How Can We Become Saints Today? – Fr. Theologos

How can we attain holiness today? How can we begin the process of freeing ourselves from the passions and the journey toward perfection?

Watch this material on the subject, in which we try to offer practical advice on how we can begin our journey toward holiness in today’s society.

Enjoy!

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and forever and unto the ages of ages. Amen. Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us! Amen.

Brethren, on All Saints’ Sunday we celebrate all the saints – hence the name. Now, we should know why we celebrate them: especially today when humanity is led through confusion and the destruction of any value system. Especially today, we need models more than ever. Do you understand? Brethren, we honor the saints NOT to give them anything extra, because they are gods by grace. We honor the saints because we need their intercessions and their example to have the courage to keep going. Do you understand?

We need role models. People today are depressed and aimless because they are far from God and have no holy examples to light their way toward the victory over death, toward resurrection and eternal perfection. Brethren, this is why we have daily services dedicated to the saints – so that we do not lose sight of our goal and so that we remember that many others have also succeeded in reaching this goal through God’s grace.

If even a single person had attained holiness, that would have been enough to validate this path – but you see that there has been a vast number of saints who have managed to conquer death and attain blessed eternity. A great many saints, brethren. In Nicomedia alone, there were 20,000 all at once. And now, with communism and the communist prisons, there have been millions of saints – in Romania, in Russia.

You see, brethren, that all who were imprisoned, regardless of their profession or intellectual background, managed to endure prison only through Christ. It is not possible otherwise, brethren. In our daily lives, yes, we think we can get by without Christ – in fact, young people especially tend to think this way, not because they lack the ability to think, but because they lack life experience. Brethren, it’s not possible in daily life either, and anyone who advances in life will realize this because they see the destruction caused by sin. Do you understand?

You see, the Church is a hospital for sinners that heals us from these destructions. Brethren, we do not go to church to light a candle or to bring memorial bread. Of course, we will do that too at the appropriate time. We go to church to be healed of our passions, that is, of the existential distortions and spiritual illnesses we’ve accumulated over time. I’ve said many times that Orthodoxy is the therapeutic science whose goal is to heal the soul and attain eternal happiness. Do you understand?

You should know that, especially today, Orthodoxy appears to be the only way for someone to keep their nervous system intact, and this is because the nervous system forms the link between a person’s inner and outer universe. Well, if inside we have sins, distortions, that is, things that are not in accordance with our external reality or the external reality of others, especially God’s reality, at some point the nervous system breaks down. Do you understand?

In fact, distortion is the state of hell – the state contrary to nature. This is Adam’s state after the fall. In this state, the passions are at work, and a person practices virtue rather out of fear of hell. Do you understand? This is where the process of sanctification begins – from the state contrary to nature, in which the passions are at work and a person practices virtue rather out of fear of hell. Do you understand? That is, a person tries to escape the torment they feel and then, somewhat forced, tries to do good deeds, just to escape their inner hell. Here, determination and obedience to a spiritual guide are essential. Zeal and determination are necessary to pull ourselves out of the quagmire of passions and to ensure, thereafter, the steadfastness needed to move forward. We need zeal, brethren.

You know how it is – like an airplane taking off: if there isn’t enough thrust in the engines, if the engines aren’t revved up enough, then the plane will crash on takeoff and the disaster will be great. Do you understand? But if the plane manages to lift off the ground, then once it reaches cruising altitude, things become much easier. That’s pretty much how it is in the spiritual life – of course, with the crucial difference that in the spiritual life, the flight ceiling rises over time, or, rather, it should rise, even if it sometimes seems to us that it’s dropping so low we’re about to crash into the ground – that’s how great the temptations are. But God is watching over, brethren!

Beyond zeal, we need a loving spiritual guide as much as we need air, one who knows how to sustain our zeal and keep our courage alive, without which we can do nothing; and beyond that, the spiritual guide must know how to lead us through the many pitfalls strewn before us. Brethren, let us not think that we can make it through the labyrinths of the struggle against the passions on our own. No one succeeds alone, brethren. We are not Saint Mary of Egypt or Saint Anthony the Great. Let’s be realistic! Let us be aware of our limitations! Do you understand?

In this first stage of the struggle against the passions, what is essential is attention and obedience to God’s will. God’s will is expressed through the spiritual father and through the teaching of the Church. Today, brethren, there is a huge, huge problem with attention. Why? Because there is a fierce battle to capture our attention where it shouldn’t be, to push us away from God, to drive us into depression, and to sap our zeal through a lack of love. Do you understand?

Brethren, courage is the force that propels a person forward, the driving force. Let us be very careful not to lose our courage. You must know that the devil always targets our courage. In fact, he always fires two shots, just like assassins. The first is to make us sin or make a mistake, and the second is to make us despair, regardless of whether the mistake is little or great. The devil strikes at our courage even by exaggerating our mistakes or even by presenting non-existent mistakes or unfounded anxieties, because he knows that a blow to our courage is a blow to existential core of the human being. Why? Because love generates courage, and courage urges us to love. It is a chain reaction that propels us forward, brethren.

Brethren, if the devil makes us sin, he has only won a battle, that is, he has pushed us closer to spiritual death and further from God. But if he strikes at our courage and pushes us into depression, then he has reduced us to vegetables and has won the entire war. Understand? Why? Because the person no longer desires anything good, believes they’re good for nothing, that they can’t do anything, and just sits there dragging out their life until death. Do you understand? Man becomes a worm or [like] a fussy walrus. Do you understand?

Now I’m going to tell you in detail how this happens today, even though I’ve said it before, because so many young people are affected by this. Brethren, if in the past we, the older ones, had zeal, enthusiasm, and courage because we concretely felt the love of those around us, because we were almost always together with them, that is, with friends and relatives, especially with our parents, of course, today, young people no longer feel that love because screens stand between them and other people. In other words, young people today are alone with devices that don’t love them, devices that are incapable of love, and they no longer know how to love or what true love, interpersonal love, is. Do you understand?

And as if that weren’t enough, all sorts of news stories about people’s aggression are popping up, stories presented in a more or less apocalyptic light, for likes, traffic, and so on. The goal of the news is to further deepen their introverted nature and their parents’ tendency to shield them from meeting other friends. It’s a whole chain reaction that makes people even more introverted, and young people, in particular, increasingly introverted and incapable of love, because they don’t know how to love, because they no longer have the courage to love out of fear of the trauma that might arise. Do you understand?

Beyond that, still related to the fact that we used to hang out with our friends and go out together to play or talk – especially to talk, that’s very important – the fact was that back then we compared ourselves to our friends and relatives who lived on the same street as us, who were pretty much from the same background as us; we were all pretty much alike, give or take. Well, today’s young people, through their screens, compare themselves to the biggest influencers on the planet, and not only that, but they compare themselves to the glamorous side of these influencers’ lives, who are far from God, because, of course, these influencers aren’t going to post when they’re tired or depressed, but only the moments when they look good – when they’re on a trip to Dubai or standing next to a Ferrari or something like that. Not to mention that the Ferrari in question probably doesn’t even belong to them… Do you understand?

Well, when you no longer have the loving support of friends and family, when you no longer feel their love, and on top of that, you compare yourself to the biggest influencers on the planet, how can you not fall into depression? How can you not think of yourself as a failure – or especially a failure as a woman, since the phenomenon is more prevalent among girls, among women – when you see someone who looks like a magazine cover model, with makeup on, with implants, collagen in her lips, and Botox, with tons of followers and likes and millions of views, while you have 3 likes from 2 followers and a cuckoo? Do you understand?

Things are all the more serious given that there are laws in various countries, and now in Romania as well, allowing various institutions outside the family to take children away from their families, preventing them from ever feeling the love, freedom, and security of a family. Understand? And thus to no longer have the courage to think lovingly and spiritually and to be free. God forbid!

A fierce battle is being waged to eradicate the experience of what is natural, of what is normal, of the traditional way of life, because the traditional Romanian way has proven to be successful, brethren. This is even clearer from the fact that young people are pushed to the limit by sex education broadcast on all channels, education that teaches them that love is merely a physical phenomenon without any restraint, without limits, so that young people can no longer even conceive of the possibility that a truly spiritual and natural love might exist, or, if they do realize it exists, they no longer know how to attain it. God forbid!

All these sins, brethren, lead to the loss of courage, to loneliness, and to nervous disorders, which today are actually the true pandemics, but this is not publicized because it does not look good at all. Do you understand? In fact, brethren, even globalism has fallen because of sin. The ideological bloc in which we find ourselves in is collapsing because of sin. Africa, with all its resources, has been lost because they arrogantly tried to impose on Africans the sinful ideology of sexual distortions, gender fluidity, and the like. And the Africans stood firm and rejected this, even setting tough terms for negotiation if Western countries want their resources. The Westerners suffered the same fate, and even worse, with the Arabs. But I won’t digress.

Westerners, however, are continuing at a breakneck pace with this agenda of sexual distortions that are destroying families and nations through a precipitous decline in birth rates and the destruction of the human soul; and on this issue, they are losing the political and economic trust of the people because they promote sins against nature. There are large companies that are losing millions of dollars because they have a “woke” agenda of inclusion that actually promotes these sins against nature. Do you understand?

Now you’re going to ask me: what should we do? Theoretically, it’s simple. We must withdraw from this society, oppose it, and create a supra-society around the Church. Brethren, we must not compromise with sin; rather, we must denounce it. However, of course, we must not judge sinners ourselves or jump to conclusions when things are unclear.

Sometimes we observe this phenomenon: major sins are promoted from outside our country’s borders and no one says a word, yet if it seems to us that one of our own has done something we consider questionable, then we’re up in arms. Brethren, let us have discernment! Let us not be afraid of “them,” where “they” are those whom, in our view, truly lead and whom we consider all-powerful and all-knowing, like some abstract cloud. I said that you are being led astray by confusion. Brethren, “they” are not like that. In general, they are actually even sadder and weaker as people than you are, you should know this, even though there are some remarkable exceptions among them. And they are so sad and weak as people because they are farther from God than you are, do you understand?

Brethren, do not expect anyone to be happy except in the Holy Spirit. Of course, we must not have an anarchistic spirit – on the contrary! – we must submit to the authorities God has placed over us – but if they teach us or our children all kinds of sins, then we must resist. However, we need unity among ourselves, and this is achieved by cutting off the unproductive relationships and dependencies that separate us from God, because unity is found only in God. Do you understand? And so, if we cut off unhelpful dependencies, on the other hand, we must create new relationships that draw us closer to God. That is, we must limit our exposure to toxic environments and screens and minimize this as much as possible, while at the same time increasing the time we spend with spiritual people, primarily with the perfect Persons, that is, with God.

As I’ve said before, the first thing each day should be our spiritual schedule; our primary concern should be our prayer rule. We should always ask ourselves: have I done my canon, my prayer rule? That is very important, brethren. Of course, we each have our own duties, but we must always guard our minds and desires, lest the enemy comes and fills our heads with many desires, desires that are unnecessary – cut them off! – that are not in God’s will and that distance us from Him. Do you understand? We must simplify our lives as much as possible so that we have more time to love, more time to pray, more time to spend with our loved ones, among whom God must come first, brethren, as I was saying.

Prayer is the mind’s conversation with God, and here, especially today, a short, one-thought prayer is called for: the Jesus Prayer. I have spoken before about the “Jesus Prayer” – look it up on the website! Today I’ll remind you that it is the most powerful prayer because it doesn’t contain many thoughts, and so the mind can focus much better. It is also the most powerful because it contains the name of Jesus, and the demons cannot withstand it. Do you understand? Today, however, it is especially important because many people’s minds, due to screens (and not only) that teach us a very fast, chaotic, and superficial way of thinking with a very short attention span – our minds are in disarray, and it is very difficult for a person to keep their mind focused on a linear prayer – that is, on a longer narrative such as an akathist or a paraklesis. You read an akathist, a paraklesis, and by the end you find yourself [in thought] somewhere in Tokyo. Do you understand? You don’t even remember whether you read it or not. You read it…

The scattering of the mind today – especially among young people influenced by Western culture – is so great that they can no longer concentrate even for a minute or two. Brethren, I am not exaggerating. Let me give you an example from a few days ago: an extraordinary young man, full of piety and zeal, came to us from a country in Western Europe who wanted to stay with us for several days and adhere to the cell’s schedule. This young man wants to become a monk when he grows up, if I’m not mistaken.

When one of the fathers saw him, he asked if he could sweep the courtyard a bit, and the young man, with great warmth, immediately replied, “Bless and forgive!” and made a prostration. Well, and the father gave him the broom. Another father who was present then said to him, “Listen, forgive me, I have something to do, could you take this package to the basement?” It’ll only take you 10 seconds.” The young man took the small package and carried it down. And off he went. We didn’t check up on him because, really, it only takes 10–20 seconds to get to the basement, something like that. After I don’t know how long, one of us walked through the yard and saw that the yard hadn’t been swept and the broom was still lying there. We asked around to see what had happened to the young man, maybe he had a problem, or something had happened to him. But no way!

In the 10 seconds it took him to go to the basement, he had already forgotten what he had to do, and thinking he had nothing to do and having his min full of all sorts of chaotic plans and thoughts, he went through the Skete to other cells, wandering through the forest, over hill and dale. Understand? People today, especially young people, aside from having a very, very short attention span, almost completely believe the thoughts that come to them – they make no distinction at all and don’t say, “Wait a minute, maybe that’s not true.” They doubt their parents, their spiritual father, and, in general, the humble people who can help them, yet they believe completely in their own thoughts and in what some anonymous poster on the internet says.

Brethren, the Jesus Prayer, which is very short and stabilizes the mind, helps immensely here. “Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me! Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me! Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!” It helps tremendously, brethren! It also helps tremendously to rely on a spiritual father as well as to follow a spiritual program.

Brethren, we need to escape the chaos and come to Christ. For this, we must say the Jesus Prayer as often as we can, whispered, if possible, that is, if we are not disturbing someone around us – this, of course, beyond the prayer rule we have daily. We must use the prayer rope, brethren, because the prayer rope helps us greatly to gather our thoughts. Why? Because the prayer rope engages the strongest human sense, which is touch, the sense that generates the most powerful sensations and focuses the mind. Try praying with the prayer rope and without it. Beyond that, the prayer rope also provides us with the consistency which is so necessary to advance, because it serves as a counter, that is, we know how many “Lord Jesus” we’ve said each day. Without counting, without consistency, there is no progress. Do you understand?

Let’s not forget that without consistency, there is no progress; however, beyond the daily routine, which should be structured so that it can be carried out with joy, it’s good to say prayers freely, that is, to say the prayer whenever we can. For example, at work, at school, or at home while studying or doing another activity (unless we’re engaged in manual work when we can say it all the time) it’s highly recommended that, whenever we can, we take a brief break from our intellectual work and say “Lord Jesus…” for a few minutes, as a small break. “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me! Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!” With each bead, we say “Lord Jesus…” once. This not only brings God’s grace and enlightens the mind, but also restores and relaxes us so that we can continue onward.

Brethren, don’t say you don’t have time because you have a lot of work to do, because you should know that there are even specialized studies in psychology and neuroscience – if you don’t believe the Holy Fathers – studies which say that people need short, repeated breaks, especially if they’re engaged in intellectually intense activity. Notice that even at school, after every class, we have a break, 5 or 10 minutes, whatever it may be. If we work nonstop like machines, we end up experiencing burnout, and our productivity drops significantly. But if we take short breaks and say – let’s say – 100 “Lord Jesus…” or spend 3 minutes saying “Lord Jesus…,” then you’ll see that our productivity and zeal will remain high all day long. That’s for sure! Do you understand?

Confession and obedience are closely linked to prayer. Brethren, we cannot have pure prayer and – in general – we cannot have purity of mind and a state of peace within us if we do not confess. We absolutely must go to confession regularly. I’ve made special videos on the topic of confession. Brethren, do not postpone confession because demonic energy will grow in us, tension and distortion will grow in us until the system that connects the distortion caused by our inner thoughts with the reality outside of us can no longer withstand it, and then this system will snap. The system is, of course, the nervous system; I mentioned this at the beginning of my talk.

Brethren, the cognitive distortions that stem from believing one’s own thoughts are healed through confession, obedience, and prayer, and not so much through psychology. Psychology is trapped in endless analyses with no way out into the Kingdom of Heaven, into the Kingdom of the Resurrection and the Love of Christ. Psychology does not lead us there. It is like a snake biting its own tail. Do you understand?

That is the first stage of our spiritual life – the struggle with the passions. I have emphasized it more because, not you, but I, am caught up in this first stage of the spiritual life. The second stage in our spiritual life, on the path to holiness, after we emerge from the fear of hell and the struggle with passions, is illumination, a stage in which a person no longer practices virtues out of fear, but somewhat out of self-interest, like an employee, because he sees the benefit, he sees the reward from practicing these virtues. Then the flame in his heart grows very strong and he gradually begins to feel the ineffable waves of the grace of Christ’s love.

In this stage, a person matures and the main challenge is that he must remain humble here, remain obedient, and not believe his thoughts, because then he loses the flexibility of humility. He must also strive not to lose his focus on Christ or the zeal he had in the first stage. Do you understand? This loss can happen if he believes the thought that tells him he is advanced and that he now has experience. Here, prayer comes much more easily and is filled with grace. Sometimes it begins to flow unceasingly. Do you understand?

In the final stage, the stage of deification, of holiness, a person breaks free from the narrow confines of his nature and begins to experience immense joy and indescribable delight, in an embrace with the boundless ocean of the love of God, who is perfect, perfectly personal and perfectly loving. Only in this boundless love can a person be perfectly free, feel at home, and overcome even death. In this stage, a person begins to perform miracles, the greatest miracle being him, his own smooth, luminous life and the freedom with which, in his humility, he commands God. I could give you many examples from books – read the Lives of the Saints and you will find them – of how the saints command God. But now I will tell you just one example from our own time, of people among you, people just like you could be, simple people from the countryside.

There were two elderly people in a village in Transylvania who lived a simple and peaceful life close to Christ and the Church, and at one point, without warning, the old man died, just like that, unexpectedly. I don’t know exactly why, possibly a heart attack, something like that. The man was very relaxed and very calm; he led a very spiritual and humble life and had no risk factors. So, this came as a surprise. I don’t know why he died.

Anyway, the people laid him on the bier for the wake, and the old woman, being left all alone because she had no more relatives there, and their children were married in their own homes in the city, kept wailing by herself next to the dead man, “Oh my, man, how could you have died?” “Oh my, you left me alone and I haven’t put things in order!” “Oh Lord, You’ve taken him from me and I’m left here alone with unfinished business. What am I to do now??” “Oh my!” the poor woman lamented, until the people took her aside and, to take her mind off these things, said to her, “Come on woman, come on! Leave it, let’s not think about all these things that need to be done! Let’s think about what to cook for the people, for the memorial feast!” And then, the dead man rose from the bier at a 90-degree angle, so that everyone froze, and the dead man said, very calmly and confidently, “Make me some stuffed cabbage rolls!” You can imagine that everyone was left speechless! Their jaw dropped.

The man who came back to life got up and told his wife with simplicity that God had given him one more year to put his affairs in order at home and not to leave like that. And indeed, after he had put his affairs in order and done what he had to do at home as the man he was, a year later he departed peacefully and went into God’s loving arms. A few years later, his wife departed as well.

Brethren, the path to holiness is simple, but our great problem is that we give up the simplicity and humility of the Holy Spirit for the dark pleasure of this world, which leads nowhere. Brethren, let us have the courage to break free from the mire of passions, for this is the only battle worth fighting! Take heart! It takes courage and consistency! May the Benevolent God help us! I thank you for having the courage to stay with me thus far! Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us! Amen.

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