The writings of the Fathers of our
Church, are genuine, spiritual nourishment, and they lead safely and
unmistakably down the spiritual path.
The people asked Saint Paisios: Elder, which
spiritual books help the most? Saint Paisios responded: Many people benefit
from the various books written by the Fathers of our Church, which nowadays,
thanks be to God, are widely available for everyone to enjoy. In these books,
someone finds what they want and what they need. These books are genuine,
spiritual nourishment and they lead safely and unmistakably down the spiritual
path. But to help the reader, they must be read with humility and devotion. The
writings of our Fathers are similar to CT scans. You see CT scans depict the
physical condition of a person, and similarly, the writings of the Fathers
depict the condition of the soul of a person. In each sentence of the writings
of our Fathers, there are multiple hidden messages, and everyone understands
them according to their spiritual condition. Regardless, in order for someone
to understand the Fathers, one must focus their mind and live a spiritual life,
because the spirit of the Fathers is understood only in spirit. This is
especially true for the book Ascetic Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian, which
are very helpful, but it becomes necessary to study them, little by little, in
order to effectively digest the rich spiritual nourishment that they provide.
The Evergetinos (Collection of sayings of the Desert Fathers) is greatly
beneficial to us because we can be introduced to the true spirit of the Holy
Fathers. It helps because it describes, in systematic way, the struggles of the
Fathers with every single vice of the human soul, and thus each reader can
learn how the Fathers worked to conquer each vice which helps guide the reader
in his/her own spiritual journey. The Synaxarion (The Lives of the Saints of
the Orthodox Church) is also a blessed reading and for this reason it is
extremely helpful, especially for the children, but should not be read like a
story.
We don’t need to have a lot of
knowledge, to gain piety and devotion. If we ponder the few things we know then
our heart will find spiritual fervor. One person can contemplate the words of a
simple hymn and immediately reach heavens while another may know all the works
of theology and feel nothing spiritually. This is because this person is unable
to reside in the spiritual domain. So I urge you to read the works of the
Fathers, even if it is one or two lines a day. They are like invigorating
vitamins.
From the book of Saint Paisios of
Mount Athos – The Spiritual Awakening, Sayings B. From the Hermitage of Saint
John the Evangelist and Theologian in Souroti, Thessaloniki, Greece.
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