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Prayer, fasting, vigils, and all other Christian practices, however good they may be in themselves, certainly do not constitute the aim of our Christian life: they are but the indispensable means of attaining that aim. For the true aim of the Christian life is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God. As for fasts, vigils, prayer and almsgiving, and other good works done in the name of Christ, they are only the means of acquiring the Holy Spirit of God. Note well that it is only good works done in the name of Christ that bring us the fruits of the Spirit.
~St. Seraphim of Sarov




In order for one to understand the Saints and Fathers of the [Orthodox] Church, it is not sufficient to merely read them. The Saints spoke and wrote after having lived the mysteries of God. They personally experienced the mysteries.

In order for one to understand them, he too must have progressed to a certain degree of initiation into the mysteries of God by personally tasting, smelling, and seeing. You can read the books of the Saints and become very well versed in them with a ‘cerebral’ knowledge without even minutely tasting that which the Saints tasted who wrote these books through their personal experience.

In order to understand the Saints essentially, not intellectually, you must have the proper experience for all that they say; you must have tasted, at least in part, of the same things as they. You must have lived in the fervent environment of Orthodoxy; you must grown in it… A Whole new world must be born in a Westerner’s heart in order for him to understand something of Orthodoxy.
~Alexandar Kalomiros, Against False Union, 1959



The mysteries of our Faith are unknown and not understandable to those who are not repenting.
~Archpriest Nicholas Deputatov, ‘Awareness of God’ in the Orthodox Word Magazine, July-August 1976

 

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3:45PM

There was a small monastery...

…about two miles to the south of Tabennesi. The father of that monastery would often come to see our father Pachomius because he was a friend whom he loved very much; and the words of God he heard from his mouth he would repeat to his own monks so that they too might hear God’s commandments. It happened that a brother of his monastery asked for a certain rank, and he replied to the brother, “Our father, Abba Pachomius, warned me not to do this because you are not yet worthy of that thing.” The brother grew angry and dragged him along, saying, “Come, let us go to him, and he shall have to prove that to me.” The other followed him in amazement and sorrow wondering what was going to happen.

When the two of them and one other came to Abba Pachomius at Tabennesi, they found him busy building a part of the monastery wall. The brother approached our father Pachomius and said to him very angrily, “Come down and give me proof of my sin, O liar Pachomius!” The man of God, Pachomius, thanks to his long suffering, gave him no word whatever in reply. The other went on and said to him, “Who compelled you to lie, you who pride yourself on clear vision while your light is darkness?” The man of God, Abba Pachomius, understood the wiles of the devil who was in that man, and he said to him respectfully, “I have sinned, forgive me. Do you never sin yourself?” And at once the brother’s wicked anger calmed down.

Then our father Pachomius took the father of that monastery aside and questioned him, “What happened to this brother?” He answered him, “Forgive me, my lord father. The fact is that this man asked me for a thing that he does not deserve. I knew that he would not obey me, so I quoted you to him by name so he might perhaps have nothing to say. For I know that nothing is hidden from you. And behold, he has added an evil deed to his wickedness.” Then our father Abba Pachomius said to him, “Listen to me; give him that office so that by this means we may snatch his soul out of the enemy’s hands. For if we do good to a bad man, he comes thereby to have a perception of the good. This is God’s love, to take pains for one another.” When they heard this teaching of our holy father Pachomius, they went away very comforted and giving thanks to God.

When they arrived at their monastery, the father of the monastery gave the rank to the brother as he had asked, in accordance with our father Abba Pachomius’ instruction. A few days later, that brother came to regret his fault. Then he went back to our holy father Abba Pachomius, kissed his hands and feet, and said to him, “Truly, O man of God, you are much greater than what we hear of you every day. For the Lord knows that if you had not been patient with me the day I insulted you, sinner that I am, and if you had spoken some harsh word to me, I would have rejected the monastic life and gone back to the world. Blessed are you, O man of God, my lord father, for thanks to your patience and graciousness, the Lord has brought me back to life.”

Bohairic Life of St. Pachomius 42
St. Pachomius (c.292 347) commemorated 15 May

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