www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Monastic ideals in secular life

Dear Friends,

How can we Easterners living in the world allow some monasticism to inspire us?

Any ideas?

Alex

Alex,

I seem to remember a suggestion of yours from a while back to just stop whatever you're doing at the top of every hour and offer a quick prayer to God. I've done that a number of times and found it to be quite elevating. Very few of us have the time to pray the Psalter daily, but we all should have to time to just stop and say, "Thank you, God" every hour.

In Christ,
mikey.

Alex,

Just read any part of the Philokalia or St. John of the Ladder. For me, any aspect of the recommendations of these works can be adopted to modern living. I often tell people that they don't have to wear the veil to behave like a Spiritual person. Monasticism is the ideal that we can at least strive for even if limited. People can bear the schema in their hearts throughout the day. The Horologion and Hesychism can be done when and if time permits as the heart dictates.

Dmitri

Alex,

Many years ago my spiritual advisor told me that I should adopt some regular prayer time at the beginning and the end of each day. He also told me that I should not try to completely copy the monastics because it could cause me to lose heart over time because of the demands of living in the world interfering with completing the rules each day. He stressed taht it is more important to practice some discipline that a layman can live with and not become discouraged if he cannot complete it day after day.

It's my understanding that the monastic ideal came about as a witness to the world once Chrisitianity became legal: that we are all called to a radical commitment to God in whatever state we happen to live in. When I read St. Matthew's Gospel and read Jesus' series of "but I tell you" it seems to bear out their vision.

To live as a layman isnpired by these witnesses, I use a prayer book published by the Romanian Episcopate (OCA) for morning and evening prayers, including somewhere during the day a general intercession for all kinds of people and intentions. It's not as long as some Byzantine manuals and leaves an open ending for one's personal devotions. It is probably not the measure of a purist, but I have stuck with it for the past 33 years. Some days I even have to select just a few prayers from each section but I try to keep praying morning and evening each day.

Something I have been able to practice frequently is the suggestion by Mettopolitan Anthony (Bloom) to throw out short prayers like you would seed: his Beginning to Pray and Courage to Pray are two good books about prayer and this suggestion is in oen fo them somewhere. One of the Russian saints suggested that before beginning anything one simply say "Lord, grant Your blessing." On concluding, "Thank You, Lord," finishes it.

Keeping my prayer life simple has kept it steadily growing and something that has been the "light burden."

I also make use of The Desert Fathers translated by Helen Waddell, the first three volumes of the Philokalia, The Fire of Silence and Stillness. These, together with the Scriptures and a liturgical book are about all I can handle with family, career, etc. To have the spiritual life grow--the life of Christ--means nourishing it regularly. I've learned the wisdom of this early direction because I've seen people burn out and give up by trying to absorb and incorporate everything they can get theri hands on into their spiritual life. Thanks be to God, too, for the liturgical life in which we all have been nurtured, whether we call ourselves Eastern or Western. From both I have been nourished, strengthened, and encouraged.

On the other hand, my spiritual director advised me to limit the number of books so that I did not become scattered in too many directions or feel overwhelmed by so many opinions that I gave up the steady building of my relationship with Christ as being impossible. A touchstone that I use to keep even these focused comes from Nicholas Cabasilas: The Life in Christ.

As St. Seraphim of Sarov put it,

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 them. 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.

I always try to keep in mind that my private prayer is linked to the Liturgy wherever it is celebrated and to the prayer of every other believer who ever prayed or who is praying somewhere else and known to god alone, and to every prayer that will ever be prayed. That, it seems to me is what belonging to the Communion of Saints means and how I live it. If that's being inspired by the monastic ideal, thanks be to God.

Do I make any sense?

Do you ever.

Thank you,

Abdur

The way monastics structure their lives, and the fact that they are generally praying together as a community (hermits excepted)- both of these things are constraints for the workaday-world Christian.

I may offer a short prayer at various times of the day. I also try to give thanks before all meals, in public as unobtrusively as possible. My wife and I always pray the Lord's Prayer together before shared meals at home. I follow a Jordanville prayer book for morning prayers (Used to use a paperback orthodox prayer book, but paperbacks do self-destruct eventually, and I found most of the same prayers were in the hardbound Jordanville book.).

Our prayer corner has icons for most all the saints we call on, and every room of the house has an icon, preferably on the eastern wall. The icons, in addition to being windows into heaven, also help remind me of who I should remember in my prayers. On the last pilgrimage to Newberry Springs I got one of the Last Supper, so that it would help me to remember to perform my preparation adequately for communion. I believe that even when we are not directly praying the presence of the icons prompts us to work good in our lives.

Having said the above, I wish there were a way for us in the secular world to pray as a community with our fellow believers, as well as with the saints represented by the icons around us (in addition to attending services). That's where the monastics really have an advantage, if you will forgive the expression. Any ideas?

It's funny, that as some of the greatest of the Desert Fathers and the great hesychasts such as St. Gregory Palamas advanced in the angelic life, the realization became apparent that the simple Prayer of the Heart (the Jesus Prayer) was a central part of the journey towards theosis.

One can say the Jesus Prayer anytime and can get a chotki that can either fit around the wrist or carry in a pocket. I have found the Jesus Prayer
to be comfort in times of sorrow all the way to a far more efficacious cure for insomnia than anything else.

But don't try to take any major endeavor in the spiritual life without the guidance of a trusted spiritual father. And in terms of a single prayer book, both in terms of relatively small size and great content I love to use the Old Believer book from Erie (PA).

Dear Alex, Diak, and all other brothers and sisters:

I've often used the Jesus Prayer when working. I count it on my finger tips. As a working professional, I often use it in between serving clients since I can stop and start it anytime. As one of the Desert Fathers observed when he was asked what he and his disciple would do if they had to be out of the cell for part of the day and could not offer the customary prayers, "who has taken the Lord from us?"

To take up on my last post, I once told a group that I was studying with that when we invoke "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit," God is immediately there with us. Now, I don't mean that He comes and goes. I believe that it is more that we come into a greater awareness of His Presence. He brings with Him all the rest of you. So when I am out walking in the morning around 5:30 a.m. and using the time to pray as well as walk out sciatic nerve cramps, you're all there. Makes it kind of hard to be afraid of the dark with the crowd!

BOB

Dear Friends,

Well, well, how much more inspiring can your posts on this topic be?

I don't want to think about it!

Thank you for your deep words of wisdom - they are a fount of refreshing water for a parched soul!

Alex

Dear Alex and my brothers and sisters on this board:

If anything that I offer gives you inspiration, uplift, or encouragement, please thank God for it. He is the source of whatever you may find that is good, inspiring, profound, or holy.

If, on the other hand, you find something that is silly, scandalous, or otherwise not useful to your spiritual life, please advise me in Christian charity.

May the Lord God bless you and remember you in His Kingdom now and forever.

BOB

+ Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us. Amen!

And I mean it!!

Alex

I, too, appreciate this thread and the practicallity it offers. But I have a question for Theophan and anyone else who might wish to answer it.

In your post, Theophan, you state that the asceticisms of the monastics is "for the aquiring of the Holy Spirit". In the assumption that we have already acquired the Holy Spirit at our baptism, is what you talking about more like their desire to be plunged ever deeper into Him as a flowing river of love?

In other words, not acquiring in the way one would upon first recieving, but acquiring more and more of Him?

Thank you.

Brother Ed

+ Lord Jesus, Son of the Living God, have mercy on us all - Amen!

Dear Ed,

You are right - the acquisition of the Holy Spirit is a life-long process, acquiring more and more of Him through participation in the Christ Life.

A holy ascetic came to visit St Antony of Egypt one day and asked him why it is that Antony performed more miracles than he, especially since he prayed more than did Antony.

Antony humbly replied, "It is because I love God more."

St Seraphim of Sarov taught us to spend our lives acquiring the Holy Spirit through prayer and whatever other means.

Motovilov described seeing Seraphim's face like "looking into the centre of the sun itself."

Alex

+ Lord Jesus, Son of the Living God, have mercy on us all - Amen!

Dear Ed,

You are right - the acquisition of the Holy Spirit is a life-long process as we acquire more and more of Him through participation in the Christ Life.

A holy ascetic came to visit St Antony of Egypt one day and asked him why it was that Antony performed more miracles than he, especially since he prayed more than did Antony.

Antony humbly replied, "It is because I love God more."

St Seraphim of Sarov taught us to spend our lives acquiring the Holy Spirit through prayer and whatever other means.

Motovilov described seeing Seraphim's face like "looking into the centre of the sun itself."

Alex

Slava Jesu Kristu,

I agree with Alex. I believe Baptism opens the door to all of the Graces of the Spirit. We, however, are responsible for acquiring those gifts through prayer and our actions. Monastics are simply those who devote all their energy to this pursuit.

Dmitri