Word from the Desert

Meditations on the Orthodox Life from the Early Church Fathers, Ascetics, Saints and Righteous

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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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December 10, 2009

1:02PM

Once a goldsmith...

…came up from the City (Constantinople) to the holy man (Daniel the Stylite) with his wife and they brought with them their seven-year-old child who had never walked from birth but spent his life crawling along. This goldsmith came to the holy man and throwing himself and his child in front of the column, he besought the holy man saying, ‘Oh servant of God, have pity on my young child who longs to stand up but cannot do so, for nature conceived him contrary to nature; grant me this joy, oh servant of God, for I have followed your holy footsteps; do not send me away, I pray you, with my petition unfulfilled’. The holy man replied, ‘Do not be so impatient in your words; for your zeal towards God, if accompanied by faith and patience, will release your son from his calamity; do not be discouraged but go with the child and remain by the holy relics of Simeon (the Stylite) the holy servant of God and our father; anoint the child’s feet with the holy oil and bring him back here when prayer is being offered, and we trust in God that He will give him healing’. The man did as the holy man had ordered him, and on the seventh day, when prayer had been offered in the enclosure, the boy suddenly jumped on to the steps of the pillar and went up and embraced the column; all marvelled and glorified God for this wonderful happenings And his parents gave thanks to God and to the holy man and took the boy home in health. When the boy grew to be a man he frequently visited the holy man, received a blessing and returned home.

from the Life of Daniel the Stylite, 86
St. Daniel the Stylite, commemorated 11 December
icon and troparion at: http://www.oca.org/FSlives.asp?SID=4&M=12&D=11

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St. Daniel the Stylite

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