Stability of Place
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| Our Rhode Island Reds enjoying lunch. |
Stability of Place and Personal Growth
An Elder said: Just as a tree cannot bear fruit if it is often transplanted, so neither can a monk bear fruit if he frequently changes his abode.
In an age when people change addresses as often as those in past generations changed their socks, stability of place is almost unheard of. When I was a young man I moved from city to city quite often. One year alone I lived in New York City, Berkeley, California and Portland, Oregon. If I hated a job, I'd move. If my social life was on the rocks, I'd move. Reinventing myself in a new location became the norm. In my attempt to discover my place in this world, I couldn't stay in one place for very long.
As I grew older and wiser, I realized that the issues which needed to be dealt with had been avoided with each move. If I was ever to grow psychologically and spiritually, I needed to put down roots.
In Orthodox monasticism there are four vows: poverty, chastity, obedience and stability of place. Monks from the very beginning of monasticism realized that spiritual growth was not possible without struggle and a good way to avoid change was to move from place to place. If you are living with others who know your weaknesses, it is not easy to avoid change. Frequently moving from one job to another, one relationship to another, one neighborhood to another, or one city to another, is a sure way to avoid spiritual growth.
Many marriages end in divorce because the couples lacked the necessary stability of place which would have allowed them to confront those issues that needed to be changed. Moving from one parish to another is also a way many people avoid maturing in their faith. Moving from one church to another is just as destructive to the spiritual life as moving from city to city. Avoidance is the enemy of change.
Stick with the priest or confessor who really knows you. Spiritual transformation takes time and changing confessors inhibits growth, since you waste time letting the new priest get to know you. You wouldn't consider changing medical doctors every few years, not when your doctor knows your health history and is watching out for changes in your body that need attention. How much more the soul needs the guidance of a priest who really knows us, having established a relationship of trust. We all need the guidance of one who doesn't allow us to avoid working on that which inhibits growth in our relationship with God.
Stability can be for us the vehicle by which we are able to confront the habits, sins and vices that inhibit God from transforming our lives and making us whole. Constant movement allows us to hide from ourselves.
Love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
As I grew older and wiser, I realized that the issues which needed to be dealt with had been avoided with each move. If I was ever to grow psychologically and spiritually, I needed to put down roots.
In Orthodox monasticism there are four vows: poverty, chastity, obedience and stability of place. Monks from the very beginning of monasticism realized that spiritual growth was not possible without struggle and a good way to avoid change was to move from place to place. If you are living with others who know your weaknesses, it is not easy to avoid change. Frequently moving from one job to another, one relationship to another, one neighborhood to another, or one city to another, is a sure way to avoid spiritual growth.
Many marriages end in divorce because the couples lacked the necessary stability of place which would have allowed them to confront those issues that needed to be changed. Moving from one parish to another is also a way many people avoid maturing in their faith. Moving from one church to another is just as destructive to the spiritual life as moving from city to city. Avoidance is the enemy of change.
Stick with the priest or confessor who really knows you. Spiritual transformation takes time and changing confessors inhibits growth, since you waste time letting the new priest get to know you. You wouldn't consider changing medical doctors every few years, not when your doctor knows your health history and is watching out for changes in your body that need attention. How much more the soul needs the guidance of a priest who really knows us, having established a relationship of trust. We all need the guidance of one who doesn't allow us to avoid working on that which inhibits growth in our relationship with God.
Stability can be for us the vehicle by which we are able to confront the habits, sins and vices that inhibit God from transforming our lives and making us whole. Constant movement allows us to hide from ourselves.
Love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
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| The Abbot's Study (click photos to enlarge) |
Tuesday August 9, 2011 / July 27, 2011
9th Week after Pentecost.
Tone seven.
Holy Great-martyr and Healer Panteleimon (305).Commemoration of the canonization of Venerable Herman of Alaska (1970).
New Hieromartyrs Ambrose, bishop of Sarapul, priests Plato and Panteleimon (1918).
New Hieromartyr John priest (1941).
Blessed Nicholas Kochanov, fool-for-Christ at Novgorod (1392).
Venerable Anthusa, abbess of Mantinea in Asia Minor and her 90 sisters (759).
St. Clement of Ochrid, bishop of Greater Macedonia (916), and Sts. Angelar (10th c.), Gorazd (896), Nahum of Ochrid (910), and Sabbas (10th c.), disciples of Sts. Cyril and Methodius (Bulgaria).
St. Ioasaph, metropolitan of Moscow (1555).
Martyr Christodulus (1777) (Greek).
The blind man who confessed Christ and was martyred with St. Panteleimon (Greek).
853 Martyrs of Thrace who were drowned (Greek).
St. Manuel, monk (Greek).
The Scripture Readings for the Day:
2 Timothy 2:1-10
Be Strong in Grace
1 You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 3 You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 4 No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. 5 And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. 6 The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops. 7 Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things.
8 Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel, 9 for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains; but the word of God is not chained. 10 Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
John 15:17-16:2
17 These things I command you, that you love one another.
The World’s Hatred
18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 21 But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 He who hates Me hates My Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. 25 But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’The Coming Rejection
26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.John 16
1 “These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.
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