Posted on 03/16/2005 12:51:10 AM PST by kosta50
5. Watchfulness and Prayer
The Holy Scriptures and the Holy Fathers affirm that, as we pray for spiritual healing from passions like anger and resentment, we must also practice constant watchfulness or attention over our thoughts. Christ spoke much about watchfulness, both directly and in parables. At the conclusion of one such parable, He said: What I say to you I say to all: Watch (Mark 13:37). Later, as He was going to His final Passion, He told His disciples: Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation (Mark 14:38). Watchfulness and prayer are closely connected. St. Symeon the New Theologian explains this connection as follows: "Watchfulness and prayer should be as closely linked together as the body to the soul, for the one cannot stand without the other. Watchfulness first goes on ahead like a scout and engages sin in combat. Prayer then follows afterwards, and instantly destroys and exterminates all the evil thoughts with which watchfulness has already been battling, for attentiveness alone cannot exterminate them.
The evil one wants to trap us. He tempts us with evil thoughts against our brothers and sisters, trying to sow the seeds of judgment and resentment against them, inciting our fallen nature so that we will stray far from our first-created image and be separated from God. We must not take the bait. Whether our anger arises from our own fallen nature or from the suggestions of the evil one, we need to cut it off at once. And to recognize it at once, we must practice watchfulness over our thoughts.
St. Theophan the Recluse writes: "The passions and desires rarely attack by themselves—they are most often born of thoughts [my emph]. From this we can make a rule: cut off thoughts and you will cut off everything.
In The Philokalia, the growth from a thought to a passion is described with scientific precision. First comes the provocation of the thought, then the conjunction of the thought with emotion, then the joining or agreement of the will with the thought. If the soul does not pull back at this point, the thought becomes a habit, and the mind is constantly preoccupied with the object of the passionate urge. Finally the person falls into the captivity of the urge, and rushes to satisfy it.
From this it can be seen why it is so important to cut off angry and judgmental thoughts at the time of their provocation. St. John Cassian writes: "If we wish to receive the Lord's blessing, we should restrain not only the outward expression of anger, but also angry thoughts. More beneficial than controlling our tongue in a moment of anger and refraining from angry words is purifying our heart from rancor and not harboring malicious thoughts against our brethren. The Gospel teaches us to cut off the roots of our sins and not merely their fruits."
The more we entertain thoughts of anger, the more they will grow and harden inside of us, making it harder to uproot them later on [my emph]. Abba Dorotheus uses the analogy of a tree to explain this: when the tree is young and small, it is easy to pull out of the ground; but when it matures, it is much more difficult to uproot. In another place, Abba Dorotheus uses the analogy of a spark on tinder, which, if it is not put out, can grow into a raging flame. He writes: "Someone who is lighting a fire first sets a spark to the tinder.
This is someone's provoking remark, this is the point where the fire starts. Of what consequence is that person's remark? If you put up with it, the spark goes out. But if you go on thinking, ‘Why did he say that to me, and what should I say back to him?' and ‘If he did not want to annoy me, he would not have said that,' then you add a small bit of wood to the flame, or some bit of fuel, and you produce some smoke: this is a disturbance of the mind. This disturbance floods the mind with thoughts and emotions, which stimulate the heart and make it bold to attack. This boldness incites us to vengeance on the person who annoyed us.... If, therefore, you put up with a sharp retort from someone, the little spark is extinguished before it causes you any trouble.
Even if you are a little troubled and you desire promptly to get rid of it, since it is still small, you can do so by remaining silent with a prayer on your lips and by one good heartfelt act of humility [my emph]. But if you dwell on it and inflame your heart and torment yourself with thoughts about why he said that to me, and what should I say to him, you are blowing on the embers and adding fuel and causing smoke! From this influx of thoughts and conflicting emotions the heart catches fire and there you are—in a passion."
When a thought of anger or judgment arises in our mind, therefore, we are to cut it off or repulse it at once. In this way we use our incensive power in the way it was intended to be used: to cut off temptation.
Cutting off thoughts does not mean arguing with them or struggling against them. St. Silouan of Mount Athos affirms: "It is best of all not to argue with thoughts. The spirit that debates with such a thought will be faced with its steady development, and, bemused by the exchange, will be distracted from remembrance of God, which is exactly what the demons are after.
Our struggle should not be against thoughts, but towards remembrance of God [my emph]. It is enough just to observe our thoughts through the practice of watchfulness. We will thereby recognize our angry and judgmental thoughts right away. We see them, we know that we don't want them because they separate us from God, and we simply let them go. If we do not align ourselves with the thoughts, they will naturally disappear. The fifth-century Desert Father, Abba Pimen, says: "If we do not do anything about thoughts, in time they are spoiled, that is to say, they disintegrate.
The thought may come again and again, but each time we are to cut it off in the same way. When the thoughts are continual, it is especially important to turn to God in prayer, asking for His forgiveness and for deliverance from the continual thoughts. This prayer, as mentioned earlier, should include a prayer of good will for the person at whom we are angry or irritated. In the practice of watchfulness and prayer, we have no better tool than the Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." There is no more powerful name on earth than the name of Jesus Christ to oppose the proud fallen spirits. And, in the words of the Holy Apostle Peter, There is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).
When we ask Christ to have mercy on us, we are also humbling our proud fallen nature. We are admitting that we are not God, and that we need God's love, mercy, and forgiveness. In seeking God's forgiveness, we are acknowledging the infirmity of our nature, and this helps us to forgive and have mercy on others who share our fallen, wounded nature. Since the Jesus Prayer is so short and single-pointed, it lends itself to the practice of watchfulness. We can keep our attention on the words of the Prayer more easily than we can with other prayers. [my emph] This helps us to learn how to repulse or cut off intrusive thoughts, and to keep our attention raised to God. It helps us to develop the habit of inward attention. At the same time, by means of this Prayer we are calling down Divine Grace into our hearts, for we are calling upon the Source of Grace, Jesus Christ.
As we seek to forgive people for whom we feel bitterness, we should also call upon the Mother of God to help us forgive. [my emph] When Elder Sampson was once asked how he was able to forgive his executioners and torturers, he said: "One need only pray to the Mother of God and the offense is taken away. It is taken away if you only ask the Mother of God. It is enough for your heart to have some kind of direct contact with the Mother of God, and that horror, offense, injury, sorrow and slander will be taken away."
[To be continued ...]
Ping
Yesterday, I went to the library to look over Butler’s Lives of the Saints. My birthday is today, and my initial motivation was to see if any Saints were born on the same day as I was. Instead, what I found seemed to be a chronicle of the Martyrdom of Saints, and the entry for the 16th was St. Jean de Brebeuf.
The reason I’m posting the info on him is that when we are considering resentment and forgiveness, it seems fitting to remember those Martyrs who gave, and probably forgave all. Many times, it has been perspective that has led me to do the right thing.
Jean de Brébeuf
Jesuit missionary, born at Condé-sur-Vire in Normandy, 25 March, 1593; died in Canada, near Georgian Bay, 16 March, 1649. His desire was to become a lay brother, but he finally entered the Society of Jesus as a scholastic, 8 November, 1617. According to Ragueneau it was 5 October. Though of unusual physical strength, his health gave way completely when he was twenty-eight, which interfered with his studies and permitted only what was strictly necessary, so that he never acquired any extensive theological knowledge. On 19 June, 1625, he arrived in Quebec, with the Recollect, Joseph de la Roche d' Aillon, and in spite of the threat which the Calvinist captain of the ship made to carry him back to France, he remained in the colony. He overcame the dislike of the colonists for Jesuits and secured a site for a residence on the St. Charles, the exact location of a former landing of Jacques Cartier. He immediately took up his abode in the Indian wigwams, and has left us an account of his five months' experience there in the dead of winter. In the spring he set out with the Indians on a journey to Lake Huron in a canoe, during the course of which his life was in constant danger. With him was Father de Noüe, and they established their first mission near Georgian Bay, at Ihonatiria, but after a short time his companion was recalled, and he was left alone.
Brébeuf met with no success. He was summoned to Quebec because of the danger of extinction to which the entire colony was then exposed, and arrived there after an absence of two years, 17 July, 1628. On 19 July, 1629, Champlain surrendered to the English, and the missionaries returned to France. Four years afterwards the colony was restored to France, and on 23 March, 1633, Brébeuf again set out for Canada. While in France he had pronounced his solemn vows as spiritual coadjutor. As soon as he arrived, viz., May, 1633, he attempted to return to Lake Huron. The Indians refused to take him, but during the following year he succeeded in reaching his old mission along with Father Daniel. It meant a journey of thirty days and constant danger of death. The next sixteen years of uninterrupted labours among these savages were a continual series of privations and sufferings which he used to say were only roses in comparison with what the end was to be. The details may be found in the "Jesuit Relations".
In 1640 he set out with Father Chaumonot to evangelize the Neutres, a tribe that lived north of Lake Erie, but after a winter of incredible hardship the missionaries returned unsuccessful. In l642 he was sent down to Quebec, where he was given the care of the Indians in the Reservation at Sillery. About the time the war was at its height between the Hurons and the Iroquois, Jogues and Bressani had been captured in an effort to reach the Huron country, and Brébeuf was appointed to make a third attempt. He succeeded. With him on this journey were Chabanel and Garreau, both of whom were afterwards murdered. They reached St. Mary's on the Wye, which was the central station of the Huron Mission. By 1647 the Iroquois had made peace with the French, but kept up their war with the Hurons, and in 1648 fresh disasters befell the work of the missionaries — their establishments were burned and the missionaries slaughtered. On 16 March, 1649, the enemy attacked St. Louis and seized Brébeuf and Lallemant, who could have escaped but rejected the offer made to them and remained with their flock. The two priests were dragged to St. Ignace, which the Iroquois had already captured.
On entering the village, they were met with a shower of stones, cruelly beaten with clubs, and then tied to posts to be burned to death. Brébeuf is said to have kissed the stake to which he was bound. The fire was lighted under them, and their bodies slashed with knives. Brébeuf had scalding water poured on his head in mockery of baptism, a collar of red-hot tomahawk-heads placed around his neck, a red-hot iron thrust down his throat, and when he expired his heart was cut out and eaten. Through all the torture he never uttered a groan. The Iroquois withdrew when they had finished their work. The remains of the victims were gathered up subsequently, and the head of Brébeuf is still kept as a relic at the Hôtel-Dieu, Quebec.
His memory is cherished in Canada more than that of all the other early missionaries. Although their names appear with his in letters of gold on the grand staircase of the public buildings, there is a vacant niche on the façade, with his name under it, awaiting his statue. His heroic virtues, manifested in such a remarkable degree at every stage of his missionary career, his almost incomprehensible endurance of privations and suffering, and the conviction that the reason of his death was not his association with the Hurons, but hatred of Christianity, has set on foot a movement for his canonization as a saint and martyr. An ecclesiastical court sat in 1904 for an entire year to examine his life and virtues and the cause of his death, and the result of the inquiry was forwarded to Rome.
Thank-you for this continuing series. The Jesus Prayer really is one of the most powerful tools we have to combat any sort of less than edifying emotion or thought. Keeping Christ and our own sinfulness constantly before the eye of our soul makes it less likely that our thoughts will turn to anger, revenge or resentment.
Just last evening I spent several hours with my spiritual father. At one point in the conversation I mentioned that of late I had been reading +Symeon the New Theologian. For some reason he got the impression I was doing that instead of rather than in addition to prayer. He spoke at length on the futility of reading the Fathers and even the Scriptures if at the same time one didn't have an active and ongoing prayer life within which to live out the teachings of the Fathers and the Scriptures. Good advice for anyone.
Fascinating and humbling. Such people only remind me how hopelessly low on the ladder of theosis I am. Thank you for the post.
Thank you Kolo. Prayer and fast is the essence. Easier said than done.
"Prayer and fast is the essence. Easier said than done."
Too true, my friend, too true! A Happy and Blessed St. Patrick's Day to you!
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