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glory to jesus christ glory forever welcome back everybody to our study of the ladder
of divine ascent by saint john climacus and we are picking up with step number 24
uh with paragraph number 10 and we've been discussing uh Saint John's understanding of meekness of simplicity and guilelessness all I think so important. Certainly in terms of our understanding of the internal life and the things that we struggle with, but also an important preparation for the next step, which is on humility.
that all of John's writing is to make us more attentive
to what's going on within us,
the kinds of thoughts that we have,
how we engage each other,
how we can be calculating and in,
our thoughts and words and uh and so moving towards again this kind of honesty truthfulness
in our living in our speech and so these are even though there's some of the smaller steps
they're very important so again we are on page 177 if you're just joining with paragraph number 10.
Still a few more coming in.
Number 10.
a gentle soul retains words of wisdom for the lord will guide the meek in judgment
or rather in discretion so the gentle soul is one that is not agitated
and so is going to be able to maintain one's focus upon that which is good and that which is from god
And so when we immerse ourselves in things that agitate the mind and the heart, we not only become distracted, but we can lose hold of what is really essential to our day-to-day living, the knowledge of what is true and insight into the reality of a set of circumstances and how God would want us to respond to them.
and even in maybe in a more important way we lose sight of God and uh when the heart becomes agitated and so when there is meekness
When we are able to have anger or frustrated tempered by love, we're able then to hold on to discretion, this ability to discern, again, the realities of the circumstances around us.
and so that we aren't simply reacting based upon our emotions or what another is doing or not doing.
And you can gather, I think, how important this is then in our day-to-day living,
maintaining a kind of internal stability of mind and heart.
And this would affect everything in our life, you know, how we enter into our work, our day to day conversations, the choices that we make, everything.
It's not that our emotions are unimportant. They often, as we've talked about, reveal a great deal to us.
But if we do lose that discretion, then we can act upon them indiscriminately and then often make the wrong decisions.
Number 11.
The upright soul is a fellow larger with humility,
but an evil one is a daughter of pride.
So, an upright soul, someone who's living a righteous life, where there is rectitude
there, they are seeking to live in the truth, to live an upright life, then they become
a fellow lodger with humility, that humility, as we've said, is truthful living.
And so a person who's seeking to live an upright life, to live in accord with the will of God,
is going to seek to be friends, as it were, with humility or to foster the presence of humility within the heart.
An evil soul, though, is the daughter of pride, that pride is what distorts us.
our vision and uh makes it impossible for us as we've talked about uh to repent because it often
distorts our our view of what is good and evil of of reality itself and um so it makes it very
difficult for us to turn back to God or to offer or to seek forgiveness from others
And so it can draw us from simply being sinful into participating in evil because our vision can become so darkened and distorted.
Number 12.
The souls of the meek are filled with knowledge.
but the an angry mind is a denizen of darkness and ignorance so a meek soul is going to be filled
with the knowledge of god and the things of god again this kind of stability of mind
where we are seeking to live in the love of christ is going to allow us to maintain our focus upon him
And but the the moment then we give ourselves over to to anger again.
There's this distortion of of vision that we find ourselves then played with ignorance.
And this is you know it's we see the danger of our own day.
There's so much anger within the world and
And so often we see, you know, parts of reality that contribute to conflict within the world, but we don't see all of it.
And so our initial response often is one of reaction.
And we've talked here a little bit before of James saying the anger of man does not bear fruit that is acceptable to God.
And this is one of the reasons that it often leads us to react to things that we don't
see clearly and so to act wrongly, to choose wrongly, and to react and often lash out at
others.
I think I've mentioned here once before when 9/11 happened, we had a professor from Franciscan
University.
He no longer teaches.
philosophy, but he came and gave a talk to the university students on the place of the philosopher in an age of terror and how important it is to have those who have the capacity
to suspend judgment and to be able to think things through and uh and
one might say you know what is the place of the person of faith in an age of terror or
an age of chaos and one would say it's even more important that we would think with god
that we would seek to purify our hearts to form our consciences in such a way that we're not only
reacting on an emotional level to everything that's going around on around us and it's
pretty difficult not to uh because so often it can be not just frustrating to us but horrific
And yet, this is what we are called to,
to allow ourselves to be guided by the spirit of truth,
and the spirit of love and humility.
And it becomes even more important,
the worse things become.
And so, the depth of our prayer
must become ever so great at times like this.
We almost have to,
forcibly slow ourselves down and ask ourselves what what is the most important thing for us to
be attentive attentive to I've been reading Hezekiah the priest from the first volume volume
of the philokalia and this morning uh he talks about uh in order for a kind of watchfulness to
emerge
within us, that our prayer must be unremitting and we must be constantly straining forward toward God.
And we often don't think about things in this way. I mean, so often as we see prayer as a discipline among other things,
or a part of our life, rather than that which shapes everything for us,
becomes the lens through which we view life itself,
then we are not going to see the truth.
That we are going to be, we're going to have our blind spots and hard spots
and so often make the wrong decisions about things or being simply driven in our heart
by anxiety or chaos or depression and so this is a time uh not so much for action as it is for
turning in a greater way toward god both through repentance and through prayer
victor writes jesus was often angry with the pharisees and the scribes true and part of uh
what we've been talking about is that anger in and of itself is an emotion
and often is revelatory. It does reveal a certain truth.
And this is why purity of heart is needed and why love is needed,
in order that one's actions might be guided by the truth.
And so when Christ is engaging the Pharisees and the scribes,
It is with that clarity, and often what he's responding to is a kind of harshness towards the other,
or a pride that has become so solidified, calcified, that it becomes impenetrable,
that there was this hardness of heart towards him,
but also malicious spirit that grew to the point where they wanted to destroy him,
that they became locked into this kind of vision of religion
that was driven by ego more than by the spirit of God.
And so much so that Christ said they're like whitewashed tombs.
and if you remember to come across or touch a dead body was to be made ritually unclean
and uh and so he's saying even to come into contact with them uh is like coming into contact with
a tomb you know outside you know in the sun in in that area they would glisten
you know being whitewashed but inside there's corruption and darkness and that which is
rotting there isn't life but death and uh and the same thing with the overturning of the the
tables in the temple if you remember we've talked about this before that they were fleecing the poor
who were coming there to worship and they were doing this in the court of the gentiles
so instead of being a light to the nations they were being something quite awful that they
had changed people could not use their own money they had to use the temple
coinage and at an exchange rate that was exorbitant and they could not bring their
own animals for sacrifice they had to use unblemished ones that were provided by the temple
And again, at a high cost.
And so for the poor coming to participate in the Passover,
what they were doing was taking advantage of them.
And Christ could see this,
that here in the temple there was to be a house of prayer
They had turned it literally into a den of thieves.
They were ripping off the poorest of the poor.
And so, you know, people often bring up the anger of Christ, and I think we often bring
it up as a justification for what we think is righteous anger on our part.
But very few of us perhaps ask, you know, is my heart pure and has my
you know, heart been transformed by the grace of God,
that I'm not simply responding
and reacting to what others have done to me
out of a desire for revenge
or simply driven by resentment.
And, you know, John will guide us through this more deeply
as we continue to look at simplicity and guilelessness as well.
13. An angry man and a sarcastic man met one another, and it was impossible to find a true
word in their conversation. Unveiling the heart of the former, you find frenzy. Looking
into the soul of the other, you see knavery.
This, I've been meditating a lot upon this, just because it's sort of an interesting thing he's talking about two individuals together that really create this scenario that's pretty dark.
You know someone who's filled with a kind of sarcasm.
And he says in this you find within their heart, a kind of frenzy.
You know, there's no peace, there's only a kind of ridicule of those around them.
And with the one who is, I'm sorry, the angry man is filled with frenzy, and the sarcastic man is filled with knavery.
that uh you know he's takes delight in the twisting of the truth and so when you put
these two together you can't find a true word that uh reality gets so twisted up and uh
and it can be such a destructive force whether it's in the workplace or family
or religious community that these two individuals the the angry individual and the sarcastic one
when they get together they can feed off of each other
and there can be again a kind of malicious envy that develops or uh uh
a kind of twisting of the truth the gaslighting of of people where other
individuals around them begin to wonder you know am i crazy am am i not seeing things
in the right way uh because it's said with such anger and force by one and by a twisting of the
truth by another that it becomes very difficult uh for most people to navigate that and uh again you
know this can be done in a holy unconscious fashion but nonetheless it can be incredibly destructive
to love and to relationships as a whole.
And so I find myself going back
and thinking about this one a lot.
Uh,
just because it can destroy what is good and beautiful in an instant.
or what has been hard won you know if you think about you know creating peace in a family or in
a workplace or again a religious community you know there can be all this you know goodness
and richness and love and charity and where this kind of spirit begins to take over it can destroy
that in a very brief period of time and families can fall apart and you know as well as a work
environment
Number 14.
Simplicity is a constant habit of soul that has become immune to crafty thinking.
And so simplicity, you know, we haven't talked a lot about this, but you know, when our life is not cluttered,
on multiple levels and our mind is not cluttered on multiple levels with either material goods or frenetic activity, then we are able
To avoid this kind of crafty thinking, because then we become calculating about how to manage circumstances and how to manage people and how to protect what is ours, or to get what we want.
whereas a simple person is not going to be overly attached to anything
except the will of God and loving God.
And so they're going to be able to make their way through this,
especially when it has become a habit of mind and soul,
without becoming calculated.
And you remember we talked, Therese has that little quote, "Love does not calculate."
And I think John is talking about the same thing here, that when there is true love and it is directed toward God and then one sees others through that relationship with God,
then one is not calculating and trying to manipulate others to get them to do what we want them to do or to change their way of behavior simply or their way of thinking simply to suit us, you know, that we don't lose sight of the person.
And it's interesting, you know, I think even in talking to a lot of priests these days, both in the East and in the West, because of the, you know, the lack of priests and often
the multitude of duties that they have and responsibilities multitude of parishes even
uh that sometimes they're uh they there's an experience of isolation that takes place there and
they're they begin to feel like they're treated as objects to be used you know to fulfill a certain role
and they're no longer seen as persons.
And, you know, the church can be run very much like a corporation, and typically it's run like a bad corporation.
You know, we're just not good at it.
And so if we aren't rooted in God, and there isn't the simplicity of soul, then how we go about our day-to-day life, what takes place within our church...
uh how we engage individuals within that community and the things that priests are attentive to on a
given day you know whether it's their prayer life and what bishops are attentive to
especially their priests, then if we are attentive to those things, then all is going to be well.
In the eyes of the world, it's always going to be something that seems lacking.
But if we lose sight of that, then things are going to crumble very quickly.
It's not going to endure.
Somebody has their hand up.
You're muted or were you typing it out?
i'm muted now can you hear me okay yep be great good seeing you back wonderful
So when you talk about anger and sarcasm, a lot of times I see that as like the tip of the iceberg and all this calculation you're talking about is the foundational base and when I sit in faith.
and Christ and humility and patience,
eventually they calm down and they reveal
what's at the base.
I gotta take whatever they're reacting to it
and not react to it.
So could you please comment on that?
Right. And, you know, I think we've tried to talk about this a number of times, and it's worth repeating, you know, it's, and really it's in psychoanalysis that I've heard it spoken of a lot, which is this ability to suspend judgment.
uh to listen and to attend to what others are saying and how they're saying or what they're not saying again not in a calculating way but giving full attention to the other
Whereas we often in our encounters with others will focus upon something in particular that they say that is a source of irritant to us or that gives rise to anger within us and when we are able
to suspend that judgment and to listen with humility
as one who is seeking the truth.
And not only the truth that is on the surface,
you know, a person's anger,
but what is giving rise perhaps to that anger or frustration
or the circumstances that they're in
that are leading them to,
ask certain things from us or not be able to respond to us in the way that we would want them to or in a timely fashion.
uh that's where you know living in this kind of peacefulness simplicity meekness humility
all of it becomes very important uh that we don't lose sight of the other
and again when we are holding on to a lot when we lack that simplicity
uh then i think that pushes us towards that kind of calculating spirit where we begin to to
Calculate more about how we need to prepare ourselves to engage this person.
What I'll say if they say this and voice it hard not to go down that path to want to be prepared for every scenario.
And because often that isn't obviously driven by charity, or again this desire to listen to the other, and to understand, okay, why are they responding or not responding?
or why are they angry,
but we are moving more towards the defensive position.
Whereas simplicity, I think,
prevents us from moving there that if
If we aren't holding on to our own honor, let alone the things of this world that we are often attached to, or if we're not holding on to our will, what we want for ourselves, then we aren't going to be moved.
uh even when a person is coming at us and you know seems to be inflamed with anger and being
insulting we can maintain the kind of peacefulness of heart and be be able to engage them out of it
now that doesn't mean that it's going to alter uh how they engage us but it can allow us to maintain
the kind of peacefulness of heart where we are not tempted then to give it back
to others with both barrels to give it back in double and that's what we often do
you know somebody comes at us and insults us and then we you know to boom you know we're
giving it back to them you know with greater force and uh again it's a defensive position
and it's certainly not the the position of simplicity or or humility or love and uh and
so this is you know where John is talking here about a habit of soul I don't think we want to
pass over that as uh too easily that creating a habit of mind or a habit of soul takes years to do
Especially if the opposite habit has been deeply formed in us over the course of decades, or perhaps our whole life where we have so many blind spots and hard spots because of our focus on the self and on the ego.
then to try to live in this simplicity or meekness or try not to react simply out of emotion can be very difficult.
It can take years to establish that habit.
And I think I mentioned you as a psychiatrist, too, in one of his...
clinical works was going to the prison.
He went in there, he said,
with grand ideas about what he could do in his work with the prisoners.
The person who was responsible for him, his supervisor said,
You know, it typically will take like five years just to alter like personality or perspective, even in the smallest way to remove some of those blind spots or hard spots or to open a person up to view things in a different way.
That, you know, when personality is formed and shaped, you know, especially once we reach
a pretty, you know, a certain age, it's not an easy thing to alter.
Habit of soul too, as John is telling us, so this, you know, the way that we respond
on like every level of who we are as human beings.
Let's see here, Kate writes,
I find that my attempts at simplicity of life can become rather complex
in trying to let go of things in my life.
I'm flooded with distractions that seem necessary at the time,
but later I realized that it was temptation away from simplicity.
I find it hard to navigate towards simplicity,
the complexity of simplicity.
I think that's the problem.
It has become complex for us.
I think previous generations...
uh you know were compelled to live in a kind of simplicity uh because of want and need and it wasn't an easy
thing for them uh you know that you know we can romanticize uh poverty but it's not a romantic
thing for one who is poor and who grows up in that poverty and so to move in this direction
uh of you know poverty of spirit of simplicity uh is not an easy thing for us uh you know it's not
complex in the sense of letting go of attachments but it becomes complex for us because we have it
in our mind that so many of these things are important for our identity as human beings that our work
our education what we possess uh how many books we have in our library uh that's that's always
the terrible thing you know you were getting books before we read finished reading one and
we think this next book is going to sort of clarify this truth for us and I've got to have it
and then it's three years later we find it in the bookshelf still wrapped in the plastic and uh and
so
You know, to move towards the simplicity on multiple levels, material is hard enough.
But I think simplicity of life in terms of our engagement of the world around us,
where we don't crowd out silence and solitude that allows us to listen to God on a very deep level.
And or to listen to what's within our own hearts in regards to our own desires.
You know, often there is a kind of uneasiness.
that we experience, a dis-ease, if you will,
that we experience on a day-to-day basis.
And, you know, we plow our way through, you know,
day after day, and, you know,
sometimes we'll try to change external aspects of our life,
but it doesn't really alter anything.
But the root of that dis-ease is,
more often tied to this lack of simplicity of focus upon God and that relationship with
with God becomes that which gives meaning and purpose to our life but to everything that we
engage in whatever our station in life is married single priest religious that you know when we are
living our life in Christ then
that's when we have peace uh Saint Isaac the Syrian said that the person who loves God only
finds peace in God and so I think that's a sort of a radical simplifying statement that if you love
God you're not going to find peace in the world or in anything in the same way that you find in him
And all of a sudden that complexity of simplicity that we, you know, or surround simplicity with disappears, and we think, you know, it's, it is simple.
It is about that relationship with God and not allowing him to become an abstraction.
And having God be the one that we alone have eyes for, if you will.
And, you know, where we begin to long for prayer more than anything.
You know, this desire to be with him and in his presence and focused upon him.
So, you know, these little is this is why it's valuable to slow down in these readings and to contemplate what the fathers are saying,
because I've often had people tell me that, you know, OK, you know, I love what you post and, you know, I love the fathers and there's great beauty to them.
But when the rubber hits the road or sometimes when they say something that is really jarring.
uh like some some of these things that we're reading then it's like how am i supposed to live
that you know is this only for the person who can master themselves and strip themselves of
everything in this world
You know, and so not get married or not have a job or, you know, something along those lines.
And the answer to that question is no. But I think that's often where our minds go.
It's not allowing those things in our life again to be abstracted from our relationship with God.
you know, those who are married, you know, the, you know, their love for God is only
going to deepen their love for each other. And it's only going to draw them closer together
and deepen that bond when that's a mutual reality between the two of them. And, and
you know living the ascetic life or the life of prayer or providing a spouse
with the opportunity to take time for prayer is the greatest gift that you can
give them, if you understand, you know, where they're going to find their strength and intimacy
and solitude are tied together.
You know, married couples need times of silence and solitude in order that they might step
into that relationship and see the things that they need to see and hear the things
that they need to hear.
Especially when you know some of the romance might cool a little bit, and you know it's you find out that they're not the funniest person in the world that you thought they were, or the most energetic or creative and
you know that you're in it for the long haul you know what is it that's going to hold you together
you know is it your sparkling personality or or what or is it going to be something much deeper
So, Anthony writes, some of it you learn by experience. I think most all of it. I think Newman mentioned this, said, you know, we make our way to heaven backwards. We take a step forward, we screw up.
And then we have to take two steps back backwards when we realize that we've gone down the wrong path.
And there's some truth to that. I mean, I think we learn through in the hard way, you know, this experience where
It is simply ego driven, or where we are being calculated, or where we thought we saw the truth of a set of circumstances and acted harshly towards another, made a judgment, and then realized, gee, I saw nothing.
And I was part of something that destroyed a relationship or destroyed trust that was hard won or whatever it might be.
So, number 15.
Guile is a science, or rather a diabolical deformity, bereft of truth and thinking it can escape the notice of many.
So isn't that interesting? You know, guile is a science that, you know, a person can learn how to use it in such a way as to manipulate the circumstances around them.
and calling it a diabolical deformity is right.
You know, it's rooted in, he was the father of Lodge
and where a person is not living truthfully,
But living in this kind of darkness and falsehood, then they begin to try to make these lies work to their advantage.
And the distortion there for them is that they think nobody notices it, nobody sees it.
So they become blind, they're blind to the truth themselves.
And there's this perspective of themselves as being clever, you know, a person who often is like one of the ones described in paragraph 13, either the angry or sarcastic man, you know that
they can believe that they see these circumstances in this kind of clever way and they can manipulate
those circumstances in such a way that it works to their advantage but they aren't as
clever as they imagine themselves to be you know the humble one who lives in the truth
is going to be able to see those things and avoid them like the plague and not be you know easily
gaslit or manipulated uh by them and uh and so uh but I think John's point is a good one you know
that uh this guile brings you know darkness into the lives of others but most of all into the
person
who struggles with it you know they think they have a you know an eye for the truth about reality when in fact they lack it all together
Hypocrisy is a contrary state of body and soul interwoven with every kind of subterfuge.
So.
Rather than living in a state that is directed toward God, where our whole self, you know, we've talked about as human beings being in a constant state of receptivity through all of our senses, and if we, you know, have a pure heart,
and we are living in humility,
then our experience with the world
is going to be more truthful.
And we are going to be able to make our way forward
toward God regardless of what our experience in life is.
But hypocrisy is this contrary state of body
that there is this kind of fragmentation of mind,
and contradictory desires and wants within the same person that sort of pulls them apart.
And, and I think on some level we've experienced that, you know, just day to day life can do that to us at times, where we become hyper focused upon the things in our life, and they were they take on this value that becomes subtly distorted.
and fill us with anxiety and how easily our minds and our hearts can feel fragmented
by that, especially if we lose sight of God. Because all of a sudden, if we're wrapped up
in this frenetic activity and we become more and more busy at work trying to hold all these
things together, what happens is that internally we become more and more agitated. Our thoughts
become fragmented. We no longer can see God.
Uh, the the truth clearly, and so we can be doing things simultaneously that are at odds with each other, or we're, you know, pulling ourselves in different directions, whereas the person who's humble and simple is there's this clear movement toward God.
which, you know, I think is a simple view of the life of prayer and of Christianity or the life of faith as a whole,
moving toward God or living one's life in this direction toward the Lord and moving toward him always.
And our lack of simplicity or in this hypocrisy that arises out of guile
keeps us
from being able to do that.
We've talked about this in a simple way with infatuation.
You remember the definition of infatuation?
Infatuist, false light.
There was that optical illusion in the desert that when people were lost,
they would see a light off in the distance and so they would want to run towards it.
you know to find safety warmth uh comfort in numbers but being an optical illusion they're
going off in the wrong direction completely and becoming more and more lost and that can be
happen to us as well you know that we become infatuated with our
You know, own view of life or our own perspective on things what we want, and so are spending a lot of energy, but going off into a direction that leads us nowhere, and certainly not to the the goal or the end that we imagined it would
Any thoughts before moving on?
Number 17.
Guilelessness is a joyous state of soul far removed from all ulterior motives.
So, this we've already talked about this a little bit that you know that we aren't calculating that we aren't engaging others with these ulterior motives that are often self seeking that we are seeking the truth and what is best, not simply for ourselves but for the other.
And this again this is why.
saint isaac would say you know when we encounter someone who does fall into sin
that you know our motive should not be to humiliate them or to expose them but to
cloak them to cover them and to protect them and not to uh seek this again this position
of emotional power within a relationship to elevate ourselves above others or at their
expense and so
you know it's hard maybe for us to imagine what it would be like to live without any
ulterior motives in our lives not to be self-seeking but really seek what is good and
what is for you know what is according to God's will but it's what is what is good for the other
Can you give us some examples of how we can protect other people?
Well, one simple one is remaining
quiet, not giving voice to the things that we see or know.
You know this tail bearing about others and what they are doing.
uh to you know that can elevate us in the eyes of others just because we know something that
others don't know and so when we tell you know tell them about it then uh we're sort of elevated
in their eyes you know because we're sharing with them something that they didn't know before about
another person or what they're doing but it also can be uh this this way that we are diminishing
the other person uh by doing that so remaining silent
and protecting the dignity of the other and to pray for them or to do penance on their behalf.
uh in order that they might be strengthened with whatever it is that they are are struggling with
in their day-to-day life i was reading something from oh gee i wish i could remember what work it
was from uh but it was talking about the priest when he consumes the remainder of what is within
the chalice of the one of the precious blood and
body of our Lord and if you know how the prospera the bread is prepared before the liturgy there
is a whole right that is that takes place of um in the cutting up of what is called the lamb
uh uh christ and but also uh as you cut it up into pieces each of the pieces has a particular
intention tied to it and so often you know there are all these saints that you you pray
for with the with particular
pieces of the Prosphora, but then you pray for all the needs of, you know, your bishop,
your ordaining bishop, and then, and then everybody that has intentions that's asked
you have asked you to pray for them, as well as then praying for all the dead.
And so the, the discus, the patent, if you will, and the Latin right, with all the particles
then they're all put into the chalice after the consecration and before the distribution of communion.
But after the liturgy is over, the priest then consumes all that is remaining at the side altar.
And, you know, one of the things I was reading, I think, I don't know if it was from a saint or not, but he's saying that, you know, the priest does not do that in an abstract way.
It's not like he's just cleaning the dishes or cleaning up the leftovers.
But those intentions, those petitions are real.
And the burdens that are part of them as well, and the burdens that people are carrying that you're praying for.
are united to Christ and placed within that chalice.
You're consuming all of that and taking that into yourself.
That often priests, this author was saying,
will feel a kind of illness after experiencing on a spiritual level,
the weight of those spiritual realities.
And it was a striking notion because I think even priests can become abstracted or treat the celebration of the divine liturgy as a task.
to be fulfilled, rather than a mystery into which we are being drawn, and the paschal mystery, and again not in an abstract way but in the most personal way of all, and the one who's celebrating it in this deeply personal way.
uh that all these intentions that include the sufferings and the trials of others
then he you know as he offers these over to christ he's also uh
in persona Christi, if you will, consuming them, taking them within himself as in a sense of taking responsibility for them to help carry the burden of them spiritually.
and to continue to intercede for the individuals
for whom these prayers have been offered.
So it's a quite extraordinary thing that,
talk about being far removed from ulterior motives,
that here you're desiring only
to take upon yourself the burden of the other you know it and you can understand
why there is such a need for prayer and a depth of asceticism
Because if you're focused upon yourself, especially as a priest,
how is it that one would do that or even be aware of the calling to do that?
That they would love their people and those that they pray for with such depth
that they experience their trials as their own.
So this is part of what guilelessness leads us to, that our only motive is love.
Number 18. Honesty is unmeddling thought, sincere character, frank and unpremeditated speech.
Wow. A lot in that. So honesty, unmeddling thought that
you know, that we are not inserting ourselves into the life of others and their affairs.
And this can be a pretty strong desire on our part,
you know, to know what others are doing and why.
What do you have going on today? Or where are you going?
And why, you know, we want to insert ourselves, or if they're struggling with something,
to insert ourselves into that as if to fix it and typically we end up making it worse
but we we should really be praying for the other and lifting up whatever there is they're
struggling with not meddling in their life or their spiritual life this is a big thing
you know I think to tell people you know what they should or should not be doing uh spiritually
or to judge whether or not they're praying enough,
when we would have no idea whatsoever, sincere character.
So, again, we're not acting out of this hypocrisy,
a mask that we are putting on of religiosity and piety
that we want others to see.
But as those who truly desire what is good for the other, and then frank and on premeditated speech.
And so the way that we engage others.
uh should be with with this kind of simplicity that we aren't overthinking or over analyzing
what it is that we want to say you know it's one one thing to sit back and say okay what do
I really think about that and to offer something with clarity it's another thing to be again to
have premeditated speech, you know, we are calculating how another might hear something or that we're trying to get them to do something in the way that we want them to do it.
And, again, that might not be certainly guided by love, but rather by the desire to control
or not have to bear with the weakness of character of others or their faults or failings.
And maybe not even faults or failings. It's just, you know, when they don't want to do things in the way that we want them done.
Victor writes, "My pastor often speaks about respecting boundaries." Right.
You know, I think this unmeddling thought captures that,
that we aren't inserting ourselves in a way that we really should not in a person's affairs and life.
It's one thing to be asked, you know, counsel by a friend or a confidant.
It's another thing to be inserting ourselves into a person's life
because we happen to overhear something.
and that it happens a lot and you know where it happens a lot in church you know
tell something to a religious person and it spreads around the church pretty quickly.
So, let's see here. That was number 18. Number 19. Innocent is he whose soul is in its natural purity as it was created, and who makes intercession for all.
So, in their kind of natural purity that
we
you know, have removed ourselves from the experience of the passions and living our lives rooted in them and controlled by them.
And so our experience begins to grow of being immersed
in the things that are of God and of love.
And this begins to alter the soul
and to restore a kind of innocence to it.
And certainly we're called to something
even greater than that in Christ.
And then he says, who makes intercession for all.
And so part of that purity is,
uh is that we've let go of of ego as well and so we are making intercession for all and we are not judging others even by what they see or even if we see a direct sin that is committed
that we intercede on their behalf, knowing, as the Fathers tell us, that people fall most of the time because of the demons
that are attacking them and so we must not be tempted you know to fall into this harsh
judgment of the other but rather move quickly to intercede on their behalf
Rory did you have another question or did you just leave your hand up
chance could you look at the chat message from father marty and make a comment i'm sorry i must
have missed it i did i'm sorry father marty i've often been struck by this saying it was said of
abba marcharius the great that he became according to the writings a god on earth that's right i
remember that because in the way god protects the world so abba macarius would hide the faults he saw
as though he had not seen them,
and the faults he heard about
as though he had not heard them."
Exactly, it's the perfect quote
for what we were talking about,
to act as if one has not seen or heard those things.
And this does require a kind of holy innocence,
that again, there isn't this desire
for the diminishment of the other,
And so there isn't this quick movement in the mind and the heart to take hold of something that we see another person having done or said.
Thank you. I'm sorry I missed that.
so it gets pushed up the chat message sometimes when a bunch come in
Abba Markarius, although his homilies are sometimes, I think they're attributed to another,
but those would be another interesting set of readings to look at too.
So that brings us to 8:30, and again, I don't want to rush through these steps because as
you can see, there's a lot in each little saying for us to attend to.
okay thank you as always for the great questions comments as always beautiful and uh have a
wonderful week everybody keep me in your prayers and know that i'm always praying for you too
especially that liturgy won't we close as always with the our father name the father the son the
holy spirit amen our father
Who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. The Lord be with you. May Almighty God bless you, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Go in peace.