Orthodox Wisdom Newsletter

“The Christian needs to avoid sickly spirituality, as much the feeling of superiority for one’s virtue as the feeling of inferiority for one’s sinfulness. To have a complex is one thing, to be humble is quite another. Melancholy is one thing, repentance something else.”

~ St. Porphyrios, Precious Vessels of the Holy Spirit

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Modern Challenges for Orthodox Christianity – Archbishop Alexander (Golitzin)

☦️ Dear fellow pilgrim,

The spiritual life is a hidden life. As Christ taught: “But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” (Matthew 6:6). Because of this hiddenness, it can be a temptation to view the Christian life as boring and laborious.

Happily, the opposite is the case: the closer we come to God in prayer, the fuller our life becomes, the fuller our relationships with others and with the world around us. If one looks closely, one can find this truth throughout the lives of the Saints: their lives were not dark and depressing, but full of true light and joy. Not all the Saints wrote about this experience, but St. Porphyrios did, and we should be encouraged and inspired by his holy passion for knowledge:

My thirst for learning extended to all fields. I wanted to learn everything in all its depth and breadth. If I visited a factory, I wanted to learn every detail about how it operated. If I visited a museum, I would spend hours examining the sculptures…

I once went to study poultry farming. Truly! Another time I went to a teacher who taught beekeeping. The teacher was from Corfu. There were various people in the class, boys and girls, young and old. When the lesson was over, the teacher came up to me and said, ‘Do you know what I’ve realized Father? I can see that you’ll be very successful as a beekeeper.’ ‘How did you realize that?’ I asked. ‘From the way you look, from your attentiveness, I saw that you’ll make a good bee-keeper. You’ll do very well. You’ll understand the bees. You’ll talk to them and they’ll talk to you.’

~ Wounded by Love, p. 58-59

The specifics of one’s life in Christ are unique, and unless something is sinful (or, perhaps, foolish), it is likely something that can be blessed. Christian life is not completely formulaic and we’d do well to avoid limiting what we “should” or “shouldn’t” do. (That said, when in doubt, it’s always good to get a blessing from our spiritual father/local priest!)

True Christian life is characterized by joyful sorrow. Life is a blessing and we should not forget that everything that is truly good and beautiful is from God. It can be a temptation to swing to one extreme or the other, but true Orthodox Christian spiritual life is the Royal Path found between joy and sorrow.

May we have the wisdom to find it!

In Christ our Lord,

Herman