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 DISCERNMENT
By Saint John Climacus
Among beginners, discernment is a real self-knowledge; among those midway along the road to perfection, it is a spiritual capacity to distinguish unfailingly between what is truly good and what in nature is opposed to the good; among the perfect, it is a knowledge resulting from Divine illumination, which with its lamp can light up what is dark in others. To put the matter generally, discernment is and is recognized to be--a solid understanding of the will of God in all times, in all places, in all things; and it is found only among those who are pure in heart, in body, and in speech.
The man who has devoutly destroyed within himself the three has also destroyed the five. If he has neglected any of the former, then he will not be able to overcome even a single passion.
Discernment is an uncorrupted conscience. It is a pure perception. No one seeing or hearing something in monastic life that has a force over and beyond nature should, out of ignorance, become unbelieving. For much that is supernatural happens where the supernatural God abides.
Every demonic upheaval within us arises from the following three related causes, namely, carelessness, pride, or the envy of demons. The first is pitiable, the second deplorable, but the third is blessed.
Let our God-directed conscience be our aim and rule in everything so that, knowing how the wind is blowing, we may set our sails accordingly.
Amid all our efforts to please God, three pitfalls lie, prepared for us by demons. First is their attempt to impede any sort of worthwhile achievement; and if this fails, they strive secondly to ensure that what we do should not be in accordance with the will of God. And if the scoundrels fail in this too, then they stand quietly before our soul and praise us for the fact that in every respect we are living as God would wish. We should fight these risks, the first by zeal and fear of death, the second by obedience and self-abasement, the third by unceasing self-condemnation. "This work is ahead of us until the fire of God shall enter our sanctuary" (cf. Psalm 72: 16-17), and then indeed the power of our predispositions will no longer constrain us. For our, God is a fire consuming all lusts, all stirrings of passion, al predispositions and all hardness of heart, both within and without, both visible and spiritual.
Demons, on the other hand, bring about the very opposite to all this. Grabbing a soul, they put out the light of the mind until in our wretchedness we find ourselves lacking sobriety or discernment, self-knowledge or shame; and we are burdened instead with indifference, insensitivity, want of discernment, and blindness.
All of this is well known to those who have abandoned fornication and become chaste, who have reined in their tongues and switched from shamelessness to modesty. They know that when the mind was cleansed, its callousness ended, or rather its mutilation healed, shame filled them for what they said and did previously in the season of their blindness...
Those who have been humbled by their passions should take heart. Even if they tumble into every pit, even if they are trapped by every snare, even if they suffer every disease, still after their return to health they become a light to all, they prove to be doctors, beacons, pilots. They teach us the characteristics of every malady and out of their own experience, they can rescue those about to lapse...
We have to be particularly vigilant whenever the body is sick, for at such a time the demons, observing our weakness and our inability to fight against them as usual, rush in to attack us. In times of illness, the demon of anger and even of blasphemy may be discovered around those who live in the world. Those leading a religious life but having all they need of a material kind may suffer the onslaught of the demon of gluttony and fornication. But ascetics who live without comforts may find themselves plagued by the tyrant of despondency and ingratitude...
A mind disposed to the things of the spirit is certainly endowed with spiritual perception and this is something that, whether we possess it or not, we should always seek to have. And when it comes, our senses desist from their natural activities. This is why a wise man once said, "You shall obtain a sense of what is divine." (St. Nilus of Sinai)
One has to distinguish between Divine Providence, Divine assistance, Divine protection, Divine mercy, and Divine consolation. Providence is shown in all of nature, assistance among the faithful alone, protection among those believers whose faith is most alive, mercy among those who serve God, and consolation among those who love him...
"Gluttony is the mother of lust and vainglory (kenodoxia) is the mother of despondency. Dejection and ANGER are the offspring of those three, and the mother of pride is vainglory."
For instance, jokes at the wrong time can be the product of lust, or of vainglory when a man impiously pretends to be pious, or high living. Excessive sleep can arise from luxury, from fasting when those who fast become proud of it, from despondency, or sometimes from nature. Garrulity sometimes comes from gluttony, and sometimes from vainglory. Despondency can derive now from high living, now from lack of fear of God. Blasphemy is properly the child of pride, but can often arise out of the readiness to condemn one's neighbor for the same offense, or it can be due to the untimely envy of demons.
Hardheartedness is sometimes the consequence of gluttony, frequently of insensitivity, and also of being grasping. And to be grasping can be due to lust, avarice, gluttony, vainglory, and indeed to many other causes. Malice comes from conceit and from anger, while hypocrisy comes from independence and self-direction...
Illness can occur sometimes to cleanse us from our sins and sometimes to humble our thinking. When our Ever-gracious Master and Lord discovers people getting lazy in their religious lives, He may humble their bodies by illness, as if by a lighter form of asceticism. Illness too can sometimes purify the soul from evil thoughts and passions...
When requests are made to God and are not immediately answered, the reason may be one of the following: either that the petition is premature, or because it has been made unworthily or vaingloriously, or because, if granted, it would lead to conceit, or because negligence and carelessness would result...
Demons leave us alone so as to make us careless, then pounce on our miserable souls. And those beasts have another trick, of which I am aware, namely, to depart when the soul has become thoroughly imbued with the habits of evil when it has turned into its own betrayer and enemy. It is rather like what happens to infants weaned from the mother's breast, who suck their finger because the habit has taken hold of them...
It is characteristic of the perfect that they always know whether a thought comes from within themselves, or from God, or from the demons. Remember that demons do not automatically propose evil at the outset. Here we have a problem truly hard to penetrate.
Two corporeal eyes give light to the body, and the eyes of the heart are enlightened by discernment in things seen and unseen. (Source: The Ladder of Divine Ascent by Saint John Climacus)
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Please note: Why am I bringing to your attention the Orthodox Christian understanding of the existence of evil and spiritual warfare? Because very few Christians ever think or even know how dangerous our Adversary is. Our real enemy is the devil and his demons. They constantly pursue us day and night to destroy our soul and ultimately our salvation.
Discernment, one of God's many gifts to us is absolutely necessary to combat him. Our Christian faith teaches us how to discern between good and evil. How to seek the Truth, God and how to avoid falsehood, the devil. We are at war with him and he will fight us until our very last breath. We need the grace of God if we are to win. There is no power greater than that of God. He fought and triumphed over the power of the devil and therefore he, the devil, cannot ever force us to be enslaved by him. To accept his evil ways that lead to destruction and death.
Pride is the mother of all evil. It is his greatest tool to use against us. To manipulate us and to convince us that we are all-knowing and can make important salvific decisions without God's guidance and inspiration. That we do not need God in our lives. That everything that we have accomplished in this life was accomplished through our own ability and power. That God does not love us and that He has abandoned us. The Greek word "diavolos" can also mean he who corrupts or distorts the truth. In the Lord's Prayer at the end, we pray to God to "deliver us from the evil one". It is not correct to say "from evil" as commonly said. The "evil one" is the devil and arch liar. He is the deceiver and he who "brings defective reasoning and confusion of thought."
If we are to fight "the good fight" that we are asked to do, we must know who our enemy is and how to fight him. He is much more clever than we are and uses all sinister ways to deceive us. His advantage over us is only that he is invisible and we cannot see him or his demons. Thanks be to God that we have help through His holy Angels who protect from all his machinations and threats.
Stay vigilant and pray unceasingly! Always question our thoughts and use the gift of discernment to distinguish between good and evil. We must never surrender to the evil one and believe that God is always with us and he will save us.
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George