Hieromonk Adrian (Pashin). “The Way of a Pilgrim” and Bishop Ignatius (Brianchaninov’s) Teaching on Prayer".
Basing himself on the legacy of St
Ignatius of the Caucasus, Alexey Ilyich Osipov, the well-known Professor
of the Moscow Theological Academy, reflects on the issues of spiritual
practices in Eastern and Western Christian traditions, as well as the
place of the book The Way of a Pilgrim in Christian spiritual life.
Hieromonk Adrian (Pashin):
Alexey Ilyich, your booklet on the Jesus Prayer was published recently.
What prompted you to tackle this exclusively (as it might seem) monastic
subject?
Alexey Ilyich Osipov:
The thing is that I was invited to give a lecture in Italy, at the
famous Bose monastery, where they hold conferences on various topics
every year. Representatives of different Churches are invited – not only
from the Catholic Church, but from the Orthodox and even the Protestant
Churches as well. That was in September 2004. The topic of the
conference was prayer and, I think, even the Jesus Prayer, but I don’t
remember for sure. How did the theme for my talk come up? The Chancellor
of one of the Pontifical Institutes in Rome visited our Academy about
twenty years ago. During his talk in the conference hall he said, in
particular, that Catholic monastics are currently very interested in
Hindu meditation practices and The Way of a Pilgrim, where a quite
peculiar teaching on the Jesus Prayer is expounded. That is why I
decided to write a talk on the subject of “The Teaching on the Jesus
Prayer according to Bishop Ignatius (Brianchaninov) and The Way of a
Pilgrim”. I thought that the subject would be of interest both to
Catholics and to me because I had read The Way when I was 16 or 17 and
it had made a very inspirational impression on me back then. I remember
trying to practice the Jesus Prayer for a day or two, using the
Pilgrim’s method – I could not do it for much longer; later, when I took
up work on my talk, I understood that that had been fortunate. I gave
my talk at the conference. The Orthodox showed interest while the
Catholic audience received it in silence. However, one of the famous (I
am not going to name him) secular scholars from St Petersburg (not a
theologian), a regular participant at all the Bose conferences,
expressed his displeasure at my talk. The talk was then translated into
Italian and published both in Italy and Russia. Such is its background.
Hierom. Adrian: So it seems as
if The Way of a Pilgrim, a book by an unknown author that is rather
popular here in Russia, is also well-known abroad?
A. I. Osipov: It is not
simply well-known abroad, but, as that Chancellor said, Catholic
monasteries pay a lot of attention to it. It is being read, studied – it
is being followed as a guide.
Hierom. Adrian: Why do you think Catholics are so interested in the book?
A. I. Osipov: This is
how things stand. First of all, the Pilgrim achieved the unceasing Jesus
Prayer and reached special soul-and-body states at a stunning speed –
in just a few weeks, well, maybe a few months, whereas Bishop Ignatius
writes that according to the teaching of the Holy Fathers “this takes
many years.” The Pilgrim states that when in the beginning the elder
gave him an obedience to say three thousand prayers daily, he felt that
the prayer became easy and desirable in just two days. After that, the
elder ordered him to say six thousand prayers, and after only ten days –
twelve thousand. And he “finished the twelve thousand prayers with ease
early in the evening,” and “in about three weeks . . . I began to feel .
. . that pleasure was simmering in my heart … and I myself turned into
rapture. The blind man [in the story – A.Z.J.] reached the same state in
the same lightning-fast way – in less than a week (!); he began to
follow the method shown to him by the Pilgrim. “In about five days I
started to feel an intense warmth and . . . he began to see light from
time to time . . . sometimes, when he was entering his heart in his
imagination, it felt as if the powerful flame of a lit candle was
kindled with sweetness in his heart and, leaping out through his throat,
illumined him; by the light of that flame he could even see distant
things.
Such a quick and easy method, compared
to the rigorous feat of the struggle with passions undertaken by the
Holy Fathers for many years, is very tempting to all who would like to
avoid the "no pains, no gains" way.
The second and no less stimulating
reason for interest in this book is the vanity and pride that lure
people into achieving high states at once, without taking the
preliminary steps on the spiritual journey. These passions turn an
ascetic into a daydreamer, with quite logical and often terrible
consequences for his life.
Bishop Ignatius characterizes such
aspirations of Catholic ascetics very pointedly, “They are at once lured
and lure their readers to heights inaccessible to the novice, become
themselves conceited and make others conceited. A heated, often frantic
dreaminess replaces everything spiritual for them—they have no idea of
true spirituality. They consider this dreaminess as grace. “Ye shall
know them by their fruits,” (Mt 7:16) said the Savior. We all know only
too well through what crimes, torrents of blood and decidedly
anti-Christian behavior Western fanatics expressed their ugly way of
thinking, their ugly feeling of heart.”
Such are the hidden reasons for the interest in The Way.
Hierom. Adrian: Do you think that such a quick way is dangerous?
A. I. Osipov: In this
case I by no means wish to speak for myself, because I don’t have any
experience in this matter. My understanding is based on the theoretical
study of the Holy Fathers of ascetic life and, above all, on the
writings of the holy Bishop Ignatius (Brianchaninov). Why is it that I
turned to his works in particular? As is well known, the oral and
written accounts of him by all the Optina Elders and many other pious
Russian ascetics are not simply positive, but rather, I’d say, are
filled with admiration. They spoke and wrote about him as a true teacher
who had a profound understanding of spiritual life and expounded the
way of the Holy Fathers in his writings. I will quote their statements.
St Macarius of Optina called him “a
great mind.” St Barsanuphius of Optina wrote, “When I read his writings,
I marvel at his truly angelic mind, his amazingly deep understanding of
the Holy Scriptures. For some reason, I am especially favorably
disposed toward his writings; they somehow have a special appeal for my
heart and my mind, illumining it with a truly evangelical light.” “The
fifth volume of Bishop Ignatius’ writings contains the teaching of the
Holy Fathers applied to modern-day monasticism and teaches how the
writings of the Holy Fathers should be read. Bishop Ignatius had a
profound outlook and was, in that respect, probably even deeper than
Bishop Theophan [the Recluse – A.Z.J.]. His word has a powerful effect
on the soul for it proceeds from experience.” Abbot Nikon (Vorobyev)
expresses the same thought fifty years later, “How grateful I am to him
for his writings! Not to understand and not to appreciate him means not
to understand anything about spiritual life. I would dare to say that
Bishop Theophan’s writings (may the holy Vladyka forgive me) are a
schoolboy’s works compared to those of a professor—the writings of
Bishop Ignatius (Brianchaninov). St Nikon (Belyaev) of Optina called
Bishop Ignatius’ work “the ABC of spiritual life” – he held it in such
high esteem. And it is Bishop Ignatius’ writings that all the other
Optina Elders recommended for study, in particular, his teaching on
prayer – a true guide to spiritual life.
We find remarkable words about Bishop
Ignatius in the writings of Abbess Arsenia (Sebryakova), “I read him
with great pleasure, to my soul’s comfort and edification. The words of
Vladyka himself are dear to me.” Schema-Abbot John of Valaam refers to
Bishop Ignatius and offers the bishop’s advice to his own spiritual
children as the most authoritative for our times. (In this connection, I
would like to point out in parentheses that any Church preacher or
writer who, speaking of spiritual life in his writings, does not turn to
Bishop Ignatius’ writings, gives a clear testimony to “what manner of
spirit he is of” [Lk 9:55 – A.Z.J.] However, turning to those works is
not in itself an indicator of the writer’s spirituality). So taking into
account this multitude of undoubted spiritual witnesses, I decided to
compare the teaching on the Jesus Prayer in The Way of a Pilgrim with
that of Bishop Ignatius.
Hierom. Adrian: Guidance in
practicing the Jesus Prayer is necessary; without it, as you write, we
can fall into spiritual delusion (prelest). But what should we do today,
when, in the words of Bishop Ignatius (and you agree with them),
spiritual guidance and spiritual fatherhood have become so scarce? How
then are we to learn how to pray correctly?
A. I. Osipov: First of
all, I would remind you once again that when it comes to my advice on
the careful practice of the Jesus Prayer, I am not speaking from myself.
It is well-known that the Optina Elders used to give this advice to
those who had more zeal than sense because, as St Isaac of Syria wrote,
«Everything is made beautiful by moderation. Even something considered
beautiful will become harmful when done without moderation.” At this
point people who don’t understand the conditions required to practice
the Jesus Prayer and who have the wrong aim in practicing it, generally
fall into self-importance, spiritual delusion and pride. Bishop Ignatius
advances the same idea. What should our attitude toward the Jesus
Prayer be nowadays? It depends on who practices it. It is one thing for
those who have chosen the monastic way, but it is quite a different
thing for those who live in the bustle of worldly life.
As far as spirit-bearing teachers are
concerned, Bishop Ignatius gave that name to those who had achieved the
unceasing God-given Jesus Prayer, reached dispassion and received from
God the rare gift of seeing into the human soul. Such teachers could
truly point out those hidden passions and their causes that people could
not see in themselves. However, speaking of his own time, Bishop
Ignatius said words that were extremely offensive to those who saw
themselves as spiritual fathers, “We do not have any teachers who are
inspired by God!” And he did not simply say that – he said that with an
exclamation mark. And he knew the state of monasticism at his time
pretty well.
Still, in the absence of advisors
inspired by God, Bishop Ignatius offers some very important advice to
those seeking spiritual life.
The first piece of advice is to be
guided above all by the writings and experience of those ancient Fathers
and Russian ascetics who gave advice to people of the same spiritual
level as the modern Christian. Of course, to those writings one should
add all the works by Bishop Ignatius himself, since he pursued his
monastic calling and wrote in the period that was spiritually very much
like the modern one – that is why he is the best spiritual advisor for
our times.
The second piece of advice is that we
should consult those who are of the same spirit as we are, who sincerely
seek spiritual life, study and know the writings of the Holy Fathers
and, very importantly, have the gift of discernment. With respect to the
last condition (discernment), Bishop Ignatius warns that there were
even saints who had reached exalted spiritual states, but, not
possessing the gift of discernment, sometimes offered advice that
seriously damaged the soul.
In this connection, Bishop Ignatius
quotes the thoughts of Sts Macarius the Great and Isaac the Syrian, “St
Macarius the Great used to say that . . . there are souls that, having
become partakers of the Divine grace . . . at the same time abide as if
in childhood, because of lack of actual experience . . . in a state that
is very unsatisfactory for true ascetic struggle.” They have a saying
about such elders in monasteries – “holy but not skilful” – and take
care in consulting them . . . to avoid entrusting yourself hastily and
thoughtlessly to such elders’ guidance. St Isaac the Syrian even says
that such an elder “is not worthy of being called a saint.” It is with
such care, it turns out, that we should approach the choice of those
whom we can consult.
That is why in our time people who want
to learn how to pray and live aright, without spiritual delusion, have
to study Bishop Ignatius’ writings most meticulously, for he knew the
teaching of the Fathers very well and followed the way of prayer
experientially. But, of course, if we manage to find a knowledgeable,
understanding and reasonable person, we should seek his advice as well.
However, we should consult him as we would consult friends – not as a
leader of an absolutist “Orthodox” sect who demands unquestioning
obedience. In view of the absence of teachers who are inspired by God
nowadays, we can hardly speak of complete obedience even in monasteries;
and as for life in the world, such obedience never existed, except
maybe in the relationship between false spiritual fathers and false
spiritual children, especially false spiritual daughters. It is true,
though, that we should distinguish between obedience in administrative
issues (according to rank), which is useful for spiritual life and
spiritual obedience, which Bishop Ignatius calls a great monastic deed.
He wrote, “In vain do you desire to be
completely obedient to an experienced teacher. This kind of ascetic
struggle has not been granted in our times. It is absent not only amidst
Christians living in the world, but in monasteries as well.”
“And many thought that they were working
in obedience, but in reality it turned out that they had been obliging
their own whims and had been carried away by their zeal. Happy is the
man who in his old age will have time to shed a repentant tear over the
passions of his youth. The Lord said about the blind leaders and those
lead by them, “And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the
ditch” (Mt 15:14).
Hierom. Adrian: However, some
may object to you that in Bishop Ignatius (Brianchaninov’s) time there
were the Optina Elders and now there are quite a few spiritual fathers
and elders who are esteemed among the people. Many seek their spiritual
guidance and are willing to completely surrender their wills into their
hands. Can’t simple people do the same now?
A. I. Osipov: According
to the teaching of the Holy Fathers, we should exercise a great deal of
caution in this matter. All the saints warn of it, beginning in ancient
times, when the ascetics flourished. For example, St John Cassian of
Rome wrote in the 5th century, “It is useful to reveal our thoughts to
the fathers; not to whomever happens to be there, though, but rather to
spiritual elders who have discernment, who are elders not just because
of the age of their bodies and gray hair. Many, having been attracted by
the appearance of old age and having expressed their thoughts [to such
elders – A.Z.J.], were harmed instead of receiving a remedy.” And look
at how emphatically St John of the Ladder (6th cent.) speaks of this,
“When we…wish… to entrust our salvation to another, then, even before
taking this path, if we have just a little insight and discernment, we
must study, test, and put this guide to the test, so to speak. We must
do so in order not to obtain for ourselves a mere oarsman instead of a
helmsman, instead of a doctor – a sick person, instead of a
dispassionate man – one possessed by passions, instead of a haven – an
abyss, – thus, in order to avoid finding our destruction ready for us”
(The Ladder. Sermon 4, Ch. 6). Bishop Theophan (Govorov) used to warn,
“In determining who will become [our spiritual fathers – A.O.], we
should exercise a great deal of caution and use strict judgment, in
order to avoid doing harm instead of good, in order to avoid bringing
about devastation instead of doing constructive work.”
But as the ancient Fathers predicted and
the latter-day Fathers constantly repeated, the Church is witnessing
the process whereby teachers are becoming scarce – the teachers who can
see into the soul and can achieve what St Seraphim of Sarov called
acquiring the Spirit of God. Clearly, in Bishop Ignatius’ own words,
such teachers had already disappeared in his time.
If we now return to the Optina Elders,
they fully agreed with Bishop Ignatius on this issue. This is evident
from the high esteem in which they held his teaching as well as their
own spiritual guidance. None of them would point to someone else, to his
predecessor or spiritual father in this way, “Isn’t Fr Macarius, Fr
Ambrose, or Fr Barsanuphius, or… a teacher inspired by God?” For they
understood the meaning of the Apostle Paul’s words well, “There is one
glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of
the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory” (1 Co
15:41). So even though we are talking about spiritual and even holy
people, we nevertheless understand that one spiritual man differs from
another in glory.
The searching of spiritual people are
quite natural and understandable. But when that searching turns into the
creating myths, when frequently rather dubious priests are set up as
elders, or when some spiritual fathers start acting as if they were
elders, then trouble comes. Bishop Ignatius said about them very
emphatically and precisely, “Those elders who accept upon themselves the
role [of an elder–A.O.]. . . (if we may use that unpleasant word
‘role’) . . . are essentially soul-destroying actors and the saddest of
comedians. Let those elders who take on themselves the role of the
ancient Elders, lacking their spiritual gifts, know that their very
intention, their very thoughts and notions of this great monastic deed –
obedience – are false; their very way of thinking, their mentality and
their knowledge are self-delusion and demonic spiritual delusion”.
Unfortunately, ordinary people don’t have an understanding of this. They
want an elder, naturally clairvoyant, a miracle-worker, a healer, they
will flock like sheep without any discernment to anyone who is mentioned
to them. From here you get many misfortunes, both of a spiritual order
and those concerning everyday life.
I have met people whose lives were
totally ruined after believing in a false elder. Taking advantage of his
moral authority, such an elder literally gives an order – sorry, “gives
a blessing” – to those coming to him to take such decisive steps that
ruin their body and soul. He “gives a blessing” to move house, to
abandon good jobs, thus plunging the family into utter poverty and
causing the disintegration of family relationships. He “gives her a
blessing” to sell her apartment and her possessions and enter a
monastery. When in a year she is dismissed from it, instead of helping
her, the elder tells her: you should have thought for yourself, now go
where you please. I know a family whose mother was “given a blessing” by
an elder to assign all her young daughters and son to monasteries. The
son became a hieromonk, but then three years later he got married. The
same thing happened to the daughters and only one of the four remained a
nun; the others, after living in a convent, got married.
Why am I talking about this? First of
all, to show how far the undiscerning trust of simple believers as well
as the spiritual blindness and moral insensitivity of “the elders”
themselves can go: they keep believing in and giving these blessings
even after witnessing their catastrophic consequences. It is obvious
that a clairvoyant elder could not have blessed an act that would lead
to defrocking and dismissal from monasticism. And if he is not
clairvoyant but still keeps encouraging such acts, then what is the
moral level (or the psychic state) of that “elder?!” This serious
question is answered by Bishop Ignatius, “Vanity and self-conceit are
fond of teaching and giving directions. They do not bother about the
quality of their advice! It does not occur to them that they might
inflict an incurable wound on their neighbor by their incongruous
advice. The inexperienced novice accepts their advice with uncritical
credulity, with excitement of flesh and blood! They desire success, no
matter its quality and its origin! They have to impress the novice and
make him their moral subject! They desire the praise of man! They desire
the reputation of saints, intelligent and clairvoyant elders and
teachers! They have to satisfy their insatiable vanity, their pride!”
This is exactly what the Fathers called
spiritual delusion (prelest). And spiritual delusion is the delusion
that leads to mental disorders.
So in our days we should approach the
relationship with an elder with tremendous caution, following the wise
rule commanded by our great bishops St Ignatius and St Theophan – to
live by advice, not by obedience. Bishop Ignatius urges us to listen to
St Nilus of Sora who lived in the 15th century and who already commanded
back then, “Nowadays, in view of the extreme scarcity of spirit-bearing
guides, an ascetic practicing prayer has to be guided exclusively by
the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Fathers.” And St Pimen the
Great commanded us to depart immediately from an elder living with whom
turned out to be harmful to the soul.” Otherwise, “belief in man, – says
Bishop Ignatius, – leads to frenzied fanaticism.”
Bishop Ignatius writes that advice does
not imply the obligation to follow it. If you see something strange,
unclear or contradictory in the advice, then you have the full moral
right to turn to someone else, to disagree or to turn to the Holy
Fathers. And if a spiritual father is truly intelligent and humble, he
would even thank his spiritual child for acting rightly and disobeying
him. “By no means,— writes Bishop Ignatius,—do evil by obedience, even
if you happen to suffer some tribulation for displeasing someone and
being steadfast. Consult virtuous and intelligent fathers and brothers,
but take their advice with utmost care and discretion. Do not get
carried away by the first impression that their advice makes on you!”
In our times we should live by advice,
not by obedience. In this connection Bishop Ignatius responds to the
most widespread counter-argument, “They will object: the faith of the
person carrying out an obedience may replace the elder’s inadequacy.
This is false: believing the truth saves, while believing a lie and
demonic delusion destroys, according to the Apostle’s teaching” (2 Thess
2:10-12). [Here, Bishop Ignatius paraphrases Paul’s words “And with all
deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they
received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for
this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe
a lie; that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but
had pleasure in unrighteousness” - A.Z.J.] Christ told His disciples,
“Henceforth I call you not servants . . . but I have called you friends”
(Jn 15:15). Can friends be given orders? I guess not.
Hierom. Adrian: One more
question. Why do some people connect the Jesus Prayer to some other
practices, for example, to the Hindu and Buddhist mantras and
meditation? Many people do not understand the difference between those
ascetic practices and the noetic Jesus Prayer, the Christian prayer.
A. I. Osipov: If we
turn our attention to the essential, then the types of meditation you
are talking about are reflections, internal discussions. They do not
carry with them the main condition for prayer – repentance. Repentance
is supplication. Supplication for what? For our sinfulness, our
inadequacy, our inability to live as the Gospel commands. Prayer, as
Bishop Ignatius writes, should be said with attention, awe and heartfelt
contrition. These things are not required by meditation. Meditation, I
repeat, is a concentrated reflection on a great variety of subjects:
theological, everyday, spiritual and moral, all sorts.
There exists a very important and vital
act in Christian practice – the contemplation of God. However, this also
differs from the above-mentioned types of meditation. This
contemplation of matters of Christian faith and life goes hand in hand
with humility, correct prayer and reverent inward submission of our
possible understanding of any matter to God’s will.
This is the main thing that distinguishes prayer and contemplation of God from meditation.
Now for the second thing. Turning to
mantras, we enter the sphere of a teaching that is decidedly, we could
say, different from the Christian or, more exactly, Orthodox teaching.
Mantras, in some ways outwardly resembling prayers or rather
incantational prayers, are of a completely different nature. They
inherently imply belief in the effectiveness of the very words
pronounced, often regardless of the understanding of their meaning. We
see it in Hindu practice, for example, in Japa mantra, which calls on
people to repeat a god’s name as much, as often and as quickly as
possible, for the name itself purifies man and brings him to the state
of Samadhi. Mantras, if you wish, are one of the elements of magic and
are used in the rites of pagan mystery religions.
A similar idea was promoted by the
Russian name-worshipers. However, it is not God’s Name in itself that
sanctifies. The Name of God is similar to an icon: it is a link to turn
our prayers to the Archetype. And human purification is accomplished not
through the Name itself, but through correct prayer with God’s name
uttered in it, as the Holy Fathers taught. When prayer is repeated
mechanically, as many times and as quickly as possible, then it “is not
prayer at all. It is dead! It is useless, harmful to the soul and
insulting to God,” – as Bishop Ignatius (Brianchaninov) wrote.
Currently too, we can see this tendency
to understand prayer as a mantra. Books are published which recommend
saying the Jesus Prayer – “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me” – a huge
number of times (14,400 prayers at one go!) from the very beginning.
They recommend saying it very, very quickly: 3,600 prayers per hour,
that is, one prayer per second (“his tongue, like a little engine, was
repeating the short Jesus Prayer non-stop”). This practice runs
absolutely counter to the Holy Fathers’ experience, which says that we
are to say any prayer, including the Jesus Prayer, without haste, paying
attention to the words of the prayer, with awe and a feeling of
repentance.
Hierom. Adrian: In the West
there is an opinion that the ban on using imagination in prayer that
exists in Orthodoxy, in the East, is only because of the greater
emotionality of Easterners, and in the West, where people are supposedly
less emotional, such imagination is not dangerous.
A. I. Osipov: This is
self-justification. Look at the Spanish, the Portuguese, the Italians –
those people are so fiery that you constantly have to be on the lookout.
Wasn’t it in Italy that the stigmata emerged for the first time in the
history of Christianity, with Francis of Assisi? It is not emotionality
that matters at all. The reason that Catholicism so ardently protects
the possibility and even the need for imagination is quite different.
Psychology, yoga and Catholic ascetic experience testify convincingly to
the fact that developing imagination and constantly concentrating on
mental images is an effective way for people to achieve special exalted
states very easily. For example, compassion for Christ (сompassio) – an
ascetic achievement of the same Francis – consisted of mentally
imagining and attempting to empathize with Christ’s sufferings and His
love for the whole world, as well as with the sufferings and experiences
of the Mother of God and other saints.
When ascetics dreamily imagine scenes of
love, suffering etc., their nerves and psyche get highly excited, their
imagination gets inflamed, and as a result hallucinations and demonic
apparitions occur. Such ascetics develop an extremely high opinion of
themselves as being full of divine grace and close to Christ and the
saints. Western ascetics deem those states God-given. But there is
neither God, nor grace in this phenomenon. Bishop Ignatius writes, “The
Holy Fathers strictly forbid using the facility of the imagination; they
command us to keep the mind formless, not sealed by anything material.”
“While in prayer, we must have the mind formless and take special care
to keep it so, rejecting all the images fantasized through the facility
of the imagination . . . Images, if allowed by the mind in prayer, will
become an impenetrable curtain, a wall between the mind and God.” On the
contrary, he warns, “fallen spirits seek to incite our imagination.”
“Blood and nerves, – he wrote, – are activated by many passions: anger,
covetousness, lust and vanity. The latter two passions greatly fire up
the blood of the ascetics who undertake their struggles unlawfully, and
they turn them into raving fanatics.”
Bishop Ignatius tells of one office
clerk from St Petersburg who fell into spiritual delusion and attempted
suicide, “It turned out that the clerk had been using the image of
prayer described by St Simeon; he had inflamed his imagination and
blood, which makes man quite capable of fasting strictly and keeping
vigils. . . The clerk had seen light with his bodily eyes, fragrance and
warmth that he had felt just as tangibly.”
“Western Christians strove to enliven
their feelings, blood and imagination; they soon succeeded in that and
soon reached the state of spiritual delusion and frenzy, which they
called holiness. All their visions come from that realm. Eastern
Christians and all the children of the Universal Church journey to
holiness and purity in a way that is just the opposite of that mentioned
above: by subduing their feelings, blood, imagination and even ‘their
opinions.’”
The main reason for the sorry plight of
Western ascetics is that they stopped following the guidance of the
ascetic Fathers of the ancient Church and began living according to
their own understanding, replaying “movies” in their imagination and
worshiping the images contained in them. They substituted fantasies of
love for Christ for the struggle against the passions.
Let me quote here a short passage from
The Story of a Soul, a book by a great Catholic saint, a doctor of their
Church, Therese of Lisieux (19 cent.), so that what we are talking
about will be clear, “It was indeed an embrace of love. I felt that I
was loved, and I said: ‘I love Thee, and I give myself to Thee for
ever.’ Jesus asked nothing of me, and claimed no sacrifice; for a long
time He and little Therese had known and understood one another. That
day our meeting was more than simple recognition, it was a perfect
union. We were no longer two. Therese had disappeared like a drop of
water lost in the immensity of the ocean.” [Ch 4. “First Communion and
Confirmation” – A.Z.J.]. This kind of “love” needs no commentary.
Such “spirituality” is very contagious,
it conforms to the tastes of “the old man” , to his search for spiritual
sweetness, to his vanity, to his pride. Unfortunately, the Pilgrim from
The Way also followed this easy path, enticing away with himself
inexperienced Christians who were seeking spiritual pleasure. In this
regard his following advice is quite revealing, “With your imagination,
find the spot where your heart is, under your left nipple (our
underlining – А.О.), and fix your attention there.” Whereas Bishop
Ignatius warns, “He who strives to activate and warm up the lower part
of the heart activates the power of lust…” This is one of the reasons
why Bishop Theophan wrote, “Don’t look in the book – The Way. There are
pieces of advice in it that are not good for you and they may result in
spiritual delusion.
Hierom. Adrian: Thank you very
much for the interview and telling us about your booklet, Alexey Ilyich.
Our website “Bogoslov.ru” wishes you Divine aid in your teaching and
theological work. We look forward to your new books.
Interview by Hieromonk Adrian (Pashin)
Translated from Russian by Aida Zamilova Judah
Edited by Fr. Andrew Phillips
Edited by Fr. Andrew Phillips
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