What does the Expression that only God Cures the Proud Mean?

Schema-archimandrite Abraham (Reidman)

Question to Schema-Archimandrite Abraham (Reidman). Conversation at the St Ignatius’ Skete of the New-Tikhvin Convent, May 1, 2003.

Question. St. John of the Ladder says that “Men can cure the lustful, angels the malicious, but only God the proud”. What does it mean? It seems that only the Lord can heal all passions.

Answer. I think these words should be understood in this sense: pride is such a terrible passion that people cannot help in any way here. If the ascetic strives to overcome his passion, prays, repents, in other words, opposes pride, only then it diminishes. And no wise advice, no restrictions imposed on a proud person will help. For example, a person subject to fornication can be limited in communication with the opposite sex, fasting can be imposed on him, he can be forced to make prostrations and taught to keep away from lusty thoughts. And pride is even very difficult to notice: it seems to a person that in fact this is not pride, but a correct view of things.

Source

Questions about Delusion

Questions to Schema-archimandrite Abraham (Reidman) after his conversation about delusion in the Gospel.

Question. What does it mean to "humbly strive for a higher spiritual gift"?

Answer. This means knowing your constitution and striving for improvement, soberly assessing yourself - that is, forcing yourself, but at the same time understanding what you can do. We are unable to compel ourselves to unceasing prayer, we are unable to compel ourselves to dispassion, I am not even talking about miracles. Something else may occur: under the pretext of humility, people lose zeal, this is also wrong. Therefore, you need to force yourself and strive for more, but at the same time know your measure. Although sometimes it happens that the Lord visits a person beyond his measure, one must also have the right attitude to such a state. You need to understand that grace is not given according to merit. If we believe that we are unworthy of grace, then we assume that we have not yet deserved it, and if we do something else, we deserve it. But sometimes the Lord gives grace as if in advance, beyond all merits, therefore, what is given must be evaluated not by one's own worthiness, but focusing on how the holy fathers describe it, to see if this matches their explanation of this or that spiritual experience or not. At the same time, there is no need to ponder whether we are worthy or not (because we are not only unworthy to be in a monastery at all, but not worthy to live), this approach is also a hidden manifestation of pride.

Question. If the schema-nun, about whom you told, was in delusion, how could she, not having the grace of God, lead such a harsh life for years?

Answer. Those who are deceived just lead a harsh life, for example, yogis show more vigorous physical labours than Orthodox ascetics. Yogi is put on glass, and a car is driven on him, and he is buried in the ground, then they take him out - and he is alive. And Porfiry Ivanov, the founder of his own sect, did not eat or drink for 100 days. How can all this be possible? 

Gospel on Delusion

Schema-archimandrite Abraham (Reidman). "Good part. Conversations with cloisterers. Conversation 44. About delusion".

Schema-archimandrite Abraham (Reidman)

Today I would like, based on the Gospel, to hold a conversation about delusion. At first glance, it seems that nothing is said about it there, but this is only at first, superficial, glance. If we delve into the Gospel, remember its entire content and think a little, then we will find several passages in which (though without using the word "delusion") a false spiritual state is spoken of, which is quite natural, because the Gospel is the source of truth, and such an important subject as delusion must be mentioned in it. First of all, a false spiritual state, an attempt to deceive the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, is spoken of in the Gospel when it tells about the temptation of the Savior in the wilderness. Many holy fathers, comforting and encouraging us in our spiritual warfare, remind us that even Jesus Christ Himself experienced warfare from the devil.

But if the devil comes to us mostly through thoughts, since we are fallen beings and our mind, damaged by the fall, became accessible for satanic suggestions, then the Lord Jesus Christ, as a sinless man, could not be tempted in this way. The devil-tempter (and the evangelist calls him namely "the tempter") approached Him personally, because he could not tempt His mind, and, seducing Him, tried first of all to awaken the desire for vain glory in the Lord, the desire to visibly prove His spirituality, His Divine origin. Of course, one can consider these temptations of the Savior in the wilderness from different points of view: one can say that the devil tempted the Lord with thoughts of gluttony, glory and power, but one should pay attention to such words of the tempter when he approached the Lord: "If you are the Son of God..."- that is, the devil tried to convince the Savior of the need to glorify Himself with miracles - first by turning stones into bread, and then by throwing himself off the pinnacle of the temple in front of everyone and remaining unharmed. Finally, he already in the most frank way demanded worship for himself, promising the Lord all the kingdoms of the world for this, shown, as it is said in the Gospel, in a moment of time.

Communion When Concealing Sins

Schema-archimandrite Abraham (Reidman). Unworthy communion as an aspect of spiritual life.

Report at the conference "Life of the Eucharistic Community".

Schema-archimandrite Abraham (Reidman)

I hesitated for a long time which topic of the report I should choose. Today it is no longer necessary to insist on the benefits of frequent communion, because it is becoming a tradition of our Church. At the latest Bishops’ Council, decisions were made both about proper preparation for communion and about the need to receive communion often. For example, by the decisions of this Council, believers are allowed to take daily communion at the Bright Week, which at the time of my youth seemed completely impossible. Reflecting on what may be interesting and important for all of us, I decided to raise a question, perhaps reflecting the negative aspects of the Eucharistic life, however, relevant and useful. This is a question of unworthy communion.

First of all, I want to remind you of the famous words of the Apostle Paul from the First Epistle to the Corinthians about how the sacrament of the Eucharist was established and with what feelings and thoughts we should receive it.

This is what the apostle Paul says: For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come. [1 Cor. 11, 23–26].

A Man Began to Pray for the Grace to Descend upon him

Schema-archimandrite Abraham (Reidman). "The good part." Obstructions in the spiritual life and the desire for grace.

Schema-archimandrite Abraham (Reidman)

Here are two examples: one from my personal experience, the other - from the experience of my friend. When I first read the conversation of St. Seraphim of Sarov, it shook me and made me significantly change my life. It was a very long time ago, I had not yet prayed the Jesus prayer and I did not communicate with father Andrew (Mashkov). After reading this work, I realized that the true Christian life is not just to go to church, pray, make the sign of the Cross, and not to commit serious sins. The Christian life must be grace-filled. But at that time, I realized it in a primitive way. Later, reading other holy fathers, I began to treat everything more reasonably. And then I began to pray that the grace descends upon me. I did not know how we should pray correctly, I did not hear about the Jesus prayer, so I endlessly repeated "Our Father" and some other prayers.

70-years Old Ascetic Fell into Fornication and was not Able to Confess it

Schema-archimandrite Abraham (Reidman). "The good part." From the conversation about self-pity and overconfidence.

Schema-archimandrite Abraham (Reidman)

Once I read the book of Archbishop Anthony (Golynsky-Mihailovsky) about the Jesus prayer. This interesting book is supplemented with short memories about the author. He suffered a great hardship, for many years he was in jail, he had several sentences in prison camps, but at the same time he was an ascetic: first, he prayed a lot with Jesus prayer; secondly, every day he read daily liturgical round, no matter what the circumstances were, even on the road. And he forced his spiritual children to do the same, and that is besides praying by beads. He died very hard, and he explained the cause of it. One day, a woman came to him and confessed her sin and the sin of her confessor. She sinned with her spiritual father, who was then nearly seventy years old! And before that, he was known as a famous ascetic and faster. He did not dare to confess this, and already dying, asked her to repent for him. This woman begged Bishop Anthony so much, that he could not resist and took this sin over him, and that’s why he died so hard. Just imagine, if a seventy-year-old person after the ascetic life fell into fornication, why thirty-year-old guys think that they are safe?! It is not known how the rest of the life will come about and what will happen next, what temptations and trials he will meet. Today, the devil does not touch you, because, may be, you do not touch him, but tomorrow you pray a little, and this may cause battle – you will want to do the same as Pygmalion. So you should not go into premature excessive calm and think that everything is in order. Overconfidence makes man think that if he lives in security and relatively quiet for some time, by the grace of God, so it always will be like this. In fact, this conclusion is totally groundless.

http://oprelesti.ru/index.php/concealment-of-sins-in-confession/627-70-years-old-ascetic-fell-into-fornication-and-was-not-able-to-confess-it

About False Unceasing Prayer

Schema-archimandrite Abraham (Reidman). The good part. Conversations with the monks. 44. About delusion.

Schema-archimandrite Abraham (Reidman)

I am coming to a very serious issue, and it is important for me that you understand me right: I mention only the most common, I cover only theoretical issues, and you need to solve specific cases with your mentor. What other outward signs of delusion one can mention? Sometimes a person can even imagine about himself that he has unceasing prayer. I recently read interesting memories of Archimandrite Raphael about elder schema-archimandrite Seraphim (Romantsov) from the Glinsk Hermitage. The book about ascetics of 50-60s of XX century "In the Caucasus mounts" by monk Mercury tells about one very young schema-nun, who had secret schema, and who was thought to have the unceasing prayer. And it turns out that this schema-nun once came to schema-archimandrite Seraphim, a highly experienced elder, whom I can not mistrust. The elder gave her some instructions, none of which she accepted, and he realized that she was in delusion and she did not have the unceasing prayer for a single day. The one who gave her schema was also in delusion. Fr. Seraphim said that there is such a state (this time he meant the another monk), which to some prayerful person seems as he has unceasing prayer, but in fact it's just a state close to delusion, because he is accustomed to the incessant repetition of prayer as others are accustomed to the bad language, that is, it is not a gift of grace and only a habit. An inexperienced person who does not know what unceasing prayer actually is, who does not even have the correct theoretical idea of it, begins to imagine that he has it and starts telling others. If such inexperienced Christian encounters an experienced spiritual person and begins to tell him about his spiritual state (this applies especially to eldresses), the latter should ask him in detail because some seemingly insignificant trifle can show that the person, in fact, simply does not understand what he tells us about, he only fantasizes about his experiences. One speaks about himself out of ignorance Heaven knows what, and believes that his state is spiritual, and the other, on the contrary, after reading the Holy Fathers and having no idea what they actually mean, identifies it, due to his highly developed imagination, with his own state. He speaks with the words of the Holy Fathers that he has read and understood in the book and not his own experience. It turns out that he was deluded and is misleading others, even spiritually experienced. Therefore, when dealing with someone who talks about some of his spiritual experiences, you need to have special attention and carefully question even about small things. One does not know how to describe - and explains the proper spiritual condition wrong, and the other, on the contrary, represents a delusional or just imagined experience as something significant, because of learned and internalized terms. We must be extremely careful not to get lost in such subtle and at the same time vital subjects.
http://oprelesti.ru/index.php/what-is-spiritual-delusion/622-about-false-unceasing-prayer

About False Clairvoyance

From a conversation with schema-archimandrite Abraham (Reidman).

Schema-archimandrite Abraham (Reidman)

- Where do people with supernatural abilities - psychics, prophets, seers – take their powers from? Are their gifts from God or from the devil?

- Psychics are in delusion. They often believe themselves to be in communication with God, with the cosmic energies or to be able to extract some force from themselves and thus to help other people. But, in fact, it is necessary to live a special spiritual life, a holy life to do miracles from God. From the Orthodox point of view, psychics are in communication with the evil spirits. If they seem to heal, these "healings", firstly, do great harm to themselves, and secondly, can damage those they treat - mentally and even physically. Of course, we cannot seek the help of psychics, it's like asking help from the demons themselves who seek only our death.

As for the gifts of prophecy and clairvoyance, they, of course, can come from God as well – but nowadays they are extremely rare. Another phenomenon is found more often, and it is false clairvoyance, false prophecy. Indeed, the demons are named seducing because they know how to cheat. They imitate in their actions the influence of Divine grace, trying to forge consolation of grace as well, consolation of the Holy Spirit. They can show visions; being very perspicacious, they can guess the future. They can create false clairvoyance: to inspire some thought in one person, and reveal it to another, for whom they want to create the glory of being a seer. Often, they show to such a "seer" the sins of others - and who knows sins if not a demon himself who provokes to them? Therefore, we should be very careful when meeting with some person believed to be a prophet.

An acquaintance of mine told me how she went to a certain "clairvoyant" priest, who actually turned out to be in delusion. So, when he talked to people, their body temperature raised to 37, even to 38 degrees, they felt as if glowing. At the same time, they had no consolation in the heart, no repentance, no determination to improve their lives; they have only such a sensation. And, having no experience in these matters, they decided that this man has the grace. But, in fact, what was here from the grace? Well, one feels hot - and what of it? There was such a characteristic case in the presence of that person. Several people were waiting for him. He named them their sins, and coming to a laywoman he asked, "Why don’t you think of anything?" And she was sitting and praying the Jesus Prayer silently. What does it mean? This means that she by means of the prayer drove away the thoughts that demons inspired to her, and this "seer", of course, could no longer say anything.

http://oprelesti.ru/index.php/what-is-spiritual-delusion/617-about-false-clairvoyance