When we ceaselessly pursue the prayer, God will enrich us. Only the prayer cleanses the heart. Because we are full of passions, we should sympathize with one another and be careful of our tongue.
“The tongue has not bones but it crushes bones.”
If we use it for God, it will be all honey and sweetness. If we say words against each other, it will be all bitterness. The person who is obedient and says the prayer will receive abundant grace and will experience may things…
For this reason let us be careful. Let us help ourselves by using the prayer rope and asking for the Light of God to come and illumine our inner being.
Saint Paraskeve icon of Kattavasia Rhodes photo Credit Victor Lutes
How language first developed is a great mystery. What gave rise to the first words signifying the reality of God? Breath launched a meaning from the heart that passed across the vocal chords, like a violin bow. A friend of mine who is a psychiatrist and writer in Greece, Fr. Vasileios Thermos, translated a line from one of his poems. “Every word we speak is a translation from an ancient manuscript that has been lost.”
Words are magic, revelations. They do not belong to us, but pass through us and we pass through them, translating the experiences of our flesh into meaning and returning to us, changing us according to their power. It is said among the Hasidic Jews, “The Spirit seeks a body through speech.” As one of the oldest original languages in existence, there is speculation that the word for God’s name might originally have arisen out of recognition of the sacredness and mystery of the very act of breathing itself, like a whisper, a sigh, a recognition of bearing life with each breath. All living beings breathe. So it may have originally been derived from something like the in breath, (whispered) “Yaaaahhhhh… outbreath, Waaaaayyyyyy” (whispered).
The relationship between soul and mind is formed over a lifetime by the nature of their interaction while in the body. St. Anthony makes an important and instructive observation. “Just as you treat the soul while it is in the body, so it will treat you on leaving the body.”
Stephen Muse : Treasure in Earthen Vessels
Through the lens of eternity :: this is needfully important
For us in the world living ordinary lives….. we too must discover stillness and watchfulness in the cave of the heart and learn to attend to what is heard in silence while living ordinary lives in the world as she did. Deep interior prayer is not something only for the monastics or for a hermit far off in the desert.
Do you wish to commune with God in your intellect by receiving a perception of that delight which is not enslaved to the senses? Pursue mercy, for when something that is like unto God is found in you, then that holy beauty is depicted by Him. For the whole sum of the deeds of mercy immediately brings the soul into communion with the unity of the glory of the Godheads splendor.
A man who talks of virtue from the experience of his own labour transmits virtue to his hearer just as though he distributes money earned from his own commerce, and as it were from out of his own possessions he sows his teaching in the ears of those who give him ear. Such a man opens his mouth with boldness before his spiritual children.
Everything is won’t to run to it’s kindred; and the soul that has a share of the Spirit , on hearing a phrase that has spiritual power hidden within, ardently draws out its content on herself.
The temporal life of man is like the sea, and we are like the ships. Just as a boat sails the sea, it does not all the time have favorable waters, but it is now and then tossed into the waters experiencing danger. So it is with us in this worldly life, we come upon dangers, and storms, scandals, temptations, sickness, sorrows, worries, persecutions and dangers. We must not be overcome by fear.
We must have courage, strength of purpose, and faith. And if as men, we become faint-hearted, and weak in faith and timid before dangers, then call out as Peter did before Christ, our most sweet God who is everywhere. Lord save us from danger. And immediately our sweet Jesus will extend His right hand to you and say, “Oh you of little faith, why are you afraid. I am by your side and will not leave you.”
The ship when it is anchored safely in port gives no cause of fear or danger. So also with us when we reach the port of eternal life, we will not experience fear or danger, but rather we will be safe for all eternity. There solace is without disturbance, peace without war, health without sickness, happiness without fears, joy without sorrow, life without death. May the All Good and Heavenly Father, who desires that all men may be saved, and come to the knowledge of truth, make us worthy of the Eternal Blessings and the Heavenly Kingdom.
Spiritual Advice of the Elder Philotheos Zervakos (1884 – 1980)
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