Saint Silouan on Spiritual Warfare

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So here we are, by the grace of God, for our second meeting, reading from the writings of Saint great martyr Demetrius Merce, dreamer and Wonder Worker, whose memory on the new calendar we celebrate tomorrow. Have mercy upon us and save us. Amen. Once again, welcome everybody. It's good to be with you, picking up the threads from where we left off last time. I'm going to remind you of and draw your attention to is how, in this chapter on spiritual warfare, one of the first things that Saint Silouan says is that his only sorrow is that not everyone knows God and how greatly he loves us. He also says If you subdue your own will, your enemies will be driven off and you will receive peace in your soul. And you will receive peace in your soul If you forgive your brother the affronts he puts upon you and love your enemies. Then you will receive forgiveness for your sins and the Lord will give you to know the love of the Holy Spirit. These are great words of comfort and of course, the Holy Spirit is that other comforter of which the Lord speaks. And when you have entirely humbled yourself, you will find perfect rest in God. So if we don't have rest, if we don't feel the peace that we desire, it's because we have not yet entirely humbled ourselves. Of course, this is a lifelong struggle for most of us. Later, just a few lines further on, saint Silouan refers to the reason why we suffer. Why is there suffering? Why is it? He says that man suffers on earth and is beset by affliction and adversity. And his answer is that we suffer because we lack humility. The Holy Spirit dwells in the humble soul. Silouan continues bringing freedom, peace, love and blessedness. We suffer because we do not love our fellow men. The Lord said love one another and you shall be my disciples, and so forth speaks of the love of God, which is divine. Love is the gift of the Holy Spirit and is made known in full only through the Holy Spirit. And he says but there is a lesser degree of love to be found in the man who strives to observe Christ's commandments and goes in fear of grieving God in any way. And this love too is good. Every day we must urge ourselves towards what is good and with might and main seek after the humility of Christ. So I mentioned the two forms of love, the two forms of humility. Father Zacharias describes them as charismatic love on the one hand, which is that divine love, one hand, which is that divine love, and then ascetic love, which is the product of man's striving. And of course we know that in both disciples Saint Silouan continues my peace I give unto you. We must entreat God for this peace of Christ's, and the Lord will give to him who asks. It's interesting Again Saint Couan is saying the humble man, the man who is obedient to the will of God, knows no stress and is free, in fact, from suffering.

Speaker 1 6:23

We suffer because we lack humility. We suffer because we do not love our fellow man. Saint Silouan's word is simple, but it's very intense, and we also spoke of this to some degree, and you may have noticed that I referred to this in some of my other recordings which have been published recently, on the knowledge of God especially, but also on obedience. If misfortune overcome, you do not lose heart, but recollect that the Lord in mercy looketh upon you, and do not allow yourself to think is the Lord going to look upon me when I grieve him? For mercy is the nature of the Lord. Instead, turn to God in faith and, like the prodigal son, say I am no more worthy to be called thy son, and you will see how pleasing you will be to the Father and your soul will be filled with joy.

Speaker 1 7:53

Indescribable People do not try to learn humility, saint Silouan continues and because of their pride are unable to receive the grace of the Holy Spirit. And so the whole world is filled with suffering, whereas if men but came to know the Lord and how merciful, humble and meek he is, the face of the whole world would be changed in a single hour and great joy and love would reign in every heart. Saint Silouan, the word of Saint Silouan, the word of Saint Silouan, his message, you see, is the antidote to what we have today, the pain and suffering that we have today, the confusion that we have today, the distress, the despair of our times. It's interesting Saints of Froni said many times and he even wrote it that it was an interesting and important coincidence to him that around the same time that the formula was being discovered for, eventually, the, the creation of the atom bomb, nuclear weapons, that was the time when the Lord gave to Saint Silouan the word keep thy mind in hell and despair not. We're going to talk about that in a moment, but I'll continue reading from this chapter on spiritual warfare and we'll see how it goes.

Speaker 1 10:13

The merciful Lord has given us repentance, and through repentance are all things put right. Through repentance we receive forgiveness of sins. Repentance brings the grace of the Holy Spirit, and thus we come to know God. If one among you has lost grace and things go hard with him, let him repent and the Lord will give him his peace. If a people or a nation are in tribulation, all must repent, and then God will set everything right.

Speaker 1 10:59

The difficulty with these terms repentance, even such terms as humility and love is that often we tend to understand them in psychological and emotional terms, when what Saint Silouan, in this case, and the Fathers refer to is a spiritual state, and the spiritual state is therefore is unknown. We very rarely have an understanding of what it means to be repentant, repentant. If you have the gift of repentance and you go to a psychologist, they'll probably say that you're lacking in self-esteem and you know you need to think a little more highly, a little more positively about yourself. And the problem is that we live in a culture that does not know repentance, does not understand what repentance means, does not know from experience the positive power of repentance.

Speaker 1 12:28

Repentance is not this morbid, miserable state of being where you shrivel up in a corner and sort of disappear and your personality evaporates. You know, and I think that's very important for us to learn what repentance means from the fathers, repentance is actually a renewal, a regeneration. The old man has to die and in fact the old man has to die many deaths, and in fact the old man has to die many deaths. And each time we experience a death, in the sense that we strive to follow the commandments of Christ, we strive to follow the example of Christ in any and every given situation, given situation, and thereby we resist the temptation to react according to our instinct for survival, according to our fear of death. And our love of God, who loves us, who first loved us, who first loved us, is greater than the fear of what is threatening to cause us suffering and even death.

Speaker 1 13:53

St Gregory Palamas, in one of his homilies, talks about this and he says apart from sin because sin is separation from God apart from sin, nothing in this life is truly evil, even if it causes suffering. And what he has in mind when he says that is the example of the martyrs the martyrs who followed in their lives and in their death the example of Christ and thereby transformed their unjust death into their glory. So, yes, what I'm trying to say is that repentance is a very powerful, positive state of being and it is a gift of grace. It's not an emotional or a psychological state. In fact, if we try to do these things, if we try to live the spiritual life on the emotional and psychological level, it could very well lead to illness.

Speaker 1 15:15

It's very important, therefore, to have a guide. It's very important to have balance. It's very important not to go to extremes and to refer to the Holy Scriptures, to refer to the Fathers, but not by our own will. We need guidance, each one of us needs guidance and, as Abba Dorotheus says, otherwise we shall fall like leaves from a tree. We don't have that anchor and that reference point that will keep us balanced and keep us moving in the right direction. So that is of paramount importance.

Speaker 1 16:10

I stopped at the point where, yes, these thoughts just came to me when Saint Ceylon mentioned how, if a people or a nation, he lived through one world war, he died in 1938, just before the Second World War. There was great turmoil in the world, the First World War and then the Russian Revolution, and so on and so forth Terrible times. If a people or a nation, he said, are in tribulation. All must repent. How likely is that, you might be asking? Right, of course we have the example of the Ninevites in the Old Testament. But it's true. I mean each one of us, individually and as a nation, each nation must do the same, then God will set everything right.

Speaker 1 17:17

It sounds like a tall order, doesn't it? Unrealistic? But very often the paradox is in the spiritual life. What seems far-fetched, almost impossible, is actually the shortcut. It's the shortcut to the solution. And how is it the shortcut to the solution? Because it's the only way to true healing. And history has proved this to us time and time again his book, his Life, is Mine that the true cause of historical events is the spiritual state of man. I think I've shared this with some of you before. But we could go on and on about the political factors and the social factors and the economic causes and the this and that right and all of that. There's some truth in all of that.

Speaker 1 18:41

The reason why we suffer individually and as a world is our refusal to humble ourselves. Look what would happen. I mean, people talk about what's going on in the Middle East right now and just before that Russia, ukraine and so forth, if we tried to love our enemies. Of course you don't make much money by doing that, right? We know that that's not a solution for people who are interested in becoming rich and dominating the world and imposing themselves on others, but it is in fact the only solution, the humble way of Christ, the humble way of which Saint Silouan is constantly speaking, because he knows from experience that when we strive a little in that direction, god is well pleased and he helps us. We know we can't do that Humanly speaking. These are impossible tasks. These are impossible commandments that the Lord has given us in human terms, because they're not a human way of life, at least not a fallen human way of life, right human way of life, right. They are prescriptions for a divine way of life, the life of Christ himself, and only he can help us to fulfill them, to live them. So if we try a little, god will help us. That applies to us individually. It applies to us as a people, each nation, each people and so forth.

Repentance as Spiritual Renewal

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Yes, I'm reminded also in response to something someone asked me not long ago, but in this context, it's important for us Saint Sophrony used to say, it's important for us to learn to live by inspiration. It's important for us to learn what I mentioned earlier about Saint Silliman, who says how to attract the grace of God, how to attract the grace of God and then how to preserve the grace of God and not lose it. And Saint Sophrony, in a very simple way, used to advise us before you do anything, before you say anything, before you even think anything, turn your heart and mind even for a split second to God and notice the difference. And notice the difference when you do so, whether you do so in a worded prayer or simply as the name of the Lord, you remember God and you invite him to enter. And then what you do, what you say and even what you think is blessed, and when you try that, put that to the test. It's not easy at first, but you see the difference and you begin to understand that the results are most likely better than they otherwise would be. If you ask me a question, for example, and I, on the basis of my knowledge, of my experience, my background, all of that, I give you an answer. I'll give you a human answer. But if you ask me a question and before I answer, I turn my heart and mind first to God. I turn my heart and mind first to God.

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That's the shape of the divine liturgy. You know, that's anaphoral, that's referring things back to God. And when we do that, god is well pleased that we remember him and we ask him to enter our lives and to enlighten us. What should we do, how should we do it, what should we say and how should we say it? And even, what should we think and how should we think it? And of course, this takes time. It takes time to learn, but as we strive in that way, you know, we learn how to call upon the name of the Lord. It's a form of the Jesus prayer. It's a practical form of the Jesus prayer. It's a practical form of the Jesus prayer, and we become in the process increasingly aware of God's presence in our lives.

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So often we behave as though God is somewhere else. Well, he's not. He's right here. Right, God is somewhere else. Well, he's not. He's right here, right With us, all the time, every moment, every instant. And such is his providence for us, Such is his care for us, that not a hair of our head would fall without the Lord's knowing. How remarkable, how astounding is it that we have a God who loves us so much, who cares for each and every one of us so much, who cares for each and every one of us so much that he regards each one of us as a unique and unrepeatable images of himself. This is astounding and this is the message you know. This is astounding and this is the message you know. This is the vision that is capable of transforming the world.

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Look at what happened, in the orthodox sense of the word, on the spiritual level, well before Constantine the Great, the world was a barbaric place, very harsh, and when one person was converted converted when Constantine was converted look how his heart enlarged the acceptance of Christianity, the way of love. He banned the exposure of children, the abortion and so on and so forth A culture was allowed to thrive which knew repentance. And even later, yes, there were terrible things committed by emperors and leaders of various kinds, it's true, but there was a culture in which, if you wanted to repent, you could, because it was understood by a sufficient number of people to allow that culture to contain the regenerative power of repentance. That's not so much the case now. We have to bring that culture to where we are, culture to where we are. We have to implant that spirit where we are and to become the salt of the earth for our respective places where we live.

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So our entire struggle, says Saint Silouan, not in a simplistic way, but this is the truth Our entire struggle is to humble ourselves. Our enemies fell because of pride and would induce us onto the same path. But no brethren, let us humble ourselves and then we shall behold the glory of the Lord while here on earth. Why do we not behold the glory of the Lord? It's the same answer. We're not yet humble enough to receive that vision. For the Lord gives the humble man to know Him by the Holy Spirit.

Living by Divine Inspiration

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The soul that has tasted of the sweetness of the love of God is reborn and quite changed, completely changed, and loves her Lord and with all her strength aspires after him day and night and for a while stays peaceful in God. He's describing his own experience here. Right gives the soul peace in God, but sometimes makes the heart ache for the whole wide universe that all men might repent and enter paradise. This is the enlargement of the heart, when grace is given to us and the heart so enlarges to embrace not only our immediate family, our immediate community. But what happens is that we begin to grow into the universality of Christ. We begin to use Saint Sophrony's language in us, the image of God in us is activated, is realized, and we begin to resemble Christ himself. And in resembling Christ himself, more and more, we resemble the love of God which excludes nobody. We resemble the words of Saint Silouan and in the theology of Saint Sophrony.

Speaker 1 31:35

Having come to know the sweetness of the Holy Spirit, the soul longs for it to be given to all men, for the sweetness of the Lord will not suffer the Lord to be selfish, but bestows on her love which springs from the heart. Therefore, let us love the Lord who first loved and suffered for us. I will not hide from you the things for which the Lord gives his grace, nor shall I write over much, but I entreat you love one another and you will behold the mercy of the Lord. Let us love our fellows and the Lord will love us. Reminds me of Saint Sophrony used to say and I rather suspect that it came from Saint Silouan our brother is our life. Let us love our fellows and the Lord will love us. It's not that the Lord doesn't love us, but we will open up ourselves to the love of God and allow him in to transform us, to effect that transformation in us which is that regeneration, the regeneration of life in Christ.

Speaker 1 33:20

Think not, o my soul, that the Lord loveth thee if thou lookest askance upon any man. Rather is it that thou art beloved of the devils in that thou hast become their servant. But be not slow to repent and ask the Lord for strength to love thy brother, and then thou wilt see that there is peace in thy soul. What can we say? Judge not, that ye be not judged. With all your might, ask the Lord for humility and brotherly love.

Speaker 1 34:10

You know we're afraid. If we're being honest, we're afraid to ask for humility and brotherly love. You know why? Because we know, even instinctively, we know that's going to cause us a lot of suffering, a lot of pain and a lot of suffering when we strive to follow the way of Christ. That's the way of the cross, but again, it's the only way to the resurrection, that death which we experience each time. We resist the temptation to react to injustice in a negative way and instead prefer to follow the commandments, the example of Christ. That is a painful experience, but it's a joy-producing experience and we learn to love it. Why? Not because we're masochists, right, but because it's life-giving. It attracts the grace of God. When the Lord sees that we strive, we are striving to become like him, to follow his way, he's well pleased with us and we enter into the mystical stream of his life, his love and his humility. This is the antidote to our tragedy that we see all around us. So, with all your might, ask the Lord for humility and brotherly love courageously, for to him who loves his brother, the Lord giveth freely of his grace. Try yourself.

Speaker 1 36:34

Saint-séloin is encouraging us to put it to the test. One day, ask God for brotherly love and the next day, live without love and you will see the difference. Live without love and you will see the difference. The spiritual fruits of love are manifest peace and joy in the soul, with all men dear to you, and you will shed abundant tears for your fellow man, tears I'll just say in passing at this point perhaps you already know this, but just in case. Tears signify spiritual tears.

Speaker 1 37:20

Tears of repentance signify the conjoining of the mind, the nous, in the heart, which is its natural and proper place. The nous is the eye of the soul and the eye of the soul has its proper and natural place in the heart because it is a power of the heart. It has become confused with the brain because it is separated from the heart, and this is a consequence of the fall right, how we have become divided. And, yes, it is a power of the heart which has been bestowed upon man by God that enables us to behold his face. Of course, the nous, the mind, is not capable of doing this of its own. It's only by the grace of God that it is transformed and enabled to behold the face of the Lord, as they say. But I shan't say too much about that at this point. Perhaps later if God wills and if God allows.

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But often I find that many of our people don't know these things, they're not aware. They hear about the mind. In English, Sometimes it's the mind, sometimes it's translated as the intellect and there's confusion because it's not the brain. The brain is something else. We know that the noose descends to the heart, is joined with the heart, finds its natural and proper place, as I was saying, when we weep. This is the value of tears of repentance, spiritual tears, unless we weep. And, by the way, you cannot weep if you have more than one thought than one thought. Our thought must be Christ and our thought must be that he should save us, forgive us, have mercy upon us. One thought, you know. That's another name by which the Jesus prayer is known. It's known as the prayer of the heart, it's known as the noetic prayer, the prayer of the noose, and so on and so forth, but it's also known as the prayer of a single foot.

Tears of Repentance and Noetic Prayer

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I'll tell you something about this which is very important. When you go to confession, it's very important to learn the way of the saints. You go to confession with one thought. When you pray, you should pray with one thought and, as I said, that thought is Jesus Christ. Because who is Jesus Christ? Jesus is the Savior. That's why, by the way, the Fathers regard the prayer of the publican God be merciful unto me, a sinner. They regard that as the Jesus prayer, a form of the Jesus prayer. Why? Because it's asking for salvation. Who is salvation? Jesus is salvation. Salvation is not a thing person, jesus Christ, and the name says it.

Speaker 1 41:22

So we know that when we weep, as I said, we can't weep spiritual tears. We can weep emotional and psychological tears in various ways and relatively easily, but spiritual tears cause the noose to enter into the heart when we suffer. Where do we feel that suffering? Mostly we feel it in the heart, right, I mean it could even be a physical pain, the suffering. Still, even on the physical level, we feel pain and we ask God to heal that pain. And we ask God to heal that pain. So if you cut your finger, where does your mind go? Your mind goes to your finger when you have a pain in your heart, when you're suffering a spiritual pain. You lack peace, you're distressed, you are tempted to despair, to become depressed, and so on. Where do you feel that? You feel that in your chest, in your heart, and so your mind is going to your heart. There's a great advantage to that, which is why St Gregory said except for sin, nothing is truly evil, even when it causes suffering. Because the saints use that suffering, the pain that they feel in the heart, in order to pray to God, to focus on the heart because automatically that happens when you have that spiritual pain and to pray, to reveal our spiritual state to God and we say Lord, look at the mess that I am, have mercy upon me, heal me.

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I remember when I used to go to St Sophrony for confession. He often encouraged me just to say to God, lord, heal my heart, lord, heal my mind, heal me, heal my soul, heal me, all of me and my body. Right, we are body and soul, we human beings, right. So it's very important to learn this way, very important to recognize and, by the way, saint Sophrony noticed that when he was given tears of repentance and he would weep and weep. That's the moment when we are tempted by the enemy to say ah, you're weeping spiritual tears. What progress you must be doing. Well, you're actually weeping for your sins. How good that is. You are a good man.

Speaker 1 44:57

And Father Sofroni had a great sense of humor. He used to say Lord, help me. My assassins have arrived these thoughts from the enemy. He referred to them as his assassins. In other words, they want to strip you of any spiritual benefit that you might be receiving. And so it's very rare for most of us to be able to weep those spiritual tears for long.

Speaker 1 45:31

But again, over time, gradually, we learn. We learn what helps and we learn what doesn't help. We learn how to think, we learn how to behave and how to speak, and so on. As I said before, always striving to live by inspiration. That's what Saint Sophrony wanted from his spiritual children. He didn't want them to live. Okay, I've said my prayers. I read my prayers for Vespers or before going to bed or whatever morning prayers. I'm okay, I've been to confession. I got maximum points today. I went to confession. I received Holy Communion. I said my prayers, went to confession, I received holy communion. I said my prayers, all of them. I'm okay, I'm good.

Speaker 1 46:37

The question is, yes, you've done those things, thank God. But are we in a state of repentance? Are we growing into the likeness of Christ? Are we on that road of the humble way of Christ? And we know that the spiritual life has many ups and downs. That's also normal. We cannot live at the same level of intensity always. You know the story of St Anthony and the hunter who visited him and what happens if you overstretch the bow, and so on and so forth. That's why we need discernment.

Speaker 1 47:24

But going back to this question, when we confess our sins, when we pray, when we repent, we do so with one thought, not many thoughts, not many words. You know, sometimes people mistake the Jesus prayer as the recitation of words and nothing more. No, it's the prayer of a single thought, nothing more. No, it's the prayer of a single thought. It's calling upon the name of the Lord and learning to do that, because the name of the Lord must become our very breath, closer more than our breath. Christ is everything, he's the first and the last, but these things must be done with wisdom, with discernment, and so we learn from our holy fathers and we strive to follow their example. We have a question here. If our journey is toward the spiritual state and toward the mind of Christ 1 Corinthians 2.16, how might we relate to created pleasures that appeal to the psychical state, such as quality art and music and literature? They are uplifting, yet they are not prayer. Thank you for your question.

Engaging with Worldly Pleasures

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When Father Sofroni used to send his monks to paris to study theology, he would say to them look, you're studying theology in paris. Study hard. It's not time for you to be great ascetics while you are students. And, by the way, since you are in one of the world's greatest centers of art and culture and so forth, use the opportunity to go to a museum, go to a gallery and experience the cultural benefits that such a milieu has to offer. It's a wonderful thing. Of course, saint Sophrony himself was a successful young artist and he understood this. And then he said when you come back to the monastery, then you can become fasters and practice all-night vigils and so on. But again, by the way, I add this as a qualification Under obedience, practicing humility through obedience.

Speaker 1 50:19

Okay, every good thing that we have been given, every pleasure in life, is from God. We're speaking of the natural pleasures of life. Right, they're from God. God has given this life. He's given us food, he's given us song. He's given us the birds, the, the trees, the beautiful aspects of nature in married life, our relations with our spouses, and so on and so on. This is blessed when we receive them in gratitude and we give thanks to God. That's the right way. That's the right way.

Speaker 1 51:05

But at the same time, st Silouan and this is something that is mentioned in the first part St Silouan and this is something that is mentioned in the first part how St Silouan regarded animals, plants and nature and so on and so forth has given us and very gentle with nature, very careful, very politically correct with all things ecological. But what he would say is that the soul that knows the love of God can't stop at the beauty of nature. We must strive for that which will survive this temporal life right, because this life is a experience the love of God, the humility of God, the vision of Christ in glory, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and so on and so forth. And so we must not allow anything to distract us from our first love. We must remember our first love. There's a plug for a book there, I think. Okay, but yes, I remember.

Speaker 1 52:40

I had endless conversations with someone who really God rest his soul, the Lord has taken him now Wonderful man, and he had such love for natural beauty, the beauty of nature all around. He used to go hiking and walks and enjoy, and often he would misunderstand what I was saying about the love of God. I was just quoting Saint Silouan, by the way, this was not my own theory, but he often thought that I was sort of diminishing the value of the world. On the contrary, the Lord entered the world, didn't he? He took upon himself and made it his own our human flesh, materiality. He became involved in the physical aspects of the world as well as the spiritual. This is important for us, those who would reject the human body, materiality, the physical world, the physical universe. They belong to other traditions, my friends, these are not orthodox sentiments, right on the contrary, everything is realized and glorified in and through the flesh of christ, through his incarnation. So we must know that, we must understand that, that it's okay to enjoy a cup of tea, right, it's okay to enjoy music. Or, in fact, there's an interesting passage in saint john of the ladder where he makes no distinction whatsoever between hymns to god and music. Know music outside the church?

Speaker 1 54:54

Because the understanding is that when the heart is in a good and proper state, all these things are an occasion to give thanks to God. Our whole life should be an occasion to give thanks to God. Our whole life should be an occasion to give thanks to God. And what do the fathers say? This is not so easy, right, we can talk about this more next time perhaps. But they say thank God for all things, good and bad. Even for the bad things they give thanks. Why? The good things are an opportunity for us to thank God. The bad things are an opportunity for us to humble ourselves, and so, with humility and love, you come out a winner every time, just as long as your focus is on Jesus Christ. So perhaps we'll end our meeting for today with that thought, give thanks to God and, yes, I wish you all a blessed evening.

Speaker 1 56:19

Those of you who celebrate St Demetrius tomorrow I'm a child of St Demetrius in the sense that I studied theology in his city, where he's very much a sensible presence, very much, very much so. So may we all have the prayers and the protection of Saint Demetrius, the great martyr, wonder worker and mercy dreamer of Thessalonica, and may God heal us by his prayers and, of course, by the prayers of our Holy Fathers, saint Silouan and Sophrony. I ask for your prayers and I thank you for being patient with me this evening. God bless, see you next time. Your blessings. God bless, see you next time. Your blessings, take care Bye. Please subscribe to our channel and share with your friends. Click on the join button below our video and become a friend or reader of the Mount Tabor Academy. Support our drive to introduce the theology and spiritual life of the Orthodox Church to the wider community.