liberation of the human being from imagination and rational processing.

[00:43:46]St. Gregory Palamas analyzing the manner in which the Theotocos lived in the holy of holies presented the entire content of orthodox hisma.

[00:44:01]He writes that the theotocus freed her news from the senses and the sensible things was freed from imagination and then beheld the uncreated light. Her presence for 12 years in the holy of holies was in reality participation in the vision of God during which even her bodily energies were suspended.

[00:44:33]The monk become begins with deep repentance with godly sorrow. This draw down the mercy of God upon the monk who truly repents.

[00:44:46]Divine grace comes and accomplishes accomplishes the purification of his heart.

[00:44:55]The prospective monk corresponds to the katummen of the early church during the period of trial. The novice monk passes through repentance and the purification of the heart. He experiences the first love of which the evangelist John speaks in the book of revelation.

[00:45:19]When repentance is completed, the monastic tonsur takes place which is also called a mystery. For the monk experiences uh the illumination energy of God indeed according to St. Simeon the new theologian. The second baptism is the baptism of the spirit, the illumination of the noose, the acquisition of nitic prayer.

[00:45:51]During the monastic tonsur, the one being tons hears in his katicesis from the priest. Today you receive a second baptism, brother, and you are cleansed from your sins and become a child of the light, which shows that the monk before the tonsor lives the purification of the her and with the tonsur acquires the illumination of the noose. In monasticism, we have a revival of the apostolic life, of the way of life of the first Christians as described in the epistles and in the acts of the apostles.

[00:46:37]St. Silan the Aonite writes, "The world thinks that monks are a useless kind of people, but they are wrong to think this way.

[00:46:49]They do not know that the monk prays for the whole world. They do not see his prayers and do not know with many lay people do not see the prayers of the monks and do do not know uh the compassion uh with what uh uh they do not know with at compassion the lord receives them monks says silan wags a g a great battle against the passions and for this struggle they will be greed they will be great near god sention of 4th century recognizing this majesty of the angelic habit addresses the monks saying how greatly your holy habit surpasses surpasses in honor. What spiritual fragments it gives off. How great is the vocation you have chosen. No word can praise it.

[00:48:15]Oh vocation that touches heaven or vocation that is united with God.

[00:48:23]or vocation that resembles the angels.

[00:48:28]A vocation that preserves the image of God. A vocation that stands close to God. A vocation that is most precious to God. A vocation through which the world is saved. Someone blessing. You could just say, "Blessed are the blameless in the way who walk in the law of the Lord."

[00:48:56]The monastic life is uh the life of the holy apostles and of the first Christians.

[00:49:07]Monastic life was originally called apostolic life because it is nothing other than the application in the most perfect degree of the commandments of the gospel which our Lord and the holy apostles preached to us. Monastic life. Monasticism is according to the sacred christom true philosophy.

[00:49:37]Monks imitate the apostolic zeal and the bodyless powers.

[00:49:44]The Lord delivered one common teaching for all monks, the unmarried and the married.

[00:49:55]Besides, then he preached uh to us uh the monastic order had not yet been formed.

[00:50:10]Whatever the Lord said, he said to all of us.

[00:50:16]Whatever he did, he did for all of us to give us the proper model of life and the way of salvation.

[00:50:29]That is he revealed to us the way to fulfill our destiny to attain with the help of the according to the image and by divine grace the according to the likeness by imitating his life uh with the holy grace. So we can uh continue.

[00:50:57]Uh we were speaking about uh uh the Lord uh who delivered one common teaching for all monks, the unmarried and the married.

[00:51:17]Besides, when he preached to us, the monastic order had not yet been formed.

[00:51:25]Whatever the Lord said, he said to all of us. Whatever he did, he did for all of us to give us the proper model of life and the way of salvation.

[00:51:38]That is he revealed to us the way to fulfill our destiny to attain with the help of the according to the image and by divine grace the according to the likeness by imitating his life.

[00:51:58]Uh and uh we continue with uh the subjects that uh the monks uh and about the the subject to the title the monks and the two-fold commandment of love. Many accuse monks of being a dissocial other worldly and selfcentered but the truth is precisely the opposite.

[00:52:29]uh in his work on the ecclesiastical hierarchy St. Donius the Aropaga records two sacred names as he calls them which concisely concisely express the character and ethos of the philosophy of the monks.

[00:52:52]These are the names therape healers and monahi monks.

[00:53:00]The therapia that is the worship of God and the healing of the human person constitute the two aims of the monastic calling and life.

[00:53:19]The monk or healer essentially strives to fulfill the two-fold commandment of love. Love for God.

[00:53:30]You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. And love for neighbor. That is you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

[00:53:46]The monk does not withdraw from people because he hates them.

[00:53:53]Uh, of course, not with withdraw from people because he hates them, but because he loves them exceedingly.

[00:54:04]He wants others to be saved, not only himself. The center is the others because the main center is God. He forgets himself with this desire.

[00:54:22]He goes uh to the monastery to the desert.

[00:54:27]A contemporary atonite sent uh St. Silwan with tears in his eyes begged God, Lord grant that the whole world may know you through the Holy Spirit.

[00:54:45]He also implored, "Oh Lord, give us this your love to the whole world." Sensual Luan desires that this experience which he himself lived and continues to to live the revelation of God in his heart be lived by all people burning with love. He wants everyone to have the earnest of the Holy Spirit the foretaste of salvation.

[00:55:25]The contemporary scent prays for the salvation of the whole earth. The whole earth. Caring and suffering in love for the entire world. The monk seeks purification through stillness, illumination and dification for the sake of the whole world. Yet he does not fall short in works of social love and philanthropy either. St. Basil the great in his discourse how a monk should adorn himself observes that he ought to suffer together with those who suffer to weep with them to and to pity them greatly to admonish the disorderly to comfort the fainted hurted to serve the sick to wash the feet of the sense to care for hospitality and for love toward the brethren.

[00:56:34]By keeping the two-fold commandment of love, monks are sanctified, spiritually healed and become true persons, casting off the hideous mask of the passions. Their formerly fragmented and passionate soul through their blessed monastic life is reordered becomes dispassionate and is ununified.

[00:57:10]Even the last hermit through his holy life heals humanity and sacrifice all the cre all of creation. His holiness is transmitted in a mystical way to the entire body of the church. The monk struggles for his spiritual progress as a member of the body of Christ. He is not selfimprisoned in an ego centric pursuit of individual salvation. He lives the unity of all and therefore understands that his own spiritual advance is the advance of all the members of the body.

[00:57:56]He strives to benefit all his brothers in Christ experiencing the reality that we are all members of one another. Each one a part of the other and all members of Christ. He understands that by being purified and enlightened, he helps his brethren and contributes to the salvation of the whole world. He prays with pain or hurt, sacrificing himself voluntarily and selflessly for the entire world. St. Silan the Aonite writes about St. Parthnus of Kiev that this sentent received the following message from the Lady Theotocus, a true monk and by extension a true Christian is one who intercedes for the whole world.

[00:58:58]The monk loves everyone and prays for all, especially for those who cannot or have not learned to pray.

[00:59:09]His comfortless life, that is a life deprived of the comforts and general ease of the world, of good food, a soft bed, and so on. together with his all askeetic way of life, his unseasing prayer combined with his sacramental liturggical life, all work therapeutically upon his own person and beneficially for all human humanity.

[00:59:45]being spiritually healthy himself, he can then by the divine grace active uh within him become a spiritual physician for others.

[00:59:59]It is inconceivable taught the ever memorable father John Romanites that a person who is healed should not have spiritual children.

[01:00:13]Uh that is other people in spiritual dependence dependence upon him whom he admonishes and guides uh toward the healing.

[01:00:38]We have to stop here. We are speaking about 1 hour and u we have to thank you for your patience and uh we try God's uh grace to reply in any questions if there are some.

[01:00:59]Thanks of all uh first of all holy trinity for this uh opportunity to speak uh today the word of God.

[01:01:16]Thank you very much ya for your blessing and to all the audience here.

[01:01:20]>> God bless us all.

[01:01:25]I'll just remind everyone that you can send your questions in the chat room for Zoom and then with YouTube.

[01:01:33]Um for those that want to send questions anonymously, you can email them at the email Father Savas.

[01:01:42]That's Father Savas with two V's [email protected].

[01:01:51]uh please try to keep the questions on the subject and then secondary questions will be uh posed last.

[01:02:00]We'll start here.

[01:02:03]They write us.

[01:02:08]Did the holy martyrs have attained cleaning of the soul before enduring the torments?

[01:02:14]It seems hard to be able to endure those sufferings without spiritual training.

[01:02:23]>> Yes. Uh of course uh they had been cleaned from self love and uh have attained the prayer Jesus prayer uh inner prayer unseasing prayer. We can see it in the lives of the holy martyrs.

[01:02:51]uh for instance uh I remember I saw it in the martyrion of St. resorts the great martyr uh because it's of course very difficult uh to endure all these uh uh torments without uh having been cleaned from the passions uh from self love and without holy grace. Holy Grace uh uh cleaned the martyrs, illumined them and uh diified them and uh gave them the strength which was uh necessary for Martyrion.

[01:03:44]Yes, thank you for the this question.

[01:03:57]You know that can we ask also the body that undergoes aseticism.

[01:04:04]Many of the saints they practice the aestheticism in their body and in their soul through their daily life.

[01:04:13]Um is there a connection between the relics of the saints and we see many saints are incorrupt and their bodies are whole. Uh doesn't suffer decay. Is this because of the grace that was dwelling inside of them from the aeticism and the mysteries?

[01:04:34]>> Yes, that's true. The holy grace uh preserved uh their the bodies of the saints. The great saints uh are incorrupt.

[01:04:50]Their bodies uh are preserved because uh uh holy grace uh dwelled not only uh in their soul but also in their bodies.

[01:05:05]These are the very great saints like St. Spiridon, St. Theius uh all the holy saints of Labra of Kiev u send Gerasimos of Kfalonia and many many others saints who are incorrupt.

[01:05:42]Another uh sign of the holy grace is the fragrance uh of uh uh the holy relics from all the sense and Of course, the color of the uh holy bones. All these are signs of uh uh of the dification not only of their souls but also of their bodies.

[01:06:21]That is for this question.

[01:06:25]>> Thank you.

[01:06:27]There's one who abstain from food but in days of high heat drink lots of water all day long since the morning is considering as fasting.

[01:06:43]>> Of course uh we have to drink water.

[01:06:45]Water is very useful for organization and if it is hot we need large quantities of water.

[01:06:58]Uh of course it is fasting.

[01:07:02]Of course, uh the perfect farting is uh to eat and drink nothing but uh especially water is uh essential and maybe you can do this but for a little for food it's more easy to do it more time more face but uh God does not want us to distract our bodies. We have to uh be freed from our passions and not to kill uh the body. We are not body killers but passion killers as uh the desert father fathers uh say that is thank you here they write us father bless how do we know that our noose is being cleansed were clearer than before.

[01:08:26]I don't understand. How do you know?

[01:08:48]When our thoughts are clean, we and we don't have a fantasies.

[01:08:55]When we have not uh bad desires um and bad dreams also, it's a sign of cleaning of uh of news.

[01:09:12]And of course uh we use uh all the senses uh the eyes the ears uh according to the commandments the holy commandments we use the whole uh self body and soul according to the holy commandments because noose uh is uh the commander is the governor of uh uh our being our whole being.

[01:09:45]So if it is clean, if it is poor, it accepts the holy grace and uh becomes wise and uh dified and uh functions properly and governs uh properly according to the holy commandments. the the whole man of course we have signs we don't have uh passions bad thoughts for the others envy zeal angry we are not angry we have are humble uh according to St. Paul, we see little by little when we are cleaned uh uh the fruit of the Holy Spirit that is uh love uh joy, peace and all this as St. people uh refers to them presence the uh the substance we can say of the whole fruit of the holy spirit and of course if we are not cleaned we have the opposite instead of peace we have agony we have stress Uh instead of joy we have sadness, depression, uh fear, instead of uh love we have hate, uh envy, zeal and all these bad uh feelings that is about this question.

[01:11:57]Thank you. They're writing us here. Dear father, the spiritual situation in parishes is getting worse and worse by the day. What are some ways we can try to motivate our fellow parishioners to take up the spiritual struggle and be more aesthetic? Thank you very much.

[01:12:16]uh if we can help our cooperitioners to achieve an eskeetical uh uh life. This is the question the co- parishioners and maybe he means also the entire parish like the priest, the administration, everybody involved.

[01:12:43]>> Yes.

[01:12:45]First of all, we have to work to ourselves.

[01:12:48]Uh finding an aesthetical uh priest, an eskeetical confessor, a confessor who lives according to the holy apostles, an who lives an eskeetical life and then to try to to follow him and his teachings to do uh a sketical life in ourselves.

[01:13:13]first of all and this will uh function as an example for all the members of the parish.

[01:13:23]It is it's a pity that we don't have a sketchical parises uh as St. John St. Justin Papopovich said because through sketicism through the philosophy of the deserts as St. John says that we have to introduce this into parises into cities.

[01:13:51]Uh it's it's a pity that we don't find it it uh but in a few uh parises in a few priests uh we need uh skeptical priests uh priests who will love this uh uh model of life which is the healing model. the model of the uh fathers, the the kids.

[01:14:29]We see our Lord how he lived in a very sketchical way without house, without money, without nearly food, without uh spare clothes.

[01:14:47]Uh he said uh the birds have a nest. The son of uh uh man himself has no nest has not place to put his head to rest himself.

[01:15:04]That is the sketchical life. Our Lord taught it this life.

[01:15:11]It's not a an invention of uh some man aric or against the world being. No, it is the life of our lord and of holy apostles.

[01:15:32]That's why the first name of the eskeetical life and of monasticism was uh apostolic life as we mentioned during the lesson.

[01:15:49]Thank you for this uh question and for every question of course.

[01:15:59]Yeah, we have a similar question here that uh follows up with the last one.

[01:16:04]And they ask, "For some reason, I'm finding in America that parish priests feel threatened by the presence of monastics coming into the parish. What can we do as lay people, lay women?

[01:16:18]We are seen as zealots for following true healers of the church.

[01:16:27]We have to follow the true healers and uh not to be occupied from passions or uh be timid and uh be under this thought. This is not a good thought to the ascets are not against the paraces or the priests of the parises. The opposite they are the helpers. They are the healers. They are the light of the parises.

[01:17:07]And the parish priests have to love the ascets.

[01:17:15]We see St. Athanasius the gri the great.

[01:17:20]He was a student of St. Anthony the great and all the holy fathers of the of the cities were ascets great ascets like St. John Chrisos Thomas and Basil, the the the great holy fathers uh who uh took care of the healing of their uh uh m metropolis were great as kids.

[01:18:05]Although they lived among the people in the world that is the reply to this question.

[01:18:20]Maybe you can share a little bit farther from your experience that in the traditional countries and Greece and Romania and Serbia and other countries that the parish priests uh and the parishes often times they go to the monasteries together. They take the people to monasteries.

[01:18:38]>> Yes.

[01:18:39]>> Spend time. Right. This is the tradition of the church. Yes.

[01:18:42]>> They're not against each other.

[01:18:45]>> Yes. It's very helpful for a priest to visit monasteries Mount Dus with his spiritual children.

[01:18:56]Very helpful for him and for his children.

[01:19:00]And also as father George Metalino said, it's very helpful for one who is going to become a priest and in the beginning of his priesthood uh to go to a monastery for some months uh to learn uh of course typic uh the the piety What is needed for him to become a good healer? Because the truth about healing of the spirit of the soul of NS is preserved in monastic life in monastic tradition.

[01:19:49]When a monastery is functioning uh properly, it functions as a perfect psychiatric clinic which heals soul, heals no news, heals intellect and of course uh the whole man is healed and the body also is uh uh helped through the healing of the soul.

[01:20:30]Thank you very much.

[01:20:40]>> Another question here is about unceasing prayer.

[01:20:43]Is the unceasing prayer a higher level prayer that the spiritually immature agonists should try until they reach a certain stage?

[01:20:55]What might be the traps?

[01:20:58]>> Yeah.

[01:21:12]We have always to try to say Jesus's prayer or other small prayers. They are very helpful because we are more uh easily concentrated in small prayers with a few words.

[01:21:30]The holy fathers uh found this prayer in the holy bible. All the words are from the holy bible. Uh lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me a sinner.

[01:21:46]Uh we have to try always uh and uh we have to be careful uh to have a spiritual guide who knows about prayer and if not uh we have to read the books about this but uh as St. Picus and St. Perferio said uh this modern sense of uh that it's better not to use techniques uh instead to say simply uh the words with repentance uh and St. P said to accent um uh the the word uh uh have mercy on me Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me and St. Ephraim Katunotis another modern saint of Mount Aos um instructed to say for half an hour uh Jesus's prayer standing in front of the icons uh without counting the beads uh of Koskini.

[01:23:10]Maybe you can uh hold it. Uh and u saying uh uh this prayer more fullfully crying uh with of course great repentance and this is very helpful for the progress the spiritual progress. It is like he said to plant a small tree and little by little it grows up.

[01:23:42]For half an hour you put your ring bell to to ring after one half an hour. Uh and for half an hour you are concentrated in these five words. Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me.

[01:24:00]This is very helpful uh so as to to learn to con to be concentrated in lord in his name in his uh uh person in him who is everything.

[01:24:27]That is the reply on this question.

[01:24:31]In this question, >> thank you.

[01:24:34]>> When someone is received into the church after been baptized in other trinitarian faith, do they still need to be baptized or just prismated? Why is there debate over this among hierarchs?

[01:24:48]>> And what do the saints say?

[01:24:52]Yes, of course it is needed to be baptized because the mysteries of the heretics does not exist.

[01:25:02]So they are not baptized.

[01:25:05]They are unbaptized.

[01:25:09]Maybe they say in the name of the father and the son, the holy spirit you are baptized. The reetics but there is no mystery. There is no grace. There's no Holy Spirit because they don't have the right faith. They don't have the right Jesus. Their Jesus Christ does not exist.

[01:25:33]Uh so they they have nothing. They have to be baptized not crated. Why exists this controversy?

[01:25:46]It is because some hierarchs and unfortunately patriarchs are heretics are ecomists and follow uh the heresy of uh uh baptismal theology. It is a theology renewed from uh Zizulas.

[01:26:12]He's dead now.

[01:26:15]um a bishop of econ ecommenical patriarch who uh renewed this heresies. It is an ancient heresis.

[01:26:29]U it existed uh from about the sixth century.

[01:26:36]U a pope Stefan spoke about this that everybody who is baptized in holy trinity he's baptized although the one who baptized him was not orthodox it's arises it's false we have not to follow this but unfortunately uh this theology Baptist mythology is very convenient for recommenists and for ecommenism. That's why uh exists this controversy between uh heresy and the truth.

[01:27:27]We have to fight this heresy and don't follow it. Everybody has to be baptized.

[01:27:35]This is the commandment of our Lord.

[01:27:38]When he sent the holy apostles, he said to them, "Go to the humanity, to the whole world, baptizing them, not crisismating them, and teaching them all my commandments."

[01:27:55]This is the commandment of our Lord.

[01:27:58]He didn't command uh the holy apostles to crisismate but to baptize and baptize means it's a Greek word to uh be all the body in the world in the water uh all the man has uh to to be under the water all his body to be in the water that is baptisma. uh not sprinkling as uh do theics the papists of course and not crisismating just crisismating that's the reply to all this thank you for the question we'll take a verbal question here from Uh the user here Jer Jas Rayan.

[01:29:07]>> Yes.

[01:29:09]>> Hello. Thank you father and thank you for translating.

[01:29:13]>> Um father when before we die will um like an angel of the lord would they warn us before we ready to go?

[01:29:27]Maybe >> we have to pray for this uh so as our Lord warn us uh so as to be better u uh um yes to to better prepared for this uh moment which is the most serious moment the most important uh moment of our life. We have to pray for this. So as Lord to grant this to us to uh warn us some days before maybe uh through our holy angel with the way he he knows uh so as to to be prepared better prepared. We have always to be ready for this moment of course.

[01:30:22]>> Yes.

[01:30:27]That is >> and um and and one more question please. Thank you.

[01:30:33]>> Yes.

[01:30:33]>> Um how can we sleep better at night? I know it's maybe it's not good question.

[01:30:43]>> Sorry, I didn't hear. Um h how can we how can I have a better how can we I sleep better at night time like have good sleep >> when I sleep >> if we have a clean conscience and and a quiet conscience this is the best uh pillow for sleeping that means we have to try always to not to sin and if sin to repent And so as our conscience to be quiet and to not condemn us that is the most important and of course uh many things are helpful. Uh also body helps if we eat less if we eat not before sleeping.

[01:31:43]The physician says to eat last time at least 3 hours before go sleeping. And of course to to fix a good u uh everyday program and to keep it not to change because uh it is also a habit of the body uh to to sleep in the same time every day and of course to avoid um everything which uh annoy uh body and uh intellect uh and uh avoid of course to um use internet very late in the night.

[01:32:36]It's not helpful and to to fill uh or our memory with a lot of uh garbage from through internet, a lot of uh informations which we don't need.

[01:32:52]We have to to have a a simple life, a quiet life and uh to fight spiritually our passions and little by little fighting uh passions we acquire the peace of the Holy Spirit. And this piece of the Holy Spirit is uh the best uh uh for having a good uh sleep a life which you like to like to live like this.

[01:33:29]>> Okay. Thank you.

[01:33:31]>> God bless you.

[01:33:32]>> Amen. Thank you, father.

[01:33:33]>> God bless you. Bye-bye. God bless you.

[01:33:43]Uh, we had another hand up. I don't know if it was a mistake. Uh, ya, but you have a question, feel free.

[01:33:54]Otherwise, we'll go to the written ones.

[01:34:04]Okay, they have another question here.

[01:34:06]Um, similar to before about the Jesus prayer, the unceasing prayer and they ask, "What are the fruits of unceasing prayer?" How does the Jesus prayer compare to practicing silence and stillness?

[01:34:25]Yeah.

[01:34:27]The fruits of the prayer are the fruits of the holy grace, the fruits of the Holy Spirit. The same what we have told before.

[01:34:38]Peace, joy, uh love, true love, uh love without waiting for a reward, without seeking uh the love of the others.

[01:34:55]This is the true love, true peace.

[01:34:59]uh not only when we are quiet, we are healthy, we are without needs but at every time all these are the the fruits of the ancesic prayer of course if it is done properly.

[01:35:21]Yes. uh and uh another uh what was the other uh branch of the question?

[01:35:30]Uh I think there was something more.

[01:35:37]>> Yes, they they just wanted a clarification about uh silence and stillness.

[01:35:43]>> Ah yes, of course. It's a great a great difference in yoga and Buddhist Buddhism and nor this eastern religions.

[01:35:55]uh this uh stillness it's not a uh prayer to god but to demons yoga and all these are prayer prayers are stunts postures of uh gods for them posters which are resembled to animals which are gods for them uh and all this meditation and stillness of these religions of course is not prayer because they are concentrated maybe in guru in a person or I don't know who where else but in our prayer we are concentrated in our lord Jesus Christ the true Christ the only true uh the the only true god god all the other gods are demons of course according to the Holy Bible.

[01:36:56]Uh and of course we have not to be concentrated on ourselves because the eastern religion says that God is you.

[01:37:08]You can find yourself and you find God.

[01:37:12]This is a very uh great lie.

[01:37:19]Uh we are different from God. We are not God.

[01:37:23]We have to become like God but we are not.

[01:37:29]So it's a very different thing.

[01:37:40]Of course we we need uh we need to be in a quiet place when we pray. If it is uh this the meaning of the question. Of course, it is helpful to be in a quiet place to to have a uh a stillness. Of course, instead of doing uh always something and trying to pray, of course, we have to be uh uh concentrated in Lord Jesus Christ. And this is achieved better. If we are uh standing, we are still uh we are not moving. We are not doing something uh more.

[01:38:20]Of course, we have always to to pray during every thing we do. But of course, we have also to have some time without doing anything else. just standing or kneeling or prostrating in front of uh our holy icons and be concentrated as much as possible to our lord.

[01:38:47]That's the reply for all this.

[01:38:57]It seems some saints are more able to perform miracles and help people like St. Nicholas or St. Spiridon than other saints? Is it because their love for God and for the people was more intense during their earthly life or is it according of the faith of the people who invoke them?

[01:39:18]It is both uh uh to do to to to make to do miracles of course is a a gift of god of holy spirit to this sense but the holy spirit gives uh his gifts to whom who likes them.

[01:39:40]uh this great sense uh loved a lot the people and uh that's why holy spirit gave them this uh gift to do miracles to help people to heal people to heal their bodies and their souls.

[01:39:58]uh other saints were against demons and holy spirit gave them the gift against the demons to cast away the demons.

[01:40:10]Uh other saints uh u uh had the gift of uh preaching uh or the the gift of silence and quietness like uh the great arcenos uh of the skit or great desert father.

[01:40:41]But of course uh our faith also uh plays role if uh a miracle is to be done.

[01:40:55]We have always to cooperate with the holy grace and uh of course to ask uh our sense to help us through prayer and through the holy life the life uh god wants us to to have.

[01:41:19]Thank you for this question.

[01:41:26]>> Is it possible that the people hate their spiritual benefactors and that they are not able to accept good advice even though it's well tested from the holy fathers? Can you explain why people run away from those who are able to help them? Your blessings.

[01:41:50]because uh they don't want to be healed.

[01:41:54]That's a pity. But uh in practice this they saw if somebody wants to be healed, he is obedient to his physician.

[01:42:10]uh if he doesn't want to be healed, he's disobedient.

[01:42:16]It's a pity, but it happens. You see Judas, he had the best physician and the best healer, the best year, our Lord.

[01:42:31]Of course uh our lord ad was giving advices to him always but he didn't want to be healed.

[01:42:43]Why?

[01:42:44]Uh because we are egoistic.

[01:42:49]We love uh ourselves and our will.

[01:42:54]We want to fulfill our own will.

[01:42:58]And the will unfortunately um after the fall of Adam and Eve uh is uh uh not the will of God. The will of our of ourselves is opposite of the will of God.

[01:43:18]And if we love this will we go away from from from Christ and from healing from spiritual healing.

[01:43:28]So that is why our lord says that the first presupposition to follow me is to deny yourself to deny your will. Because ourselves mainly is our will.

[01:43:45]We love it more than anything else.

[01:43:48]That's why obedience is the greater sacrifice to cut our own will uh and to follow the will of God.

[01:44:00]So if we love our will, we love our passions. We love our sins.

[01:44:08]That's why we are disobedient to our spiritual healers, to our holy fathers, to holy gospel.

[01:44:18]It is not something which uh is connected with the reason but it's uh something which connected with heart. The heart is not clean. The man has passions in his heart and loves them. It's a pity but it happens. St. Pu said unfortunately after 30 years old the man loves uh his passions it is and it is very difficult to be freed from them. Of course holy grace uh can do everything if uh the man cooperate cooperates with holy grace.

[01:45:03]That's the truth.

[01:45:06]That's the answer and thank you for this uh question.

[01:45:25]I don't know if there are any other questions. Uh I'll just make a last call if anyone wants to raise their hand or write something in the chat.

[01:45:35]Otherwise, we've come to con conclusion.

[01:45:43]Glory to God for all your passions.

[01:45:49]Uh and uh pray for us.

[01:45:57]God bless us all. We can do the prayer.

[01:46:03]>> Okay. Wait a minute.

[01:46:05]>> It says the bless. We see in the saints and desert fathers that their aeticism was so intense and beyond what we are capable of. Because of this, their noose was purified. So we're given the gift of unceasing prayer. Then we see how far and impure we are. Yet we desire ceaseless prayer. At the same time, we know we are not prepared to receive such a gift. Yet we desire it. How do we reconcile this within us?

[01:46:44]We have to be intense as desert fathers.

[01:46:50]Uh we have to to do uh to to act uh to achieve violence against violence on us.

[01:47:03]According to the saying of our Lord, the kingdom of heavens suffers violence and the men who violence themselves enter the kingdom of heaven.

[01:47:17]So we have always to struggle and little by little cooperating with the holy grace and uh humbling body through pod toils through a sketchical life we achieve h the h humility of the soul. So the whole manu is humiliated and through this humiliation according the to the spiritual law uh holy grace comes to us >> and through holy grace we can achieve everything. We can achieve unceasing prayer. We can achieve uh the goal. The goal is uh the salvation. It's notic prayeric prayer is a mean also fasting is a mean everything uh there is a mean the goal is unification uh uh to be unified with Christ uh theification.

[01:48:29]So we have to struggle to to suffer violence every second, not to lose every second, to repent and to remember always to choose uh the narrow path, not the wide path of the passions, but the narrow path of a sketchical life and a life of uh the holy mysteries. These are the two the two main columns of salvation we can say as sketical uh life and life of the holy mysteries.

[01:49:14]Uh that that means that we have always to be ready to have holy communion.

[01:49:23]uh every day we have to try so as not to sin to be able having the permission of our spiritual father to to have holy communion as the first Christians but we cannot keep the holy grace who which derives who comes through the holy mysteries uh if we have not humility if you have not humb humble body and a humble soul.

[01:49:58]That's why we need the eskeetical life so as to be humble.

[01:50:06]That's the reply to this question.

[01:50:18]>> Glory to God.

[01:50:19]>> Glory to God.

[01:50:21]>> Thank you, Father. Okay.

[01:50:30]Astronomy.

[01:50:58]Amen.

[01:51:01]God bless us all.