"I'm sorry. Now we are turning to something much less beautiful than the sunset. It's me." As a protestant brother who grew up in Montana (the land of the big sky), I have a great appreciation for beautiful sunsets. This was a beautiful sunset. It was not as beautiful as you. You are beautiful because God has made you, and He has done beautiful things through you. My soul has been blessed through you, my brother. Thank you for following God and trying to promote Him in your videos. Even if you were to never post a video again, God has used you mightily in the lives of people like myself who strive to give our lives to God. Be blessed, my brother!
I used to think being a true Orthodox Christian meant being weak. I could not have been further from the truth. When God says if you want to follow me pick up your cross and follow me, He wasn’t kidding. The journey for me has been tough and incredibly fulfilling. God works in mysterious ways.
O,k I am very critical about everything. Questing every thing. Believe nothing. But feel your heart. Feel your heart. I start crying. I don't believ in sjit anymore. Not in soft words any more. I believe no one anymore. But feel your heart and love. Tears drip from my eyes.
Thank you, Father Seraphim. I'm not sure how you are doing it, that you always find exactly those words and teachings I need right there in my life. Thank you for the faith. May God bless you always.
Don't surrender your loneliness so quickly. Let it cut you more deep. Let it ferment and season you as few humans and even divine ingredients can. Something missing in my heart tonight has made my eyes so soft, my voice so tender, my need for God absolutely clear. ~ Hafez (14th-century, sufi mystic, master, poet extraordinaire.)
Dear Fr. Seraphim in my prayers for you and your Monastery on Mull Island. Please pray for me Paisios Thomas Victor Merlo Jr residing in Bethlehem PA USA. Please pray for my employment and health. Love to you. 🙏
Here is a testimony Brothers and Sisters! Just as I thought to myself, God wants me to come as I am, honestly so that he can change me as I am to become who we want me to be, this video popped up. I believe it is no coincidence. This is a revelation. Come as you are as the song says. Obey and trust in the Lord. Read the scriptures so you know his way and are able to discern from the enemy but just ask in prayer what you need and he will help you. I forgot the verse but it says somewhere in the new testament (I think 1 Timothy). That God will give you wisdom on subjects without fail if you just ask the father. So ask! And come as you are to his everlasting mercy. He loves you so just come as you are and he already know your heart he just want you to reveal yourself to him so you can join in perfect communion. I don't know if I am right on this but I hope so. Either way trust in the Lord and here's a little testimony for yah. Please pray for me 🙏
If God is silent I will be silent too. So beautiful. Suffering united to Christ crucified is salvific. St. Pio said if we knew the value of suffering we would pray for nothing else. Only here do we find any answer to the problem of suffering even though it remains a mystery. The benefit is enormous. You mean our suffering has benefit for eternal life. Alright! I might still suffer but now I accept it gladly and stop worrying about it! What a huge psychological boost! Thank you once again Fr. Seraphim. What a great voice you are in this life.
Dear Father, please, please don’t give up your videos, so many people are helped and inspired by them. I am RC but find your words more helpful than my priest’s. I would love to hear your thoughts on confession!
The closer I walk towards the light of Christ the more the light reveals my offenses. We must be able to shed the layers of fallenness to arrive before our Lord naked as the day we were born.
Oh Father you and I are so alike my brother.....I hear you....God loves you with his closeness to you....thank you for your passion....it is so very lovely to my soul.....my brother.
From the Holy Orthodox Church of Sts Cosmas and Damian at Kilmarnock Ontario I thank you for this sermon. God be with you little brothers,God be with you.
As a mother of 2 boys who both have learning issues, I've been struggling with my faith and wondering what I've done wrong, and why God hasn't answered my calls for help....you said just what I needed to hear. Thank you for this video - perhaps keeping my silence and letting God do his work in his time, is what I need to do. God bless you. Amen.
Prayer is a very good choice. May God give you strength to go on with your prayers and help your boys. Bring your boys to the Divine Liturgy such that they can take the Holy Eucharist. This will help your boys on the learning issues. Ask the advice of the spiritual Father, remain close to the Church and things will be good in time. I have witnessed so many miracles in numerous families that grow up in the Church, but this takes time. God bless !
I have a learning disability myself and because l just don't look like or sound like it my teachers wouldn't believe me, shame me and call my lazy until it was too late and l never got any sort of therapy or training to help my learning disability. I'm 20 and struggle to operate with even single digit numbers, mix up left and right, struggle to copy ornaments even though l'm a painter now. The advice I could give as someone who has been there is to not let teachers call them lazy, help them find what they are good at and let them have enough time doing something they enjoy and gives them a sense of accomplishment. May God help you!
Dear Father, this has been most useful for me. Pray for me, servant of God, a sinner, Anthonius. + I was welcomed to Holy Orthodoxy (from Roman Catholicism) some 7 years ago and am still I child with much to learn, especially with being more vigilant and in fasting the right way. Please pray for me, a sinner. Thank You!
The joy with which you shared that sunset with us would be reason enough to watch this video and then came your words and they were so precious and helpful, Thank You!
☦️ In my sufferings the world is a big place with many types of evil temptations, it takes many forms, negative thoughts, pain, isolation and loneliness, fear and sickness. I stay to myself to limit these temptations, it helps. I worship the Orthodox Liturgy on TH-cam for my Salvation, it keeps me focused on Christ.
I am disabled and am struggling with accepting the limitations imposed by this. Your message has been most timely and needed. Thank you for the lovely sunset view.
Multumesc Parinte Serafim pentru ca ne inspirati ceva de nedescris in cuvinte. Sa va binecuvinteze Bunul Dumnezeu si sa aiba grija de toti fratii din Manastirea Mull.
Thank you so much, Father Seraphim! I have been struggling a lot lately with this exact phenomenon... The feeling of grace has left me and this has been hindering me in many ways as I have started drifting away from the Lord... But how can a soul that even once felt the sweetness of the Lord forget it and turn away from Him? So I thank the Lord that my conscience keeps reminding me that despite me drifting away from the Lord, there is nothing worthy in life but Him... So I have to be honest in my prayers to the Lord and confess to Him all my shortcomings and even if this spiritual state does not go away (which I am sure it will, since it is entirely my fault, and the Lord always makes a way for us, it is us who are faithless and do not love Him..), there is nothing more worthy than giving it a try! Please pray for all our souls, Father Seraphim, so that we never forget the Lord, the only true Truth, Life, and Way.
I'm learning that suffering is ultimately good for the soul. If we keep silent and accept it it can lead to sainthood. Thank you Father for reminding me.
I had a similar fascination with sunset in the Adriatic a couple of days ago. That is to say, fascination with God's beauty and peace, or peaceful beauty and beautiful peace. With Logos. Needless to say how thankful I am for that. Right now I'm recovering from a migraine that I quite often have and that's a completely different world, that's being submerged, in a way. But I've just taken some pills and listened to Father Seraphim and am thankful for both as they both helped me re-emerge. I listen to Orthodox monks from my linguistic tradition as well and feel diverse degrees of similarity of spiritual concerns and attraction. But with Father Seraphim I feel this high degree of synchronisation and likeness that is, I believe, independent of the fact that I also belong to the Orthodox church (half of my family is Catholic). It is very obvious from the comments here. Not only do we have to make every effort to know ourselves , our true selves, which is already a hard enough exercise to do, but to constantly remind ourselves of it and to use it, that sincerity, as the starting point for our spiritual growth. I think it is, at least for myself, a recursive and asynchronous process rather than just linear. If there is one advantage of being an Orthodox Christian I would like to emphasize, it is this ample space and time, as Father Seraphim says, to be allocated in our lives to this endeavour that , to other denominations and cultures, may too easily appear too egotistic or impossible to achieve in our contemporary circumstances.
Father!!! Thank you so so much from the bottom of my heart. Honestly this video came as a blessing to me in a time of need. It hit the nail on its head concerning my situation. Time to head towards that cross that i’ve been escaping and running away from. God bless you ☦️☦️
Thank you,Father. I have just watched the introduction of you from 8 years ago in WA. Before a talk about monks, etc. Have no had a chance to watch what you said yet.. but i am glad to know of your life and studies before you took on the task on mull and iona which the Lord gave you and which blesses all of us.. Glory to God!
1) listen to your conscience, learn to discern it from the other voices in your head. It is literally God's voice and if you follow it you benefit from the wisdom of eternity. 2) Place mystery at the center of your life. Whatever disrupts your sense of mystery will lead you astray. 3) Never close off your perceptions, no matter no strange and overwhelming they are. By doing so you shut out God. Learn to have confidence in what your least explicable perceptions show you; do not seek vindication or recognition from other people regarding any spiritual knowledge. They are blind and will just sow doubt. 4) All good things come by grace. Do not senselessly try to replicate the conditions of your past happiness, instead be ready to receive grace in the most unexpected form. 5) Never forget that an infinite reality surrounds and and wells up within you, that is pure truth and light. No one can stop you from trusting your perceptions and perceiving it. Most of the time you only get glimpses -- allow these glimpses to accumulate into a larger pattern, instead of getting frustrated when they're rare.
This is such a true message. When we are completely honest with the Lord and HUMBLE, that is when we get a flash of light from the Holy Spirit that answers so many questions, or at the very least brings great peace even in the questions we have.
I tried during Covid to keep the three jobs I had, but one was in very sharp conflict with keeping a stable schedule and prayer, and let it go. After seeing this I feel as though, perhaps I should have kept it to grow, but I was disgusted with the amount of frustration that it brought about in me and have others to be stable for as well. The reality is that I am trying to kill passions, but not at that rate. I do desperately struggle as well as I know and treasure the word from Saint Sophrony. Please pray for us average people struggling out here now. It is difficult and sometimes we need to step back and have a cup of tea.
It's not about how we compare to each other brother, and compared to God none are good. Better that you're not so frustrated and fair play to you for trying so hard and keeping two jobs! God bless you.
Thank you Seraphim. This was very helpful in reminding me to trust in God's plan and love for my life, and yours. I recently read a book about the existence of God and whether we can know Him. This shook me for some reason. But I had lost sight of the importance of faith. God bless, brother.
Wonderful, thank you father. Your thoughts on St Sophrony made me think of what St Silouan, his mentor, was told by God in prayer in his own despair: 'Keep your mind in hell and despair not.' I always found this very difficult to understand, but your talk makes it clearer. The tension is the cross. There is much to think about.
St Silouan and St Sophrony had a much more equal relationship than we give them credit. I believe St Sophrony allowed the idea that he was merely the disciple of St Siloaun because of his great humility. In fact, St Silouan was the one who approached St Sophrony after he had heard the advice St Sophrony had given to a pilgrim. In this advice, St Silouan recognised an equal, someone who had received the same grace. But Saints are like that, they love to compete in humility with each other, and to place the other one above oneself. May we all be blessed through their prayers.
Thank you so much I listen and I'm cleansed by the tears I'm given. Thank you, for your guidance I listen and it helps me to look deeper in faith. I seek the lord and know him as he has known me from before this soul was given this body.
No worries Father. I have found fount of wisdom in your video musings. You have become one of my "Dear Ones". May the Three-in-One continue to Bless you and all those at Mull Monastery. Thank You!
We don't pretend they are there, suffering pain misery... because we do believe in them, so we experience them. God knows not of these things and so remains silent🙏
Thank you 🙏I have been under grate spiritual warfare for so long it is very tormenting. GOD was with me as a young child I have been waiting my whole life for his coming and to have these thoughts are horrifying that everytime I pick up the bible very intense thoughts that I put have to put the bible down. There is nothing i love more or than GOD AND YASHUA. When YASHUA said to the Father why has thow forsaken me. To be separate from the Father is being in hell😪🙏
Thank you Fr. Seraphim for this message. God desires that we remain true to Him and true to ourselves, even when we recognize the shortcomings, vices, and weaknesses we possess.
You are our gift from God Father Seraphim...thank you for your uplifting words of wisdom...you give us strength and hope and true spiritual guidance everyday...
This message was for ME. I believe GOD had you make this for me. I have been so sad ltely at my circumstances and with the fact that I left seminary and my order for legit reasons, but now I may never again get back into another seminary or order or even become a diocesan priest, and my heart is breaking because of this. Ijust want to become a Priest!!!! Please everyone pray for my vocation.....that I have not blown the only opportunity.
Saint Joseph the Hesycast says something about how God tests us to see how much we love Him. Either way, Saint Sophrony has a LOT of faith and love to respond as he does: when asking God continuously the same thing, yet not loosing hope. That’s amazing!!!
Such a wonderful antidote to modernity’s push to avoid suffering at all costs. Also, it reminds of what a complete fool Marx was for calling religion the ‘opium of the masses’. Being a Christian is radically difficult. It takes everything you got and then some Grace from God on top and underneath that. God bless you, Father.
Do you think if we go through this fire and submit to it……it will not show up again? I try to get away from pain and the experience comes back again and again…..it is so hard as I have had so much pain throughout my childhood and adulthood…..this life requires so much courage…
Although I am just now seeing this video you posted over two years ago, it is very beautiful and timely. Your message is so powerful. Your passion for Christ and your love can be felt through this video.
Dear, dear, Father, i already left a comment below, but i just had a chance to watch your opening words on the video about Monasticism, etc. in WA..at ST. PAUL Church. Your saying that you had learned not to say, no, no matter how difficult it felt for you to say, yes, because you had learned that the Lord had put it in your way to do this, were sobering words. Thank you. Have heard no more yet. Just had to stop and tell you here.. since no comments are allowed there. Your words which took less than 3 minutes were valuable.. Oh, what a joy to have met you in LA on one of your visits.. and to watch these videos that help us so much.. even as they take great effort on your part to do. But THAT is one of the reasons they are so valuable. . This is actually a VERY GOOD video to go along with the other, i believe.
God bless you Father Seraphim. Thank you very much for your spiritual guidance. It is true that only recognizing who we really are, only then God can save us. Through our baptism, we are all dressed up in Christ. Though our baptism, Christ is covering/ protecting us from the evil one, like an invisible cloth. This protection however is further consolidated if we take our own crosses and follow Christ, meaning that we must accept all what God gives us, the good ones as well as the things that help us to stay away from sin, things through which God shows us that we are not really on the right path, things that makes us spiritually stronger. Saint Apostle Paul had a physical disability and asked God to lift this up from him. However, God told him that such a physical weakness is good for him and that God's Grace is sufficient for him. By accepting this, and many other gifts, Saint Apostle Paul took his cross and followed God until his martyrdom in Rome. There is no resurrection if we do not take up our crosses and follow God. Personally, I fully trust God that He knows what is best for me, and this is why I am not asking God, why. As Saint Father Sophrony of Essex indicated in his letter, God kept silent on all his 'why questions', and therefore so he did too. Maybe God did so, because His Grace that was upon Saint Father Sophrony of Essex was enough for him, and the ones around him. It is true that most of times people ask God why, if things are less good in their lives. But, how many of us do ask God the following: "Why God, are you so good and kind with me/ my family/ my friends, after all my sins, after all my falls, after all my wrong-doings I have done?" The answer to all 'whys' would be, I guess: "Because I love you, and I want you all to be saved !" We are less convinced that God loves us when things go less good in our lives, but I am wondering how many of us think that God loves us, when all things are very good in our lives? We take for granted many things very easily in our lives, and many times we forget (unfortunately) to thank God for everything basically. God bless you all !
Thank you 🙏 wonderful that Saint Sophrony can still speak to us through you. And that was a beautiful message you conveyed from him and all of us should hear it . God’s love and my prayers for you . Mark IC XC NI KA
Yes! Father! I have committed this Sin and Have know somewhat recently about this sin you speak of! So, I know even better not Because of other sins brought to the light, why I broke down 4yrs Ago here in the desert. Thank you so much for speaking on this subject and because of That, bringing even more clarity to my full Brain. I have Asberger Syndrome & so it can be difficult to express my self. If I ever say something that annoys Or upset you please forgive me. I know I can be blunt but I can Not always say it differently. So forgive me!
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"God can save the sinner you are, but not the saint you pretend to be." I forget who the quote comes from, but it stuck with me.
Metropolitan Antony Bloom If I am not wrong
I like your quote. So God forgives the pretentious too, but it's harder for them to see their need for repentance. Terrible place to get stuck.
"I'm sorry. Now we are turning to something much less beautiful than the sunset. It's me."
As a protestant brother who grew up in Montana (the land of the big sky), I have a great appreciation for beautiful sunsets. This was a beautiful sunset.
It was not as beautiful as you.
You are beautiful because God has made you, and He has done beautiful things through you. My soul has been blessed through you, my brother. Thank you for following God and trying to promote Him in your videos. Even if you were to never post a video again, God has used you mightily in the lives of people like myself who strive to give our lives to God. Be blessed, my brother!
I used to think being a true Orthodox Christian meant being weak. I could not have been further from the truth. When God says if you want to follow me pick up your cross and follow me, He wasn’t kidding. The journey for me has been tough and incredibly fulfilling. God works in mysterious ways.
O,k I am very critical about everything. Questing every thing. Believe nothing.
But feel your heart. Feel your heart. I start crying.
I don't believ in sjit anymore. Not in soft words any more. I believe no one anymore.
But feel your heart and love. Tears drip from my eyes.
Yes, thank you
Please don't stop posting these videos, they are so helpful.
Thank you, Father Seraphim. I'm not sure how you are doing it, that you always find exactly those words and teachings I need right there in my life. Thank you for the faith. May God bless you always.
A.D. Same. Every day is Father hands me the road map for that day!
Likewise
Ma simt sfaramata si coplesita. Multumesc pentru incurajari./I feel broken and overwhelmed. Thank you for your encouraging words.
Don't surrender your loneliness so quickly.
Let it cut you more deep.
Let it ferment and season you
as few humans and even divine ingredients can.
Something missing in my heart tonight
has made my eyes so soft,
my voice so tender,
my need for God absolutely clear.
~ Hafez
(14th-century, sufi mystic, master, poet extraordinaire.)
Dear Fr. Seraphim in my prayers for you and your Monastery on Mull Island. Please pray for me Paisios Thomas Victor Merlo Jr residing in Bethlehem PA USA. Please pray for my employment and health. Love to you. 🙏
Thank you.
Here is a testimony Brothers and Sisters! Just as I thought to myself, God wants me to come as I am, honestly so that he can change me as I am to become who we want me to be, this video popped up. I believe it is no coincidence. This is a revelation. Come as you are as the song says. Obey and trust in the Lord. Read the scriptures so you know his way and are able to discern from the enemy but just ask in prayer what you need and he will help you. I forgot the verse but it says somewhere in the new testament (I think 1 Timothy). That God will give you wisdom on subjects without fail if you just ask the father. So ask! And come as you are to his everlasting mercy. He loves you so just come as you are and he already know your heart he just want you to reveal yourself to him so you can join in perfect communion. I don't know if I am right on this but I hope so. Either way trust in the Lord and here's a little testimony for yah. Please pray for me 🙏
Julian of Norwich claimed that when she saw that God didn’t blame her, she determined not to blame God. So Divine, yet so human.
If God is silent I will be silent too. So beautiful.
Suffering united to Christ crucified is salvific. St. Pio said if we knew the value of suffering we would pray for nothing else. Only here do we find any answer to the problem of suffering even though it remains a mystery.
The benefit is enormous. You mean our suffering has benefit for eternal life. Alright! I might still suffer but now I accept it gladly and stop worrying about it! What a huge psychological boost!
Thank you once again Fr. Seraphim. What a great voice you are in this life.
You are a human being created by God, much more beautiful than any sunset.
Dear Father, please, please don’t give up your videos, so many people are helped and inspired by them. I am RC but find your words more helpful than my priest’s. I would love to hear your thoughts on confession!
The closer I walk towards the light of Christ the more the light reveals my offenses. We must be able to shed the layers of fallenness to arrive before our Lord naked as the day we were born.
yes. it benefitted me. Thank you Jesus
Thank you. I am a Roman Catholic but I love listening to your words of wisdom. It helps that I love Scotland!!!
Another Catholic here, so much enjoying this!
Just seeing you makes me smile, like an Instant hit of uncreated Grace, truly a Blessed Man ☦🙇🏽♂️
Thank you, Father!
THANKS
Allow God the space and time to work in your life. 🙏 grateful
Amen Amen Amen 🙏
Oh Father you and I are so alike my brother.....I hear you....God loves you with his closeness to you....thank you for your passion....it is so very lovely to my soul.....my brother.
Thank you for sharing that sunset. I needed to see that today.
From the Holy Orthodox Church of Sts Cosmas and Damian at Kilmarnock Ontario I thank you for this sermon. God be with you little brothers,God be with you.
As a mother of 2 boys who both have learning issues, I've been struggling with my faith and wondering what I've done wrong, and why God hasn't answered my calls for help....you said just what I needed to hear. Thank you for this video - perhaps keeping my silence and letting God do his work in his time, is what I need to do. God bless you. Amen.
What a wonderful mother you are.. I will pray for you.. ☦️
Prayer is a very good choice. May God give you strength to go on with your prayers and help your boys. Bring your boys to the Divine Liturgy such that they can take the Holy Eucharist. This will help your boys on the learning issues. Ask the advice of the spiritual Father, remain close to the Church and things will be good in time. I have witnessed so many miracles in numerous families that grow up in the Church, but this takes time. God bless !
I will pray for you.
I have a learning disability myself and because l just don't look like or sound like it my teachers wouldn't believe me, shame me and call my lazy until it was too late and l never got any sort of therapy or training to help my learning disability. I'm 20 and struggle to operate with even single digit numbers, mix up left and right, struggle to copy ornaments even though l'm a painter now. The advice I could give as someone who has been there is to not let teachers call them lazy, help them find what they are good at and let them have enough time doing something they enjoy and gives them a sense of accomplishment. May God help you!
.....Give us our daily bread.... Father truly are our daily bread
Dear Father,
this has been most useful for me. Pray for me, servant of God, a sinner, Anthonius. +
I was welcomed to Holy Orthodoxy (from Roman Catholicism) some 7 years ago and am still I child with much to learn, especially with being more vigilant and in fasting the right way. Please pray for me, a sinner.
Thank You!
So gorgeous thank you for the sight of God...
The joy with which you shared that sunset with us would be reason enough to watch this video and then came your words and they were so precious and helpful, Thank You!
☦️ In my sufferings the world is a big place with many types of evil temptations, it takes many forms, negative thoughts, pain, isolation and loneliness, fear and sickness. I stay to myself to limit these temptations, it helps. I worship the Orthodox Liturgy on TH-cam for my Salvation, it keeps me focused on Christ.
I am disabled and am struggling with accepting the limitations imposed by this. Your message has been most timely and needed. Thank you for the lovely sunset view.
I struggle with a disability also. It's tough. We cannpray for each other .
Same here, it's tough.
@@Oilofmercy Thank you, I will pray for you, too.
@@augustbergquist5649 It really is hard. Shall we pray for each other?
Prayers for you! Don't give up!
Amen, Amen, Amen
Multumesc Parinte Serafim pentru ca ne inspirati ceva de nedescris in cuvinte. Sa va binecuvinteze Bunul Dumnezeu si sa aiba grija de toti fratii din Manastirea Mull.
,,Si Dumnezeu īmi Răspundea necontenit prin tăcere..." - atât de adânc, smerit și plin de nădejde...❤💒❤
Thank you so much, Father Seraphim! I have been struggling a lot lately with this exact phenomenon... The feeling of grace has left me and this has been hindering me in many ways as I have started drifting away from the Lord... But how can a soul that even once felt the sweetness of the Lord forget it and turn away from Him? So I thank the Lord that my conscience keeps reminding me that despite me drifting away from the Lord, there is nothing worthy in life but Him... So I have to be honest in my prayers to the Lord and confess to Him all my shortcomings and even if this spiritual state does not go away (which I am sure it will, since it is entirely my fault, and the Lord always makes a way for us, it is us who are faithless and do not love Him..), there is nothing more worthy than giving it a try! Please pray for all our souls, Father Seraphim, so that we never forget the Lord, the only true Truth, Life, and Way.
I'm learning that suffering is ultimately good for the soul. If we keep silent and accept it it can lead to sainthood. Thank you Father for reminding me.
I had a similar fascination with sunset in the Adriatic a couple of days ago. That is to say, fascination with God's beauty and peace, or peaceful beauty and beautiful peace. With Logos. Needless to say how thankful I am for that. Right now I'm recovering from a migraine that I quite often have and that's a completely different world, that's being submerged, in a way. But I've just taken some pills and listened to Father Seraphim and am thankful for both as they both helped me re-emerge. I listen to Orthodox monks from my linguistic tradition as well and feel diverse degrees of similarity of spiritual concerns and attraction. But with Father Seraphim I feel this high degree of synchronisation and likeness that is, I believe, independent of the fact that I also belong to the Orthodox church (half of my family is Catholic). It is very obvious from the comments here. Not only do we have to make every effort to know ourselves , our true selves, which is already a hard enough exercise to do, but to constantly remind ourselves of it and to use it, that sincerity, as the starting point for our spiritual growth. I think it is, at least for myself, a recursive and asynchronous process rather than just linear. If there is one advantage of being an Orthodox Christian I would like to emphasize, it is this ample space and time, as Father Seraphim says, to be allocated in our lives to this endeavour that , to other denominations and cultures, may too easily appear too egotistic or impossible to achieve in our contemporary circumstances.
Thank you Father. I pray that looking upon the cross we see the greatest joy known to mankind!
we feel your love
Father!!! Thank you so so much from the bottom of my heart. Honestly this video came as a blessing to me in a time of need. It hit the nail on its head concerning my situation. Time to head towards that cross that i’ve been escaping and running away from. God bless you ☦️☦️
Very appropriate for me.thankyou.
Thank you,Father. I have just watched the introduction of you from 8 years ago in WA. Before a talk about monks, etc.
Have no had a chance to watch what you said yet.. but i am glad to know of your life and studies before you took on the task on mull and iona which the Lord gave you and which blesses all of us..
Glory to God!
Thank you for the lovely sunset retreat.
1) listen to your conscience, learn to discern it from the other voices in your head. It is literally God's voice and if you follow it you benefit from the wisdom of eternity.
2) Place mystery at the center of your life. Whatever disrupts your sense of mystery will lead you astray.
3) Never close off your perceptions, no matter no strange and overwhelming they are. By doing so you shut out God. Learn to have confidence in what your least explicable perceptions show you; do not seek vindication or recognition from other people regarding any spiritual knowledge. They are blind and will just sow doubt.
4) All good things come by grace. Do not senselessly try to replicate the conditions of your past happiness, instead be ready to receive grace in the most unexpected form.
5) Never forget that an infinite reality surrounds and and wells up within you, that is pure truth and light. No one can stop you from trusting your perceptions and perceiving it. Most of the time you only get glimpses -- allow these glimpses to accumulate into a larger pattern, instead of getting frustrated when they're rare.
Thank you dear Father. Your videos help me so much 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 God bless you. Amen.
Praise God for these wonderful discussions. I am so grateful and find I want to listen every day. Sincere and pure. This was valuable to me today.
Thanks to God , it benefits me, so lets go ahead for more🙏❤️
hello brothers pray for us!
This is such a true message. When we are completely honest with the Lord and HUMBLE, that is when we get a flash of light from the Holy Spirit that answers so many questions, or at the very least brings great peace even in the questions we have.
Thank you Fr. Seraphim
God bless you Fr.Seraphim
Thank you for all your video’s they are helping a lot of people in their spiritual life. ❤❤❤
Blessings
I tried during Covid to keep the three jobs I had, but one was in very sharp conflict with keeping a stable schedule and prayer, and let it go. After seeing this I feel as though, perhaps I should have kept it to grow, but I was disgusted with the amount of frustration that it brought about in me and have others to be stable for as well. The reality is that I am trying to kill passions, but not at that rate. I do desperately struggle as well as I know and treasure the word from Saint Sophrony. Please pray for us average people struggling out here now. It is difficult and sometimes we need to step back and have a cup of tea.
It's not about how we compare to each other brother, and compared to God none are good. Better that you're not so frustrated and fair play to you for trying so hard and keeping two jobs! God bless you.
Tha nk. You 4 identify my struggle s
Perhaps God was allowing him to store up more treasure in Heaven.
'I dont know if this is going to benefit anyone.'
Well let me tell you, this has helped me tremendously. May God bless you and all here.
Thank you Fr. Seraphim 🙏God bless you Amen🕊🔥⭐️🇭🇺☦️
Thank you Seraphim. This was very helpful in reminding me to trust in God's plan and love for my life, and yours. I recently read a book about the existence of God and whether we can know Him. This shook me for some reason. But I had lost sight of the importance of faith. God bless, brother.
Thank you, Father Seraphim. Shared it with friends. I think I’ll listen to this one twice. ☦️💞🙏🏽
Amen and I did the same!
Just what I was thinking.
Wish i could smell the fresh air watching the sunset
Wonderful, thank you father. Your thoughts on St Sophrony made me think of what St Silouan, his mentor, was told by God in prayer in his own despair: 'Keep your mind in hell and despair not.' I always found this very difficult to understand, but your talk makes it clearer. The tension is the cross. There is much to think about.
St Silouan and St Sophrony had a much more equal relationship than we give them credit. I believe St Sophrony allowed the idea that he was merely the disciple of St Siloaun because of his great humility. In fact, St Silouan was the one who approached St Sophrony after he had heard the advice St Sophrony had given to a pilgrim. In this advice, St Silouan recognised an equal, someone who had received the same grace. But Saints are like that, they love to compete in humility with each other, and to place the other one above oneself. May we all be blessed through their prayers.
God bless you! for your amazing message ❤️
💯⛪️✝️🙏
Thank you andGod bless you Father!
Thank you. God bless you father!
Thank you so much I listen and I'm cleansed by the tears I'm given. Thank you, for your guidance I listen and it helps me to look deeper in faith. I seek the lord and know him as he has known me from before this soul was given this body.
No worries Father. I have found fount of wisdom in your video musings. You have become one of my "Dear Ones". May the Three-in-One continue to Bless you and all those at Mull Monastery. Thank You!
I feel a strong pull to monestary life, thx brother In Christ. Be blessed In Jesus name
Thank you Father. 🙏💛
Thank you Father for this beautiful explaintion, I have learned so much this morning.
We don't pretend they are there, suffering pain misery... because we do believe in them, so we experience them. God knows not of these things and so remains silent🙏
Thank you 🙏I have been under grate spiritual warfare for so long it is very tormenting. GOD was with me as a young child I have been waiting my whole life for his coming and to have these thoughts are horrifying that everytime I pick up the bible very intense thoughts that I put have to put the bible down. There is nothing i love more or than GOD AND YASHUA. When YASHUA said to the Father why has thow forsaken me. To be separate from the Father is being in hell😪🙏
Fear not! It benefitted at least one person😊✌️
Thank you Fr. Seraphim for this message. God desires that we remain true to Him and true to ourselves, even when we recognize the shortcomings, vices, and weaknesses we possess.
Thank you for sharing!
Tears of joy
You are our gift from God Father Seraphim...thank you for your uplifting words of wisdom...you give us strength and hope and true spiritual guidance everyday...
This message was for ME. I believe GOD had you make this for me. I have been so sad ltely at my circumstances and with the fact that I left seminary and my order for legit reasons, but now I may never again get back into another seminary or order or even become a diocesan priest, and my heart is breaking because of this. Ijust want to become a Priest!!!! Please everyone pray for my vocation.....that I have not blown the only opportunity.
Saint Joseph the Hesycast says something about how God tests us to see how much we love Him.
Either way, Saint Sophrony has a LOT of faith and love to respond as he does: when asking God continuously the same thing, yet not loosing hope. That’s amazing!!!
Father Seraphim...... Bless you..... Thank you Father God for your Blessings @ the end of day..... 💗🙏💗
Amen🙏🏽☦️
Such a wonderful antidote to modernity’s push to avoid suffering at all costs. Also, it reminds of what a complete fool Marx was for calling religion the ‘opium of the masses’. Being a Christian is radically difficult. It takes everything you got and then some Grace from God on top and underneath that.
God bless you, Father.
Peace
Thank you for sharing this truth and great love with us. It is really helpful. Light in these often dark days.
Thank you Father Seraphim! This was very helpful for me!!! I pray that you keep posting!
Do you think if we go through this fire and submit to it……it will not show up again? I try to get away from pain and the experience comes back again and again…..it is so hard as I have had so much pain throughout my childhood and adulthood…..this life requires so much courage…
It is said that we must pick up our cross and carry it daily and endure till the end.
Although I am just now seeing this video you posted over two years ago, it is very beautiful and timely. Your message is so powerful. Your passion for Christ and your love can be felt through this video.
Well said! Never my favorite thing to experience the hard times but, THIS is the core of real growth...transformation.
Dear, dear, Father, i already left a comment below, but i just had a chance to watch your opening words on the video about Monasticism, etc. in WA..at ST. PAUL Church.
Your saying that you had learned not to say, no, no matter how difficult it felt for you to say, yes, because you had learned that the Lord had put it in your way to do this, were sobering words. Thank you. Have heard no more yet. Just had to stop and tell you here.. since no comments are allowed there.
Your words which took less than 3 minutes were valuable..
Oh, what a joy to have met you in LA on one of your visits.. and to watch these videos that help us so much.. even as they take great effort on your part to do. But THAT is one of the reasons they are so valuable. .
This is actually a VERY GOOD video to go along with the other, i believe.
God bless you Father Seraphim. Thank you very much for your spiritual guidance. It is true that only recognizing who we really are, only then God can save us. Through our baptism, we are all dressed up in Christ. Though our baptism, Christ is covering/ protecting us from the evil one, like an invisible cloth. This protection however is further consolidated if we take our own crosses and follow Christ, meaning that we must accept all what God gives us, the good ones as well as the things that help us to stay away from sin, things through which God shows us that we are not really on the right path, things that makes us spiritually stronger. Saint Apostle Paul had a physical disability and asked God to lift this up from him. However, God told him that such a physical weakness is good for him and that God's Grace is sufficient for him. By accepting this, and many other gifts, Saint Apostle Paul took his cross and followed God until his martyrdom in Rome. There is no resurrection if we do not take up our crosses and follow God. Personally, I fully trust God that He knows what is best for me, and this is why I am not asking God, why. As Saint Father Sophrony of Essex indicated in his letter, God kept silent on all his 'why questions', and therefore so he did too. Maybe God did so, because His Grace that was upon Saint Father Sophrony of Essex was enough for him, and the ones around him. It is true that most of times people ask God why, if things are less good in their lives. But, how many of us do ask God the following: "Why God, are you so good and kind with me/ my family/ my friends, after all my sins, after all my falls, after all my wrong-doings I have done?" The answer to all 'whys' would be, I guess: "Because I love you, and I want you all to be saved !" We are less convinced that God loves us when things go less good in our lives, but I am wondering how many of us think that God loves us, when all things are very good in our lives? We take for granted many things very easily in our lives, and many times we forget (unfortunately) to thank God for everything basically. God bless you all !
Thank you 🙏 wonderful that Saint Sophrony can still speak to us through you. And that was a beautiful message you conveyed from him and all of us should hear it . God’s love and my prayers for you . Mark
IC XC
NI KA
This is a Beautiful video, it encourages me. 🙏
You have the right idea! It is not a matter of trying, but trusting (Gospel Of Luke, 18: 9-14)!
It benefited me. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Fr. Seraphim. I love the Christ in you. This video is the best. Both the sunset and the words.
AMHN 🙏
Yes! Father! I have committed this Sin and
Have know somewhat recently about this sin you speak of! So, I know even better not
Because of other sins brought to the light, why I broke down 4yrs
Ago here in the desert.
Thank you so much for speaking on this subject and because of
That, bringing even more clarity to my full
Brain.
I have Asberger Syndrome & so it can be difficult to express my self. If I ever say something that annoys
Or upset you please forgive me. I know I can be blunt but I can
Not always say it differently. So forgive me!