Desperately, many of us search for happiness anywhere we can find it – especially those who suffer from despair. We claw and grasp at nearly anything that can give us a fix and alleviate the pain of soul that we feel, and yet how hard it is for us when the thought comes to us that we should turn to God, Who alone can satisfy us? Suddenly, when one is inclined to pray and turn to God for comfort, it is as though the soul and body become deadlocked. Anything and everything comes to mind, offering a multitude of distractions, quick fixes, and easy solutions. If these do not work, despair and frustration set in again, gripping the soul in a kind of frozen grasp, rendering it nearly incapable of doing anything but giving up. How easy it is for the dog to return to its vomit (cf. Prov. 26:11).
—Anthony N, It’s Easy to Give Up and Give In
Category: PRAYER
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“The birds are always singing praises to the Lord. They begin their song early, at three o’clock in the morning, and don’t stop until nine. At nine they calm down a little bit—it’s only then that they go looking for food to feed their young. Then they start singing again. Nobody tells them to sing—they just do. And what about us? We’re always frowning, always pouting; we don’t feel like singing or doing anything else. We should follow the example of the birds. They’re always joyful whereas we’re always bothered by something.”
—Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica -
We must not seek to know God, or anything else from or about God. We must rather humble ourselves. God will then come to us and give us that which we desire. If you don’t humbly acknowledge your spiritual poverty, you won’t be able to ask God to give you the treasures of His grace. But through humility and prayer, God pours out the riches of His knowledge, granting us communion in His life. But rather than being filled with knowledge of God, we normally live with a void at the center of our existence. There is a hole in our heart, into which crawl all the cares and worries of life. We work ourselves to exhaustion in pursuit of success and happiness. We struggle to improve our position in society, to attend the right schools, and move in the right kind of circles. But the void within us is always on the increase. Nothing in the world can fill it, because it can only be filled with God. But we mustn’t despair, because despair itself is a sign of pride, and thus will take us even further away from the humble God. Avoid that road. Resist temptation, struggle, take up your cross, and God will come and find you, wherever you are.
—Elder Aimilanos of Simonopetra -
Your depression mixed with dread is somehow unclear. What is wrong with you? You have everything in order, both at home and in your soul. You will overcome it; what should you do?! Pray to God and entrust your fate and that of everyone close to you to Him. This is the most reliable way to peace! You should have but one concern – to not do anything that would anger God. You will have firm hope and lasting peace from this.
—St Theophan the Recluse -
There are people who never turn to God and never pray. Suddenly their soul experiences melancholy, their spirit worry and their heart sorrow. Then they realize that in such unhappiness no-one can help them.
This is why they turn to God and say with a deep sigh: ‘Lord, have mercy upon me’ And the Lord hears them, although at first they only just sense divine Grace.
Later they experience it much more and feel relief.
—Venerable Nectarios of Optina -
St Macedonius the Anchorite, in order to heal a woman afflicted with bulimia (though eating thirty chickens a day, she could not by surfeit extinguish her appetite but hungered for still more’) came and offered prayers, and by placing his hand over water, tracing the sign of salvation [the Sign of the Cross], and telling her to drink, healed the disease. And so completely did he blunt the excess of her appetite that thereafter a small piece of chicken each day satisfied her need for food.
Mental Disorders & Spiritual Healing: Teachings from the Early Christian East
Jean-Claude Larchet -
For it is by the power of Christ that all healing occur and demons are expelled. The saints appeal to this power and manifest it by invoking the Name of Jesus, which is especially effective in combating demons and so can deliver men from insanity:
‘The Name of Jesus can still remove distractions from the minds of men (ekstasis dianoias), and expel demons, and also take away diseases,’ declares Origin, who also tells us: And some give evidence of their having received through this faith a marvellous power by the cures which they perform, invoking no other name over those who need their help than that of the God of all things, and of Jesus, along with a mention of His history. For by these means we too have seen many persons freed from grevious calamities, and from distractions of mind (ekstasis), and madness (mania), and countless other ills.
Mental Disorders & Spiritual Healing: Teachings from the Early Christian East
Jean-Claude Larchet -
Repeat frequently: Thy will be done, O Lord!
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You describe how bitterly you regret the inefficacy of your prayers. Beware: to wish for consolation or revelation in prayer is a sure sign of pride. Pray humbly, in perfect simplicity, seeking salvation only through forgiveness, and having faith that God will extend to you His mercy-as He did to the publican.
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Another point of the utmost importance is that you have lately been tossed and harassed by sexual lusts. This always happens when our practices of the Prayer are beyond our abilities and capacities. Read, in the foreword to Philotheus of Sinai,” how easily the sensation of heat, caused by prayer, can turn to sexual lust, setting the blind heart on fire, filling the mind with the smoke of lascivious images and thoughts, and causing flesh to yearn for the touch of flesh.
SO GOOD QUOTES 