A safe journey

Silouan — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:41:08 +0000

An Athonite hermit said: What guarantees a safe journey to eternity is effort, dignity, the sense of being unworthy before God, and hope: the spiritual oxygen, consolation, and certainty. Not misery and compelled obedience and forced prayer; not tears and sadness – these all come from Satan. Yes, I ought to weep for my sins, but all the while hoping in God’s love. But I cannot stand it if I cry because the Devil wants me to despair. Many times Satan crushes a person with despair and the devil becomes the victor. But this does not happen when one is like a child on his father’s arm – trusting. Our trust in God is a ceaseless prayer that brings positive results. Despair comes from the Devil. Don’t say, “Oh, what has happened to me?” But give yourself to God totally and hope in Him.

— from an Athonite Gerontikon

Worse than ignorance

Silouan — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:53:26 +0000

Spurious knowledge, or ‘knowledge falsely so called’ (1 Timothy 6:20), is that which a man possesses when he thinks he knows what he has never known. It is worse than complete ignorance, says St. John Chrysostom, in that its victim will not accept correction from any teacher because he thinks that this worst kind of ignorance is in fact something excellent. For this reason the fathers say that we ought to search the Scriptures assiduously, in humility and with the counsel of experienced men, learning not merely theoretically but by putting into practice what we read; and that we ought not to inquire at all into what is passed over in silence by Holy Scripture.

— St. Peter of Damaskos.

S I L O U A N » wisdom

A safe journey

Worse than ignorance