Half issue to be released prior to Great Lent 2024

1. Take walks in the cemetery: Saint Ambrose of Optina said, “You must not be greatly troubled about many things, but you should care for the main thing — preparing yourself for death.” Saint Athanasius writes about remembrance of death as a spiritual discipline, “Recall your exodus every hour; keep death before your eyes on a daily basis. Remember before whom you must appear.” And Saint John of the Ladder writes, “Let the memory of death sleep and awake with you.” Remembering our end is the constant kindling for the battle against sin. This memory of death helps him to hate sin, to evaluate correctly and positively the things of the present; to evaluate appropriately the value of the “future age,” which he desires with all the power of his soul. St. Maximos the Confessor teaches that the memory of death, when accompanied by the memory of God, is very helpful to the believer in his life in Christ: “Nothing is more fearful than the thought of death, and nothing is more marvelous than the memory of God.” For, as he says, the memory of death “produces in the soul salutary sorrow,” while the memory of God produces in the soul “joy and gladness.” This is why the Prophet said, “I remembered God and was pleased” (Ps. 76,4:LXX), while the wise man of the Old Testament was advised, “Remember the end of your life, and then you will never sin” (Wis. Sir. 7,36). For it is impossible to keep oneself unwounded by sin if one does not experience the salutary “sourness” of the memory of death .

1. Stop judging others and conceal their sins: “They said of Abba Macarius that just as God protects the world, so Abba Macarius would cover the faults he saw, as though he did not see them, and those he heard, as though he did not hear them.” Saint Paisios of Athos advises: “He who does his spiritual work correctly finds excuses for everyone else in order to justify their shortcomings, but never justifies himself, even when he is in the right… For example, he sees someone stealing and thinks to himself, “If I had not been helped by God, I would now be stealing more than he is”…Or, if he sees a certain shortcoming in another person, be it serious or trivial, he will excuse him with good and positive thoughts. He thinks of his own many shortcomings…” Focus upon your own sins and be strict with yourself, but lenient with others.

2. Stay put: Mother Syncletica (4th century), “If you find yourself in a monastery do not go to another place, for that will harm you a great deal. Just as the bird who abandons the eggs she was sitting on prevents them from hatching, so the monk or the nun grows cold and their faith dies when they go from one place to another.” Find yourself a little place of solitude and frequent it. Among the desert fathers, their monastic hut or “cell” was thought to be their traning ground. St Moses once said to a monk, “Go and sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything.” Find a closet, a quiet place outside, and take time to practice a little hesychia (inner stillness), in order to get to know yourself and more importantly to commune with God. For, St Isaac of Syria says, “The language of heaven is silence.”

3. Drive away negative thoughts: Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica advised, “Our life depends on the kind of thoughts we nurture. If our thoughts are peaceful, calm, meek, and kind, then that is what our life is like. If our attention is turned to the circumstances in which we live, we are drawn into a whirlpool of thoughts and can have neither peace nor tranquility.” Elder Sergei of Vanves said, “Take care to distinguish between your thoughts, as the Fathers teach. Stop and look, decide which ones are good and which ones are bad. Then, disassociate from any that you find to be bad, believe nothing they tell you, do not believe for an instant that they are a part of who you are. This is of the utmost importance, because if we accept bad thoughts, then they will stay with us and make us believe that they are actually a part of us.”

4. Acknowledge my brokenness: “The person who has come to know the weakness of human nature has gained experience of divine power. Such a person never belittles anyone. . . . He knows that God is like a good and loving physician who heals with individual treatment each of those who are trying to make progress” (St. Maximos the Confessor, 7th century).

5. Be ruthlessly realistic: “Saint Anthony said to Poemen, ‘expect trials and temptations until your last breath.’” The same Saint said, “Whoever has not experienced temptation cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Without temptations no-one can be saved.” The coming year will have temptations, but let us take up the armor of God, flee to the Church, and combat them.

6. Always think good of everyone: “Show the greatest gentleness toward all people” (Evagrios the Solitary, 4th century). Father Seraphim Rose, an American desert dweller wrote: “Dont criticize or judge other people—regard everyone else as an angel, justify their mistakes and weaknesses, and condemn only yourself as the worst sinner.”