Venerable Therapon the Abbot of White Lake
Beloved brothers and sisters,
CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN! ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! ΑΛΗΘΩΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ!
PSALM 71
In You, O Lord I put my trust; Let me never be put to shame. Deliver me in Your righteousness, and cause me to escape; Incline Your ear to me, and save me.
Be my strong refuge, To which I may resort continually; You have given the commandment to save me, For You are my rock and my fortress.
Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, Out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man. For You are my hope, O Lord God; You are my trust from my youth. By You I have been upheld from birth; You are He who took me out of my mother's womb. My praise shall be continually of You..." (Psalm 71:1-6)
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ABOUT DREAMS
by Father John, a Russian Monk [source: Christ Is In Our Midst]
I have heard that many lay people are talking about dreams and making their various conjectures about them. Some of our own respected father-monks believe in dreams and make their interpretations.
On receiving letters from laymen about dreams, some monks, because of their inexperience in the spiritual life read these letters with approval and show them to their brother-monks as something edifying. Such wrong notions about dreams prompted me to make notes for some of the Holy Fathers.
The demons of vainglory are prophets in dreams. Being sly, they guess the future from present circumstances and foretell it to us. When these visions come true we are amazed; and we are indeed elated with the thought that we are already near to the gift of foreknowledge. A demon is often a prophet to those who believe in him, but he is always a liar to those who despise him. Being a spirit, he sees what is happening in the air, and noticing that someone is dying, he foretells it to the more credulous types of people through dreams. But the demons know nothing about the future from foreknowledge, but it is known that even doctors can foretell death. He who believes in dreams is completely inexperienced, but he who distrusts all dreams is a wise man.'Therefore he who believes in dreams is like a person running after his own shadow and trying to catch it' (Saint John of the Ladder on dreams, ch. 3:28). The blessed Diadochos writes: 'However, let us rather observe as a great value the rule not to believe in any dreams. For dreams are for the most part nothing but idols of thoughts, the play of imagination, or again, as I have already said, demonic sneering and mockery of us' [ch.38].
Saint Symeon the New Theologian writes: "Only those can have true vision in sleep (they should not be called dreams but visions), whose mind has been made simple by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and freed from the pressure of passions and from slavery to them. These are men whose only care is things Divine, whose only thought is of future rewards and blessings, whose life is above ordinary life, free of care, not dispersed, serene, pure, full of mercy, wisdom, heavenly knowledge and other good fruits tended in them by the Holy Spirit. In people who are not like this, dreams are disorderly and false, and everything in them is sheer deceit and illusion."
The wise Sirach writes: "Vain hopes delude the senseless, and dreams give wings to a fool's fancy. It is like clutching a shadow, or chasing the wind, to take notice of dreams. Divination, omens and dreams are all futile" (Eccl. 34). Dreams have led many astray and ruined those who built their hopes on them. There are many examples in the writings of the Fathers, of people perishing through believing in dreams. The Optina staretz priest-monk Leonid said to his pupil: "One should not believe in dreams even though they may be real in their own way, for many have gone astray through belief in dreams. The philosopher staretz Theosterik, who wrote the canon of consolation to the most Holy Mother of God, trusted in dreams and finally became so misled that he perished."
In the Prologue there is this story. "A Mesopotamian monk amazed everyone with his strict ascetic life, but because he began to believe in dreams he perished. He had a dream that the holy Moses and the other prophets and Jews went to Paradise, but the Apostles and Martyrs, bishops and holy men went to hell. After this dream the monk took the Jewish faith, married a Jewess and began to enter into polemics with the Orthodox." Many such stories can be told, but these are enough. If God's holy people did have prophetic dreams, like those of the Old Testament Joseph [Gen. 37:5], of St. Joseph who was betrothed to Mary [St. Matthew 1:20, 2:13], of the Holy Mother of God, and other Saints, it was inwardly announced to them by God. We are told well and clearly in Holy Scripture how to be saved, but our limited and inquisitive little minds are not satisfied with this and want to know something more about the future from dreams. Is it not better for us to be guided by Holy Scripture and the advice of the Holy Fathers than to be carried away by dreams and put our trust in them? Lord, teach us to follow in each and every thing the path of Thy Commandments.
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ON JUDGING
Saint Ephraim the Syrian prayed: "Yes, O Lord, and King, grant me to see my own sins and not to judge my brother". The great Father knew very well and remembered the gravity of the sin of judging and the great virtue of not judging. The Lord said: "Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?" [St. Matthew 7:1-4]. He who judges others is like Antichrist, for he usurps the judgment of God. Examples of judging other are plentiful.
I shall give you one example of how great a sin it is to judge. Saint Isaac of Thebes, on a visit to a coenobium, saw there a brother who had fallen into sin, and he condemned him. When he returned to his cell, an Angel stood in his way and said: "God has sent me and told me to ask you where do you command that this fallen brother whom you have condemned to be put." The staretz was horrified and realized the gravity of the sin of condemning. He fell at the Angel's feet and in tears asked forgiveness. The Angel said: "God has forgiven you, but beware of judging anyone before God has done so."
We sinners are so used to judging others. It has become a real habit, and we do not remember God's injunction and the gravity of this sin.
Our judgment is always erroneous, for we do not know the reasons which prompted the sinner to act that way. We see only the sin of our neighbor, but not his repentance. Lord, grant me to see my own sins and not to judge my brother or sister.
With sincere agape In Our Risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George