The Evergetinos: Book Two - XXXII, Part III

The loss of the spirit of contrition can take place whenever our hearts become hardened; when we grow sluggish in the spiritual life or our attention shifts off of our own sin and need for God‘s mercy and is redirected towards the things of the world or to the sins of others. The desert fathers pull back the veil on the human heart and reveal the motivation for our actions and thoughts. We often become very skilled at satisfying our morbid delight for seeing others weaknesses and their natural flaws and defects. Rather than keeping our focus upon contrition for our own sins and seeking purity of heart, we become preoccupied with our neighbor; judging them, becoming frustrated and irritated with them, pushing our opinions upon them, becoming upset when we do not receive what we believe we deserve or when we feel that we have been misjudged and slandered. Rather than having an eye for the needs of the other and instead of being tender and gentle in our attitude, we often see others as an obstacle to our happiness or our freedom. When we could be a source of peace and healing we become rough to the point that our interactions with others is akin to rubbing up against sandpaper. Those closest to us often elude us. Sometimes we do not know what to give and even what we do give may not be helpful or wanted. But we can still love them - we can love them completely. A human being is not someone we are called to fix, correct or judge, but rather one we are called to embrace with the same love and to offer the same consolation as we have received from Christ.

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00:14:14 Bob Čihák, AZ: P. 245 first paragraph on this page

00:14:24 Janine: Suzanne..that sounds awful…I will pray for you!

00:14:41 Suzanne Romano: Thank you Janine!!!!

00:37:10 Catherine Opie: This is like being a parent as well

00:56:21 Lindsey Funair: thank you, that helps a lot

00:56:35 Bob Čihák, AZ: An invitation to be nosey? When an acquaintance once said something about a third person like "Yes, I know why he left that job but I'm not going to say why" it sounded like an invitation to get nosey, so I simply didn't respond at all, and went on my way.

00:57:44 Joseph: St. Maximos the Confessor writes, “Cut off the passions, and you will soon silence the senses. Restrain the senses, and you will easily calm the passions.” The goal of ascetic struggle, through repentance and bodily hardship, is not to reject the senses, but to purify them. The senses are not the cause of sin; rather, sin arises from the passionate response to the representations that the senses convey. The desert (silence) is a means of purification, to restore our noetic vision to health, so we can perceive sense data, sight, sound, touch, etc., without passion. This is the what we aim for anyway!

00:58:35 Joseph: From Second Century on Love, 2.15

01:03:34 Myles Davidson: The Litany of Humility springs to mind

From the desire of being approved,
Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being humiliated,
Deliver me, O Jesus.
From the fear of being despised,
Deliver me, O Jesus.

et. al

01:06:35 Catherine Opie: St Teresa of Avila would say that anyone who slandered her was probably right. That really struck me when I read it. Because it is really the antithesis of what I was brought up to believe.

01:06:37 Myles Davidson: Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val y Zulueta

01:06:41 Lorraine Green: Marie del  val

01:14:08 Rebecca Thérèse: Thank you☺️

01:14:26 Catherine Opie: Thank you Fr. God bless.

01:14:31 Julie: God bless

01:14:34 Lindsey Funair: thank you!

01:14:37 Suzanne Romano: Pax!

01:14:37 Lorraine Green: God bless