Kallistos Ware: God, Scripture & The Philokalia

God is living mystery God is beyond all words and in that sense God is incomprehensible but God also reveals himself and so there are very extensive writings which speak of the meaning of life in God now in the Orthodox Church of course like other Christians we assign first place to holy scripture reading the Bible reading the Bible every day that is something which every Christian is invited to do then in the Orthodox tradition and also in the West we have the patristic tradition the writings of the Holy Fathers the great Holy Fathers are from particularly the fourth and fifth centuries but in a way the patristic era the age of the fathers is open-ended in our own day there could be new patristic writers new Holy Fathers to be added to the body of writings that we have the book were in which the patristic tradition is especially concentrated is known as the philic alia the title Filioque alia means love of beauty love that is to say of spiritual beauty of God as beauty and of all the things beautiful that come from God and the fellow Kalia in Greek is a collection of patristic writings from the fourth to the fifteenth century gather together in a large folio volume originally published in 1782 I am engaged with others on the translation of the Villa Kalia into English we published four volumes of and I'm working on the fifth which I hope will be ready very soon so the fellow Kalia is an important book in our Orthodox tradition not always an easy book but I know people are not necessarily trained theologians who have found the fellow Kalia a source of life but there are many other books which we can read reading books is not the only way of being a Christian but it's an important part of our Christian life we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses and we ought to read what those witnesses tell us of God and this is a central theme in the Christian message that we are loved by God not with a generalized diffused love but God has a special love a personal love for each one of us individually we are all of us different and God loves us all in a individual way there are two Jewish sayings that I often recall the first is God never does the same thing twice we are all different and the second is the world has need of every single person we are not just repetitive stereotypes nobody is unnecessary nobody is superfluous we all of us matter because we are all different and distinctive and God loves all of us therefore with a different love for each one there is hidden in every human being a special treasure not to be found in anyone else God hopes from each one of us something that he does not hope from anyone else in the whole history of the world well that is a first theme that runs through the fellow Kalia the love of God a second theme is of course the need for human effort we cannot be saved without God but God will not save us without our own consent as a second century writer said in a work known as the Epistle to diognetus God persuades he does not compel for violence is foreign to him that's a golden saying and I wish Christians through the centuries had paid greater attention to it so here is a second theme did the fellow Kalia God has given us free will God waits on our free acceptance of his invitation therefore the Christian life does involve effort it is not automatic to be a true Christian is to suffer in to struggle to be a true Christian is to carry the cross but the fellow Kalia does not stop there a third theme that is in the falaqa Lea is the joy of being a Christian Christianity is not just the fulfillment of difficult Commandments not just a heavy burden to be borne with resignation Christianity is full of joy so that again is an element in the felucca Lea the joy of our salvation these two things then are balanced the need for repentance on the one side of an effort on our part but on the other side the joy that Christ gives us Christianity is both bearing the cross but sharing in the resurrection and I think of two sayings here of a great russian saint st. seraphim of sarov who lived in the 19th century he says at one point where there is no sorrow there is no salvation but he also says the Holy Spirit fills with joy whatever he touches now we are to hold those two sayings together sorrow and joy without the element of cross bearing if we speak only of joy then the Christian life becomes something sentimental if we speak only of the sorrow the rest of life becomes something gloomy and depressing we ought to balance the two together joy and sorrow there is a title applied to them Holy Virgin Mary the Mother of God in the Russian tradition she is called Mother of God that joy of all who sorrow and that draws together the two threads in the Christian life threads that are explored in the falaqa Leah well there are many other things in the Filioque alia but one major theme and this is a fourth point I would mention is the use of the Jesus Prayer not mentioned very much in the earlier authors though there are exceptions but particularly a central theme in the 14th century writers in the later part of the Philip Elia the authors are arranged in historical sequence and the Philip Elia speaks of the way in which to help us in reciting the Jesus Prayer we can employ a certain physical technique coordinating the rhythm of our breathing with the rhythm of the prayer this is something that people should do if possible under the direction of a spiritual father but it is a possible practice for laypeople as well as monks and there are striking similarities between the hesychast techniques in the Filippelli r and the techniques taught by the Sufis in the tradition of Islam by the way I've used the word Hesse cast that's from the Greek word hezakiah meaning inner stillness silence of the heart and hesychast is one who practices inner prayer the Jesus Prayer perhaps or some other way of praying as I have said in using the psychosomatic technique it's best to have direction from a guide a star it's a spiritual father or mother someone experienced if you're going up a mountain for the first time it is better to go with somebody who knows the way and this theme of the need for guidance personal instruction from an experienced teacher this is another major theme in the Filippelli a-- now the physical technique has various aspects first of all the Jesus Prayer can be said seated on a low stool about 10 inches high in a crouching position fixing your gaze on the pace of the heart that is not something that I recommend to everyone that will quickly prove a very uncomfortable position so I suggest to people to save the Jesus Prayer sitting on a ordinary chair with a back not an armchair because that's a bit too relaxed but with the back upright not crouching the second element in the Jesus Prayer is to coordinate the rhythm the prayer with the tempo of our breathing and the various ways of doing this the simplest one which I think all may use even without direct personal guidance from an elder is to say the first part of the prayer Lord Jesus Christ son of God as you breathe in and the second half of the prayer have mercy on me a sinner as you breathe out but this breathing technique is not essential it is only proposed as a possible aid the valuable to some but not imposed upon all the third element in the psychosomatic technique is more complex I can only mention it now they we are encouraged to practice an inner exploration to concentrate our attention on certain psychosomatic centers in our body in particular to attend to the movement of our breath and to descend with our breath into our heart and the heart in Eastern Orthodox tradition is not simply the center of emotions and affections but the spiritual center of the total human person but if you want to know in detail how to do that you must find a spiritual guide and he will or she will the help help you so that really briefly is the so-called physical technique accompanying the Jesus Prayer an aid but not an essential part of the prayer the only essential thing when saying the Jesus Prayer is faith at love

Channel: Transformative Heart

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Keywords: God, Scripture, Philokalia, Theology, Theosis, Kallistos Ware, Orthodox Christianity, Christian, Jesus Prayer, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Transformation, Love

Id: GlkDtLvMe6w

Length: 15min 52sec (952 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 16 2017