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More on Modern Era Saints - 85 |
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Finding the Will of God - The Place for Obedience in the Christian Life
- Personal and Liturgical Prayer and Different Forms of Prayer
Saint Silouan was a Russian born monk who lived most of his life at the monastery of Saint Pantelemon on Mount Athos.
He was a hard worker and in charge of the lumber mill for the monastery. But each day, he worked hard at the spiritual life and over many years, gained great insights into the spiritual life.
The gifts he received from God he wrote down on scrapes of paper. His amanuensis, Fr Sophrony, gathered these papers and published them so all the world could share in this wisdom.
Dr. Christopher Veniamin is professor of Patristics at St. Tikhon Seminary, Pennsylvania. Young Christopher grew up attending services at the monastery, St John the Baptist, that the elder Sophrony founded in Essex England. These talks on the Wisdom of Saint Silouan are based on the book, St Silouan by Archimandrite Sophrony.
Talk One: Finding the Will of God
Here are a few quotes from this first talk. Dr Veniamin reads some of Saint Silouan’s words then comments on them. It is rich and profound yet very practical teaching. There is great depth of material here in these talks.
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“Rarely is out spiritual teaching directly from God through the Holy Spirit, but most often from the teachings of other Christian and holy people.”
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“If our spirit and attitudes and spiritual disposition are right, God is quick to lead and teach us in the way we should walk”.
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“We must recognize that tall things are God’s and come from Him. He allows us to use them. We should give thanks for everything. In this we learn the will of God.”
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“If you are in distress over anything, you have not fully turned these over to God, A should given over to the will of God, fears nothing.”
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“In Christ (His human nature), we see what we were created to become. What Christ was in Nature, we are given by grace. Learn to be humble like Christ. God saved us through the humility of Christ. He didn’t save us with his great power but by his great and perfect humility.”
Talk Two: The Place for Obedience in the Christian Life
Saint Silouan strived daily to be obedient to those God had given him for training, yet he was also the supervisor over many other men. These daily struggles allowed him to become an example to us and an encouragement in our own training.
- “Obedience is a great privilege; it frees one from responsibility. Being obedient puts the responsibility on God.
- “In the lives of the saints we see that the love of God is greater than the fear of death. So completely were these people given over to the will of God.”
- “When others treat us badly, the things they do is secondary to our response. Obedience in this case is transforming my attitudes to react the way Christ would act . When we voluntarily enter into our own suffering (bad situations), thanking God for them, we become free.”
Talk Three: Personal and Liturgical Prayer and Different Forms of Prayer
This talk had a good discussion on the soul and heart and the mind of man and the differences before and after the Fall of Adam.
Prayer is an act of creation, wherein we allow God to create a new heart and mind in us. “Part of out struggles is to reign in the mind and control it to focus on the spiritual. Prayer restores the balance in a person to bring back the mind to health and behold the Lord. In pure prayer, our energies are directed toward God.
There are three levels of prayer:
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The first is fantasia (imagination) and is a beginners prayer when we do not really know to whom we are praying.
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The second level is meditation when we concentrate on God and the spiritual for and extended time and come into a closer relationship with one whom we grow to love.
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The third level is rapt concentration (theoria) This is the fruitful form of prayer and this should be our goal in prayer to reach this level. “In this level, the mind is conjoined with the heart. We experience this form of prayer when we pray attentively.”
- “The important thing is not where you are on this road to prayer but that you are on this road.”
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Revised:August 18, 2010.