mount athos

St Nicodemus No Jokes or Laugh
Command 8 Do Not Bear False Witness

St Nicodemus: Can Christians Laugh and Joke?

02/03/2023 Bruce Strom 2

St Nicodemus teaches us that the speech of Christians who laugh at ribald jokes “is corrupted, since they fill their speech with obscene, indecent, shameless, and meretricious words.” Likewise, regarding Christians who laugh at ribald jokes, “their thought is corrupted.” “Just as their words are crude and lewd, so also the thoughts and ideas in their souls are crude and lewd.” “Speech is a mirror, image, and imprint of the thoughts and inner disposition of the heart.” “He who utters obscene words churns up filth, mud and manure, which is spread first to himself, and then to those who hear it.” […]

St Nicodemus, Do not Slander
Command 8 Do Not Bear False Witness

St Nicodemus the Hagiorite, Do Not Bear False Witness, Do Not Slander

02/01/2023 Bruce Strom 1

What are we taught by our teachers? Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Except that this is not true, St Nicodemus teaches us that King David, in his Psalms, feared slander more than sticks and stones, and for good reason, for words harm our reputation, which sticks and stones can never touch. Wounds heal, but suspicions linger. […]

Morality

St Mark the Ascetic, No Righteousness By Works

11/02/2018 Bruce Strom 3

We should always search our heart for upright and humble motives. St Mark the Ascetic warns that “some, without keeping the commandments, think they are keeping the faith, while others, keeping the commandments, expect to receive the kingdom as a reward owed to them. Both are deprived of the kingdom.” Our reward lies in our humble obedience, our salvation is our striving to live a more godly life.

Salvation is not a transaction, salvation is not bartering, salvation is a gift by grace, unearned. St Mark the Ascetic teaches us, “when the Scriptures say, ‘God will reward each person according to his works,’ the Scriptures are not saying that works deserve hell or the kingdom, but rather that works are done out of faith or lack of faith in Him. Christ repays each person not as a businessman fulfilling his contracts but as God, our Creator and Redeemer,” out of love for us, not out of bartered obligations. […]

Morality

St. Mark the Ascetic, Writings on the Spiritual Law

10/23/2018 Bruce Strom 2

You cannot cherry-pick which commandments you should follow and which ones you should ignore. Little sins vs whoppers, scrupulously avoiding small penny sins to save up for the whoppers you need to be forgiven for when you hide thousands of dollars of defects when selling your house or when you need to ruin someone financially to steal their business. St Mark the Ascetic teaches us, “Those who do not consider themselves under obligation to perform all of Christ’s commandments study the law of God in a literal manner, ‘understanding neither what they say nor what they affirm.’ (1 Tim 1:7) Therefore the think they can fulfill the law by their own works.”(34)
“Do not seek the perfection of the law in human virtues. . . Perfection is hidden in the Cross of Christ.(31) The law of freedom by true knowledge, and is understood through the practice of the commandments, and is fulfilled through the mercy of Christ.”(32)
“Fulfilling a commandment is one thing, and virtue is another, although each promotes the other.(193) Fulfilling a commandment means doing what we are enjoined to do; but virtue to do it in a manner that conforms to the truth.”(194) […]

Morality

St John Cassian on the Other Seven Vices, Blog 2

06/08/2018 Bruce Strom 1

We must not only watch what we eat, we must watch what we think, as we seek to conquer the next vice, the demon of unchastity and the desire of the flesh.  St John Cassian teaches, “Bodily fasting is not enough to bring about perfect self-restraint and true purity; it must be accompanied by contrition of heart, intense prayer to God, frequent meditation on Scriptures, toil and manual labor. . . Humility of soul helps more than anything else. . . We must take the utmost care to guard the heart from base thoughts.”  Contrition and humility comes from sincere confession and repentance. […]

Morality

St John Cassian and the Vice of Gluttony, Blog 1

06/06/2018 Bruce Strom 2

John Cassian’s teachings in the Philokalia are a good summary of the Ladder of the Divine Ascent.  His teachings on the Eight Vices are advice to those seeking salvation as monks, so we must discern how these teachings apply to those of us who seek salvation in the secular world; indeed, imagine what advice he would give to us living in the secular modern world to resist the vices of gluttony, unchastity, avarice, anger, dejection, listlessness, self-esteem, and pride.

The early Church Fathers always talk about fasting, the struggle against gluttony, as the first vice to conquer, once you conquer fasting, the other vices become easier to conquer.  The spiritual life is about changing your habits, adopting good habits, discarding bad habits, indeed habitually seeking to change your daily habits for the good. […]

Morality

Introduction to the Philokalia, the Love of the Beautiful

03/23/2018 Bruce Strom 2

When the Russian pilgrim in the spiritual classic, “The Way of a Pilgrim,” hears the Scriptures being read that exhorts us to pray without ceasing.  He asks a monk in a monastery how he can pray without ceasing, and the simple answer is he can start on his path by each day praying more.  He selling all he has, giving it to the poor, to embark on a spiritual pilgrimage, trudging through the forests of Siberia.  His only possessions in his travel bag are the Holy Scriptures and the Philokalia, the treasured writings of the early Greek Church Fathers. […]