Silence...

"Our ignorance, O holy brothers, has cast as much light for you as it could on the knowledge and teaching of the illustrious fathers. Even if perchance our unskilled language has confused it instead of clarifying it, I pray that our blameworthy rudeness not nullify the renown of our Judge to lay bare this magnificent teaching, if one reflects upon its sublime insights, the offensive boorishness of our words cannot hinder the reader's profit. And we ourselves are concerned more about usefulness than renown. To be sure, I advise all into whose hands these little works may fall to realize that whatever is pleasing in them is from the fathers, whereas whatever is displeasing is ours" (17.30.3).

"It remains for the spiritual zephyr of your prayers to accompany me now, tossed about as I have been thus far by a most dangerous tempest, to the safe harbor of silence" (24.26.19).

The main purpose of this weblog's short run was to increase awareness of St. John Cassian and his works, especially for Christians in the Western Hemisphere. Hopefully it has fulfilled its purpose for at least a few people.

Since this blog has nothing of its own to contribute, it is better for it to remain silent. Moreover, it is best to read St. John's actual works rather than poor summaries of his works. These brief summaries were intended to encourage people to read the actual conferences.

The Conferences should be read with attention by all who desire union with God. They are even more helpful when they are read indefinitely alongside the Holy Scriptures. For Christians they should be required reading, yet they have been sadly neglected. Perhaps, St. John will enjoy a wider readership in the future.

Our God-bearing Father John Cassian, pray to Christ our God to grant us His great mercy.

Selected Quotes from Fr. Schmemann's Journals

"The temptation of piety is to reduce Christianity to piety; the temptation of theology--to reduce it totally to history."

"'A quiet and silent existence' is the summit of intelligence, of wisdom, of joy, and--I don't know how to say it better--of 'interestedness.' Humility is not to be crest fallen, dejected, nor to be a bigot. It is a royal and kingly virtue because humility stems from wisdom, from knowledge, from contact with life overabundant. The contemporary man is a man who constantly jumps to action. Our whole civilization is an energetic 'jump to action'--and man finds himself exactly where he was before he jumped."

"Amazing--in nature, in the world, everything moves. But in this movement (falling snow, branches lit by the sun, fields) each moment reveals a divine immobility, a fullness, in an icon of eternity as life.

Another strange thought: the  whole world lives at the same time, the whole world lives this very minute, owns this minute; the rest is abstract numbers on a calendar."

St. Simeon the New Theologian on Faith

"It is good to preach God’s mercy before all men and to reveal to one’s brethren His great compassion and ineffable grace shed on us. I know a man who kept no long strict fasts, no vigils, did not sleep on bare earth, imposed on himself no other specially arduous tasks; but, recollecting in memory his sins, understood his worthlessness and, having judged himself, became humble—and for this alone the most compassionate Lord saved him; as the divine David says: ‘The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit’ (Ps. xxxiv. 18). In short, he trusted the words of the Lord and for his faith the Lord received him. There are many obstacles obstructing the way to humility; but no obstacles bar the way to belief in the words of God. As soon, as we wish with all our heart, straightway we believe. For faith is a gift of the all-merciful God, which He gave us to possess by nature (infused in our nature), subjecting its use to the authority of our own will. Consequently, even the Scythians and barbarians have natural faith and believe one another’s words. But to show you an actual example of whole-hearted faith, listen to a tale, which will confirm this.

There lived in Constantinople a young man by the name of George, about twenty years old. All this happened in our lifetime, in our own memory. He had a handsome face and in his walk, his bearing and his manner there was something ostentatious. Owing to this, people, who see only what is on the surface and, ignorant of what is hidden inside each man, come to mistaken conclusions about others, made various evil suppositions about the youth. He made the acquaintance of a certain monk, who lived in one of the monasteries in Constantinople, a man of holy life."

Read the rest of this article here.

Unceasing Prayer

Before Abba Isaac began his second conference on prayer St. John inserted a historical account of a disagreement among the Egyptian brethren, which provided the background for this conference's topic. This theological disagreement dealt with how man was made in the image of God. One party's failure to properly understand how man was made in God's image caused detrimental blasphemy to the Orthodox faith at the time (10.1). St. John related how Bishop Theophilus of Alexandria sent a letter (A.D. 399) to the monasteries in Egypt arguing against the Anthropomorphites who were a group that assigned physical, human characteristics to God. This letter sparked a controversy, because a large number of the monks thought that man was literally created in God's image. Among those caught in this error was Serapion who was an aged, pious monk (10.2.2).  Abba Paphnutius received a learned deacon at the monastery in hopes that he would settle this dispute amongst the brethren. The deacon pointed out to Serapion and the brethren that man is the image of God in a spiritual sense rather than in a physical sense (10.3.3). After realizing his error Serapion was greatly distressed, because he had to give up his anthropomorphic image of the Godhead, which he had always mentally envisioned during prayer (10.3.4). In tears he cried out, "Woe is me, wretch that I am! They have taken my God from me, and I have no one to lay hold of, nor do I know whom I should adore or address" (10.3.5). How many of us ignorantly fall into such errors? This error is why the Church forbids mental images during prayer--because we could end up praying to our image of the Trinity instead of the Holy Trinity. By such an error we could even run "the risk of everlasting death" (10.4.1). We could ignorantly undo all spiritual progress, as Serapion bitterly experienced. How can we expect to properly unite with God when we do not rightly understand Him from the beginning? Nevertheless, God's grace is sufficient, and he that seeks God finds Him.

The God-Man

"All the truths of Orthodoxy emerge from one truth and converge on one truth, infinite and eternal. That truth is the God-man Christ. If you experience any truth of Orthodoxy to its limit, you will inevitably discover that its kernel is the God-man Christ. In fact, all the truths of Orthodoxy are nothing other than different aspects of the one Truth--the God-man Christ.

Orthodoxy is Orthodoxy by reason of the God-man, and not by reason of anything else or anyone else. Hence another name for Orthodoxy is God-manhood. In it nothing exists through man or by man, but everything comes from the God-man and exists through the God-man. This means that man experiences and finds out about the fundamental eternal truth of life and the world only with the help of the God-man, in the God-man. And it means something else: man learns the complete truth about man, about the purpose and meaning of his existence only through the God-man. Outside of Him a man turns into an apparition, into a scarecrow, into nonsense. Instead of a man you find the dregs of a man, the fragments of a man, the scraps of a man. Therefore, true manhood lies only in God-manhood; and no other manhood exists under heaven.

The Christian Concept of Death

"'He suffered and was buried. And He rose again...' After the Cross, after the descent into death there is the Resurrection from the dead — that principal, fundamental and decisive confirmation of the Symbol of Faith, a confirmation from the very heart of Christianity. Indeed 'if Christ is not risen, then your faith is in vain.' These are the words of the Apostle Paul, and they remain fundamental for Christianity to this day. Christianity is a belief, first of all and above all, in the fact that Christ did not remain in the grave, that life shone forth from death, and that in Christ’s Resurrection from the dead, the absolute, all-encompassing law of dying and death, which tolerated no exceptions, was somehow blown apart and overcome from within.

The Resurrection of Christ comprises, I repeat, the very heart of the Christian faith and Christian Good News. And yet, however strange it may sound, in the everyday life of Christianity and Christians in our time there is little room for this faith. It is as though obscured, and the contemporary Christian, without being cognizant of it, does not reject it, but somehow skirts about it, and does not live the faith as did the first Christians. If he attends church, he of course hears in the Christian service the ever resounding joyous confirmations: 'trampling down death by death,' 'death is swallowed up by victory,' 'life reigns,' and 'not one dead remains in the grave.' But ask him what he really thinks about death, and often (too often alas) you will hear some sort of rambling affirmation of the immortality of the soul and its life in some sort of world beyond the grave, a belief that existed even before Christianity. And that would be in the best of circumstances. In the worst, one would be met simply by perplexity and ignorance, 'You know, I have never really thought about it.'

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See all seven parts here.

St. Gregory Palamas and Hesychasm

"Today we will be speaking about St. Gregory Palamas and the essence of hesychasm. The Council of Constantinople in 1351, which took place 650 years ago, clearly and definitively affirmed the experience and theology of hesychasm. The first such council had met ten years earlier, in 1341, at which Palamas and his Athonite monks presented the Hagioritic Tome, in which they set forth the essence of their experience and of their theological confession against Barlaam. Later, in 1347, another Council met, this time against Akindynos; by then Barlaam had already left and become a cardinal, a bishop of the Pope, after which he took up the fight against hesychast theology.

So, concerning the theological experience and justification of hesychasm:

Hesychasm, of course, is not a new phenomenon. You will find it in the book of Archbishop Basil (Krivoshein) as well as in that of the Russian Byzantologist, George Ostrogorsky, who lived with us [in Serbia] and had a brilliant career, giving significant weight to Serbian Byzantology. He himself was Russian, but had many students, including Greeks. He wrote about this in roughly 1936, at roughly the same time as Hieromonk Basil (Krivoshein), even a bit earlier.

Hesychasm is a prayerful life, a life with love; at the same time, it is a mystagogical and liturgical life in which, following one’s purification from the passions, one attains a profound experience and taste: the vision of the glory and grace of God. It is not simply a means of preparation for prayer, as Barlaam had initially thought and even certain ignorant monks had explained, in which one must press one’s head to the chest, follow one’s breathing, and gaze at one’s navel. That is nonsense, and St. Palamas criticized it. Of course, it is essentially to become focused, but this is not meditation. It is not meditation, but a deepening in prayer, so that the mind would descend into the heart, which is the depth of man’s being. As the Savior said: For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts (Matthew 15:19)."

Read the rest of Bishop Atanasije's talk here and here.

The Lord's Prayer

Abba Isaac on the Lord's Prayer (listen to a chant in English or Church Slavonic):

"The words 'Hallowed be thy name' can also be quite satisfactorily understood in this way--namely, that the hallowing of God is our perfection. And so when we say to him: 'Hallowed be thy name,' we are saying in other words: Make us such, Father, that we may deserve to understand and grasp how great your hallowing is and, of course, that you may appear as hallowed in our spiritual way of life. This is effectively fulfilled in us when 'people see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven.'

The second petition of a most pure mind eagerly desires the kingdom of its Father to come immediately. This means that in which Christ reigns daily in holy persons, which happens when the rule of the devil has been cast out of our hearts by the annihilation of the foul vices and God has begun to hold sway in us through the good fragrance of the virtues; when chastity, peace, and humility reign in our minds, and fornication has been conquered, rage overcome, and pride trampled upon. And of course it means that which has promised universally to all the perfect and to all the sons of God at the appointed time, when it will be said to them by Christ: 'Come, blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.' Desiring and hoping for this with intent and unwavering gaze, we tell him: 'Thy kingdom come.' For we know by the witness of our own conscience that when he appears we shall soon be his companions. No sinner dares to say this or to wish for it, since a person who knows that at his coming he will at once be paid back for his deserts not with a palm or rewards but with punishment has no desire to see the Judge's tribunal.

Children and the Church

"As a general rule, children like attending Church, and this instinctive attraction to and interest in Church services is the foundation on which we must build our religious education. When parents worry that children will get tired because services are long and are sorry for them, they usually subconsciously express their concern not for their children but for themselves. Children penetrate more easily than do adults into the world of ritual, of liturgical symbolism. They feel and appreciate the atmosphere of our Church services. The experience of Holiness, the sense of encounter with Someone Who is beyond daily life, that mysterium tremendum that is at the root of all religion and is the core of our services is more accessible to our children than it is to us. 'Except ye become as little children,' these words apply to the receptivity, the open-mindedness, the naturalness, which we lose when we grow out of childhood. How many men have devoted their lives to the service of God and consecrated themselves to the Church because from childhood they have kept their love for the house of worship and the joy of liturgical experience! Therefore, the first duty of parents and educators is to 'suffer little children and forbid them not' (Matt. 19:14) to attend Church. It is in Church before every place else that children must hear the word of God. In a classroom the word is difficult to understand, it remains abstract, but in church it is in its own element. In childhood we have the capacity to understand, not intellectually, but with our whole being, that there is no greater joy on earth than to be in Church, to participate in Church services, to breathe the fragrance of the Kingdom of Heaven, which is 'the joy and peace of the Holy Spirit.'

Unheeded Prayers

When distracted during the Liturgy, it can be helpful to constantly pray, "Lord, have mercy." It will focus your mind on Christ and the words of the Liturgy. If you cannot hear the prayers, constantly pray "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me." If memory is accurate, St. Ignatius Brianchaninov recommended this use of the Jesus Prayer, but the reference is allusive.

St. Silouan of Mt. Athos on Humility

"The first year after I had received the Holy Spirit I thought to myself: ' The Lord has forgiven me my sins: grace is witness thereof. What more do I need?' But that is not the way to think. Though our sins be forgiven we must remember them and grieve for them all our lives, so as to preserve a contrite heart. I did not do this and ceased to be contrite, and suffered greatly from evil spirits. And I was perplexed at what was happening to me, and said: 'My soul knows the Lord and His love. How is it that evil thoughts come to me?' But the Lord had pity on me, and taught me the way to humble myself: 'Keep thy mind in hell, and despair not.' Thus is the enemy vanquished; but when my mind emerges from the fire the suggestions of passion gather strength again.

Fight the enemy with the weapon of humility.

Whoever like me has lost grace, let him wrestle manfully with evil spirits. Know that you yourself are to blame: you fell into pride and vanity, and the Lord in His mercy shows you what it means to be in the Holy Spirit and what it means to be at war with evil spirits. Thus the soul learns by experience the harm that comes of pride, and shuns vainglory and the praises of men, and evil thoughts. Then will the soul begin to recover her health and learn to retain grace. How can we tell if the soul is well or ailing? The ailing soul is full of pride, while the soul that is well loves the humility taught her by the Holy Spirit." - Wisdom from Mount Athos, Chapter 9

Prayer of the Heart

The original Conferences were numbered at ten. Only later were other conferences included in this work to satisfy the needs of the brethren. Part II, Conferences 11 - 17, was written for Saints Honoratus and Eucherius and covered topics not previously mentioned at length in Part I. The former saint desired to establish his cenobium after the traditions of the desert fathers, while the latter desired to travel to Egypt, as Saints John and Germanus had previously done. Part III, Conferences 18-24, was written for the monks Jovinianus, Minervus, Leonitus, and Theodore who had established several cenobium in the Gallic provinces in and around modern day France. St. John Cassian comments that the first ten conferences were "put together haphazardly at the command of the holy Bishops Helladius and Leontius" (Conferences, Part II Preface, 1.2). All this being said St. John intended Abba Isaac's two conferences (IX & X) on prayer to be the fulfillment of a promise given in the Institutes, as well as the culmination of the first eight conferences.

"The aim of every monk and the perfection of his heart direct him to constant and uninterrupted perseverance in prayer; and, as much as human frailty allows, it strives after an unchanging and continual tranquility of mind and perpetual purity" (9.2.1). Establishing the virtues simply and humbly on the Gospel Rock is necessary before pure, interior prayer can be achieved. The beginning of pure prayer is acquiring the virtues and casting off the vices. Thus, a virtuous life and ceaseless prayer in the heart are inseparable.

The New Ideal in Education

AN ADDRESS GIVEN BEFORE THE LEAGUE OF THE EMPIRE

On July 16th, 1916 by Fr Nikolai Velimirovich, Ph.D.

(Now St Nikolai Velimirovich - Canonised 2003)

"Nature takes sufficient care
of our individualistic sense,
leaving to Education the care
of our panhumanistic sense."

"Ladies and Gentlemen,

If we do not want war we must look to the children. There is the only hope and the only wise starting point. It is not without a deep prophetic significance that Christ asked children to come unto Him. In all the world-calamities, in all wars, strifes, religious inquisitions and persecutions, in all the hours of human misery and helplessness, He has been asking, through centuries, the children to come unto Him. I am sure, if anybody has ears for His voice to-day, amidst the thunderings of guns and passions and revenges, one would hear the same call: Let the children come unto Me!—Not kings and politicians, not journalists and generals, not the grown-up people, but children. And so to-day also, when we ask for a way out of the present world-misery, when we in profundis of darkness to-day ask for light, and in sorrow for to-morrow ask for advice and comfort, we must look to the children and Christ. 

Orthodox Church New Year

Matin Hymns

"Christ our God, Your kingdom is an everlasting one and Your lordship is over all.
You have made all things with wisdom and have established proper times and seasons for our lives.
We give thanks to You in all circumstances and for all things.
Lord, bless the beginning of our Church year with Your goodness.
Grant that this liturgical year be for all of us a year of grace.
Make us worthy with purity of heart always to praise you. Lord, glory to You! "

"Christ our Lord, You who provide the rains
and fruitful seasons, and hear the prayers
of those who humbly seek You,
accept also our requests about our needs
and concerns and deliver us
from worry, danger and sin.
Your mercies are as abundant as Your works.
Bless all our activities, direct our steps by
Your Holy Spirit, and forgive' our shortcomings.
Lord, bless the year with Your goodness
and make it a year of grace
for all of us. Amen."

Vesper Hymns

"O faithful, having learned true prayer from the very words
and divine teachings of Christ,
let us cry out to the Creator each day:
Our Father, who dwells in heaven,
give us always daily bread,
and forgive us our transgressions."

"O Lord, Creator of all things,
who by Your authority
have established times and seasons,
bless the beginning of our Church year with
Your goodness; preserve Your people in peace,
and through the intercessions
of the Theotokos, save us. Amen."

The Agony of the Church

CHAPTER I

THE WISDOM OF THE CHURCH SOPHIA

"The most magnificent sanctuary of the Eastern Churches is called St Sophia (Holy Wisdom), whereas the most magnificent sanctuaries of the Western Churches are called St Peter's, St Paul's, or St John's, etc. As every hair on our head and every line on the palm of our hand has a certain significance, so these dedications of the Church have doubtless certain significance. And this significance is typical of the religion of the East and the West. Western Christianity, grown upon the soil of a youthful individualism, preferred this or that apostle's personality and dedicated their best temples to him. The aged East, tired of individualistic ambitions, tired of great men, flagellated by the phantom of human greatness, was thirsty for something higher and more solid than any human personality. Adoration of great personalities being the very wisdom of this world, the East stretched its hands to a superhuman ideal, to the Holy Wisdom. It is a psychological fact that youth sees his ideal in personal greatness, progressed age in holiness. The East asked for something more eternal than Peter, Paul or John. There is wisdom, and there is holy wisdom. Philosophical or personal wisdom existed from the beginning of mankind, but Holy Wisdom entered the world with Jesus Christ. Christ was the embodiment of God's wisdom, the very incarnation of Holy Wisdom. This Wisdom stands above all human wisdom and revives and illuminates it. Holy Wisdom includes the essential wisdom of Peter, Paul, John, and any other apostle or seer, or any other thing or creature, as the ocean includes the water of many rivers. In the darkest times of dissension, uncertainty or suffering, the Christian East did not rely so much upon the great apostles, either Peter, or Paul, or John, but looked beyond time and space to the Eternal Christ, The Logos of God, and asked for Light. And it looked to Eternity through this church in Constantinople, St Sophia, as the all-embracing and all-reconciling, holy symbol. Whenever Peter, or Paul, or John, or any other apostle, or prophet, became the ground upon which the believers quarrelled, it was in the Holy Wisdom that they sought refuge and healing from their intellectual one-sidedness and ill-will.

Online Source for Translation Work

Here is a good Website for translation work.  They even have St. John Cassian's Conferences available to translate from Latin.

Sine labore nihil.

The Origin and Nature of Demons

As this conference serves as a continuation of its predecessor, St. Germanus asks Abba Serenus, "Should it be believed that these powers (demons) were created by the Lord for the purpose of warring against human beings in grades and ranks?" (8.2)

Abba Serenus immediately begins to explain the nature of the Holy Scriptures and how to interpret them. The Holy Scriptures at times state things clearly for all to understand, while at other times conveying things in a shroud of mystery. Why? Because certain things need to be veiled in order to distinguish the faithful from the profane and the lazy from the zealous with regards to virtue and prudence (8.3.2). The Holy Mysteries provide an excellent example, because the Eucharist separates the faithful from casual inquirers and slothful members. 

Quotes on Education and Understanding

"Any purely logical thinking is frightening; it is without life, without fruit. A rational and logical person is hardly able to repent....

The essential error of the modern man is to identify life with activism, with thought, etc., hence an almost complete inability simply to 'live', i.e., to feel, to appreciate, to live life as a continuous gift. To walk to the train station in a light that feels like spring, in the rain, to be able to see, to sense, to be conscious of a morning ray of sun on the wall--all of these are the reality of life. They are not conditions for activism or for thought, they are not just an indifferent background, they are the reason one acts and thinks. Only in that reality of life does God reveal Himself, and not in acts and thoughts.... The same is true of communication. One does not communicate through talks and debates. The deeper and more joyful the communication, the less it depends on words. On the contrary, one is almost afraid of words because they might destroy the communion, cut off the joy." - Fr. Alexander Schmemann, Journals

"To educate man is the art of arts, for he is the most complex and mysterious of all creatures." - St. Gregory the Theologian

"Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life." – Charlotte Mason

Wisdom from Mount Athos

On Creativity:

"In my young days, through a Russian painter who afterwards became famous, I had been attracted to the idea of pure creativity, taking the form of abstract art. This engrossed me for two or three years and led to the first theological thought to originate within my own mind. Just as every artist apprehends objective reality through the forms and modes of his art, so I derived ideas for my abstract studies from life around me. I would look at a man, a house, a plant, at intricate machinery, extravagant shadowscapes, on walls or ceilings, at quivering bonfire flames, and would compose them into abstract pictures, creating in my imagination visions that were not like actual reality. This was how I interpreted the teaching of my master - not to copy natural phenomena but to produce new pictorial facts. Fortunately, I soon realised that it was not give to me, a human being, to create from 'nothing', in the way only God can create. I realised that everything that I created was conditioned by what was already in existence. I could not einvent a new colour or line that had never existed anywhere before. An abstract picture is like a string of words, beautiful and sonorous in themselves, perhaps, but never expressing a complete thought. In short, an abstract picture represented a disintegration of being, a falling into the void, a return to the non esse from which we had been called by the creative act of God. I therefore abandoned my fruitless efforts to derive something entirely new, and the problem of creative work now became closely linked in my mind with the problem of cognition of Being. The whole world, practically every visual scene, became mysterious, uncommonly beautiful, profound. Light changed, to caress and surround objects with a halo, as it were, of glory, imparting to them vibrations of life impossible for the artist to depict with the means at his disposal. I was filled then with reverent worship for the First Craftsman, the Creator of all things, and a longing to meet Him, learn from Him, know how He created."