Worries, the Parts of the Soul, and the Daily Schedule – Fr. Theologos

One of the things that weighs us down the most today and has harmful effects on us and on our psyche is our daily worries. In order to examine this issue and offer a way to free ourselves from worries, we will review the important parts of the soul from the perspective of our discussion and talk about the daily schedule.

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.

Now that we have finished this cycle of feasts and Sundays connected to the Resurrection of the Lord – a cycle divided into two major periods, namely the period of Great Lent, called the Triodion period, and the period after Easter, called the Pentecostarion period – I have in mind the concern to speak about worries because I see people are very worried.

Folks, we must not be worried, we must not be anxious – but now, be careful not to develop anxiety because I told you not to be anxious! Alright? We must quiet ourselves and leave everything to the will of God. Let us not forget brethren, that God is not a blind abstraction, but a living, hyper-intelligent, all-knowing God and a loving Father. The Good Lord takes care of us! Brethren, if God sees everything and we see only a little, around us, it means that in order for us to see everything as well, we must unite with Him, listen to God, and be attentive to what He tells us. Our problem, however, is that we forget about God, because we turn the eye of the soul, we turn our attention toward matter.

We forget about God when we turn our attention toward matter. Why? Because matter is the most distant point from God in all of natural creation, so to speak. Why? Of course, the devil is even farther away, but the devil is unnatural, distorted, because of his rational capacity. In fact, due to this distorted capacity, the devil is the one who worries us with material cares, with centers of attention, so that we move away from the light of God. Do you understand? The problem of cares is a worrisome problem because of the extremes that are seen especially in today’s society. On the one hand, we see hyper-anxiety, drowning in cares, and on the other hand we see an indifference and stagnation in negligence and depression, and this is because people are taught by the media to break with the past, with tradition, to act very quickly, in an unbalanced way and without thinking too much. Do you understand?

Through the avalanche of information that is offered to us in a way that maximizes our pleasure and thus our dependence on screens, a person no longer has time for themselves to think things through, but only to rush forward. A person no longer knows who they are, where they come from, and where they are heading. The very fast pace and interconnection of this information make a person think in dozens of directions and almost never of God. Do you understand? Today, a person has too many ideas and believes that there are a multitude of things that are absolutely necessary, which must be done as quickly as possible so that we do not miss the opportunity. Brethren, it is not so. The mind must move upward to Christ and not scatter itself among all the centers of attention that press upon us. Brethren, write a list somewhere, even on a sheet of paper, and start crossing things out. Do not be so afraid. You must know that biologically a person needs only three things: a plate of food, some clothes to cover themselves with, and a house in which to live. And that, I say… with indulgence. Of course, even though we desire much more than these, because we are taught by the consumer society, through media channels, that we need much more. In fact, needs are created for us that do not actually exist, you understand? The truth is something else.

Do you remember what the Gospel says about the cares of life? It says there not to lay up for ourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up treasures in heaven, meaning in spiritual, heavenly things, brethren, because these are the only ones we will take with us after death. Brethren, let us not seek and let us not attach our heart to ANYTHING that stops at death; let this not be the treasure to which our heart is bound, the material treasure, because if, at the moment we die, we are attached to something of this kind, then these things will become our torment after death. Because hell, the torments of hell, are desires pushed to the extreme, which can never again be fulfilled. Do you understand? You see that the first step to free ourselves from worries is the spiritualization, the sanctification of our possessions, even for the simple reason that we no longer have to worry about thieves, moths, rust, and all kinds of other insects or natural phenomena. Or about sins. Let us not burden ourselves with too many things, brethren!

If there is something more lasting that absolutely has to happen and scatters our mind, then write it down somewhere on a to‑do list so that we may have a clear mind. Do you understand? However, I have said that there are very few things that absolutely must happen. Our purpose is NOT to grow materially, but spiritually, in a godly way. Do you understand? Since we are talking about the Gospel of freedom from cares, the Savior goes on to state the real reason why we must avoid cares, even if it seems that He jumps, without any clear connection, from wealth, thieves, and moths to the darkening of the eye of the soul. The Lord says that the lamp of the body is the eye. If our eye is good, our whole body will be full of light. But if our eye is bad, our whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in us is darkness, how great is that darkness! I really like this quote. However, it does not sound very clear to our understanding, does it? I think it is very useful to clarify some things here, because they are very important not only for the topic of cares, but for our entire life and ultimately for our salvation.

I have spoken before about the powers or parts of the soul, but I spoke about them a long time ago, and I consider it good to go over them again in part so that we can learn them. There are several ways of dividing the soul, but the simplest one is found in ancient Greece, in the Greek philosophers, where the soul is composed of three parts: logic, anger, and desire. Or more precisely, the last two are called the incensive part and the appetitive part because today anger and desire are understood predominantly in a negative sense. However, these parts that God created are not necessarily evil (since God created them) – on the contrary – they must be used by the soul in a beneficial way, in a way that leads to salvation.

This threefold division was also used by the Holy Fathers. Logic was also called “mind” – the famous νοῦς (nous) of the Holy Fathers – and the appetitive part and the incensive part were together called the “heart,” both because, on the one hand, these irrational parts constitute the existential core of the human being, that is, the person’s will, their heart, and on the other hand, from experience we see that when these parts are in an explosive state, that is, when we love or hate intensely, we feel an intense experience in the region of the heart. In this three-part model, that is, logic, the incensive part, and the appetitive part, the Holy Fathers saw that there is a problem.

I will give you two examples of phenomena that are not explained by this model, so you can understand. The first phenomenon, which is very well known to those who pray, happens especially when we read a linear prayer, for example, a Paraklesis or an Akathist. We see that at the end of the Paraklesis we find our mind somewhere around Tokyo and we ask ourselves whether we have read it or not. We did read it, but the mind went somewhere else. This phenomenon is called the dispersion of the mind and shows us that one thing is the logic with which we read and another thing is attention, the mind that most often flies about chaotically, uncontrollably.

The second phenomenon that shows that logic is different from the mind, from attention, is when we do certain rational things so‑called “mechanically.” For example, when we walk through a familiar building and go up and down the stairs. This activity is very logical and complex. Up to now, brethren, there are no robots that can manage to walk through a multi-story building on the stairs and avoid all the moving people and all the obstacles that are there. However, as I was saying, if the surroundings are familiar to us, while we move through the building, our mind is focused elsewhere. We move “mechanically,” “without thinking about it,” as it is said. This shows that the mind is one thing and logic is another. So, we have a new model, this time with 4 parts of the soul: logic and mind, the incensive part and the appetitive part.

St. Gregory Palamas defines the mind as the ultimate attention, the finest attention, the human focus, the eye of the soul. Where a person is actually looking, where they are focusing. It often happens that we look with our bodily eyes at someone or something, while the mind, the eye of the soul, is with someone or something else, isn’t that so? Do you understand? You see that even here the difference between the mind and logic can be observed, because logic says that we must look at our interlocutor, or especially at our female interlocutor, but the mind is drawn to other things. Let us be careful, brethren, to guard our mind, because otherwise great dramas can arise both within us and sometimes within others as well. Do you understand?

Before we go further with the parts of the soul, we will pause a little on the mind, that is, on the eye of the soul, because it is the most important one and, besides that, today we are speaking about cares that darken this eye. You see that the mind has the role of an eye or, if you prefer, of a telescope through which the inner person can see God and can communicate with Him. On the other hand, still using this paradigm of the telescope, God can also send the rays of His light through this telescope, if it is oriented correctly, in order to illumine the interior of the person, as it says in the scripture. The great problem is when this telescope is not oriented correctly, when the eye of the soul is not looking where it should. That is, when we have cares that we should not have, mainly physical cares, but also anxieties related to inner scenarios provoked by thoughts that come from the devil, at that moment, the person is darkened.

When the eye of the soul is wrongly oriented, at that very moment it is darkened because it moves away from the light of God’s loving knowledge. One thing is God’s loving knowledge, and another thing is the cold, Luciferian pseudo-knowledge. Do you understand? Then a person gropes in the dark and no longer knows how to behave if they are not enlightened by God. In fact, they behave exactly like a blind person. They believe that everything is possible, but in fact, they see nothing and nothing works out for them anymore, and they constantly collide with reality, with the truth which is an objective presence above us, which now stands against them because they are blind, of course. They believe that everyone is against them and realize, even in the darkness in which they find themselves, that all the grand plans they made are crumbling and all their cares were, in fact, useless. Why? Because the mind, this eye of the soul, has the role of guiding the soul, and so, if the mind is darkened, the other parts which depend on the divine illumination that comes through the mind will be EVEN more darkened. We will desire what we should not, we will get angry at those we should not – our entire existence will be chaos.

Brethren, do not think that if we turn the eye of the soul, that is, the mind, our ultimate attention, toward matter, far from God Who is beautiful and full of light, do not think that you will manage to see anything, that is, to understand anything. The glitter of matter and of technological advancement is not true light; it is only a stimulation of the senses, nothing more. After this passes, depression, disappointment, burnout, and nervous disorders follow. Do you understand? We see it all over the planet at this time.

The Lord said that no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other; brethren, you cannot serve both God and Mammon. I do not know whether you are aware that Mammon was the Assyrian goddess of wealth, of money, of matter. So, either Christ or matter! Either Christ or chaos! Of course, the issue is thorny because we are bound to matter here on earth because of the body we have. However, we must never idolize the body, we must never be obsessed with it, because then spirituality disappears and thus true happiness disappears, and illumination, that is, wisdom, disappears. Brethren, we must understand that there is a distinction between cleverness and wisdom, just as there is a distinction between logic and mind.

Cleverness is the higher operation of logic, while wisdom is the higher operation of the mind. Logic acts in steps and is created, designed to deal with matter, with the world here. For matter has, in its essence, the principle of exclusion, of separation, that is, what is mine is not yours and what is here is not there, and the principle of lack of love, for matter cannot love. Because of this, logic divides things and is colder, lacking love. “I have to do this…, the other thing…, I have this concern, this other one…,” “How do I do this, what strategy do I follow, what steps do I take to acquire this or that thing…” “Wait, that’s not good, I have to do it differently, because what if this or that happens…” Do you understand?

Brethren, if we are not attentive and not enlightened by God, the devil tosses us like clothes in the washing machine. He makes us dizzy worse than in a blender: “Why this, why that, what will I do if that happens?” Brethren, analyses upon analyses that do not solve the problems, but complicate them by increasing the anxiety within us, which can reach distress and panic. And on top of that, if we do not guard ourselves from thoughts, whatever the other person tells us can be wrongly interpreted and judged by us, based on the distorted thoughts we have. Do you understand? We see everything distorted.

Brethren, as you can see, we must be very attentive, very watchful, that is, keep our mind on spiritual things, to guard our mind from thoughts, not to accept them, not to pay attention to the thoughts that come, and to guard ourselves from them, not to converse with them. If the mind, that is, the attention, is entirely concentrated on a certain thing, especially if that thing is a sinful center of information, for example a cell phone or in general a screen that continuously pours out information designed to generate addiction, it is evident that we will be defeated by the enemy demons, which are types of minds very experienced in the warfare of thoughts. Do you understand? Because of this, the Lord says to cut off all cares, or at least to minimize them, so that the mind may remain free like a sniper who has the light of God’s grace and who sees the thoughts and shoots them as soon as they appear. We must not accept evil thoughts and converse with them. I have told you before, brethren! Because if the sniper is preoccupied daily with worldly cares, the outpost will be captured. It is true that sometimes, when the war is fierce, it helps to shift our mind from the battle to a brief material occupation, to a short task done with our hands; however, this material occupation must not turn into an addiction, that is, it must not turn into a care, brethren.

Addiction is a care and a care is addiction. For example, if someone has a powerful warfare of thoughts and does not succeed with prayer alone, then it helps to do something practical – for example, to cook or to clean the house, or, if he is in church, to count the icons on the walls while quietly saying the prayer. These short preoccupations that do not generate addiction help the attention to move away from the escalation of the war of thoughts and then this war ceases. From all this it is very clear that we must be without worry and leave ourselves to the will of the Lord. In fact, He Himself tells us and gives us some very strong arguments for this, as He says we should not worry about our life, what we will eat or what we will put on. Why? Because we are much more precious in the eyes of the Heavenly Father than the birds of the air, which neither worry nor strategize; and yet the Heavenly Father takes care of them. Well, if the Lord takes care of them, all the more He takes care of us. Do you understand?

Of course, we are much more precious to God than the birds because we are made in His image, but we forget this, we do not have this experience because our mind is darkened. We have cut ourselves off from God and we worry about something else. We look with the eye of the soul somewhere else. Things would be even more laughable if they were not lamentable, because the Lord goes on to say – People, which of you, by worrying, can add a cubit to his stature? That is, whatever we do, we cannot do anything without the will of God, who effectively makes us powerless if He so wills. However much we may worry, we cannot do anything. Brethren, let me repeat: without the will of God we can do nothing. Yes, okay, God made us free and, in fact, you must know that the only work of man is to express his will so that it is in accordance with the will of God. If the will of man comes to be in accordance with the will of God, then we have good will. Good will. You see that in the Romanian language “good will” is synonymous with joy, because the first effect of good will, that is, when the mind, the eye of the soul, is directed toward God, is joy. Do you understand?

Furthermore, the Lord humbles us even more and proves to us even more that material cares have a great deal of absurdity in them, because He tells us not to worry, that is, not to occupy our minds even with what we wear, what clothes to buy, because the flowers, the lilies, that is, the grass of the field are much more gloriously adorned than Solomon himself, who in antiquity was a model of glory and greatness for the Jews. The Lord’s logic is unbeatable even if it is rather hard for us to digest, especially if we have the passion, the care for shopping. The Lord presses even further and proves to us the absurdity of worries, saying that if God takes care of the grass which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He take care of us, we who place our hope in Him, or, indeed, we who should place our hope in Him because, in fact, we are of little faith, as He Himself tells us. More precisely, we consider ourselves believers, yet for the most part we have a way of thinking and a behavior that is rather atheist or pagan, meaning without prayer, without an awareness of God’s presence – a lonely and insecure behavior, pulled in all directions by the very powerful centers of attention with which we are bombarded every day.

We no longer have time to pray, brethren, we no longer have time for ourselves and for our relationship with God and with other people. We no longer have time to love because we are taught to act continuously and to seek perfection in the body, to do business, to have money, to be fashionable, to make sure we do not miss something that could exclude us from the social group to which we think we belong. This generates a hyper-anxious behavior in us, and even if we want to do good, we do not know how. Why? Because our mind is scattered by the many news items we hear daily, and here I am not necessarily referring to the classic news we hear in news bulletins, but to all the informational noise with a very strong emotional charge in which we are immersed, which generates an enormous amount of worries for us – “Breaking news here, breaking news there, that thing happened…”

Brethren, we need to guard our mind, otherwise we will go insane! You see that the West at this time is submerged in major pandemics that are not talked about because it is not convenient to talk about them, namely: the pandemic of nervous disorders, the pandemic of loneliness, and the pandemic of sexual distortions. Unfortunately. All these are interconnected and come from the human tendency toward perfection, from the human tendency toward theosis, but in a direction contrary to God, that is, in the direction of the body. Yes, brethren, nervous illnesses today come from the hyper complexity of cares that arise very quickly in a mind distant from God, in a mind darkened by the focus on matter. So many cares come to you until at a certain point you go insane.

Brethren, our Heavenly Father knows very well what we need and He knows that this is a pagan behavior that leads to the distortion and torment of the human soul, as He Himself warned us. Let us leave room for God to act as well! Of course, God also gave us the solution – that is, He told us not to worry about material things, but to seek first the Kingdom of Heaven, that is spiritual perfection, and all the rest will be added to us because our virtue, our balance, and our love will make us superior to others. Do you understand? This is what makes us superior, not technology, not technicization.

God tells us not to worry about tomorrow because He will take care of it, He Who knows better. We should occupy ourselves with spiritual things. If we do not have the sense of eternity, we will not be able to detach ourselves from cares. That is, concretely, brethren, we need to have a spiritual schedule. Let’s not be dragged around by cares and thoughts like oxen by a ring. Brethren, in the morning when we wake up from sleep, the first thing is to jump out of bed and say: Lord, thank You that I woke up! Lord, help me for the prayers of Your Most Pure Mother, of the Saint of my name – each one according to what you are called, of the Saint of the day, whichever it is, and – if you wish – you can also commemorate other saints toward whom you have devotion. The very first thing, the first image we must have when we get up must be gratitude toward God, because gratitude is the key that opens the gate of Heaven. It is the path to Heaven. If we want grace, we must have gratitude, brethren. Do you understand? God’s goodness grants us grace as long as we give thanks for the last time we received it.

As I was saying, the first thing must be God and not the cell phone. After that, brethren, it is very good that on the way to work we pray again. When we are driving or using public transport, let us not let our minds wander, because then cares assault us again and we arrive at work anxious, and then we pour it out on others. On the way, brethren, let us pray with “Lord Jesus Christ…” or listen to something spiritual. In any case, we must detach ourselves as much as possible from the anxieties that weigh us down. If we see that a thought is too intense, let us say the prayer and rebuke ourselves for having accepted that thought. If it still persists, let us confess it.

After that, at work again, we should work with zeal, without stagnating, because if we stagnate, once again thoughts will overtake us. If we have physical work and our mind is free, then, as long as we do not disturb anyone, it is very, very good to say in a whisper as much as we can, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me! Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!” On the other hand, if we have intellectual work, then we should pray every hour for 5-10 minutes like in school or, let me say, every 2 hours. Brethren, it is very necessary, because if we do not relax a little, fatigue and exhaustion will appear. Do you understand? If we take these small breaks and pray during them, we will keep our efficiency almost constant throughout the day. If, however, we do not do this, then it will be very low at the end. In fact, not only at the end – especially at midday a great sluggishness will come over us. Then it would be best either to sleep, if our schedule allows it, or to pray a little, as I was saying.

Brethren, problems are solved by praying for them and not so much by thinking about them! After that, again, on the way back from work we pray, and then at home, after we kiss our family, ask them how they are, and eat together, we start praying. The first thing is prayer, after we show love to the family. Brethren, as I was saying, news and cares are not in first place, but eternity, prayer. Brethren, the news is online – it’s not going anywhere. I’m not saying it’s good that it’s there, but that’s where it is – it’s not going anywhere. Of course, it is best not to watch the news because we get disturbed again, but if you cannot do otherwise – then afterwards, brethren. Afterwards.

Pray for 15-30 minutes in silence. As long as you can. Take time to quiet down a little, to get rid of all the daily grime, of all the outside noise. Put your phone on “Airplane Mode.” That button works very well, believe me! Do you understand? After that, let us rediscover the beauty of people. Let us rediscover the art of contemplation. In fact, a very powerful factor of unity in the family is praying together. “How beautiful my life partner is, how beautiful the children are, how beautiful nature is.” If we can, let’s go out into nature a little. It helps a lot, but let’s be careful not to stagnate, but to reject the comfort that is destructive. Let us also stop a bit from this crazy rush and put worries in second place, brethren. Let us learn to live and to love and not so much to do, to work like machines.

It is also very, very important to read a little. 5 minutes, brethren, from the New Testament. 2 minutes, at least read everyday. It helps enormously! Try and see! In the evening, brethren, before going to bed, let us introspect a little. A brief analysis of the day: what we did well, what we did wrong. For what we did well, let us thank God and the Mother of God and pray that they help us to do more, and for what is bad, let us humbly ask for forgiveness, and if the matter becomes permanent then let us confess it. Let’s not leave it, brethren! In any case, let’s introspect in the evening, let’s say a small prayer in the evening too – a “Thank you, Lord!” Two minutes, brethren. It’s not the end of the world.

Brethren, eternity awaits us, which is the only certain thing in our life. Let us take care that this is our main concern and that everything else is secondary. If we seek rather the Kingdom of God, all the others things will be given to us as well. Let’s not worry about tomorrow, sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Let’s live in the present. We will concern ourselves only with the things that help us to draw closer to God, that help us become better, more loving, and this without stress, without anguish, but as the Good God provides. Do you understand? Thank you for having cared to stay with me until now!

Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us! Amen.

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