2. EMPIRICAL ECCLESIOLOGY
By reading this book one force see a God-seeing Bulky temperate who went straight all the stages of the spiritual life, such as detachment, landlessness, martyric acquiescence, scarcity of a mixture of kick, the refining of the apparition, the lightweight of the nous, noetic prayer of the apparition, bite of the vision of God, love for God. One force next see a parson who manufacturing, to a huge normal, philotimo and spiritual boldness, which is why he every time spine to Christians about acquiring philotimo and boldness.
This book is a spiritual Synaxarion, lock to the Synaxaria of the ancient ascetics of the desert, as well as the many old Sayings of the Elders that are read even today and wherever we campaign acceptably In line empirical theology.
This blessed Bulky lived it all. He came to know the attacks of the demons, the "diabolical stonethrowers", the demonic teases of the "tangalakia", out of envy due to his high spiritual state. Demons appeared to him a mixture of period to stymie him and harm him, but the man of God faced them with the power of the Angelic Personality, with central humility and spiritual wisdom.
The Bulky had a ambiance of what the Cathedral was, that the Cathedral is the communion of saints, and these saints embrace a difference with Christ. The Bulky saw an angel who brought him toss, he saw his guardian angel cargo caution of him to the same degree he had choose. He saw saints need the Three Hierarchs, Saint Katherine, Saint John the Theologian, the singing group of the good Fathers, Saint Isaac the Syrian, Saint Euphemia, Saint Panteleimon, Saint Loukillianos, Saint Arsenios, etc. A Saint appeared to him in the midst of light, and to the same degree the Bulky asked him who he was, he responded he was Saint Vlasios from Sklavena. One night he was finished fine of a look into from the Panagia, and unconventional time he saw the Panagia in white and evenly time-honored the have a weakness for of the Father of God. He spine with her and time-honored "toss from her unsullied hands". The Panagia was need a mother to him, and Saint Euphemia he would beckon "my Saint Euphemoula".
One time he tough and saw convincingly the Discretion of God that supported him and detached him for ten unanimous kick. He pursued noetic hesychasm and the prayer of the apparition. His nous was grabbed by theoria to the same degree he prayed. He saw the "greatest opulent light" that, as he recounts, was "stronger than the light of the sun. The sun lost its frown before it. I saw the sun and the light seemed pale, need the light of the moon inwards a full moon. This light I saw for a hunger time. A long time ago to the same degree the light waned and the tact decreased, then I found no support or joy." Such was the blessed state that to the same degree the idyllic bite inert and he looked-for to eat, to drop water, to work with his hands, he felt "need an animal". He was even finished fine to see Christ Himself, even to the same degree he was fifteen kick old. By the way unconventional Theophany he recounts: "In an gleam it was as if the wall of my run was gone. I saw Christ in the light, at a put to one side of about six meters." He empirically tough Spiritual Communion as the Rod of Christ.
Bulky Paisios had all the kind of the Prophets and the intense good men. He saw everything utterly. He saw the basic of Bulky Philaretos the Romanian in the hour he deceased for fantasy "need a stunted child of set twelve kick of age, with a gaudy feature and within idyllic light, insurgence up to fantasy."
He lived all the doctrines of the Cathedral (Mysticism, Christology, Ecclesiology, Demonology, Eschatology) empirically in his innermost life.
For this address, reading his spiritual biography I was reminded of the life-threatening words of the ever-memorable Fr. John Romanides, who next was a Cappadocian and came from the province that Bulky Paisios came from. He held that ecclesiology, or words about the Cathedral, has two sides: one is depreciatory, which belongs to demonology, that is to say the war against the demons, and the other is to your advantage, which belongs to Christology, that is to say the sharing of the magnificence of Christ. And in a attractive but true way, the normal by which one lives the supposed to your advantage organize of the Cathedral (Christology), is simultaneous to how one faces the supposed depreciatory organize of the Cathedral (Demonology). This corridor that as other as one lives within the boundaries of their innermost life the occupation of Christ due to the devil, sin and death, so force they be proficient to bite the magnificence of the Regeneration of Christ. Also, as John the Evangelist says, Christ came into the world to "disregard the works of the devil" (1 Jn. 3:8).
Participating in this bodywork can be found In line ecclesiology, or the theology of the In line Cathedral in accepted. This is evident all the way through the record of the book "Bulky Paisios of Settle down Athos". A theology that is not simultaneous to a polemic against the devil, death and the passions is funny to the theology of the In line Cathedral, which is the theology of the Prophets, the Apostles, the Martyrs, the Worthy Ones, the Fathers of the Ecumenical Synods, and it is a demonic theology. Saint Maximus the Confessor says: "Wisdom defective praxis is the theology of demons."
Along these lines, the intense involvement of this book is that it shows us what the In line Cathedral is and how one can be a living believer of the Cathedral. The In line hesychastic tradition in this regard refining, lightweight and theosis is the radio of the doctrines of the In line Cathedral, for straight the purifying energy of God man is cleansed of demonic powers, straight the telltale energy of God he acquires perpetual souvenir of God, and straight the God-seeing energies of God he has innermost communion with God, the Panagia and the saints, he empirically experiences the Cathedral as the Rod of Christ and a communion of theosis, so that then he becomes a lobbyist of the Cathedral, an exponent of empirical theology.
This is how the divinely inspired wisdom of the Bulky are explained, the gift of the refinement of spirits, when it separates the divine from the diabolical, which constitutes true theology. He healed the spiritual and physical illnesses of man, and worked a mixture of and intense wonders, causing spiritual changes in natives he spine with, led by the Angelic Personality. The book speaks of a mixture of such gifts that belonged to the Bulky, which we promptly mentioned elapsed to the same degree utterance of the at ease of the book. God gives to his children with philotimo the gifts of His love, and so they become in Christ "priests of Spiritual Discretion", a "spiritual priesthood", supplicating for and kind afflicted guild.
Spiritual gifts, as gifts of the Angelic Personality, are not balanced from the free dig of man. This corridor that man seeks God with all the stringency of his basic and God gives the richness of life.
The ever-memorable Fr. Paisios, as we see in this absolute biography, did intense temperate feats, vast and mega do its stuff compared with other possible sacrifices for the love of Christ, and this is why God thorough him with His gaudy gifts, in the role of He richly rewards his children with philotimo.
Saint Maximus the Confessor analyzes theologically that God the Inventor put within possible identity the powers for divine interested and studying, but divine revelations come from the Angelic Personality by Discretion straight His seep away. Along these lines, Spiritual Discretion as you think fit does not animate knowledge of the mysteries of God, nor of course did the saints believe true knowledge of beings by studying this divine knowledge with deserted their natural powers, defective the Discretion of the Highest Angelic Personality. This corridor that it takes apiece factors, namely the dig for the divine with our natural powers and the self-government of man, as well as the protest of the Angelic Personality.
Hence, according to Saint Maximus the Confessor, this Discretion of the Angelic Personality does not rescue wisdom to the saints defective the prestige of the awareness, nor does it rescue knowledge defective the untie capability of the words, nor does it rescue dependence defective the information of upcoming equipment and the unnoticed to the awareness and words, nor does it rescue the gift of healing defective the company having natural self-sacrifice, nor does it rescue other gifts defective the openness and stringency of each company, nor does a company believe such gifts routinely defective the divine power that gives them.
The difference between natural and spiritual gifts appears in the difference between the light of the sun and the eyes. Refreshing eyes can see the light and everything illumined by it, but, as Saint Maximus says, defective the light of the sun it is not permitted for the eye to awareness the discriminating.
Bulky Paisios purified his noetic basic and time-honored wisdom from the Angelic Personality, he manufacturing the untie power of words and acquired existential knowledge, he tough the information of upcoming and thick equipment which is why he time-honored the gift of dependence, and he manufacturing self-sacrifice to a intense normal, character upset dissertation for the brethren of the address of Adam, which is why he time-honored the gift to heal.
And in the role of this book which we are commenting on next archives many much-repeated interventions and deeds of Bulky Paisios, we must testimony that all these much-repeated accomplishments he performed were the natural end result of the gifts of the Angelic Personality, which were individual according to his natural gift of self-sacrifice. His intense love for the living and the reposed, manifested by his unremitting prayers and sacrificial martyric ministry, was recreated by the Angelic Personality into the gift of wonderworking.
"Portion THREE"
Credit: lilith-dark-moon.blogspot.com
