BE ALWAYS
WITH ME AND IN ME SPIRITUAL ADVICE FOR THE AGES!
Source: “My
Life in Christ, ”extracts from the diary of St. John of Kronstadt,
Holy Trinity
Monastery, Jordanville, NY (1994), pp. 436-441.
Reverence in
every way images of living men, in order that you may duly reverence the image
of God. For the image of the Lord Jesus Christ is the human image. He who does
not respect the human image will not respect the image of God!
Am I not
everything to you—I am the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost— your God, your
life, your peace, your joy, and your blessedness? Your riches, your meat, and
drink; your raiment, your all? To what, then, do you cling? Is it not to dust?
What is that you grudge Me in the person of your neighbor? Is it not dust? Do
you grudge it to Me Who has created all things, Who can turn earth and stones
into bread, and can bring forth water from a rock? Be al¬ways with Me and in
Me, and you shall be always at peace and joyful. Has your trust in Me ever been
in vain? Have I not always given you tranquility and new life?
If you share
your prosperity with your neighbor, if you have it in common with him, then all
God’s blessings will be in common with you. Ye shall ask what ye will, and it
shall be done unto you... All Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine. (Jn 15:7,
17:10)
When you
forbid the Devil in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, then His name, the
sweetest to us, and the most terrible and grievous to the demons, itself
creates power, like a two-edged sword. Equally, if you ask anything of the
Heavenly Father, or do anything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, then the
heavenly Father, for the sake of the name of His beloved Son, shall give you
all things in the Holy Ghost, in the sacraments, if you fulfill His commandments,
and will in no wise consider your unworthiness; for wherever the name of God is
made use of with faith, there it creates powers: for the very name of God is
power.
Some persons
ask: What is the use of mentioning the names of the departed or living in
prayer for them? God being omniscient Himself, knows their names and the needs
of each one. But those who speak thus forget, or do not know, the importance of
prayer, do not know the importance of every word said from the whole heart;
they forget that the justice and mercy of God are moved by our heartfelt prayer
which the Lord, in His goodness, imputes to the merit of the living or the
departed themselves, as to the members of the one body of the Church. They do
not know that also the Church of the first-born, which are written in heaven
(Heb 12:23), in her love continually prays to God for us, and expressly
mentions before God the names of those who pray for them— equal for equal. We
make mention of their names, and they of ours. Whilst he who does not lovingly remember his
brethren in prayer, will not himself be remembered, and does not deserve to be
mentioned. Even one word of faith and love means much in prayer. The effectual
fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. (Jas 5:16).
When we pray
for the living and for the departed, and mention them by name, we must
pronounce these names lovingly, and from the whole heart, as though we carried
in our souls the per-sons whose names we mention, even as a nurse cherisheth
her children (iThes 2:7), remembering that they are our members, and members of
the Lord’s body. (Eph 4:25; 30). It is not right to stand before God and merely
run over their names with the tongue without the heart’s participation and
love. We must remember that God sees into the heart; that the persons for whom
we pray also require from us brotherly love and sympathy as a Christian duty.
There is a
great difference between the apathetic repetition of names and their hearty
remembrance: the one is as far from the other as heaven from earth.
However,
above all, the name of the Lord Himself, that of His most pure Mother, and
those of the holy angels and saints, must always be pronounced from a pure
heart with burning faith and love. In general, the words of the prayer must not
be merely run over with the tongue as if we were turning over the leaves of a
book or counting money, the water must flow like a stream of living water from
its source—they should be the sincere voice of the heart, not a strange,
borrowed garment.
Have the same
attention and respect for the Word as you have for the living man, and firmly
believe that the word of God is quick and powerful as a living being, as an
angel, and that, by reason of its spiritual fineness, it is piercing even to
the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a
discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Heb 4:12). The word of God
is God Himself; and therefore when you speak, believe that you have to do with
living, and not with dead beings, with active, and not with inert and powerless
ones. Know that you should pronounce every word with faith and assurance. The words are living
pearls. Neither cast ye your pearls before swine. (Mt 7:6).
During
prayer, it is necessary, in the first place, that the object of the prayer
should be definitely expressed, or at least, that there should be a clear sense
of it and desire for it in the heart; in the second place, it is necessary that
this desire should be expressed with feeling and lively trust in the mercy of
the Lord or in that of the Mother of God ; in the third place, there must be a
firm intention not to sin in the future, and to fulfill God’s will in
everything. Thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto
thee. On 5:14).
When you pray
for anything, either to the Lord or to the most-pure Mother of God, or to the
angels and saints, asking their intercession before God for yourself or for
others, then consider the words. Express your petitions, your needs, as the
very things, the very matter, for which you ask the Lord, and believe that you
have already a sure pledge of receiving the objects of your prayer, in the very
words by which these objects are designated. For instance: when you pray for
health for yourself or for someone else, look upon the word health as the very
thing itself, as the very deed; believe that you already have it by the mercy
and omnipotence of God, for the word itself, the name, may in an instant become
deed with the Lord, and you will unfailingly receive that which you ask for in
return for your unshaken faith. Ask, and it shall be given you. (Mt 7:7). What
things soever you desire when ye pray,
believe that ye receive them; and ye shall have them. (Mk 11:24).
Do not pay
attention to the darkness, fire, and distress proceeding from the enemy during
prayer, and steadfastly trust with all your heart in the very words of the
prayer, being assured that the treasures of the Holy Ghost are concealed in
them—that is, truth, light, life-giving fire, forgiveness of sins, expansion,
peace and joy of the heart, and blessedness.
The great
names: the Most Holy Trinity, or the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, called
upon with lively, hearty faith and reverence, or thought of in the soul, are
God Himself, and bring into our soul God Himself in Three Persons. But of God,
and through Him, and to Him, are all things. (Rom 11:36): therefore, if you are
united to God the Trinity by lively faith and virtue, especially by meekness,
humility, and mercy, ask of Him whatever you desire, whatever the
Holy Ghost
teaches you to ask, and it shall be given unto you, either quickly, in a
moment, in an hour, or after some time, according to the judgment of God’s
great wisdom.
Desire of Me
and I shall give thee. (Pss 2:8). Everything that you ask for is certainly
less, infinitely less, than the Giver Himself, as it derives its existence from
Him. And, as the Giver Himself is an infinite, incomplex Being, and can in some
manner be comprised in one single thought of ours, in one single word, then
believe that one single word of yours, one single petition concerning the
fulfillment of anything, can at a sign from the Lord immediately become a thing
or a deed. He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. (Pss
33:9).
Remember the wonders that Moses worked, remember how that man of God was
a god to Pharaoh, and how instantaneously at his word, or at a movement of his
hand, or of his staff, everything either changed or appeared. O great God, most
glorified God, God of wonders, God of unspeakable mercy, bountifulness, and
love to man, glory to Thee always, both now and forever, and unto ages of ages!
Spiritual
pride manifests itself by the fact that a proud man dares to make himself a
judge of religion and of the Church, and says: “I do not believe in this, and I
do not acknowledge this; this I find superfluous, that unnecessary, and this
strange or absurd.” Spiritual pride also manifests itself in boastfulness, in the
proud man’s pretended knowledge of everything, whilst in reality he knows very
little or his spiritual eyes are entirely blind. “That is not worth reading,”
he says; “it is all well-known; these sermons are not worth reading; they contain the one same
thing which I already know.” Human pride also manifests itself to a great
extent when an ordinary mortal dares to compare himself with God’s saints, and
does not see their great and wonderful perfections acquired by their own
exploits, with the assistance of the grace of God; perfections which God
Himself has crowned and glorified in them. Such a man says: “Why should I
reverence them, and especially why should I pray to them? They are men like me;
I pray to God alone.” And he does not consider that God Himself commanded us to
ask the prayers of the righteous for ourselves. For him will I accept. (Job
42:8)
Spiritual
pride also manifests itself by insensibility to our sins, by the Pharisee’s
self-justification and self-praise, by insensibility to God’s mercies, by
ingratitude to God for all that is good, by not feeling the need of praising
God’s greatness. All those who do not pray to the Almighty God, to the God of
all spirits and of allflesh (prayer from the Burial
Service), to
their Life, do not pray by the reason of their secret pride.
If, when
praying to the Mother of God you do not find due reverence for Her in your
heart, and feel evil and blasphemous thoughts, then say the following words of
praise worthily applied to Her: Thou, our Lady, art all light, all holiness,
all mercy, all wisdom; Thou, as the Mother of the Almighty, canst do all
things; Thou art ever one and the same, all-perfect as the Mother of the
all-perfect King of Glory!
Unbelief
betrays itself by the fact that it has nothing in common with truth; an
unbelieving heart is restless, anxious, weak, inconsistent, whilst a believing
one is, on the contrary, tranquil, blissful, great, and firm.
When you pray
to the Lord, or to our Lady, or to the angels and saints, do not ascribe any
difficulty to the Lord, to our Lady, to the angels and saints, in fulfilling
your petitions, or the petitions of other believers; instead, believe that it
is as easy and simple for the Lord to give any blessing to His people, and
equally so by the prayers of His most pure Mother and of the angels and saints
as it is for you to think of it. Besides this, as God is ever-flowing, infinite
goodness, he desires and ever seeks to impart His goodness to His Creatures, if
only they turn to Him with faith, hope, and love, like children to their
father, recognizing their sinfulness, poverty, need, blindness, and infirmity
without Him.
When you pray
to the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost—to the one God in the Trinity—do
not seek Him outside yourself, but
contemplate Him within, as dwelling in you, entirely penetrating and knowing
you. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God
dwelleth in you. (iCor 3:16). And I will walk among you, and will he your God.
(2Cor 6:16, 18). I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and l will he their
God, and will be a Father unto you. (Lev 26:12). O Lord, Thou hast searched me
out and known me (Pss 139:1), says David.
When during
prayer you doubt in the possibility of the fulfillment of any of your
petitions, then remember that to God it is possible to give you all things,
excepting direct evil, which is only proper to the Devil—that the word itself,
or your petition itself concerning anything, is already a sure guarantee on
your part that its fulfillment is possible; for if you can only think of something,
either possible or impossible to yourself, then this “something” is absolutely
possible to the Lord, to Whom the thought is already deed, if He pleases to
fulfill it. Even for yourself the blessing already exists in the word, and only
does not exist in the deed; but in order to fulfill a petition, God has the
Son, the Creator, and the Holy Ghost the Accomplisher. To the possibility of
accomplishing all things, add His infinite mercy, by which He is the
ever-flowing source of being, as well as of all the gifts of being.
He is the God
of gifts, the God of mercy and bounties. Ask, and it shall be given you; seek,
and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. (Mt 7:7). Add to
this God’s great wisdom, by which, in bestowing gifts upon us, He chooses that
which is best for us, and which corresponds to our spiritual and bodily state.
On your part is required only firm, undoubting assurance in the possibility of
the Lord’s fulfillment of your petition, and also that your prayer should
absolutely be good, for good, and not for anything evil. Your Father, which is
in heaven, it is said, shall give good things to them that ask Flim. (Mt 7:11).
When praying
to God, we must have such firm, unshaken faith that doubt in anything would be
difficult and even impossible, and therefore, we must have inscribed in our
hearts the words: With God all things are possible. (Mk 10:27).
We must also
have the lively assurance that God fulfils everything; that His Being is love
and mercy; that His business and, as though, His nature is to create, to give,
to forgive, to be bountiful, to fulfill our requests. And all things,
whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer believing, ye shall receive. (Mt 21:22).
Also, we must carefully watch our heart, that it should not lie, that every
word should come out of its depths: Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O
Lord! (Pss 130:1); that is, we must be most careful of the truth of the prayer,
of that sincerity, which makes all the words of the prayer composed by others
our own words, and which esteems every word as true.
He that hath
ears to hear, let him hear!
Orthodox
Heritage VOL. 16, ISSUE 01-02 JANUARY-FEBRUARY
2018BROTHERHOOD OF ST. POIMEN
Publisher: St. POIMEN Greek Orthodox Brotherhood Editor: George Karras Story
Editors: Markos Antoniathis & Kostas Matsourakis
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