"I became a monk in order to
penetrate the meaning of life, to learn the world!"
In his
passage from Greece, the French monk John accepted to meet and talk about his
personal association with the Orthodox faith. Before becoming a monk, his gaze
was focused mainly on an artistic surface of life, since he was a
world-renowned photographer. But it all took a different form, when a series of
unforeseen events prompted him to meet with the poetic nature of God and
recognized him as a true artist. Nikolaos Douligerer, a father with whom Monk
John has been a friend for many years after their first acquaintance in Mount
Athos, helped translate the interview.
The monk John, formerly Gérard Gascuel, was born in 1947 in Seven,
France. He studied photography in Paris (École Louis Lumière) and then worked
as an art photographer in famous fashion magazines and newspapers, as well as
in the advertising field. Personal photo exhibitions have been hosted in Paris,
at museums (Museum of Photography) and at Art Festivals Abroad (Japan, Canada,
USA etc.)
In 1983,
during a journalist mission to Greece, Fr John discovers Orthodox monasticism.
Shortly thereafter he becomes a monk on Mt. Athos.
At the beginning of the discussion, he
tells us with a look of excitement that he will never forget his first days on
Mount Athos, when he went with his camera to capture the nature and
monasticism, for a Japanese newspaper he had worked for:
“Before I
became a monk, I was a journalist. I went to Mount Athos, Greece, to write an
article for a Japanese newspaper in which I kept artistic reporting. One day,
walking in the woods,
I found myself in front of a ruined church. I came in, and in her crypt I
discovered an ossuary. This random meeting was the decisive
turning point for me. I
was 30 years old then. At this age, one only thinks of devouring
life, seeking immediate pleasure, power, knowledge. Suddenly, I was faced with
my own reality. One day I'll be there, on the other side without having lived.
I realized that I was not living for myself, but for the impression I wanted to
give to others.
Deep emotion
Coming out
of the church, agitated by the view of the ossuary, I see an old monk - I've never met him before.
Many times Divine Providence sends us the person we need, when we need it. I
asked him to tell me about the spiritual meaning of the picture, but he didn't
speak any of the languages I spoke. So, to explain to me, the meaning of the
image he began to chant in Greek. I didn't understand a word, but listening to
it caused a new uproar: it was a new one for me. The emotion was not cerebral
or aesthetic; it had touched the bottom of the heart. Chanting a hymn, he
interpreted the mystery of the image of the Crucifixion. Overcoming the
language with the words unseen one who died as a slave and was glorified as
God. From a simple
hymn, I discovered a new "language", the language of the heart. I
died and was reborn into a new reality. My life soon turned to
Orthodoxy. Once, after two years, I decided to go meet him, but no matter how
much I searched, I couldn't find the man, nor his hut. I asked at Stavronikita
monastery which I thought was close but in vain, no one had heard of it. I had
been looking for a whole year, but I was assured that such a hut never existed.
I firmly believe that I have experienced a personal miracle.
Everything in me found an appeal!
He says:
"Returning to Paris, all I thought about was learning the language of the
heart. The Divine Providence still guided me: in the subway, I confused the
exit and went out, "by chance", in front of an Orthodox church.
I entered
the temple. Everything resonated within me: the gold of the images, the
incense, the solemn function, the chilling atmosphere of the congregation of
the faithful… I said to myself: I must get on this road for the good. And so I
became a pilgrim to the sanctuaries. "
When I asked him "how he made the
decision to become Orthodox and how he finally accomplished it", he smiled
with the feeling that it should be explained in such a way that his listener,
who has not gone through such a stage, would understand him:
“When you
make a decision, you are given the power to make it. As soon as the desire got
flesh and bones, the place to root was to be found. In the Orthodox tradition,
the search for a place is the same as the search for spiritual paternity. You
need a Father to keep you alert so that you can understand this
"language" - not speech or education - a Father who will wake you up
to feel the crunch of the Divine Presence within you. I was not seeking
intellectual understanding, I did not want to learn a new technique; I wanted
to embrace my living and lived Tradition. This means working in the fields,
that is, manual labor, learning to pray, learning to respect, learning to live
under the guidance of an elder, learning to talk in secret with the living
Christ. I wanted to know in depth the Word, that is, the Divine Names, the
life-giving Power of the Spirit, and not the letter that stones the Spirit. The
fact that I didn't speak Greek didn't stop me at all. I left for Mount Athos
and then went to the Judean desert, where I stayed for some years. I needed in
my new faith God to be everything to me. I know that God speaks in a "pure
heart", but before the heart is at peace, in the wilderness all our
passions, all our weaknesses, all our dreams and infirmities, what we have not
fulfilled, what we have not done right: it takes a lot of work to cleanse and
care for oneself before entering, by the grace of God, into the inner Silence.
"
Being an Orthodox is a struggle, but
deciding to turn to charisma shows that this man wants to practice at a
championship level. It also shows a need to move away from the mundane. I told
him, and he clearly replied:
I became a
monk not to avoid the world, but to penetrate the meaning of life, to know the
world deeper and in a more personal dimension.
I became a
monk to get to know in depth this language, the language of the heart, which is
revealed to you only by experience, by experiencing, and experiencing a
relationship of trust with eternity at all times. This language does not deny
the world, instead, it listens to it, marries it, transforms it, calls it by
its name, lives with it the miracle of everyday life.
The monk
does not reject the world, which would mean rejecting himself. Instead, it is
at the heart of the world and the monk's relationship with the world is refined
and meaningful. "
At first Father John goes to Mount Athos
and then goes to the Monastery of Saint Savva in the Judean Desert, where he
resides next to his Elder, Father Seraphim, a man who chose him for his
spiritual guide and inspired him into spiritual life . Seraphim will
masterfully remove his European rationality. I asked him to detail this
meeting:
“A monk
who had come to Mount Athos spoke to my father Seraphim, who lived in the
monastery of Saint Savva in the Judean desert near the Dead Sea. After many
difficulties, I went to meet him. I immediately realized that this was the
guide I was looking for. It had a luminous beauty. A luminosity that does not
mislead you, but illuminates you, transforms you, pacifies you with true words,
with a distillation of simplicity. This Elder made the Presence of God manifest
to me. I decided that I would become a monk and that this man would obey. But
things were not easy with him and I quickly learned my first lesson. Imagine,
please ∙ a young man of thirty-three years, arrives in the desert of Judea,
having abandoned everything and a very good life in Paris, and asking to join
the congregation. They put me in the kitchen - can you imagine it? Me, a
Frenchman! I was taught to wipe the floor, to wash dishes… Of course, washing
dishes in the desert is not a simple affair, because water is scarce. I learned
again, as a toddler, everyday things and how they relate to the Spirit. It was
not learning practice. It was an initiation. There is so much beauty in simple
movement, beauty that can become doxology, testimony, embodiment of Presence.
The weight we all carry and the incident
with the Turkish delight, which made him realize a lot
Father
John goes on to describe: On the first day in front of every monk's dish I put
a dessert, a Turkish delight. Back then there were twelve monks, so I put
twelve delights. When I came back, my Turkish delight had disappeared. My place
was next to Father Seraphim, so the job was his. If the Spiritual Father steals
my Turkish delight from day one, what will happen after fifteen days? Abuse of
power, terrible! Think about it well! And in Paris someone may steal from you,
understandably; but in a monastery, the first day the abbot steals from you!
Another thing! I had repented and promised obedience! I started to think
negatively, which was affecting my prayer.
Repentance
After
dinner, I went to see Father Seraphim. I repented and asked him, "Father,
why did you take my Turkish delight?" He let me talk without answering.
After five minutes I had nothing else to say. He said to me: "Did you say
everything?" "No" I replied "but I don't understand
anything". "I wanted to see if you would criticize me; if you had
done so, I would have told you: Set the door, you can leave." For me, this
was an unusual, paradoxical lesson. I really didn't go to the desert to judge
thieves and liars. Of course I could also preach to him a little bit: you know,
that was not good, it wasn't nice ... I
could get up and leave the monastery and report to Father Seraphim in the press
on charges such as: abuse of power or theft,a scandal ...
If I came
to the monastery carrying the burdens of the world with me, I would have no job
in the desert. Father Seraphim taught me ∙ “You are not here to judge, you are
here for you. If you see a brother doing something wrong, it doesn't matter to
you. But if this is a problem for you, then come and see me. But when you see a
brother make a mistake, whatever his mistake is, pray for him, don't start
judging him, filling him with guilt, making him a moral lesson. " One of
the first lessons in the desert was that I was there for myself. And how,
without being isolated, I was alone before God.
In his life in the Judean wilderness, he
learned many lessons. I beg him to take us to part of his spiritual
apprenticeship. Without thinking too much, he responded as a person experiencing
this doctrine he was taught:
One day I
felt flooded by Divine Grace. I went to Elder: "Father, angels have
visited me, I understand the meaning of the Gospel ..." Elder didn't even look at me. "Come
sweep the toilets and see if the angels are still with you." Father
Seraphim did not rule out the existence of Intangible Forces, but his concern
was to eradicate any trace of spiritual pride. Father Seraphim, tenderly
overbearing, threw the covers off, purified my eyes, pursued my illusions and
ignorance, to give me the grace of the light. He offered me freedom with love,
let me wash up, clean myself, let me be rehabilitated. He didn't kill me, he
didn't reject me, he removed all the unnecessary.
With Spiritual Desire He Founded the
Skete of the Holy Faith in Seven
He spent
three years in the Judean wilderness, and then, with the wish of his spiritual
father, in 1996 he settled in Seven, southern France, where e founded the Skete
of the Holy Faith, a place of prayer and departure. Saint Faith was a
15-year-old girl who witnessed in the early Christian years. From the Skete of
the Holy Faith, today is published the journal Art sacré, while P. Ioannis is
the author of many works: Hommes de Lumière, Fils de lumière, Pèlerinage au
Mont Athos, J'ai soif d'une eau de vie, L ' amour in question, Insaisissable
fraternité, Le jardin de la foi.
Today, he is performing with another monk and gathering with him French
pilgrims, old friends from the arts, Christians and seekers of God who study in
Orthodoxy. From our discussion, I have come to realize that today, slowly but
surely, a few, perhaps few citizens of France are tasting the truth of Orthodox
faith. Getting an External Mission in France today by an Orthodox Frenchman in
a monastery in the mountains of France is a fact that assures us that God's
grace fills people's shortcomings and turns us into Resurrected Surprise.
Sophia Chatzis
Published in the Greek newspaper
ORTHODOXI ALITHIA, 06.02.2019
Published in the Greek newspaper
ORTHODOXI ALITHIA, 06.02.2019
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