#Saint Isaac The Syrian

[orthodoxadventure]

Preserve your inner peace at any cost. Do not trade your inner peace for anything in the world. Make peace with yourself, and heaven and earth will make peace with you.

Saint Isaac the Syrian

[sidebee-hive]

"If a man does not argue with the thoughts that the enemy secretly sows in us, but by prayer to God uproots conversation with them, this is a sign that his mind has attained wisdom, and that he has found a short path."

- St. Isaac the Syrian

[tabernacleheart]

Whoever hates his sins will stop sinning; and whoever confesses them will receive remission. A man can not abandon the habit of sin if he does not first gain enmity toward sin, nor can he receive remission of sin without confession of sin. For the confession of sin is the cause of true humility.

Saint Isaac the Syrian

[dramoor]

[portraitsofsaints]

Saint Isaac the Syrian c. 613 - c. 700 Feast Day: January 28

Saint Isaac of Syria, also known as Isaac of Nineveh entered a monastery at a young age and received an excellent education. He then taught theology while emphasizing God’s love, mercy, and the works of the Holy Spirit. St. Isaac was installed as the Bishop of Ninevah but left after 5 months to live a life of solitude, poverty, contemplation, and total surrender to God. His writings are still treasured today for their spiritual insights. {website}

[religious-extremist]

I need guidance on something. I find myself committing sin (lying, anger) often - and I want to repent but I feel like it would be a lie to God because I know I will sin again, because I have fallen into these habits. I want to get better and seek God's forgiveness but I absolutely do not want to make false promises to God. I have asked other Christians about this but they all give me similar responses - "Just repent anyway, it's okay if you sin again," or "These sins are so minor, God doesn't care," or other things like this and it feels like being led astray to even consider these possibilities. I am asking you because I feel like an Orthodox Christian sticks more firmly to the Bible and not to modern interpretations of it.

Eagerly awaiting your response, and please pray for me. :)

St. Porphyrios used to say, “Do not fight to expel the darkness from the chamber of your soul. Open a tiny aperture for light to enter, and the darkness will disappear.”

All habitual sins are rooted in the passions: lying and anger are the fruits of pride, which is the seed of corruption. It is necessary to struggle against them and not despair of our salvation. We cannot give up the fight against the desires of the flesh; it is impossible to be a Christian while indulging in the pleasures of sin.

God gives us the weapons we need to fight the passions through the Church; through frequent confession and communion; through prayer and fasting. I recommend you talk to an Orthodox spiritual father, as I am only a layperson, and a terribly sinful and foolish one at that!

The only way to avoid sin is to have perfect prayer, to have perfect stillness of the heart, to hold fast to Christ and keep Him in the center of your thoughts at all times. Have you ever heard of the Jesus prayer and the hesychastic way of life?

St. Macarius of Optina said, “Pray simply. Do not expect to find in your heart any remarkable gift of prayer. Consider yourself unworthy of it. Then you will find peace. Use the empty cold dryness of your prayer as food for your humility.”

I wish to say, his advice can be used to advance in all of the other virtues aside from prayer. Pray for God to keep you from sin, and if you find yourself falling into sin, use the shame of sin as food for your humility.

St. Isaac the Syrian also said, “As salt is needed for all kinds of food, so humility is needed for all kinds of virtues.”

While Elder Ephraim said, “Grass does not sprout in trampled ground; likewise, passions and wickedness do not sprout in a humble soul. As long as we lack humility, God will not stop humbling us through trials until we learn this important and most salvific lesson.”

So you might wonder, how can I gain humility? When you find yourself angry, look inwards and remember your sin against God. Remember the unmerciful servant, the fool who received forgiveness for his debt from the King and then assailed a fellow servant for owing him much less than what he, himself, owed the King. Pray for those who sin against you, and thank God for the persecution you face, because He allows you to face temptations in order to heal your soul of its passions.

“In order to abide in the love of God it is essential for anger and 'hate' to attain their maximum intensity but be directed against the sin that lives in me, against the evil active in me - in me, not in my brother.” St. Silouan exhorted.

Most importantly, no one can attain these virtues unless they are in obedience to a spiritual father. People fall into delusion thinking they can live a spiritual life outside of the Church, but in doing so, they follow the whims of their heart and nourish not their souls but feed the evil passion of pride in their hearts. Disobedience was the first sin committed by man in Paradise, and it is by obedience to a spiritual father that we free ourselves from the harsh judgment of God.

Please forgive me and pray for me, inadequate and late in my answer. You are welcome to send me a message if you wish to speak. It is hard for me to answer these questions adequately without conversation, the answer is so vast and encompasses so many facets of the spiritual life that cannot be explained in a short paragraph by a stupid person like me, so I recall instead what the saints have said.

The spiritual life is mystical, you must participate in the prayers, services, fasts, and sacraments of the Church in order to find answers; it is not something I can give to you with words, but it is an experience of God. “God is the Lord and has revealed Himself to us!” The only way to know God is by divine revelation, not by mere will, and we find God revealed to us through His Church! “Taste and see that the Lord is good!” Indeed, He knocks at your door, only you must answer and meet the Bridegroom yourself.

I am praying for you. May the Panagia be with you! May God have mercy on us, my dear friend,

Prayer for the Granting of all Virtues by Saint Ephraim the Syrian

Grant me, O Son of the Good One, that for which my mind yearns, and join to it that which is pleasing to Thy will.

Grant that I may choose to do good and in no way deviate from Thy will.

Do not permit me to be a wicked and hypocritical disciple who violates Thy commandments.

Protect me from thinking that I can walk along Thy path merely for the sake of appearance and thus by my hypocrisy deceive those who see me, inciting them to proclaim me blessed.

Grant that my heart might please Thy greatness in secret, and that my just life might glorify Thee publicly.

May truth be a mistress to guide Thy worshipper; may it preserve me in chastity both near and far.

Deliver me from the misfortune of knowing Thy law, yet lacking the desire to please Thee.

Vouchsafe me the company of people who are simple, but experienced and wise in the performance of virtues.

My flesh is weak. Fortify it with Thy strength. Help me, break the arrows of the cunning enemy, and number me among the hosts of Thine heirs.

Grant me, O Lord, ever to be among Thy dominion and to do what is pleasing to Thee. And whenever I begin something good, do Thou, O Lord, give me strength to complete it.

I know, O Lord, that I have sinned against Thy will. Clearly do I see that I have transgressed Thy commands. But do Thou, who makest Thy sun to shine on the bad and the good, deign also to shine Thy light in my clouded mind. And sins — those murderers and robbers who have taken up residence inside of me — will be driven out by this Thy light.

The Evil One sees in me no wickedness that did not come from him, for it is because of him that I have become wicked. I am, however, conquered by him through my own free will. The Evil One has entangled me because I myself instructed him to do so.

The slothful and the timid run from Thy yoke; Thy love shames the negligent.

Praise be to Thy goodness, to that mother of all teachers. The blows that they deliver to bring the stubborn to their senses are perhaps quite painful, yet sympathetically do they offer healing to the penitent.

Worthy of veneration are Thy Father and Thy Holy Spirit, Who rejoices at our return!

[yonathas-blog]

See by which of these passions you are alive. Then you will know how much you are alive to the world, and how much you are dead to it.”

Saint Isaac the Syrian

[hieromonkcharbel]

How do we approach the world and writings of St. Isaac the Syrian? For, Archimandrite Vasileios tells us, he "commands a territory which is difficult to describe. It is the mystery of the age to come, as it is lived out today by a saint who is mature, totally transfigured; who not only sees the strength of things uncreated and the beauty of things unseen, but has the power, in the likeness of God, to create new worlds, as he himself says. And although this is something so vast, it is not a dizzying vastness; on the contrary, it soothes you. It calms you down. Because he has attained to the mercy of God, the incomprehensible compassion which loves the whole creation." St. Isaac makes present to us, then, all that we can be and are meant to be by the grace of God. In him and in his writings we see what it is to live as a saint in the world and so also glimpse the glory of the Kingdom.

"He is above created things," Vasileios continues, "beyond all activity. And at the same time he cannot bear to see even the least of creatures suffering. This is why in the likeness of God he prays with tears for all creation, even to the very reptiles." St. Isaac though sharing in the life of God is not separated from creation; rather he shares in the very compassion of God that forever links him to every creature.

It is for this reason, Vasileios warns, "the text that dares to speak about the spiritual world of Abba Isaac cannot be organized systematically. It cannot be divided into sections; it cannot fence his teaching in." To do so would be to do violence to the man and to the saint, to do violence the mystery of God's ways.

Thus, Vasileios continues, such a work "will speak in a way that is general and fragmentary. It will leave place for those who approach this wonder to register their amazement." St. Isaac is a wonder; a wonder of God and His grace. His life itself becomes for us a revelation. It pulls back the veil and allows us to gaze upon the heavenly Mystery in which we find ourselves caught up. For this very reason any writing or discussion of Isaac will not fully give us simply the flavor of the man, but "inevitably reveal how this uncreated grace and sparkling radiance are reflected off the uneven surface of the writer's own disorderliness. Thus it both speaks the truth, and unavoidably distorts it. It helps towards an understanding of Abba Isaac and at the same times obscures it." What St. Isaac reveals to us is more than we can ever fully comprehend outside of sharing in his experience; outside of becoming saints. Every encounter with him radically humbles us.

And so Vasileios sets the path for us: "Nothing remains - this is a desire and a wish - but for each of us to cross himself, and quietly proceed to his own personal encounter with the Abba. Thus each of us will receive, secretly and silently, what he is looking for, what he can find nowhere else with such maturity, universality and completeness.

In the weeks to come we will seek to enter, with the help of Vasileios, into the world of St. Isaac and so be made "fellow guests at the eternal feast of his joy."

***************

Abba Isaac is there.

He could have lived without every writing anything, and still nothing of his grace and richness would have been lost.

But because we lack the receivers to pick up all that radiates from him in silence, out of love he starts to write:

"My beloved, I have become foolish, and I cannot bear to guard the mystery in silence, but I am become a fool for the sake of the profit of my brethren."

The whole truth that the Church believes and lives, all that is set out in St. Gregory of Nyssa, the Areopagitic writings or St. Maximus the Confessor in a form which is intellectually difficult and dogmatically crystal clear, is to be found here - not reproduced verbatim, but verified through experience. His joy and his ethic stem from this nourishment and the way he has digested it.

He experienced the grace of the incarnation in his whole body.

He was taken up into the paradise of deification with his whole being.

In his life the grace of the Church exists in its entirety. And in his book you find the whole of his sanctified self.

He is a genuine person, shaped by momentous experiences. For long years he was battered by temptations from the right and from the left. And he received experience of "divine aid"; "Having been tempted over a great period of time in things from the right hand and from the left, . . . and having received countless blows from the adversary, and been deemed worthy of great and secret aid, I have gained experience from many long years, and through trial and by the grace of God I have learned these things."

He was tried in his entirety and saved in his entirety. This is why he is able to transmit salvation.

He passed through the ultimate crisis of darkness: "This hour is full of despair and fear; hope in God . . . is utterly effaced from his soul, and she is wholly and entirely filled with doubt and fear." "Many times we have experienced all these things."

He entered in his entirety into the paradise of future blessedness, where "a certain delight and gladness descends into the whole body." And "a certain sweetness constantly wells up from the heart, and draws the intellect altogether after it."

Thus he attained to the measure of the true "giants", as he calls the saints, those who "do not practice each virtue separately, but all the virtues at once, completely and comprehensively." This is why he was able to write this book.

And the writing of it was a convergence of experiences; a torrent of life passed right through him, testing his endurance and paralyzing his members and his heart: "Often when I was writing these things my fingers failed me in setting down everything on paper, and they were unable to endure the sweetness that descended on my heart and silenced my senses." His teaching flows like molten gold, pouring at this very moment from the furnace of his being.

A certain elder, as Abba Isaac relates, said of his writings: "These are . . . true deliberations that are stirred in me by nature. I write them down when they come to me, so that I might reflect on them in my periods of darkness, and they might deliver me from delusion."

That was how Abba Isaac wrote. His words wrote themselves in the hour of grace. This is why now, as you study them, they fill you with grace, the light and the holy stirring that engendered them. The writing and the study of his words are a participating in divine and eternal life "for remission of sins, for communion of the Holy Spirit and for boldness towards God."

As you study his holy writings, you truly live with Abba Isaac. And he lives in you. Your being functions in a way that is ecclesial, a liturgy. You receive and involuntarily you offer, and at the same time you feel gratitude: "These things I have written down as a reminder and source of profit for myself, and for everyone who comes upon this book . . . in order that they might be a help to me through the prayers of those who are profited by them. For I have taken no little trouble to set these things down."

He knows that by the way he has lived and the way he has written, he has enslaved us in freedom to his ethic. He has made us fellow guests at the eternal feast of his joy. And we all dwell there.

Historical scholars want to find out whom he was influenced by and whom he influenced (and this is a legitimate exercise). But in entering into that realm where he has entered, he has taken from all, both earlier and later, and gives to all. He lives in the realm of the Kingdom. And he influences everyone through the high dignity he has attained in his own being.

Archimandrite Vasileios

Abbot of Iveron Monastery, Mount Athos

Abba Isaac the Syrian

An Approach to His World

[leonieanderson]

Love silence above all things, because it brings you near to fruit that the tongue cannot express. First let us force ourselves to be silent, and then from out of this silence something is born that leads us into silence itself. . . . If you begin with this discipline, I know not how much light will dawn on you from it. . . . Great is the man who by the patience of his members achieves wondrous habits in his soul! When you put all the works of this discipline on one side and silence on the other, you will find the latter to be greater in weight.

Saint Isaac the Syrian

[orthodoxadventure]

Thirst after Jesus, and He will satisfy you with His love.

Saint Isaac the Syrian

[sidebee-hive]

"The passions are uprooted and turned to flight by constant occupation of the mind with God. This is a sword that puts them to death... Whoever always thinks about God drives the demons away from himself and pulls up the seeds of their malice."

- St. Isaac the Syrian

[opencommunion]

Hey, I have lebanese heritage and recently found out my family was maronite. I don't know anything about maronites, though, besides some basic history, and I want to learn more as part of my reconnecting journey. Do you have any tips on how I can do that? God bless you, thanks in advance

welcome!!! I'm so happy you asked because I had a somewhat similar experience -- I was aware we were maronite but only a few members of my extended family were active churchgoers, so I didn't know much until I started researching on my own as an adult first and foremost, if you're lucky enough to live near a maronite church, don't hesitate to drop by for a service and introduce yourself!! for maronite clergy in the diaspora, helping people reconnect is like 90% of the job lol. and the liturgy is the heart of our tradition, it's what differentiates us from other churches in the catholic communion, so immersing yourself in it brings an understanding of aspects of the faith and culture that can't fully be conveyed otherwise. but if you don't live near a church, no worries!! a lot of churches livestream services and have youtube channels where you can watch past streams: Our Lady of Lebanon Cathedral St. Anthony of the Desert Church St. George Church ... and many others

my #1 book recommendation is Captivated by Your Teachings: A Resource Book for Adult Maronite Catholics by Anthony J. Salim. sadly I can't find a pdf but if you can only buy one book it should be this one imo the essays linked here, especially Seely Beggiani's series on the sacraments, are also a great place to start Seely Beggiani's Early Syriac Theology: With Special Reference to the Maronite Tradition is another personal fav of mine bc it goes deep into the early theological underpinnings of our liturgy. Beggiani also wrote a more straightforward breakdown of the liturgy in The Divine Liturgy of the Maronite Church: History and Commentary The Hidden Pearl is an academic organization for syriac studies in general, but with a strong maronite slant. their website is kind of a pain to navigate but worth the trouble -- lots of free books, articles, and videos. they also have lectures up on youtube

Beth Mardutho is another syriac studies group with a massive digital library and an online journal the Maronite Servants of Christ the Light, a monastic community in the US, also have a YT channel. a couple years ago they hosted a webinar series for lent that I really enjoyed. my favorite was the session on the divine office learning about our saints can also be fruitful. the most famous are st maron (of course), st charbel, and st rafqa (my fav). some saints that weren't maronite themselves but are particularly revered in our tradition are st ephrem the syrian, st isaac of nineveh, and st jacob of serugh. this directory of syriac saints is also fun to browse

the version of the bible we use is the peshitta. I often refer to this site which lets you compare the peshitta NT side by side with various other translations. I especially love the lexicon search function

have fun, and hmu if you have any more questions or just want to chat!

[dramoor]

[portraitsofsaints]

Saint Isaac the Syrian

c. 613 - c. 700

Feast Day: January 28

Saint Isaac of Syria, also known as Isaac of Nineveh entered a monastery at a young age and received an excellent education. He then taught theology while emphasizing God’s love, mercy, and the works of the Holy Spirit. St. Isaac was installed as the Bishop of Ninevah but left after 5 months to live a life of solitude, poverty, contemplation, and total surrender to God. His writings are still treasured today for their spiritual insights.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here: (website)

[orthodoxydaily]

Saints&Reading: Wednesday, August 14, 2024

august 1_august 14

Beginning of the Dormition Fast.

Procession of the Precious Wood of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord (1164) (First of the three "Feasts of the Saviour" in August_ blessing of honey and poppy seeds).

THE SEVEN HOLY MACCABEAN MARTYRS: HABIM, ANTONIN, GURIAH, ELEAZAR, EUSEBON, HADIM (HALIM) AND MARCELLUS, THEIR MOTHER SOLOMONIA AND THEIR TEACHER ELEAZAR (166 BC)

The seven holy Maccabee martyrs Abim, Antonius, Gurias, Eleazar, Eusebonus, Alimus and Marcellus, their mother Solomonia and their teacher Eleazar suffered in the year 166 before Christ under the impious Syrian king Antiochus IV Epiphanes. This foolish ruler loved pagan and Hellenistic customs, and held Jewish customs in contempt. He did everything possible to turn people from the Law of Moses and from their covenant with God. He desecrated the Temple of the Lord, placed a statue of the pagan god Zeus there, and forced the Jews to worship it. Many people abandoned the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but there were also those who continued to believe that the Savior would come.

A ninety-year-old elder, the scribe and teacher Eleazar, was brought to trial for his faithfulness to the Mosaic Law. He suffered tortures and died at Jerusalem.

The disciples of Saint Eleazar, the seven Maccabee brothers and their mother Solomonia, also displayed great courage. They were brought to trial in Antioch by King Antiochus Epiphanes. They fearlessly acknowledged themselves as followers of the True God, and refused to eat pig’s flesh, which was forbidden by the Law.

The eldest brother acted as spokesman for the rest, saying that they preferred to die rather than break the Law. He was subjected to fierce tortures in sight of his brothers and their mother. His tongue was cut out, he was scalped, and his hands and feet were cut off. Then a cauldron and a large frying pan were heated, and the first brother was thrown into the frying pan, and he died.

The next five brothers were tortured one after the other. The seventh and youngest brother was the last one left alive. Antiochus suggested to Saint Solomonia to persuade the boy to obey him, so that her last son at least would be spared. Instead, the brave mother told him to imitate the courage of his brothers.

The child upbraided the king and was tortured even more cruelly than his brothers had been. After all her seven children had died, Saint Solomonia, stood over their bodies, raised up her hands in prayer to God and died.

The martyric death of the Maccabee brothers inspired Judas Maccabeus, and he led a revolt against Antiochus Epiphanes. With God’s help, he gained the victory, and then purified the Temple at Jerusalem. He also threw down the altars which the pagans had set up in the streets. All these events are related in the Second Book of Maccabees (Ch. 8-10).

Various Fathers of the Church preached sermons on the seven Maccabees, including Saint Cyprian of Carthage, Saint Ambrose of Milan, Saint Gregory Nazianzus and Saint John Chrysostom.

ST. NICHOLAS (KASSATKIN), ENLIGHTENER OF JAPAN (1912)

Saint Nicholas (Kasatkin) Equal of the Apostles, Bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church. Missionary, Founder of the Orthodox Church in Japan, honorary member of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society. (Name Day: May 9).

Saint Nicholas (in the world John Kasatkin) was born on August 1,1836 in the village of Berezovsky Pogost, Belsky District, Smolensk Province into the family of a deacon. He graduated from the Belsk Theological School and the Smolensk Theological Seminary (1857). Among the best students he was recommended for the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, where he studied until 1860, when, at the personal request of Metropolitan Gregory (Postnikov) of St. Petersburg, he was given the post of rector of the church at the Russian consulate in the city of Hakodate (Japan), and was also awarded a Ph.D in Theology without having to submit an appropriate qualifying essay.

On June 23, 1860, he was tonsured by the rector of the Academy, Bishop Nektarios (Nadezhdin), and named for Saint Nicholas of Myra. On June 30 he was ordained a Hieromonk.

He arrived at Hakodate on July 2, 1861. During the first years of his stay in Japan, on his own he studied the Japanese language, culture and way of life.

The first Japanese person to convert to Orthodoxy, despite the fact that conversion to Christianity was forbidden by law, was the adopted son of a Shinto cleric, Takuma Sawabe, a former samurai who was baptized with two other Japanese in the spring of 1868.

During his half-century of service in Japan, Father Nicholas left only twice: in 1869-1870 and in 1879-1880. In 1870, through his intercession, a Russian ecclesiastical mission was opened in Japan with its center in Tokyo. On March 17, 1880, by the decision of the Holy Synod, he was assigned as vicar of Reval, then vicar of the Diocese of Riga. He was consecrated as a Bishop on March 30, 1880, in Holy Trinity Cathedral at Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

In the course of his missionary work, Father Nicholas translated the Holy Scriptures and other liturgical books into Japanese; he established a theological seminary, six theological schools for girls and boys, a library, a shelter and other institutions. He published the Orthodox journal Church Herald in Japanese. According to his report to the Holy Synod, by the end of 1890 the Orthodox Church in Japan numbered 216 communities with 18,625 Christians in them.

On March 8, 1891, the Cathedral of the Resurrection in Tokyo, called Nikorai-do (ニコライ堂) by the Japanese, was consecrated. During the Russo-Japanese War, he remained with his flock in Japan, but did not take part in any public services. because according to the rite of worship (and the blessing of Japanese Christians to pray for their country's victory over Russia. Bishop Nicholas said: "Today, according to custom, I serve in the cathedral, but from now on I will no longer take part in the public services of our church... Hitherto I have prayed for the prosperity and peace of the Empire of Japan. Now, since war has been declared between Japan and my country, I, as a Russian subject, cannot pray for Japan's victory over my own homeland. I also have obligations to my country, and that is why I will be happy to see that you fulfill your duty in relation to your country."

When Russian prisoners of war began to arrive in Japan (their total number reached 73,000 people), Bishop Nicholas, with the consent of the Japanese government, formed the Society for the Spiritual Consolation of Prisoners of War. For their spiritual guidance, he selected five priests who spoke Russian. The prisoners were provided with icons and books. Vladyka repeatedly addressed them in writing (he himself was not allowed to see the prisoners).

On March 24, 1906, he was elevated to the rank of Archbishop of Tokyo and All Japan. In the same year, the Kyoto Vicariate was founded. In 1911, when half a century of Saint Nicholas' s missionary work was completed, there were already 266 communities of the Japanese Orthodox Church, which included 33,017 Orthodox laymen.

Archbishop Nicholas, the Enlightener of Japan, fell asleep in the Lord on February 3, 1912 at the age of 76, After the Hierarch's repose, the Japanese Emperor Meiji personally gave permission for him to be buried within the city, at the Yanaka cemetery. In Japan, Saint Nicholas is revered as a great righteous man and a special intercessor before the Lord.

He was canonized on April 10, 1970, by the decision of the Holy Synod of the Moscow Patriarchate. A Service was composed for him by Metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov) of Leningrad and Novgorod, and published in 1978.

Saint Nicholas is also commemorated on the Sunday before July 28 (Synaxis of the Smolensk Saints).

Source all text: Orthodox Church in America_OCA

1 CORINTHIANS 1:18-2

18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 Fo it is written: 20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. 22 For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

JOHN 5:1-4

1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. 3 In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. 4

For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.

[santmat]

  Spiritual Experiences and Mystical Experiences of Heaven, OOBEs & NDEs, and the Rule About Not Sharing One's Inner Experiences in Sant Mat - Spiritual Awakening Radio Podcast

Today... explaining the rule in Sant Mat about not sharing one's own personal inner experiences with others - why is that? It's all about keeping experiences private, authentic, free from ego and free from outside contamination or mental phantasmagoria, also free of pressures and expectations about what one "should" be experiencing. Everyone is at their own unique level or place in Inner Space. We need only to focus on our own inward journey, stay in touch with That, and keep it real, keep it 100!

Spiritual Experiences and Mystical Experiences of Heaven, OOBEs & NDEs, and the Rule About Not Sharing One's Inner Experiences in Sant Mat- Spiritual Awakening Radio Podcast - Listen and/or Download @:

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Seek To See God Now - Liberation During This Life - Mystic-Poem of Sant Tulsi Sahib

"In this life, the concept of salvation all describe;

To meet the Lord by dying while living [meditation], none discloses.

They all speak of the goal of salvation after death;

How to attain it while living, no one says.

Were they to reveal the method of achieving release while living,

Then alone would Tulsi be convinced of their words.

Who speaks, after seeing with their own eyes,

and teach the method of salvation during life,

They are of the stage and stature of Saints,

for they reveal the quintessence of the soul."

The Expanse Above, from Saint Isaac the Syrian's Spiritual Works, Translated by Mary Hansbury:

"By stillness of the body and ceasing from this world, solitaries imagine the true stillness and the withdrawal from nature which will occur at the end of the corporeal world. By means of the mind, the solitaries are united with the world of the Spirit. By means of meditation, they are involved in the expanse above."

Awaken to the Resplendent Light Within You - Sant Tulsi Sahib of Hathras, Mystic Verses from the Book of Shabdavali:

"Listen, O swan-soul, ascend to your true abode.

So says the Master again and again.

You do not pay attention to his words;

O finish your sorrows and joys and transmigrations.

If the deluded soul were to unite with her Source,

Never again would she be encumbered by body and mind.

From the Source of the Divine Ocean opens a Portal to the Light;

O awaken that resplendent Light within you."

In Divine Love (Bhakti), Light, and Sound, At the Feet of the Masters, Radhasoami,

James Bean

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