April: Day 20: Teaching 2: Venerable John of the Old Lavra

April: Day 20: Teaching 2:
Venerable John of the Old Lavra
 
(How Is Love for God Manifested)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Saint now being glorified, the holy Venerable John, is called "of the Old Lavra" because he was saved (labored in ascetic life) in the lavra of the holy Venerable Chariton, which was called old or ancient, as the most ancient among the Palestinian monasteries. This lavra was located not far from Bethlehem, in the direction of the Dead Sea. The holy John, out of love for God, in his youth left the world and settled in the lavra, where, in the rank of presbyter, he attained a high degree of holiness. He lived in the 8th century.

II. The Venerable John, who out of love for God left the world, naturally leads us to reflection on what manifests true love for God.

Is it necessary for its manifestation for everyone and in all cases to leave the world? Or is it not possible, even while living in the world, to show one’s sincere and free love for God? Without doubt, it is possible. Love for God, just like love for man, cannot remain hidden. It must necessarily have its visible actions, its external signs. What then are these signs or actions by which love for God is manifested? Let us examine. The signs by which love for God is manifested always and everywhere are many and various.

a) Among such signs belongs, first of all, prayer, which can be performed in every place, and especially in the church.

The Prophet David greatly loved the Lord God. “What have I in heaven,” he said, “and besides You what have I desired on earth? O God of my heart, and my portion, O God forever” (Ps. 72:25). And by what, among other things, was love for God manifested in this Prophet? By prayer. He himself testifies that both by day and by night prayer to God was his beloved occupation. “Seven times a day I have praised You, O Lord,” David writes in the 118th Psalm, and elsewhere in his psalms he says: “At midnight I arose to give thanks to Your name, O Lord” (Ps. 118:62). Thus the soul that loves God is wholly and always in prayer, more or less intense. 

As a fish lives in water and by water, so the soul that loves God lives in prayer and by prayer. This happens because the soul that loves God continually strives, thirsts, to converse with its beloved Creator. This striving is sometimes so great that people burning with love for God pray to God even in sleep, and so strongly that sometimes tears of compunction interrupt their sleep. Of this it is said in the Song of Songs: “I sleep, but my heart is awake” (Song 5:2). I sleep, but my heart is awake — loves God, seeks God, prays to God, delights in God. “I sleep, but my heart does not sleep, burns, shines, dwells in heaven.” Therefore those who love God and also love prayer have sincere zeal to frequently visit the temples of God and to partake of the holy mysteries of Christ. Anna the prophetess, who loved God, “departed not from the temple,” as the Gospel relates, “but served there with fasting and prayers night and day” (Luke 2:38). And the early Christians, who loved God, partook weekly of the holy mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ.

b) Love for God is also manifested by a desire for reading or hearing the word of God, which can also be read at home without leaving worldly life.

To the one who loves God it is pleasant to hear what God his Creator says; it is pleasant to know what the Heavenly King desires from men. And therefore it is sweet for such a person to delve into the word of God, sweet to see the works of the wisdom of God, sweet to hear the words of the will of God. Therefore the Prophet David, who loved God, also loved the word of God. “How sweet,” he exclaims, “are Your words to my throat, O Lord! more than honey and the honeycomb” (Ps. 117:103). And it is not surprising, because one who loves God, reading or listening to Holy Scripture, finds in it both that which continually reminds him of the beloved, sweetest object — God — and that which develops, strengthens, and inflames the joy-giving, soul-saving love for God.

c) Besides this, love for God is manifested by a virtuous Christian life, or what is the same, by the fulfillment of the will of God.

And this is very natural. For one who loves a person usually fulfills the will of the person he loves. So it is also in the matter of love for God. He who loves God willingly, with zeal, fulfills the will of God. Of this Jesus Christ also says: “He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me” (John 14:21). The Theologian John also presupposes the fulfillment of the will of God where there is undoubted love for God: “This is the love of God,” says the beloved disciple of Christ, “that we keep His commandments” (1 John 5:3).

However, one must not think that those who love God in this present life do not at all feel inclination toward evil and never sin. No — even those who love God, as long as they live on earth, are subject to sinful weaknesses. But they, out of love for God, out of the desire to please the Creator, resist their evil inclinations; and if they sin, they quickly come to themselves, repent, and turn to God asking forgiveness. Such people strongly feel the burden of the sin they have committed, strongly grieve over having angered the Lord, and with particular effort strive to restore the grace-filled, sweet peace with God that was broken by sins. Let us recall the Apostle Peter, how he, having sinned, wept bitterly. In him, at that moment, love for God wept bitterly — having felt the bitterness of separation from God and striving toward the restoration of communion with God. As among friends, after a break in love, there often comes a renewal of love with greater strength, so also among those who love God, after the violation of God’s law committed by them, love for God, the striving toward God, and the effort to live according to God’s law often — by the help of the grace of God — increase, are strengthened, and manifest themselves in abundant fruits of virtue.

III. May the Lord grant us grace-filled help, through the prayers of the Venerable John of the Old Lavra, to manifest our love for God with all the powers of our soul: in thought, in word, and in deed. Amen.

(Compiled according to the “Words and Discourses” of Jacob, Archbishop of Nizhny Novgorod, part III, 4th edition).

 

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.  

 

Notes: 

 

* In the original book, this text is placed under April 19th, due to this Saint being commemorated in the Slavic calendar on that date, but in this English translation it is placed under April 20th, since this is his feast day in the Greek calendar.