A SPIRITUAL MAN NEVER LOSES HOPE: A Spiritual Recipe From a Conversation with Elder Pavlos of Sinai* († March 1, 2020)

—How can we become a spiritual person and acquire the gifts of the Holy Spirit? Is there a recipe?

—Of course—it’s the spiritual recipe given to us by Christ. The Apostles, the Fathers of the Church, and the saints followed it. The Church recorded it in the sacred books, in the patericons, in the canons of the Ecumenical Councils, in its daily life. And everyone can act according to it and see its effect on themselves.

The goal of an Orthodox Christian is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit. To become a good person is not the goal, and there are very good people outside of Christianity. To become a spirit-bearing person, to receive the Holy Spirit within yourself, is something different. The main thing is to purify yourself from the passions, because the Holy Spirit cannot enter into a heart polluted by them. There is no nationalism in Orthodoxy—there is neither Greek, nor Jew. What’s important is how much you’ve liberated yourself from the passions.

The Holy Spirit seeks a pure heart and takes up abode within it. Such a person lives continually in the presence of the Holy Spirit: He finds inner silence and reconciles himself, first of all, with God, and with himself and others. He who has a pure heart does not divide people into good and bad. What’s important to him is not “real reality,” but “spiritual reality.” He hopes to be saved. He never despairs, does not lose hope in difficult circumstances. Such is a grace-filled, spirit-bearing person. …

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WE WERE NOT CREATED FOR DEATH. WE WERE CREATED TO LIVE ETERNALLY

—In the monasteries, the monastics regularly visit cemeteries and ossuaries “in order to keep a remembrance of death.” What is the need for the remembrance of death?

—Man is at death’s door from the day of his birth. He doesn’t know when this life will end for him. A very young man gets into an accident and departs this life. We get on a train or a plane and we don’t know if we’ll reach our destination. We don’t know if we’ll be alive tomorrow. Therefore, the remembrance of death (don’t confuse it with the memory of the last times and of the antichrist) is a reality: We all truly are on the threshold of death.

—So then why should we study, work, live?

—The remembrance of death is creative. If I think that tomorrow I could die and I will have to answer for all that I’ve done, it will bring me not turmoil and hopelessness, but joy that I will live eternally. I was not created for this life on Earth, but for another. The fear of death helps me grow spiritually and gives my soul peace.

—Do you fear death?

—I fear it a little, to be honest. This fear is inherent in our nature: We were not created for death. We were created to live eternally. That’s how the Lord created us. Sin made us mortal. I have some “sinful accomplishments,” and, of course, I confessed them, repented, but as a man I am afraid. Those who have attained the highest spiritual measure—holiness—do not fear death. I hope that death will unite me with Christ.

* From  an Article about Archimandrite Pavlos (Bougiouras; † March 1, 2020): “Do Not Judge!,” Life and Counsels of the Confessor of Mt. Sinai

by Alexandra Nikiforova

Translated by Jesse Dominick

https://orthochristian.com/129813.html

On FMSM site: http://www.mountsinaimonastery.org/news-blog/archimandrite-pavlos-life-and-counsels-of-the-confessor-of-mt-sinai