Motivation for Confession

Confess your sins to one another, that you may be healed (James 5:16).

We are created for God and only in Him do we find the paramount bliss for which our heart is constantly yearning. Nothing other than God can make our souls happy! Give man everything which he desires and he will enjoy it for a while, but afterwards he will become indifferent to it, because he feels that something else, much more elevated, is missing. Is it not in that way that the child, too, enjoys every new toy until it grows hungry? Then it abandons the toy and looks for food. A certain inextinguishable inner hunger for truth, joy, and peace in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17) torments our soul and does not give us peace, even among the best pleasures of life and among the most enviable achievements in the world.

This blessed hunger is a hunger for God. Blessed Augustine is right in his Confessions before God: “Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless until it repose in Thee.” The only guest who can make our soul happy is God. And if God is our paramount bliss, it is clear that which obstructs the way to God must be the greatest evil for us. Such an evil is sin.
It is in vain that some unenlightened people seek the greatest evil for man somewhere else, rather than in sin. Some consider disease to be the greatest evil, others – poverty, and others – death. But neither disease, nor poverty, nor death, nor any other earthly disaster can be such a great evil for us as is sin. These earthly misfortunes do not separate us from God if we are seeking Him sincerely, but, on the contrary, they bring us closer to Him.

Disease is not the greatest evil for man, because a disease of the body endured with humility, faith, and patience can cure the soul sick with sin and bring it closer to God – the greatest good for man.

And death is not frightening for the believer, because through it, as through a door, one goes to the beloved and loving God Who hath prepared for them that love Him, things that which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man (1 Corinthians 2:9).

 

But sin is the most wretched poverty of the heart – poverty that blocks the treasure of grace. Sin is a deadly sickness of the soul, a sickness that deprives us both of the joys of earth and the joys of heaven. Sin is a terrible and most lamentable spiritual death that separates us eternally from the joy of the heavenly inhabitants in paradise and buries us in the darkness of hell.

There is no greater evil for man than sin. It destroys both the body and the soul. It makes both this life and eternal life bitter. It causes discord in families, quarrels among neighbors, and disagreements among relatives. It starts the fire of malice among people. It makes the soul proud and embittered. It poisons the heart with envy. It drives out holy feelings from the breast and invites the demons to settle there. It separates us from God. It extinguishes everything bright in our hearts. It teaches us to lie, to be gluttonous, and to be selfish and greedy. It makes us slander and judge our neighbors. It incites our hand to steal. It fills us with anger and rage. It whispers to us to seek revenge. It commits all outrages, debaucheries, and crimes. It causes all diseases, suffering, injustice, violence, bloodshed, and war. It has filled the souls of all of us with unbearable spiritual stench. It pours this stench into the relationships among us.

Have you asked yourself why is it so stifling in the world? Why is it hard to live? Why can we not put up with each other? The answer is because sin has poisoned the atmosphere of life. We are all sick with sin. And if untreated body wounds emit intolerable stench, how much more terrible is the stench of sin!

But I’ll Only Sin Again!

 

Why should I confess when I know that tomorrow I will sin again? Is there any point in such confession? I see that one should confess only if one would sin no more after that!

This objection to Confession contains: both something that is very true and something that is not. The right thing here is the desire not to sin any more after Confession. But we are feeble humans, and we cannot attain right away such a firmness that makes falling into voluntary sins impossible. If we cannot reach such steadfastness in virtue right away, should we surrender to vice? Or should we stop confessing? Which is better: to roll in the mud of the spiritual swamp, or to pick yourself up after each fall and go on with the hope that someday you may reach the solid and beautiful shore of virtue? If you do not confess, you remain in the mud. If you confess, you pick yourself up from the mud and clean yourself. “But why should I get up if tomorrow I will fall again?” you say. When you fall again, then get up again! Every day begin all over again! This is undoubtedly better than falling out of the habit of getting up.

A young monk complained to the great ascetic Abba Sisoes: “Abba, what should I do? I fell.” The elder answered: “Get up!” The monk said: “I got up, and I fell again!” The elder replied: “Get up again!” But the young monk asked: “For how long should I get up when I fall?” “Until your death,” answered Abba Sisoes. This wise dialogue should be remembered by all of us who want to change but, deceived by the devil, constantly return to our previous sins. Every time we fall into a transgression, we must get up. The “getting up” is Confession.

“But why should we play at falling and getting up?” ask some. It is not a game, but a struggle in which there is much sense. If we, as feeble humans, fall but get up again, there is a great probability that death will find us when we are standing. Then we are saved. But if we do not intend to get up, death will surely find us lying in the mud. Then we are lost forever!

St. John Chrysostom says: “Repentance opens the heavens for man, takes him to Paradise, overcomes the devil. Have you sinned? Do not despair! If you sin every day, then offer repentance every day! When there are rotten parts in old houses, we replace the parts with new ones, and we do not stop caring for the houses. In the same way, you should reason for yourself: if today you have defiled yourself with sin, immediately clean yourself with repentance.”

For the washing away of bodily dirtiness God has given water. And for the washing of spiritual foulness, God has given the grace of the holy Sacrament of Confession. Every man, when he dirties his hands, washes them. No one says: “I will not wash my hands any more, because I will get them dirty again!” But why is it then that many people say, “I will not go to Confession, because I will sin again tomorrow!” It is clear that the enemy of our salvation is enticing us not to wash our souls, so that he can gain power over them.

But we must not give in to such satanic suggestions; we should confess frequently, because frequent washing produces a taste for cleanliness in us.

Leave your house unswept, uncleaned, and unventilated for one year! Will it not turn into a pigsty? Now think about what the soul of a man is like when he has not cleaned it through Confession, not only for a year, but for twenty, forty, sixty, or seventy years…

Source: Holy Trinity Cathedral

Source: http://www.pravmir.com/motivation-for-confession/#ixzz2yL8ZVamH

Our responsibility toward others

Prayer is the language of the next world.  Sooner or later, we will have to live in that world.  When we go to another country to live there, we must speak their language.  In order to learn the language of the age to come, we must pray. 

Cautionary word on new movie "Noah"

I realize it’s Great Lent and many Orthodox people do not go to the cinema.  Whether or not you do, I think it’s important to recognize the content of a new movie.  Eventually it will find its way onto DVD, streaming movies, etc. What I’m providing here is a review from a reliable Christian based movie review site.  Here is a link to the review—keep in mind, it is anything but Biblical and highly offensive in content.  Don’t let the name of the movie or any similarities to the Bible account mislead you: 

http://christiananswers.net/spotlight/movies/2014/noah2014.html

 

Optimism in the Christian life

 

Emotions are of great importance in our lives as human beings and as Christians. Carl Jung once observed, “Emotion is the moment when steel meets flint and a spark is struck forth, for emotion is the chief source of consciousness. There is no change from darkness to light or from inertia to movement without emotion.” In general, emotions motivate us, organize our world, and help us to adapt to changing situations. And it is significant that the Beatitudes conclude with the brightest and most blessed of human emotions, a rejoicing and gladness that are strikingly and peculiarly Christian, for they are intimately related to the person and work of Christ. Yes, there is suffering in life. We know full well that “in the world we have tribulation: but we are of good cheer, for Christ has overcome the world” (John 16:33) and we have put on Christ, cheerfully, joyfully, and with exceeding gladness. There is no room for puritanical gloom and dank pessimism in the Christian walk, for the virtues clothe the Christian in a joy, gladness, and optimism that the world cannot take away from us. Much research in psychology bolsters the finding that positive emotional feelings enhance empathy and altruism. Put in Christian parlance, rejoicing and gladness makes it easy to feel compassion and to love. How fitting that the Beatitudes are concluded with this final commandment of joy!

Saint Paul likewise teaches Christians to rejoice using the very same imperative of other commandments when he writes, “Rejoice in the Lord always.” He doesn’t say in good times rejoice or when others affirm Christianity, rejoice. Rather, he specifies its unconditional nature by saying “Rejoice always.” Saint John Chrysostom comments on this Pauline teaching as follows: “I know indeed that to many this saying seems impossible. ‘For how is it possible,’ one may say, ‘that someone who is only human can continually rejoice? To rejoice is not difficult, but to rejoice continually seems impossible to me.’ After all, there are many reasons for sadness that surround us on all sides. A man has lost either a son, or a wife, or a beloved friend, more necessary to him than all kindred; or he has to sustain the loss of wealth; or he has fallen into sickness; or he has to bear some other change of fortune; or to grieve for contemptuous treatment which he did not deserve; or famine, or pestilence, or some intolerable exaction, or circumstances in his family trouble him. Indeed, there is no saying how many circumstances of a public or private nature tend to cause us grief. How then, he may say, is it possible to “Rejoice always?” In fact, it is possible! …He who rejoices ‘in the Lord’ cannot be deprived of that delight by any thing that may happen. For all other things in which we rejoice are mutable and changeable, and subject to variation. And not only does this grievous circumstance attend them, but moreover while they remain they do not afford us a pleasure sufficient to repel and veil the sadness that comes upon us from other quarters. But the fear of God contains both these requisites. It is steadfast and immoveable, and sheds so much gladness that we don’t feel the blow of other evils. For the man who fears God as he should, and trusts in Him, gathers from the very root of pleasure, and has possession of the whole fountain of cheerfulness. And as a spark falling upon a wide ocean quickly disappears, so whatever events happen to the man who fears God, these, falling as it were upon an immense ocean of joy, are quenched and destroyed!” It is the sense of God’s presence, God’s victorious and loving presence, in every situation that keeps a window always open for the light of grace to shine in and the breeze of the Spirit to refresh, thus transforming a barren landscape into a paradise in which God walks in the cool of the evening. When God is included in one’s “cognitive appraisal of stimulus or a situation,” a contemporary description of the source of emotional reactions, then rejoicing and being exceedingly glad does indeed become possible and imperative.

And although there is much that can cause great sorrow in this world, although there is much that can make people justifiably pessimistic, nevertheless, Christians rejoice. Nevertheless, Christians are optimists, not because they are dreamy idealists, but because they know Christ, because they’ve tasted Christ, and they have seen that through Him their lives have been transformed. Saint Nikolai of Zycha wrote, “I would not be able to call myself a Christian if I were not an optimist. And if I called myself a Christian and were not optimistic, I would not be a sincere Christian. And all of you who call yourselves Christians but are not optimists do so in vain. Christianity is the mighty fortress of optimism. Christianity is founded on faith, hope, and love, because only those three, faith, hope, and love, save… Let us be optimistic as Christians, because even the most despairing of us have found comfort therein… Let us think optimistically, because only optimistic thought reaches God. Let our emotions be optimistic, because optimism is the remedy for sorrow and the fount of true and eternal joy. Let us be optimistic with our work, for good works are woven into the work of God and are preserved eternally along with the work of God” (Homilies on Optimism and Pessimism).

Optimism, joy, and rejoicing in the midst of suffering can aptly describe the Saints throughout history. Through this beatitude, this approach to life is offered to all Christians as a precious inheritance. Elder Porphyrios truly lived this commandment and enjoyed living it fully. He used to say, “Whoever lives Christ becomes one with Him and with His Church. He has a zest for living. His life is different from the lives of other people. It is joy. It is light. It is rejoicing. It is resurrection. It is the life of the Church, the life of the Gospel, the Kingdom of God.” Such a person has Christ in his mind, in his heart, and in all of his being. And in the words of the Elder, “Christ is life, the fountain of life, the fountain of joy, the fountain of true light.” To rejoice and be exceedingly glad is truly possible when we find Christ, when we become like Christ, and when Christ is the primary focus of our lives. Then, we truly rejoice and are glad, not only because great is our reward in heaven, but because great is our reward on earth in the presence of our heavenly Savior.

Outcomes of our choices

If you have upbraided, or passed judgment on, or vexed your brother, your peace is lost.  If you have been boastful, or have exalted yourself above your fellow, you have lost grace.  If you did not drive away forthwith that wanton thought that came to you, your soul will lose love for God and boldness in prayer.  If you are fond of power, or money, you will never know the love of God. If you have followed your own will, then you are vanquished by the enemy and despondency will come upon your soul.  If you detest your brother, it means that you have fallen away from God, and an evil spirit has taken possession of you.

But if you will do good unto your brother, you will gain quiet for your conscience.  If you subdue your own will, your enemies will be driven off 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.  And when you have entirely humbled yourself, you will find perfect rest in God. 

Powerful weaponry against the devil

My dearest friends, a pure life and fearless faith in God are powerful weapons against the demons.  Believe me, for I have experience with this.  Night-time devotions and the prayers, fasting and gentleness of those who live rightly, terrify satan.  He is afraid of these devoted ones because of their voluntary poverty, their lack of vanity, their humility, their compassion, their control over anger, and particularly because of their pure love for Christ.  That foulest serpent knows that it is at God's command that he lies beneath the footsteps of the just. 

 

The Life of St. Mary of Egypt

About 500 years after the Resurrection of our Lord, a holy monk by the name of Zosimas lived in a monastery by the Jordan River. He had lived as a monk since childhood and when he was about 50 years old he began to think that he had surpassed all the other monks in virtue and that no one could teach him anything he didn't already know. To prevent such a prideful thought from taking root, God taught him a lesson.

It was the custom in the monastery that at the beginning of each Great Lent, after Liturgy on Forgiveness Sunday, the monks would cross the Jordan and scatter throughout the desert where they would stay until Palm Sunday. Each monk would spend this time alone before God, in fasting and prayer, without anyone around to praise him for his struggles.

Fr. Zosimas went far into the desert. On the 20th day, as he stopped for prayer, he saw a human shape.. At first he thought the devil was playing tricks with his eyes. But when he protected himself with the sign of the Cross, he saw it clearly: thin and naked, skin baked dark and hair bleached white by the sun, it seemed to glide over the sandy hill. Overjoyed at the thought of seeing a holy man, Zosimas hurried to follow and shouted: "Slave of the True God, do not run from me an old sinner!"

"Forgive me," a voice returned, "but I cannot face you, Father Zosimas, for I am a shameful, naked woman.  Please throw me your cloak so that I may cover myself and ask your blessing."

Terror seized the monk as she called him by name; how did she know it? Turning aside, he threw his ragged cloak her way. In deep humility both Saints fell prostrate before one another in the sand, asking each other's blessing.  Finally the woman said, "Father Zosimas, you must give the blessing, having been in the Holy Altar so many years as a priest."

Struck with awe by her divine gift of knowledge, Zosimas pleaded with tears, "Please give me your blessing, Mother. Grace is not given only to priests, but even more to those who have died to the world and live with God. For God's sake, bless me, for I need your holy prayers." In obedience the woman declared, "Blessed is God Who cares for the salvation of our souls."

"Amen," answered Father Zosimas.

Then the woman wanted to know why he had come and how Christians lived in the world. He said that by her holy prayers Christ had granted them peace, and asked her to continue to pray. Reminding him that he, too, must always pray, she turned toward the East. Father Zosimas heard only whispers and looked at the ground in meek confusion. When he began to think her prayer was very long, he looked up to see her standing in the air about three feet above the ground. Bowing down with tears and begging God's mercy, he begged her to tell him of her life, so that the wisdom and treasure of God might not be hid.

'My story," said the woman, "will make you run as from a snake. You must forgive me for what you will hear, for I lived a shameful life and felt no shame. At only 12 years old I ran away from my parents, threw away my purity, and then trampled upon it with every sinful person I could find. I loved to drink wine and feel pleasure and lead others into sin; and for 17 years I never tired of any kind of sinning.

"One day I saw a crowd going to Jerusalem. Since I had no money, I promised some men that I would help them pass the journey in merrymaking if they would take me with them. With crude jokes they agreed. I am amazed, Abba, that hell did not open beneath us and swallow us alive. But God desires the repentance of even the worst sinner.

"Within a few days of our arrival, I saw a large crowd hurrying to church, I was told, for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. Out of curiosity I joined them. But when my foot touched the doorstep, my body was held back by an invisible barrier. I could not enter, though I tried hard several times. Becoming tired, I let people push me aside and stood in a corner of the porch. Above me I saw an icon of the Pure Mother of God, and I began to understand that my sinful life was keeping me from entering. I turned to the icon in tears and begged the Holy Virgin to help me get inside to see the life-giving Cross, promising to give up everything and go where she would lead me after that.

"Joining the crowd again, I easily entered the Church and saw the precious Cross and the Holy Mysteries; there I saw how the Lord accepts repentance. Filled with hope, I returned to the icon where I heard a voice from on high, 'If you cross the Jordan you will find glorious rest.

'Oh Lady, never leave me!' I cried, and was on my way. Someone gave me coins and I bought three loaves of bread. By the grace of God they fed me for several years; for the rest of these 47 years I have been fed by the Word of God and plants I find.

"But Oh, Father, how sinful memories attacked my mind and soul like wild beasts: dirty songs, desire for wine and rich foods and bad companions; my clothes wore out and I suffered from my nakedness. I was tempted to return to my old life. But in my thoughts I always turned to the Mother of God, and she has always kept me safe, chasing away wicked thoughts and restoring peace to my soul." With this she finished her story, begging the Abba to pray for her soul and not tell anyone about her until she died.

The next year, on the day of the Last Supper, Zosimas brought her the Holy Mysteries, and she walked across the Jordan as on dry land to receive Them. Seeing such a miracle, Zosimas explained, “Glory to Thee Christ Our God, Who has shown me through this Thy slave how far away I stand from perfection.” He promised to come again the following year.

Again leaving the monastery for Great Lent, Zosimas found her at the appointed place, wrapped in his mantle, her face toward the East, lying in eternal repose. In the sand she had written her name, instructions for her burial, and a note that she had died the day he brought her Holy Communion.

Weak and without tools, Father Zosimas despaired of a way to bury the saint. But God sent an affectionate lion who dug a deep hole in the sand. Covering St. Mary's feet with tears and kisses, the holy elder committed her to the earth with prayers. The lion went off into his desert and the elder returned to his monastery where he told the story which has been kept to this day, bringing glory to God and hope to sinners.

May the merciful God give to us all St. Mary's willingness to repent, and the protection of the Holy Virgin to help us. Amen. 

Written for children by A. Prince  Source:  http://www.roca.org/OA/28/28g.htm