It is not me! I honestly don't know what to say, in the sense I don't research my talks. People ask me what the next topic will be and I have to admit I don't know. I pray to my spiritual mentors...St Isaac, Dorotheos et al, and if something comes into my heart/mind then I pass it on, as it were. Now you are going to think that I am spiritually enlightened - I am NOT. I struggle 23/7 with my passions.
Thank you God for Fr.Serafim teaching. Please continue on educating and enlightening us. Would you kindly post a list of the books you suggest for reading ?
yet fear comes natural keeping us from walking in front of moving trains; as it is easy to say do not fear death, as to fear death is natural, also to want to live; yet once you have died and gone to hell, and given another chance, the memory of the experience is never far away, and the totality of such; yet it is true one must trust in Christ more than one is inclined to fear the death. God bless, Pax.
12:05 We in Catholicism have the same view exactly. That's what the Stigmatists tend to represent in a unique way. The likes of St Padre Pio and the like.
nd it is worth ordering from the priest in the church to read the akathist for your name of St. Cyprian and St. Justine and of St. Archangel Michael against magic and all enemies visible and unvisible. This is if you are baptized Orthodox. There always were sorcerers even after Jesus said it is from devil they remained in every country and on every second or third family something is put from a sorcerer. And when you intend to go to command the akathist in the church, such thoughts may appear: "Maybe tomorrow, or next week", "Maybe I'm such a freak and no one is watching me (girls or boys, if you can not anyways find a pair, or you can for some reason speak only with one girl or boy.)", "The life is this way with good times and bad times", " I am so(if you have impotence)". etc. These thoughts come from demons from sorcery spells because only the prayer of the priest can 100% protect from magic and enemies visible and invisible. Jesus Christ told the apostles(which are the first priests) "I give you the right to untie everything that is tied in heaven and on earth.". Faith and creed is opinion, is how somebody thinks with his head. Repent is changing and not auto-humiliation as many think. May be enherited soul ilnessses like despresia, schizofrenia, Tourette sindrom, insomnia, bifurcation of personality etc. as they are from soul illnesses. Firstly everyone must to eradicate schizofrenia, depression etc. from him and after that to planify making children, in order that they will not jump from balconie, have blood cancer, be born bodytobody joined twins or two headed and etc. These soul illnesses can be healed by eucharisty. In the afternoon before eucharist day you have to read " The prayers before eucharisty" where are asked from eucharisty such things like: soul and body healing, sins forgiveness, protection from devils etc. It is better to go to confession in the morning in the day of eucharisty(before eucharisty)because from evening to morning everyone can make the same sins again and again and also other bigger sins. If not to forgive someone who asked for forgiveness it is not worth going to eucharisty because the sins will not be forgiven. Humbleness is awareness that in every doing you can fall and not auto-oppresion as most do and think, someone without auto-oppression is 100% free in moves in every direction, it is like a lion at freedom. Entering(submersion 3 times with a certain prayer and crossing yourself) in water springs of orthodox saints (which are near or in monasteries)give very much power and sureness to people with depression, panic attacks, schizofrenia and other soul illnesses, there are some springs of mother of God Maria that even heal soul illnesses.
14:36 Without _grace_ tradition remains _dogmatic_ and obscure, prone to mere rationalization, apostatic interpretation or political instrumentalization, all using the language of 'divine providence', but to mundane ends. E.g. one has to use to 'use the door that is Christ' in order to not be 'a thief' which is a 'technical' reference to actual _spiritual stance_ , so is the _experience_ of 'grace'. All confusion stems from the fact that the _mystical_ reality is _imponderable_ - it can't be 'meassured' or 'proven' to someone else and it is up to us to ask ourselves if we deceive ourselves about our inner life e.g. merely pretending it to make us merely _appear_ pious. It's obvious that defining Christianity while ignoring the _mystical_ tradition of the desert fathers leads to some kind of Roman legalism which the Enlightenment then merely replaced with their secular 'social engineering', we see right now in public health matters. That _may be_ why _providence_ preserved the Eastern tradition over a millennia of schism, to have a shot of renewing Christian culture.
I totally agree brother Christopher. I have had an issue with evangelist scholars referring to the Christian path as merely the most logical path a rational person could embark, but not all of us have many years of seminary and even if I did I don’t think it would be enough to convince. I think back to the apostles spreading the message and they didn’t have a backpack full of books, education and the internet, they spread quickly to those with a sincere heart enough to go within to test it out with intention to accept if true and would then become Christians. If you want a path that literally explains everything in life and the spiritual realm look into advaita vedanta, but just because people made up answers to every little thing doesn’t make it true, on the contrary it is empty.
@@bstring3967 "I think back to the apostles (...) they didn’t have (...) books, education (...), they spread quickly to those with a sincere heart enough to go within to test it out (...)." To ask about *the **_historicity_** of 'the Early Church'* is an interesting question and it is a point that explains why the 'sola scriptura' of Protestantism leads to irrational fragmentation and fanaticism. We know from _tradition_ - which can hold up to critical research - that Augustine of Hippo, then a _Manichean_ wasn't convinced of mere Christian 'doctrine', but he wondered how the Church (then still undivided by schism and reaching as far as Persia) could persist - and he took it up himself to take that question into contemplation, before returning with an answer that made him convert - and appear to us as so relatable as if he were _the first modern man_ . We have plenty of stories of educated Roman nobility who converted to 'a cult of slaves, prostitutes and soldiers' without gaining any prestige by it. Virtually all our classical learning goes back to Christian institutions, preserving the concepts of Greek philosophy in order to defend the _reveleations_ of the faith from Pagan and Heretic critics, building the cultural foundations on which the European Renaissance and Enlightenment were even possible. And this didn't stop in the era of a collapsing Roman Empire, but can be observed throughout history, up until the 20th century when educated Jewish individuals like Simone Weil and Edith Stein drifted from secular liberalism towards a _risen Christ_ - with Stein formally converting and dying as a _martyr_ by the hand of _'Darwinist'_ Germans. Rationalism is an extreme philosophical position that doesn't stand for the scientific method in general and which is unable to solve even the complex contradictions of modern physics - just as predicted in scholastic definitions of Christian _mysteries_ . Faith doesn't have to be blind, but the universal role of unconditional love in the cosmos doesn't depend on solved equations, either - only the insane would insist so.
@@christophmahler well thought out response. when I tried to “pick up the pieces” and figure it all out with the Bible and historical information I became so lost in liberal scholarship and my own flawed reasoning it’s like I couldn’t win. I got to the point where I doubted reliability greatly. but I remember when I first had an experience with the Holy Spirit all I did was humbly accept the trinity and pray and I knew nothing else really. Orthodoxy is the only tradition that has actual applicable practice methods for everyday life for me. I read way of the pilgrim and I am reading 455 orthodox questions and answers right now. Do you recommend any reading? I am interesting in learning more about patristics/desert fathers and devotional works. Thanks
@@bstring3967 "well thought out response." Thanks. I feel, talking about spiritual matters leads almost to a moment when words seem to fall into place - even if I had thought of parts of a question already before - as if being supported by the presence of others. "(...) when I tried to (...) figure it all out with the Bible and historical information I became (...) lost (...). I got to the point where I doubted reliability greatly." That's my experience as well - but I also begin to think that conflict and _crisis_ is a condition of Christian culture (reflected in several hagiographies), learning to strike and exercise a balance between the divine wisdom in nature - the incomplete creation - and the sciences that can only _approximate_ a rational comprehension - and the _providence_ of a 'kingdom of God' that will be fully reflected in nature, according to 'works in faith' at the very end of time - as imagined in the 'crystalline' 'New Jerusalem' of the 'Book of Revelation'. Like Christ struggled with his 'two natures' - so do we when we begin to take his historical accounts serious. "I remember when I first had an experience with the Holy Spirit all I did was humbly accept the trinity and pray and I knew nothing else really." And that's all I can say about the reality of Christ as well. And thinking about it, that is also not less than any other experience or question. One can wonder about the validity of one's interpretation, but not the fact of the experience itself - and there is no risk of deceiving oneself if one pursuits either 'truthfulness' - or 'meaning' ('logos') - e.g. comparing religious traditions, or when devoting onseself to 'compassionate love' ('agape') by tending to others - as Christ can be regarded as the _incarnation_ of both and one leads to the other, in time. "Orthodoxy is the only tradition that has actual applicable practice methods for everyday life for me." That's an interesting statement, I don't quite follow - but I'm also not 'confirmed' in a confessional denomination, anymore (I was baptized Lutheran before I payed the fee to leave), having to regard myself as formally heretic, especially when it comes to central practices like e.g. communion. "Do you recommend any reading? I am interesting in learning more about patristics/desert fathers and devotional works." In consequence to the above confession, I can only tell about my very personal 'ecclecticism' and certainly have nothing to offer in regard to authoritative works on orthodoxy. Having a tendency to _think_ about how things and people relate to another and how to reconcile problematic views, I came across elements of *Greek philosophy in the Early Christian Church* - from the more psychologically observant desert fathers (e.g. reflected in the work of Evagrios Pontikos) to the Alexandrian Origenes, the Cappadocians until finally to *Maximos Confessor* whose *'Cosmic Liturgy'* also links the Eastern with the Western part of the Roman Empire before the arrival of Islam which reduced the _diverse_ patriachates to the current 'supremacy' of the Italian Pensinsula. www.britannica.com/biography/Evagrius-Ponticus www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Maximus-the-Confessor Recently, I wondered - with someone else - about an official introduction into the *saints of Siberia and the Far East* . I feel also bonds with Western traditions like Celtic monasticism, the Preacher Order or Christian Humanism, but You asked specifically about the Orient. Again, don't mistake my statements for anything else, but mere accounts of personal interest.
@@christophmahler Interesting @ “to a moment when words seem to fall into place“, I have often made similar statement using playing a musical instrument as an analogy. Even though there is experience playing the instrument like muscle memory etc., it is as though the instrument is being played by a force not of your own mind or will and is done with ease. “Conflict and crisis” I just watched something on saint dominic referring to this regarding the simplicity of Christ, and I can’t help but feel there is something telling me to make objections to some traditional practice/teaching hinging on some of Christ’s radical teachings of our intentions of the heart and applying that to our unique modern way of living apposed to The more primitive living of Christ’s time. I don’t know if I have been anything other than a heretic tbh so your in good company, I like the saying “wherever you find truth you can attribute it to the logos” as I still often read texts on mysticism, Taoism, Bhagavad Gita and some other texts.
St Issac says, St.Seraphim says!! Solitude is not a unity it is a divergence of socialistic norms. Which in and of itself is not all wrong. However not to partake of the wonder of creation in all its complexity is not a duty to it's creator. There is such a thing as loneliness. Archaic belief and literal, scripture bound philosophy is a prison. If you are over 30 and don't know yourself yet!! Hurry the hell up already. But certainly don't adopt this "aesthetic" form of supposed Christianity. It is a remnant of a perversion of faith. Be free!
Words of great spiritual wisdom discussed in a calm and controlled manner hit home. Saint Isaak the Syrian needs to be read by all Christians.
Is this guy still alive he hasn’t uploaded In 2 years
@@averagemanhempgars502His wife died of cancer in 2018. She was born in 1950. So, he could still be alive.
💥Wonder-full instruction. 🕊☦️
What a treat! Love the delivery comforting, the chatty & easy manner. ♠️ The truth discussed is a healing antidote. Praise God. 🙏🏼💯
What a great Father, god bless you and strengthen you father!
GRACE: I AM LEARNING.... BROTHER JAMES 🙏🙏🙏
I love this subject! Thank you Father! 🌎❤️
Father Serafim. How do you do it. Right thing at the right time. You don’t miss a beat. Thank you once again. Stephen
It is not me! I honestly don't know what to say, in the sense I don't research my talks. People ask me what the next topic will be and I have to admit I don't know. I pray to my spiritual mentors...St Isaac, Dorotheos et al, and if something comes into my heart/mind then I pass it on, as it were. Now you are going to think that I am spiritually enlightened - I am NOT. I struggle 23/7 with my passions.
"We cannot help/love our neighbour if we are not spiritually healthy!" Amen
I needed this !! God’s timing is perfect🙏🙏
10:39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. Hebrews
From Misión Cruz Hermitage in Somerset, Texas. Blessings
PLEASE TURN UP ON THE VIDEO. BROTHER JAMES 🙏
Thank you God for Fr.Serafim teaching. Please continue on educating and enlightening us.
Would you kindly post a list of the books you suggest for reading ?
You should try to read Carl Jungs book Answer to Job
yet fear comes natural keeping us from walking in front of moving trains; as it is easy to say do not fear death, as to fear death is natural, also to want to live; yet once you have died and gone to hell, and given another chance, the memory of the experience is never far away, and the totality of such; yet it is true one must trust in Christ more than one is inclined to fear the death. God bless, Pax.
♡
🙏
Video is soft. Volume?
12:05 We in Catholicism have the same view exactly. That's what the Stigmatists tend to represent in a unique way. The likes of St Padre Pio and the like.
According to Orthodoxy stigmatism is demonic
Father I live in Seattle and would love to have conversation with you. I am orthodox. Please respond and let me know which Parish you are at?
Holy Protection of the Theotokos, 833 S.Thistle St, WA 98108 - South Park
Vant hear it
nd it is worth ordering from the priest in the church to read the akathist for your name of St. Cyprian and St. Justine and of St. Archangel Michael against magic and all enemies visible and unvisible. This is if you are baptized Orthodox. There always were sorcerers even after Jesus said it is from devil they remained in every country and on every second or third family something is put from a sorcerer. And when you intend to go to command the akathist in the church, such thoughts may appear: "Maybe tomorrow, or next week", "Maybe I'm such a freak and no one is watching me (girls or boys, if you can not anyways find a pair, or you can for some reason speak only with one girl or boy.)", "The life is this way with good times and bad times", " I am so(if you have impotence)". etc. These thoughts come from demons from sorcery spells because only the prayer of the priest can 100% protect from magic and enemies visible and invisible. Jesus Christ told the apostles(which are the first priests) "I give you the right to untie everything that is tied in heaven and on earth.". Faith and creed is opinion, is how somebody thinks with his head. Repent is changing and not auto-humiliation as many think. May be enherited soul ilnessses like despresia, schizofrenia, Tourette sindrom, insomnia, bifurcation of personality etc. as they are from soul illnesses. Firstly everyone must to eradicate schizofrenia, depression etc. from him and after that to planify making children, in order that they will not jump from balconie, have blood cancer, be born bodytobody joined twins or two headed and etc. These soul illnesses can be healed by eucharisty. In the afternoon before eucharist day you have to read " The prayers before eucharisty" where are asked from eucharisty such things like: soul and body healing, sins forgiveness, protection from devils etc. It is better to go to confession in the morning in the day of eucharisty(before eucharisty)because from evening to morning everyone can make the same sins again and again and also other bigger sins. If not to forgive someone who asked for forgiveness it is not worth going to eucharisty because the sins will not be forgiven. Humbleness is awareness that in every doing you can fall and not auto-oppresion as most do and think, someone without auto-oppression is 100% free in moves in every direction, it is like a lion at freedom.
Entering(submersion 3 times with a certain prayer and crossing yourself) in water springs of orthodox saints (which are near or in monasteries)give very much power and sureness to people with depression, panic attacks, schizofrenia and other soul illnesses, there are some springs of mother of God Maria that even heal soul illnesses.
je parle francais pas de traduction
14:36
Without _grace_ tradition remains _dogmatic_ and obscure, prone to mere rationalization, apostatic interpretation or political instrumentalization, all using the language of 'divine providence', but to mundane ends.
E.g. one has to use to 'use the door that is Christ' in order to not be 'a thief' which is a 'technical' reference to actual _spiritual stance_ , so is the _experience_ of 'grace'.
All confusion stems from the fact that the _mystical_ reality is _imponderable_ - it can't be 'meassured' or 'proven' to someone else and it is up to us to ask ourselves if we deceive ourselves about our inner life e.g. merely pretending it to make us merely _appear_ pious.
It's obvious that defining Christianity while ignoring the _mystical_ tradition of the desert fathers leads to some kind of Roman legalism which the Enlightenment then merely replaced with their secular 'social engineering', we see right now in public health matters.
That _may be_ why _providence_ preserved the Eastern tradition over a millennia of schism, to have a shot of renewing Christian culture.
I totally agree brother Christopher. I have had an issue with evangelist scholars referring to the Christian path as merely the most logical path a rational person could embark, but not all of us have many years of seminary and even if I did I don’t think it would be enough to convince. I think back to the apostles spreading the message and they didn’t have a backpack full of books, education and the internet, they spread quickly to those with a sincere heart enough to go within to test it out with intention to accept if true and would then become Christians.
If you want a path that literally explains everything in life and the spiritual realm look into advaita vedanta, but just because people made up answers to every little thing doesn’t make it true, on the contrary it is empty.
@@bstring3967
"I think back to the apostles (...) they didn’t have (...) books, education (...), they spread quickly to those with a sincere heart enough to go within to test it out (...)."
To ask about *the **_historicity_** of 'the Early Church'* is an interesting question and it is a point that explains why the 'sola scriptura' of Protestantism leads to irrational fragmentation and fanaticism.
We know from _tradition_ - which can hold up to critical research - that Augustine of Hippo, then a _Manichean_ wasn't convinced of mere Christian 'doctrine', but he wondered how the Church (then still undivided by schism and reaching as far as Persia) could persist - and he took it up himself to take that question into contemplation, before returning with an answer that made him convert - and appear to us as so relatable as if he were _the first modern man_ .
We have plenty of stories of educated Roman nobility who converted to 'a cult of slaves, prostitutes and soldiers' without gaining any prestige by it.
Virtually all our classical learning goes back to Christian institutions, preserving the concepts of Greek philosophy in order to defend the _reveleations_ of the faith from Pagan and Heretic critics, building the cultural foundations on which the European Renaissance and Enlightenment were even possible.
And this didn't stop in the era of a collapsing Roman Empire, but can be observed throughout history, up until the 20th century when educated Jewish individuals like Simone Weil and Edith Stein drifted from secular liberalism towards a _risen Christ_ - with Stein formally converting and dying as a _martyr_ by the hand of _'Darwinist'_ Germans.
Rationalism is an extreme philosophical position that doesn't stand for the scientific method in general and which is unable to solve even the complex contradictions of modern physics - just as predicted in scholastic definitions of Christian _mysteries_ .
Faith doesn't have to be blind, but the universal role of unconditional love in the cosmos doesn't depend on solved equations, either - only the insane would insist so.
@@christophmahler well thought out response. when I tried to “pick up the pieces” and figure it all out with the Bible and historical information I became so lost in liberal scholarship and my own flawed reasoning it’s like I couldn’t win. I got to the point where I doubted reliability greatly. but I remember when I first had an experience with the Holy Spirit all I did was humbly accept the trinity and pray and I knew nothing else really.
Orthodoxy is the only tradition that has actual applicable practice methods for everyday life for me. I read way of the pilgrim and I am reading 455 orthodox questions and answers right now. Do you recommend any reading? I am interesting in learning more about patristics/desert fathers and devotional works. Thanks
@@bstring3967
"well thought out response."
Thanks.
I feel, talking about spiritual matters leads almost to a moment when words seem to fall into place - even if I had thought of parts of a question already before - as if being supported by the presence of others.
"(...) when I tried to (...) figure it all out with the Bible and historical information I became (...) lost (...). I got to the point where I doubted reliability greatly."
That's my experience as well - but I also begin to think that conflict and _crisis_ is a condition of Christian culture (reflected in several hagiographies), learning to strike and exercise a balance between the divine wisdom in nature - the incomplete creation - and the sciences that can only _approximate_ a rational comprehension - and the _providence_ of a 'kingdom of God' that will be fully reflected in nature, according to 'works in faith' at the very end of time - as imagined in the 'crystalline' 'New Jerusalem' of the 'Book of Revelation'.
Like Christ struggled with his 'two natures' - so do we when we begin to take his historical accounts serious.
"I remember when I first had an experience with the Holy Spirit all I did was humbly accept the trinity and pray and I knew nothing else really."
And that's all I can say about the reality of Christ as well.
And thinking about it, that is also not less than any other experience or question.
One can wonder about the validity of one's interpretation, but not the fact of the experience itself - and there is no risk of deceiving oneself if one pursuits either 'truthfulness' - or 'meaning' ('logos') - e.g. comparing religious traditions, or when devoting onseself to 'compassionate love' ('agape') by tending to others - as Christ can be regarded as the _incarnation_ of both and one leads to the other, in time.
"Orthodoxy is the only tradition that has actual applicable practice methods for everyday life for me."
That's an interesting statement, I don't quite follow - but I'm also not 'confirmed' in a confessional denomination, anymore (I was baptized Lutheran before I payed the fee to leave), having to regard myself as formally heretic, especially when it comes to central practices like e.g. communion.
"Do you recommend any reading? I am interesting in learning more about patristics/desert fathers and devotional works."
In consequence to the above confession, I can only tell about my very personal 'ecclecticism' and certainly have nothing to offer in regard to authoritative works on orthodoxy.
Having a tendency to _think_ about how things and people relate to another and how to reconcile problematic views, I came across elements of *Greek philosophy in the Early Christian Church* - from the more psychologically observant desert fathers (e.g. reflected in the work of Evagrios Pontikos) to the Alexandrian Origenes, the Cappadocians until finally to *Maximos Confessor* whose *'Cosmic Liturgy'* also links the Eastern with the Western part of the Roman Empire before the arrival of Islam which reduced the _diverse_ patriachates to the current 'supremacy' of the Italian Pensinsula.
www.britannica.com/biography/Evagrius-Ponticus
www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Maximus-the-Confessor
Recently, I wondered - with someone else - about an official introduction into the *saints of Siberia and the Far East* .
I feel also bonds with Western traditions like Celtic monasticism, the Preacher Order or Christian Humanism, but You asked specifically about the Orient.
Again, don't mistake my statements for anything else, but mere accounts of personal interest.
@@christophmahler Interesting @ “to a moment when words seem to fall into place“, I have often made similar statement using playing a musical instrument as an analogy. Even though there is experience playing the instrument like muscle memory etc., it is as though the instrument is being played by a force not of your own mind or will and is done with ease.
“Conflict and crisis” I just watched something on saint dominic referring to this regarding the simplicity of Christ, and I can’t help but feel there is something telling me to make objections to some traditional practice/teaching hinging on some of Christ’s radical teachings of our intentions of the heart and applying that to our unique modern way of living apposed to The more primitive living of Christ’s time. I don’t know if I have been anything other than a heretic tbh so your in good company, I like the saying “wherever you find truth you can attribute it to the logos” as I still often read texts on mysticism, Taoism, Bhagavad Gita and some other texts.
St Issac says, St.Seraphim says!!
Solitude is not a unity it is a divergence of socialistic norms. Which in and of itself is not all wrong. However not to partake of the wonder of creation in all its complexity is not a duty to it's creator. There is such a thing as loneliness. Archaic belief and literal, scripture bound philosophy is a prison. If you are over 30 and don't know yourself yet!! Hurry the hell up already. But certainly don't adopt this "aesthetic" form of supposed Christianity.
It is a remnant of a perversion of faith.
Be free!
Your name is correct to the fine point
@@marymarysmarket3508 Well thank you Mary for making note of my "Fine Point"!
Perhaps someday I'll get a chance to review some of your finer points!!