Venerable Mark the Ascetic and Wonderworker: A Most Eminent Ascetical Writer

 

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Venerable Mark was industrious in all things: he devoted himself also to the study of the divine Scriptures and reached the highest degree of ascetic practice and virtue. Proof of both is, on the one hand, the discourses he composed, which are filled with every kind of teaching and benefit, and on the other hand the working of miracles that was given to him by the Savior Christ. Of these it is absolutely necessary to recount one:

When the Venerable one was in the courtyard of his hermitage and, in prayer, was keeping watch over himself, a hyena came near him, bringing with it its blind little cub. With humble bearing it therefore begged the Saint to have pity on it and to heal the blindness of its child. And he, after spitting upon the wounded eyes and praying, made them healthy.

After some days, the hyena brought him the fleece of a large ram as a gift for the healing, but the Venerable one did not wish to receive it before the beast promised that from then on it would never again attack the sheep of poor people. But if he was so beloved by irrational nature, much more did he have love toward human beings, because of our common nature, which requires that we show very great compassion toward one another.

An Image of the Importance of the Kollyvades Movement from an 18th Century French Travelogue Entry

In 1776, a French nobleman, traveler and diplomat known as Count Choiseul-Gouffier (1752-1817) had the following encounter with a Greek Orthodox monk on the Greek island of Patmos, which he recorded (below) and depicted (above) in his travelogue titled Voyage pittoresque de la Grèce, published in Venice in 1782. He encountered this monk on his way to the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian:

As soon as my ship had anchored, I hastened to dismount to go to the Convent. I was far from foreseeing the encounter, which would excite, the moment after, my interest and my curiosity. I was going towards the mountain, when I saw a Caloyer who was coming down from it, and who, advancing towards me with haste, asked me in Italian, what country I was from, where I came from, what had happened in Europe for seven years since no ship had since landed on these rocks. In barely French he said to me: "Tell me," he cried, "is Voltaire still alive?"

The Beauty of a Soul Illuminated by the Holy Spirit (St. Theodore of Edessa)

By St. Theodore of Edessa 

 

(Philokalia, "A Century of Spiritual Texts")

7. So long as the soul is in a state contrary to nature, running wild with the weeds and thorns of sensual pleasures, it is a dwelling-place of grotesque beasts. Isaiah's words apply to it: "Ass-centaurs shall rest there, and hedgehogs make their lair in it, and there demons will consort with ass-centaurs" (Isa. 34:11, 14. LXX) - for all these animals signify the various shameful passions. But the soul, so long as it is joined to the flesh, can recall itself to its natural state at any time it wishes: and whenever it does so and disciplines itself with diligent effort, living in accordance with God's law, the wild beasts that were lurking inside it will take to flight, while the angels who guard our life will come to its aid, making the soul's return a day of rejoicing (cf. Luke 15:7). And the grace of the Holy Spirit will be present in it, teaching it spiritual knowledge, so that it may be strengthened in what is good and rise to higher levels.

Faith and Works: An Orthodox Philokalic Perspective (6 of 6)

 ...continued from part five.

6. Conclusions in the Form of an Epilogue

Guided by a Philokalic thread, I tried to briefly outline the relationship between faith and works (or theoria and praxis) from a soteriological point of view (justification as illumination and glorification as deification). From the previous analysis it became, I think, obvious:

a) Philokalic piety has nothing to do with any version of the "ethics of meritorious works" nor is it "prayerful" according to a conception that distorts prayer into an autonomous human work and betrays ignorance of its charismatic identity: "Grace is not only faith, but active prayer" (Saint Gregory of Sinai, Philokalia IV, 54). "Justification" is understood as the illumination of the heart, the first resurrection of the "hidden things of the heart" of man, and is achieved by the grace of God in the "person of Jesus Christ" through "justified faith" within the body of the Church. Grace does not exclude, but heals and activates human free will in order to preserve the treasure in the measure of the working of the divine "commandments", which are understood as a means of secret communion with God, an extension and concretization of baptismal grace. Consequently, good works cannot be considered "meritorious", nor can they provide psychological "certainty" of salvation which would undermine the living Christian hope in God's mercy and the lifelong "repentance" necessary for all.

Faith and Works: An Orthodox Philokalic Perspective (5 of 6)

 ...continued from part four.

5. Hesychasm and the Life of the New Testament

This naturally leads us to the following thoughts. The fulfillment of the old Law in the new life of grace by the Holy Spirit, in the Church of the Incarnate Word, had been prophetically announced by the Prophets of ancient Israel. Jeremiah and Ezekiel spoke of the eschatological era, during which the divine will shall be written no longer on stone tablets but by the Spirit in the renewed hearts of flesh of the members of the people of God, the people of the New Testament (Jer. 38:31-35; Ez. 36:24-27 and 18:31).

This is exactly the truth that the Philokalic Fathers emphasize from experience. Symeon the New Theologian identifies the difference between the New Testament and the Old Testament in that in the Church of the New Testament grace does not "speak" to believers, so they do not learn what is good through letters and inscriptions, but in their hearts from the Holy Spirit are "secretly initiated in the divine by the light of the word and the word of light." And here we could speak of a Philokalic interpretation of the Pauline testimony of 2 Cor. 3:18: "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord."

Faith and Works: An Orthodox Philokalic Perspective (4 of 6)

 ... continued from part three.

4. The Negative and Positive Dimension of the Ascetic Struggle

We now continue with the Orthodox position, as it is expressed through the Philokalic experience. Good works or, to express ourselves in the philological idiom, "acts" (praxis) as "work of the commandments" are not meritorious; however, they are certainly not useless or unprofitable. However, the "act" or good works are understood divinely and Christ-centeredly within a charismatic context as manifestations of "faith by grace" (Gregory of Sinai). In fact, Saint Mark appears to recognize a primarily negative function for them, in the sense that every virtue (even the death of the Martyrs!) is understood as a "prison of the purity given to us (meaning in Baptism)" and therefore as a free "abstinence from sin" and certainly not as "an exchange for the Kingdom".

The "Hagiorite Tome" of Saint Gregory Palamas

The "Hagiorite Tome"

 

 By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

1. Introduction

St. Gregory Palamas was a true Hagiorite. He lived a large part of his life on the Holy Mountain, was connected with the holy Fathers who lived the ascetic life with him, and therefore expressed the experience of the Hagiorite Fathers, which in reality is the experience of the Orthodox Church.

As we see from other writings of St. Gregory, there were hesychastic Fathers living on the Holy Mountain who were preserving the essence of the monastic and Christian life, which is participation in the purifying, illuminating and deifying energy of God. It is in this light that we should look at the important role of the Hagiorite Fathers in presenting the orthodox theology about the essence and energy of God and about participation in divine energy.

Faith and Works: An Orthodox Philokalic Perspective (3 of 6)

 ...continued from part two.

3. Roman Catholic "created grace" and Protestant "sola fide": An Orthodox Philokalic Response

As is known, Roman Catholic theology understands justification as the result of the infusion (infusio) of grace into man as a supernatural state (habitus) or attribute, since the justice of God the Father was "satisfied" through the death of the Savior on the cross (Anselm of Canterbury). Created grace raises (gratia elevans) man to the level that now allows him, as a new creation, to lovingly respond to God's grace by performing good works. The grace of justification (gratia gratum faciens) is thus understood as a created measure that is added to and exists in the believer (gratia inharens) in order to make his will to turn to God with perfectly formed faith, love and hope (fides caritate et spe formata). The works performed in this state of justification are considered meritorious (merita) and are therefore rewarded by God after death with eternal life, which, according to Roman Catholic theology, lies in the beatific vision (visio beatifica) of the divine essence and of the intra-trinitarian projections (in this regard see the most representative modern Roman Catholic Dogmatic: G. L. Müller, Katholische Dogmatik, passim).
 

Faith and Works: An Orthodox Philokalic Perspective (2 of 6)

 ...continued from part one.

2. The Philokalic View Towards "External Justification" (Protestantism) and the Roman Catholic "Meritocracy"

This is how we can understand why the sola fide of Protestants is lacking:
 
Faith does not save as a general idea, emotional state, acceptance of theoretical truths or even existential conviction. I remind you that the central Protestant idea, the justification of the sinner by faith alone (this "article" "stands or falls with the Church" according to Luther!) consists in the fact that God was "satisfied" by the death of His Son, thus the sinner by his faith alone (sola gratia) recognizes externally by grace alone (sola gratia) only Christ (propter Christum or solus Christus). Attention: God recognizes, not justifies the sinner. This means that the believer still remains in sin, but is now counted by God as righteous (the famous phrase "simul justus et peccator"). It is a purely judicial action, so justification is understood as a judicial measure (justitia forensis). Justice is an attribute of Christ and is not an action or attribute existing in the believer (justitia aliena), however it somehow brings about the renewal of the believer. From there on, good works are devoid of any merit (in contrast to Roman Catholic teaching), and are only the fruit and sign of justification. The faith of justification is an absolute gift of God. However, by looking towards Christ, the believer finds the certainty of salvation. Here, in my opinion, the teaching of "merit" is replaced by the "certainty" of salvation. (For details I refer, among others, to one of the most recent relevant studies: H.M. Barth, Die Theologie Martin Luthers, Gütersloh 2017, 272-273).
 

Faith and Works: An Orthodox Philokalic Perspective (1 of 6)

 By Dr. George D. Panagopoulos,
Professor of Dogmatics at the
University Ecclesiastical Academy Of Vella Ioannina

Not a few Orthodox theologians in our days overtly or covertly try to downgrade the Neptic-Hesychastic tradition and to diminish the importance of Monasticism in the life of the ecclesiastical body by "denouncing" Philokalic piety as primarily "prayerful" and ascetic living as an attempt at "individualization by works". In this way, they bring to the fore, consciously or unconsciously, the "oft-repeated" criticism raised by Protestants against monastic asceticism as an "ethic of meritorious works" (cf. G. Florovsky, The Byzantine Ascetic and Spiritual Fathers).