Sayings St. Vincent of Lerina ~ Scripture and Tradition

  If someone wants to be protected from tricks and remain healthy in the faith, he must confine his faith first to the authority of the Holy Scriptures, and secondly to the Tradition of the Church. But someone may ask, is not the canon of Scripture sufficient for everything, and why should we add thereto the authority of Tradition? This is because not everyone understands the Scriptures in the same way, but one explains them this way and another that way, so that it is possible to get therefrom as many thoughts as there are heads. Therefore it is necessary to be guided by the understanding of the Church ... What is tradition? It is that which has been understood by everyone, everywhere and at all times ... that which you have received, and not that which you have thought up ... So then, our job is not to lead religion where we wish it to go, but to follow it where it leads, and not to give that which is our own to our heirs, but to guard that which has been given to us.


(St. Vincent of Lerina, Notes of a Pilgrim)

Source:

http://orthodox.cn/patristics/300sayings_en.htm

The Tao of Christ: A Story from the East

Below is an excerpt from a letter I wrote to a good friend of mine who is not a Christian, but who has been on a quest for spiritual truth and authenticity for many years. In it, I try to express the truth of Christianity without getting too caught up in the normal terminology that we Christians use.
I do feel like the past holds the key answers for the present. The more I read the Buddha, Lao Tzu (Taoism), Confucius, and Eastern Orthodox desert spirituality, the more I see that the spiritual giants of the past were pointing humanity toward many of the same things. I’m not a fan of syncretism because it tends to ignore diversity within each system while trying to suppress the differences. But the teachings of these amazing men and women have survived thousands of years because, over and over, humanity has confirmed that their teachings are the closest thing to truth that we have discovered.

I believe there has always existed an uncreated divine essence, and that it has always been in a community of love. At some point, it created the physical realm in order to make more creatures that it could call into communion with itself. The highest form of communion stems from a creature that has a free will, that is, it can accept or reject the offer for communion. The acceptance of the offer and the movement toward it can be called both life and love. The rejection of it can be called both sin and death.

At some point, humanity collectively turned its back on this divine essence of love. From this event came the “original sin.” Humans attempted to become divine on their own, that is outside of divinity, but that is not possible. Humans were made in the image of the divine so that they could be united to it, but we do not contain that power within ourselves. In our vain efforts to become divine on our own, we missed the point of it: unity with the eternal divine community. Becoming divine is not about grasping power, wisdom, or immortality for their own sake.
The ancients understood these things more intuitively. Their teachings are the various paths that they perceived would lead to some kind of restoration or harmony within humanity and between humanity and divinity (“heaven” is the term used in some texts).
My thoughts may be a bit biased, but I see in Eastern Orthodoxy a culmination of all of the best teachings of the ancient near and far East brought together in one coherent system (though it can take years of studying the texts and ones own soul to see it).
Within this system is a teaching that real, eternal truth is not an abstract idea, but a part of that uncreated divine essence that I mentioned earlier. In that case, it is not an impersonal force, but something personal. Some of the ancients called this the Tao. One monk [1] teaches that the Tao, seeing the dismal condition of humanity, took upon itself a body and walked among us. It brought together all truth from across the ages, because it was the source of that truth and it therefore become embodied truth.

The “seeds of truth” that were scattered across the world came together in this one person whom we call Jesus the Christ. Jesus not only taught us the Way, the Tao, of life and love, but went as far as to enter into death with us, forever uniting divinity with humanity’s own story of anguish, pain, separation, and death. But he did so in order to conquer death and show that it did not have to have eternal power over us.

Once death was conquered, he invited us to participate in divinity through him, for he is the Tao itself. Divinity became human so that humans could become divine.
That is the Christian story that is largely lost here in the West due to an overemphasis on legality and an offended God who demands blood.
In Eastern Orthodoxy, I find not just the best Christian story, but the story for all of humanity, revealing why we have sickness and death in this world, and giving us a concrete reason to never lose hope.

This Christmas season is joyful because it is the celebration of the expectation of the nations, the coming together of all truth in one man, the collection of the scattered seeds, the condescension of divinity into humanity, and the raising of humanity to divinity.

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[1] Hieromonk Damascene, Christ the Eternal Tao, Valaam Books 2012.


source:

http://www.orthodoxroad.com/the-tao-of-christ-a-story-from-the-east/

Bring Back the Disney Princess!

In some of the classic Disney movies, the princess is in the forest surrounded by animals that befriend her and even sing with her.  They follow her and adore her.  These scenes reveal a character with purity of heart, a soul that was so undefiled that even nature was unafraid of her.
These scenes spoke to people at the time the movies were released, and even to myself when I was a child.  They reminded us of a memory we all instinctively carry within us: the memory of Eden.  In the Garden all of nature was subject to man and was at peace with him.  After the fall into sin, the animals became afraid of man because while we are still in the image of God, that image has been soiled and defiled by sin.
Now, division exists between man and nature, and it is our fault.  To be pure is the most natural state for humans, it is a naturally divine mode of existence.  As the activity of sin progresses within us, we continually regress from being unnatural to being anti-natural.
Today our society is so far from being natural that we laugh and scoff at these scenes where the Disney princess is in complete harmony with all around her.  We call this unreal, when it is we ourselves who have lost our grip on reality.  I write this with pain in my heart, knowing that I too have greatly contributed to the impure state of the world.
Bring back the Disney princess!
May she move us to tears as we see just how far we have fallen away from what is truest to our nature.  May we not settle for the vulgarity and stupidity that is called “entertainment” today.  May we weep and repent of our hardheartedness: that we look upon purity and call it “silly” or “ridiculous.”

A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him saying, “You are mad, you are not like us.” -Abba Anthony

For this reason, I think it is imperative that both children and adults today read the lives of the saints.  These blessed women and men are an extension and expression of the life of the resurrected God-man; they remind us of what it truly means to be both natural and normal.  This reminder is crucial in a society that is not only abnormal, but anti-normal and anti-natural.
Even what we consider beauty today confirms this idea.  Gray hair and wrinkles are despised while we embellish natural qualities to an unnatural state.  Men get “buff” in the gym while women have surgery to modify their God-given bodies to fit the abnormal ideal of beauty, which seems to center exclusively upon sexuality.
Let us look to the saints, many of whom were real life examples of the Disney princesses, in that they were pure of heart and completely at harmony with nature.  May we cast aside worldly vanities to cling to the Cross, to Life, and to purity.  Our Lord Jesus taught that the pure of heart will see God, and it is only those who attain that purity who are able to see God around us, God within us, God in nature, and God in those people surrounding us.
May our Lord Jesus grant us this purity by blessing our ascetic efforts and granting us grace in the struggle to cut off the tentacles in which the world has enmeshed our hearts and minds.

---

End Notes:
While the classical Disney princesses are certainly not perfect examples of the saintly life, they are a good starting place that children can understand.

Tenderness icon (umilenie) from iconreader.wordpress.com

Also, I think the way we treat Disney Princesses today reveals why so many Protestant converts wrestle with honoring the Theotokos and actually believing that she is the “ever-virgin Mary” who lived a life of prayer and purity.  We mock this concept because the idea of a chaste, pure, enlightened soul is nothing more than a pious fairy tale to us who have slumped so far into abnormality.

source:

http://www.orthodoxroad.com/bring-back-the-disney-princess/

 

Transcendence & Spiritual Experiences, Part 4

Warmth of Heart and Authentic Spiritual Experience in Prayer

This is true life in God! To desire and seek God for the sake of God, and to possess Him and partake of Him in the way and measure that He wishes.
-St Theophan the Recluse, Unseen Warfare
Prayer is a beautiful thing, and a heart that is earnestly seeking God in purity will find Him. In my spiritual journey, I have found that Orthodoxy offers the deepest, most spiritually balanced, and safest way to experience God through prayer. While there are outward “formalities” and we do not encourage the heightened emotional states found in charismatic circles and among some Roman Catholic “contemplatives,” our prayers are far from lifeless.
In fact, St Theophan the Recluse heavily emphasizes praying with feeling and the need to have “warmth of the heart” in prayer. This is a good feeling that overflows from a heart that is open and loving toward God. On our end, we open ourselves to receiving this divine warmth through making an effort to pray and overcoming various difficulties. On His part, God bestows the gifts of warmth and grace at His discretion.

DIFFICULTIES

Perhaps our largest obstacle to obtaining warmth of heart in prayer is our lack of attention. I know what it is like to read through a few prayers and realize that outwardly I have made the sign of the cross and bowed at the appropriate times, but I haven’t paid any real attention to what I was reading.
We must brush aside distractions as they come. Do not engage the thoughts that scream “This is urgent!” or “Don’t you remember you were going to do such and such!” or even “Isn’t this a really neat theological idea? You should chew on this for a little while.”
A second obstacle is lack of confession and partaking in the sacraments of the Church.  One who has an unclean conscience will find it difficult to enter deeply into communion with God.  The Church offers us her mysteries, let us partake of them as frequently as is permissible.
A third great obstacle is praying with both our lips and minds, but putting no heart into it. As St Theophan would probably say, we’re reading the prayer but not feeling it. This is not an encouragement to work ourselves up into a frenzied, emotional state; prayer should be approached in humility and soberness.  With that said, I should probably explain warmth of heart a little better.

WHAT IS WARMTH OF THE HEART?

The best way I can think to explain it is to imagine you are writing a love letter to the one your heart cherishes. In a moment of cleverness, you may be able to construct an elegant piece of originality and complexity. But the person who is able to simply write “I love you with all my heart” with heart-felt tears in their eyes is the person who is writing from the heart and not just the mind. It is in that manner that we should strive, with the grace of God, to pray.
If our hearts are cold and unable to bring forth warmth or tears, then we should ask God to soften them. Not every prayer will produce such an elevated state, but a consistent complete lack of warmth is something you should discuss with your spiritual father.  It is God’s desire to draw close to us and for us to draw close to Him. As Christ taught us, our Heavenly Father will give generously to those who ask of Him for He is a good Father.

FURTHER READING

This post was originally much longer as I identified various pitfalls of praying with “feeling.” However, I think that would best be the topic of another post.
For wisdom from a saint regarding prayer, I highly recommend this nine page document, which is a compilation of several of the writings of St Theophan the Recluse on prayer. Bishop Alexander (Mileant) of blessed memory compiled it. As you’ll see, the translation is a bit awkward sometimes, but it is still very understandable and approachable.
For a more in depth approach, see also Unseen Warfare and The Spiritual Life and How to Be Attuned to It, both of which are excellent guides in how to deepen the spiritual and prayer life. They address a multitude of issues that each one of us have in our hearts, whether hidden or evident. These books have been turning points in the lives of people that I know.

source:

http://www.orthodoxroad.com/transcendence-spiritual-experiences-part-4/
 

Transcendence & Spiritual Experiences, Part 3

THE NEW AGE OF SPIRITUALITY

Within the confines of western Christianity, one of the fastest growing sects of Protestantism is the charismatic or Pentecostal movement. This movement is so influential, that just recently the Southern Baptist Association changed one of their rules and decided they will now support missionaries who speak in tongues. Charisma Magazine explained this as the Baptists attempting to keep up with the competition.
Charismatics and Pentecostals (I use the terms interchangeably) believe that a second anointing of the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon the church of God and that it is a sign of the closing of this age.
I grew up in charismatic circles and am intimately familiar with beliefs and practices.  Most of what I’ll share here will be based on teachings and experiences I had growing up.

IS IT TRULY UNIQUE?

My focus in this blog will be to discuss some research that I have completed since leaving the charismatic movement and becoming Orthodox.  In particular, I want to shed light on a very uncomfortable fact: the things that happen in the charismatic movement are not necessarily unique to it or even Christianity.
For example, New Age spirituality and Pentecostalism offer spiritual experiences without asceticism.  In other words, they offer an experience of “higher power” without the necessity of sacrificing worldly and fleshly desires.
From what I have seen, in both movements a spiritual experience is not normally questioned. I was never taught to ask, “Was this of God or some evil source?” It is simply assumed that if one has a spiritual experience that makes them feel good, then it must be of God. How can the devil make someone feel good?
But as we read in the example in the prior blog, if we are not actively waging war against the passions while relying on spiritual guidance from the fathers, then we cannot readily discern whether or not we are in delusion.
While I think a majority of “experiences” in the Charismatic movement are based on psychological and emotional excitement, there certainly are a number that are legitimately spiritual.

“GIFTS” OF THE SPIRIT

WORDS OF KNOWLEDGE

Words of knowledge vary from “giving a word,” the latter of which honestly does not require any kind of “spirit” to inspire it because it is usually simply encouraging or flattering speech.
The former kind does not necessarily require any kind of spirit either.  There is something called “cold reading,” in which a speaker will subconsciously and intuitively be able to discern something about other people.  The skill is sharpened with practice.
For more information on cold reading, you can watch Orson Welles brief interview or a more detailed explanation of it by atheists Derren Brown and Richard Dawkins.
In summary, most of what I saw when someone had a “word of knowledge” was nothing more than well-practiced cold reading, though normally innocent in its intention.  I’ll write a more detailed post on this later.

TONGUES

A common spiritual “gift” in both Pentecostalism and Mediumism is glossolalia, or “speaking in tongues.” While this is mentioned in the Bible on several occasions, the way it manifests itself in today’s Charismatic movement has much more in common with pagan spiritualism¹ than anything else. In fact, anthropologists and linguists have confirmed that the “gift of tongues” in modern day Christianity is surprisingly similar to what is and has been practiced in pagan religions.²
At the beginning of the charismatic movement, the teaching regarding tongues was closer to the biblical examples: that through the Holy Spirit, people are speaking in other languages.  However, that doctrine has been proven false by linguists, so now the teaching has evolved to say that people are speaking a heavenly language.  This is what I believed growing up.
But, a book by Dr. Felicitas Goodman, a linguistic expert who spent many months/years recording and analyzing charismatics, casts some doubt on such a lofty belief. She makes many excellent observations including the fact that they do not speak in other human languages, and when speaking in the “heavenly language,” charismatics do not use any sounds foreign to their particular native tongue. So that begs the question: how can it be a heavenly language if it is limited to one’s own native speech patterns?
I remember at times wanting so desperately to draw close to God in prayer, but simply not knowing how.  I would “pray in tongues” because I didn’t know what else to do.  Now, I have learned the Jesus Prayer and how to pray the Orthodox way, which is far deeper and better than speaking in tongues ever was.

FALSE PROPHETS AND ANGELS OF LIGHT

As a young Charismatic, I remember being perplexed about the account in Acts 16 between the young child who was a medium for demons and Paul:
Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling.  This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.”  And this she did for many days.
But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And he came out that very hour.
Had this young girl been a member of any of my previous Charismatic congregations, she probably would have been praised as a prophetess. After all, her prophecies caused no “harm” and seemed to genuinely “help” people.  But the Apostle obviously cast a spirit out of her.
In 2^nd Corinthians 11:14 , St. Paul warns us that the devil can appear as an angel of light. However, let us not limit ourselves to a literal interpretation of that only, but what it further implies: the devil will not only visibly transform himself, but can replicate “godly” feelings in us of peace, joy, excitement, and warmth. And that is certainly one of his tactics.

MY JOURNEY

I know when I was in the Charismatic movement I had many great experiences that left me with the warmest, loveliest feelings. But I was arrogant and cocky, thinking most other Christians inferior to myself. I had a boldness about me that I claimed was the Holy Spirit, but in retrospect, I believe it was a different spirit. While I was mostly a “nice guy,” my pride and ego left little room for authentic love. I was also completely enmeshed in my passions and felt as though I was a slave to them.
I supposedly had a great anointing of the Holy Spirit, but my secret, inner life was a mess. Something was wrong with that picture. As Kirk Franklin sang, “church taught me how to shout and speak in tongues, but preacher teach me how to live when the tongue is done.”
For these reasons, we Christians desperately need to dive into the ancient wisdom of the Church and we need experienced spiritual guides. We cannot simply trust our feelings. And no ordinary guide will do. It needs to be someone who is gaining victory over the passions (purification), is filled with the Holy Spirit (illumination), and is on the path of union with God (deification/theosis). The holy fathers of the Orthodox Church fit that description. And from the time I began looking to them for guidance, I began to learn what it means to truly experience God versus a feel-good emotional experience.

A FEW THOUGHTS FROM FATHER SERAPHIM

One of the defining books in Orthodoxy on this topic is Fr. Seraphim Rose’s Orthodoxy and The Religion of the Future. In it, he confirms that God can and does reach people no matter where they are, but that is not an excuse to stay where we are if it is not the best God has for us. I will quote him at length:
You may well feel that your experience in the ‘charismatic’ movement has been largely something good (even though you may have reservations about some things you have seen or experienced in it); you may well be unable to believe that there is anything demonic in it. In suggesting that the ‘charismatic’ movement is mediumistic in inspiration, we do not mean to deny the whole of your experience while involved in it.
If you have been awakened to repentance for your sins, to the realization that the Lord Jesus Christ in the Savior of mankind, to sincere love for God and your neighbor – all this is indeed good and would not be lost by abandoning the ‘charismatic’ movement. But if you think that your experience of ‘speaking in tongues,’ or ‘prophesying,’ or whatever else of the ‘supernatural’ that you may have experienced, is from God – then this book is an invitation for you to find out that the realm of true Christian spiritual experience is much deeper than you have felt up to now, that the wiles of the devil are much more subtle than you may have imagined, that the willingness of our fallen human nature to mistake illusion for truth, emotional comfort for spiritual experience, is much greater than you think.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

I didn’t write this with the desire to see people shut down spiritually. Rather, I want to see us dive deeper into the spiritual life, but to do so in truth and with wisdom and guidance. The fathers of the Church advise us to have a spiritual guide who is knowledgeable of common spiritual traps and can help us to discern whether our experiences are of God or deceptions of the devil. If we do not have that, we should at the very least rely heavily upon the writings of the fathers. God will save us and protect us if we are truly seeking Him in humility and not merely looking for experiences.
My fourth and final post will attempt to dive into warmth of heart and authentic spiritual experiences found in Orthodoxy.

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END NOTES:

¹ See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossolalia Many Christians do not realize that the Mormons and pagans practiced speaking in tongues long before the Charismatic movement. This alone should cause Christians to stop and ask questions. If tongues has primarily come from demonic and pagan groups, shouldn’t we be a bit more hesitant to jump on board?
² See Felicitas Goodman’s Speaking in Tongues: A Cross-cultural Study of Glossolalia and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossolalia
Main picture from: http://knilvrie.deviantart.com/art/Worship-87303818


source:

http://www.orthodoxroad.com/transcendence-spiritual-experiences-part-3/
 

Transcendence & Spiritual Experiences, Part 2

BEYOND ATHEISM AND RATIONALISM
In my last post, I discussed how many of us experience moments of transcendence that leave us with an inexplicable knowledge that there is more to this life than the material world that immediately surrounds us. The mindset of this world and forms of atheism attempt to belittle or deny us this knowledge because it is supposedly not rational or scientifically provable.
However, according to some recent research, atheism is declining in numbers. While numbers are not everything, it reveals the atheists are fighting a losing battle because humans are naturally predisposed toward spirituality. It takes effort to shut down this aspect of our being, and it is rewarding when we don’t do so. Many people are now considering themselves to be spiritual but not religious. Droves of young people are leaving the institutional church, but wanting to maintain some form of belief in God and the spiritual life. Consequently, divorced from the roots of authentic Christianity, there is a lack of guidance in spiritual exploration in addition to a loss of understanding regarding God. “God is love” can now mean “God is the spiritual force that makes me feel good.”
The spiritual but not religious crowd recognizes a subtle reality that surrounds us. However, because our society lacks roots in divine Truth, we have little knowledge of how to properly understand spiritual feelings and experiences. A common misconception has become the standard rule: “If I have a real spiritual experience, then it follows that it must be good,” which flows from the above concept that God is what makes us feel good.
ANCIENT WISDOM: A PRACTICAL FAITH
Something that I greatly love about Eastern Orthodoxy is that our theology is based on divine revelation and our teachings on experience in that revelation. What that means is you will not find any arm-chair theologians who became saints. None of our saints sat down and wrote books based on clever sounding ideas that occurred to them while reading the Bible. Divine revelation was faithfully passed down from Christ and the Apostles, put into practice, and those who taught otherwise were proved wrong through experience.
It was confirmed that those who are living in divine Truth will manifest the “fruit of the Spirit,” with the most certain indicators being love for enemies and true humility. With 1,700+ years of monastic experience in community, the Eastern Orthodox Christians have found their spirituality and teachings to be true and have ascertained the deepest possible understanding of the human psyche and spiritual experiences.  This wisdom is time-tested.
With such wisdom, the saints have proved to be valuable guides in understanding spiritual experiences. We see that real spiritual experiences, including ones that leave us with good peaceful feelings, have multiple sources.
A BENEFICIAL STORY
The remainder of this post is a true story that displays how we cannot trust a spiritual experience as being from God simply because it feels good:
St Ignatius in The Arena tells of a young monk who desired to live in solitude so that he could deepen his spiritual life. His abbot opposed the idea, but the young monk insisted and eventually the abbot allowed him to do as he wished. For several days the young monk wrestled with evil thoughts and temptations when one day,
Having transformed himself into an angel of light, [a devil] appeared to him and said: “Be it known to you that for the sake of your purity and moral life, the Lord sent me to serve you.”
“What good have I done,” the monk replied, “that an angel should serve me?”
“All that you have done is great and eminent,” retorted the devil. “You have left all the beauties of the world and have become a monk. You labor in fasting, prayer, and vigil. And now you have left your monastery and have settled for life here. How can angels not serve your holiness?”
In this way the soul-destroying snake led him to arrogance and pride, and began to appear to him continually. Once, a man who had been robbed by thieves came to the monk. The unclean demon who, to deceive him, kept appearing to him in the form of an angel, said to him:
“This man has been robbed by thieves. What they stole is hidden in such and such a place. Tell him to go there and take it.”
The man who had come to the cave bowed, but the monk said to him from above: “All right, brother, I know why you have come. You are in distress because thieves came to you and stole so and so. Do not be sad! They put what they stole in such and such a place. Go there and you will find it all, and pray for me.”
The narrative continues to explain that this was the first of many similar occurrences in which the young monk was able to tell people where lost or stolen objects were in addition to giving many other “prophetic words.” People flocked to him in great numbers and believed him to be a prophet. One day the demon in disguise came to him and said,
“…for the sake of your irreproachable and angelic life other angels will come and take you, in the body, to heaven…”
So saying, the devil vanished. But the most merciful God Whose love for us is so great and Who does not desire the destruction of men, put into the monk’s heart the idea to tell the abbot what had happened…
When the abbot received the message he came at once and discussed the young monk’s visions and prophetic abilities. The young monk, truly believing himself to be humble, credited his spiritual abilities to the abbot’s prayers. In return, the abbot declared him to be deceived, but refused to leave the young man, wanting to be present in case the “angels” came for him to carry him to away.
Not surprisingly, the demons returned for the young monk and began their attempt to fly away with him. The abbot clung to the monk while crying to the Lord Jesus Christ for help. With much prayer and wrestling, the demons could snatch only the monk’s mantle and they carried that away into the sky. It floated out of sight and disappeared, only to reappear a few minutes later: free-falling from the sky to the earth below. The abbot rebuked the monk,
“Foolish and wretched man! You see what the demons have done with your mantle. That is what they intended to do with you, too. They intended to raise you in the air like Simon Magus and then let you drop, so as to crush you and fatally cast out your wretched soul.”
Afterward, the young monk repented and returned to a simple, humble life in community with his brothers.
The above narrative provides a powerful lesson: the devil can and does come in the guise of an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14). That is not limited to angelic visions, but also to feelings that are joyful, peaceful, and seem as if they are from God. More to come on how this relates to today’s spiritual environment and the Charismatic movement in the next post.


source:

http://www.orthodoxroad.com/transcendence-spiritual-experiences-part-2/
 

Transcendence & Spiritual Experiences, Part 1

While reading this, you are probably sitting in a room. Around you are most likely walls and perhaps other people behind some of those walls. If you could see through the walls surrounding you, a vision of more walls would likely be had if you are in a city, and trees and earth if you are in the country.
Were you to somehow float above everything with the vision of an eagle, your position would allow you insight on more things and people. Your knowledge of your surroundings would no longer be contained to the four walls about you.
Many of us have had such “transcendent” moments where it seems we tap into something higher than ourselves. Perhaps this has come during prayer or divine services; frequently this is experienced in nature. I had an atheist friend who confessed to having several of these moments while hiking the Appalachian Trail.
For those of us who allow inner quiet and stillness, these moments can serve as “proof” that there is a spiritual realm and something greater than the material world around us. The experiences often serve as our best defense against the spirit-numbing claim of this world: “All you see around you is all that there is” – sometimes this is whispered, other times shouted.
It is as if the world is telling us, “This room that you are sitting in is all that exists. Establish your happiness here. There are no other rooms; there is nothing outside of these walls. And even if there were more, none of that matters as much as the problems that you are facing in this room or the treasures to which you are attached here.”
THE ELEVATED LIFE
The saints did not listen to the world’s message. They rose above all with keen vision. We see numerous examples of this in the book of Acts, including the incident in which the Apostle Philip, when after baptizing the Ethiopian eunuch, was carried away by the Spirit to another place. There are countless examples from the lives of the saints being carried to and from places by the Holy Spirit. It is as if their bodies were not less material, but something beyond material. As Elder Ambrose of Optina stated regarding one such anonymous pilgrim, “Well, you understand, he is a man of elevated life, his flesh is subtle.”
Somewhat recent saints who lived such elevated lives include the above mentioned Elder Ambrose, Elder Pophyrios, and Archbishop John of Shanghai and San Francisco. Not only would they suddenly appear in places geographically distant from where they were moments ago, but they would also know what is in the heart and soul of every person.
SHINING LIKE STARS IN THE FIRMAMENT OF THE CHURCH
St Theophan the Recluse taught that the saints, especially those who have departed, and all of the angelic hosts look upon us from an elevated position of love and discernment. As one Akathist states, they “shine like stars in the firmament of the Church.”
If someone is pure of heart, then their soul has a glow and shimmer to it. The purer one’s heart, the brighter they shine. When the angels and saints look down upon a busy street, they see a multitude of people: some are shining, others are very dark. Accordingly, the saints and angels either grieve or rejoice over us. This concept is not some lofty notion of piety, but a living reality.
The soul that shines is illuminated from within by the Holy Spirit. It is the light of God shining through the person. Most of us are blind to this light because our nous is not clean, but it is evident to heavenly beings. Like the eyes that behold the material world around us, the nous is the spiritual organ within a human being that can perceive the spiritual world.
I think moments of transcendence are often brief flashes of spiritual light that illuminate us. Like a dream that forever slips through the finger tips of our waking consciousness, so these moments pass through the rational mind and into the heart. Words are inadequate to explain, so we are left with irrational arguments like “I just know this to be true.”
May we preserve a child-like simplicity that keeps the nous free and clear to spiritual life. May we be content with experiencing God in simple, inexplicable ways without worrying about how silly it may sound to others. May we continually meditate on God’s love and goodness, with gratitude that fills us with joy and light. And may we continue to partake in the Mysteries of the Church, which God has given us as material means to obtain spiritual grace.

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Are all transcendent moments and spiritual experiences a gift from God? Let’s tackle that question in the upcoming Part 2.


source:

http://www.orthodoxroad.com/transcendence-spiritual-experiences-part-1/