My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
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ON IDLE TALK AND GOSSIP (Part II)
Source: "Letters to a Beginner: On Giving One's Life to God," St. Xenia Skete Press, Platina, CA (1993), pp. 70-75).
What great evil results from empty and idle conversations and gossip! Sometimes one heedlessly spoken word causes a whole storm of unpleasantness and fills the heart of the one referred to with indignation and hatred. So even a word that was not ill-intentioned, one we counted as nothing, can strike a mortal sin, just as a small spark often turns into a great fire burning whole villages. "How great a matter a little fire kindleth", says the holy Apostle James. "Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things" (cf. St. James 3:5); it is a fire, a world of iniquity...it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell" (St. James 3:6). The tongue is an untamable evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God and therewith curse we men, which are after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be! Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? (St. James 3:8-11). Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge...let him show this out of his works, through good conduct," and not by condemning others. "But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth" (i.e., don't consider yourself wise). "This is not the wisdom that descends from above but is earthly...devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work" (cf. St. James 3:13-16).
Behold the harm from all our idle talk and gossip! And if they are improper to Christians in general, are they not even less pardonable for nuns, who have voluntarily renounced the world with all its worldly sinful ways, who have retired within their monastic gates for a more unhindered attention to their salvation? The enemy (Satan) of everyone's salvation, knowing the infirmity of men, who notwithstanding their readiness towards a life of pleasing God, are never inclined to seek indulgences and consolations, is not slow even here to sow his tares amid the wheat of God. You nuns by your departure from the world have also left all its consolations and pleasures permitted to laypeople.
The only true consolation for you should consist in your close fellowship and heart to heart talks. Your superiors, as wise and kind guides, don't restrain you, don't forbid you these innocent consolations: you are permitted to visit one another, to go for walks together in your free time, and when you gather for common monastery obediences, you may converse with one another unhindered. But you abuse this liberty, you derive from it not profit and true spiritual consolation, but the opposite: harm, quarrels, gossip, and discord, which like a spark kindles a great fire, which burns away all your monastic labors and struggles. In such a manner you lose your salvation.
Do you not know the Apostolic saying: "every one of us shall give account of himself to God" (Romans 14:12) "who is ready to judge" (I Peter 4:5)? Oh, if only you would gather together, like the ancient nuns, for spiritual edification and mutual instruction, you would not converse about irrelevant things and affairs which don't concern you, but only about this, how each of you will "work out your own salvation" (Phil. 2:12); what sort of cell rule to have and how to perform it, what struggles to undertake. Thus you would edify and support one another on your slippery path, stretching out a helping hand to each other, and the words of the all-wise Solomon would be realized in you: "A brother helped by a brother is as a strong city" (Proverbs 18:19). And your assembly would be like the assembly of the Angels, who in spite of their great multitude have one common holy will, one striving--how to fulfill the will of the Creator.
O Sister, not for nothing is our monastic order called the Angelic order!...Surely each of us who have gathered in the Holy Monastery in the Name of the Lord has one and the same will, one striving common to us all: "how he may please the Lord" (I Corinthians 7:32). We have no earthly fetters binding us to the world, there are no anxieties and worldly cares to entangle our wings and hinder our flight to our Heavenly Bridegroom (Christ)! We are free, like the birds of the air, which "sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; but our heavenly Father feedeth us" (cf. St. Matthew 6:26). Let us then remember our Angelic Calling, and "walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:1-3), as the Holy Apostle teaches. (Orthodox Heritage)
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A MORNING PRAYER
By Saint Philaret of Moscow
Oh Lord, Grant me to greet the coming day in peace, Help me in all things to rely upon Thy Will. In every hour of the day, reveal Thy Will to me. Bless my dealings with all that surrounds me. Teach me to treat all that comes to me throughout the day with peace of soul and with a firm conviction that Thy Will concerns all.
In all my deeds and words, guide my thoughts and feelings. In unforseen events, let me not forget that all are sent by Thee.
Teach me to act firmly and wisely, without embittering and embarrassing others.
Give me the strength to bear the fatigue of the coming day with all that it shall bring.
Direct my will. Teach me to pray. Pray Thou Thyself in me. Amen.
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" - Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George