I asked an elder priest:
"My dear father, the Triodion is beginning. What can we say about this period?" (The elder is simple and has not studied the theology of the universities, but the theology of prayer, as he himself says.)
"My child, the word 'Triodion' itself says it… That is: we sinners, if we have three passions to fight, let us make them two… That is the Triodion… the striking down of our passions, the reduction of our weaknesses… In short, to drive away the defects we have… We won’t manage to get rid of all of them, but even if we drive away just one, God is pleased.*
But we must be careful not to cover them up, like women do when they put on makeup — or men, who nowadays I think adorn themselves even more — that is, only outwardly… A passion needs uprooting from the root. You must dig deep into the soul to find where it begins and then uproot it completely…
That is why it requires time, prayer, fasting, confession, repentance, and conversation… We must constantly converse with God — with Christ, with our Panagia, and with our Saints… To converse with our spiritual father, with our prayer rope — not to remain alone in our struggle…
To ask for help from above and cooperation on earth… Not to stay on the surface… You see the fields: every year we plow them and put medicine for the weeds — we don’t do it once and finish… Each time we turn over the field — the soul — so the passions may be uprooted; then comes the medicine of prayer and confession and burns them away; yet we still continue with repentance and Holy Communion — and we do not stop even there — we continue with our deeds, with our study… Passions sprout when you remain inactive and lazy…
It needs humility — you must hurt your own will; you pursue yourself, not your husband, your wife, or your child — you are fighting the weed of the Ego…
If a person learns what enormous power God has hidden inside the soul, the sea will move to the mountain and the mountain to the sea… This victory is what God awaits from His children: that we conquer our ego, just as Christ conquered it on the night before His Passion in Gethsemane or on the Forty-Day Mountain… Do you think Christ did not suffer as a man? Did He not weep? Did He not shed tears? For whom? For me, for you, for those He loves… His love for us caused these things in our Lord… Whoever loves knows how to give for his love without asking anything… Therefore we too, if we love Christ, must give Him ourselves as pure as He sent us to earth… So we shall suffer, shed tears, and weep — but we will succeed for our love toward our God…
This is the Triodion: the preparation of the cultivation of the soul has begun, so that at the harvest we may receive the seed of His Resurrection… With my blessing — a good struggle!"
Notes:
* In Greek, the word Triodion is translated as "three odes" in reference to the hymnography of this period, however, to the simple elder in this story who did not know this meaning, the word Triodion is a combination of the number three (tria) and the number two (dio) in Greek, and thus he understood the word Triodion to mean the period of "three to two," where if you have three passions you make an effort to eliminate one and bring them to two.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
"My dear father, the Triodion is beginning. What can we say about this period?" (The elder is simple and has not studied the theology of the universities, but the theology of prayer, as he himself says.)
"My child, the word 'Triodion' itself says it… That is: we sinners, if we have three passions to fight, let us make them two… That is the Triodion… the striking down of our passions, the reduction of our weaknesses… In short, to drive away the defects we have… We won’t manage to get rid of all of them, but even if we drive away just one, God is pleased.*
But we must be careful not to cover them up, like women do when they put on makeup — or men, who nowadays I think adorn themselves even more — that is, only outwardly… A passion needs uprooting from the root. You must dig deep into the soul to find where it begins and then uproot it completely…
That is why it requires time, prayer, fasting, confession, repentance, and conversation… We must constantly converse with God — with Christ, with our Panagia, and with our Saints… To converse with our spiritual father, with our prayer rope — not to remain alone in our struggle…
To ask for help from above and cooperation on earth… Not to stay on the surface… You see the fields: every year we plow them and put medicine for the weeds — we don’t do it once and finish… Each time we turn over the field — the soul — so the passions may be uprooted; then comes the medicine of prayer and confession and burns them away; yet we still continue with repentance and Holy Communion — and we do not stop even there — we continue with our deeds, with our study… Passions sprout when you remain inactive and lazy…
It needs humility — you must hurt your own will; you pursue yourself, not your husband, your wife, or your child — you are fighting the weed of the Ego…
If a person learns what enormous power God has hidden inside the soul, the sea will move to the mountain and the mountain to the sea… This victory is what God awaits from His children: that we conquer our ego, just as Christ conquered it on the night before His Passion in Gethsemane or on the Forty-Day Mountain… Do you think Christ did not suffer as a man? Did He not weep? Did He not shed tears? For whom? For me, for you, for those He loves… His love for us caused these things in our Lord… Whoever loves knows how to give for his love without asking anything… Therefore we too, if we love Christ, must give Him ourselves as pure as He sent us to earth… So we shall suffer, shed tears, and weep — but we will succeed for our love toward our God…
This is the Triodion: the preparation of the cultivation of the soul has begun, so that at the harvest we may receive the seed of His Resurrection… With my blessing — a good struggle!"
Notes:
* In Greek, the word Triodion is translated as "three odes" in reference to the hymnography of this period, however, to the simple elder in this story who did not know this meaning, the word Triodion is a combination of the number three (tria) and the number two (dio) in Greek, and thus he understood the word Triodion to mean the period of "three to two," where if you have three passions you make an effort to eliminate one and bring them to two.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
