For October 12, 2011
Father Lazarus Has
some Messages For You!
Father Lazarus is a real Monk who resides in
Europe. His "Messages"
are written for you! Father Lazarus sends his messages to several
different clerics and people who struggle for Holy Wisdom, Understanding,
Compassion and Love as our Lord, Jesus Christ so struggled and provided us much
that His Life and Teachings provide. Father Lazarus, like many of the Holy
Fathers and Saints, shares with us his spiritual struggles by sending out to us
these messages which he writes from his Heart and Soul according to his nature
and degree of ability here below (under Heaven) - - - being planet Earth!
May you find his writings to be uplifting and
instructive both spiritually and materially as many of us have found to be very
true.... You may wish to view more at:
orthodox monasticism
Also, may the
following provide you with a beginning.
Interpretation of the Apocalypse by
Archimandrite Athanasios Mitilinaios - Part 3 - (mp3)
In this third
group of sermons on the holy Book of Revelation Fr. Athanasios Mitilinaios
analyzes the following scriptural issues:
- The Lampstands and the7 Stars
- The Church of Ephesus
- The Churches of Ephesus and
Smyrna
- The Church of Smyrna
http://www.impantokratoros.gr/interpretation-apocalypse-3.en.aspx
"THE MEETING
OF OPPOSITES"
Our Western mentality tells us it must all be
clearly defined , neatly packaged ,
put in to
compartments , and not outside our man made
rules and regulations .
If this can not happen then it is "bizarre
" , "not normal ", or "Can not be allowed
or
agreed to."
Things simply must conform to our logic ,
psychological understanding , and
Canons.
This really
becomes a far too rational approach relying solely on brain work and reason .
In the solitude of the cell this is simply not
the every day reality lived .
All the opposites and contradictions in the
church and in the world meet .
Sometimes they are resolved instantly and
sometimes not , but simply lifted up
to God
in prayer .
In the solitude of the cell sometimes two
things seemingly opposite and
contradictory
can be lived by a person at the same time.
They are not analysed but simply are as God
simply is .
The mystery excepted for what it is .
The mystery lived in its unfolding without
logical human explanations.
And in its unfolding and living the meeting of
opposites and contradictions bring them
together so they become "One."
This draws us ever deeper in to the inner life
of The Trinity .
The life of prayer , praise , and adoration .
You will find this
truth if you paint Icons .
Colours ,
energy's , truths ; blend
together and form "One ".
Meditation will also allow you to begin to be
able to perceive this truth;
as will the constant repetition of the Jesus
Prayer ; the prayer of the heart .
Just come to the quiet and reflect quietly and
gently , in calm and peace .
You need to have not set time to get to the
heart of it all .
God is not bound by time and space .
He does not operate by our clocks ,
watches and human twenty four hours
.
Never rush it and never attempt to force it ;
Never try to enforce what you want or seek on
it .
It is simply a matter of allowing
yourself to gently be guided by the
Spirit
Gently feeling your way .
Father Lazarus
The Servants of the Will of God at Crawley
Down in U;K make prayer cords
I purchased a 100 knot one for twenty pounds
They can be contacted at Thre Monastery of Holy Trinity
Crawley Down , Crawley
West Sussex RH104LH
Telephone ;01342-712074
I repost a little piece I wrote on the Jesus Prayer
Father Lazarus
I recently heard
some one commenting on a persons vocation "It confirmed their worst fears ."
What does such a
statement really mean ?
The person is not
doing what we want them to do ?
Possibly we do
not understand ?
Or simply we
personally have a problem with
certain vocations ?
Today part of the
problem is we have reduced God to the "Give
me God .."
We approach God
like a shopping trip to the Super Market ;
We present God
with our shopping list of demands of
what we want ,
and
equally have a list of things we do
not like or want ...
If God gives us
all the things we like He has blessed us ...
If God does not
give us what we demand from Him He has abandoned us ...
We can approach
vocations like this .
Certain vocations
we agree with and certain we do not
...
The problem is
through all this we have forgotten one question :
"What does God
want ?"
From start to
finish this God has something to offer that most people do not like to
taste .
He offers us two
gifts ; a crown of thorns and a robe of suffering as we walk the hidden path
of
obedience and
sacrifice that leads us to the foot of the cross in the prayer of Abandonment
of a soul
in to the hands
of God ...
Like the money
changers in the temple we often arrange the tales of our lives and fill them
with things that
do not honour God ..
Christ once again
walks in to the temple and overturns the table and
challenges us to turn our lives
in to houses of
prayer .
And then in turn
He calls some to follow His foot steps out in to the desert ...
They follow in
the foot steps of Christ to "Come an see ."
This is the
reason ...The only reason for our life in the Desert .
The lover of
mankind has called us to be there .
We are not
focused on ourselves but totally on
Him .
And in union with
Him offer our lives in sacrifice for others .
A sacrifice that
draws in and lifts up all humanity to the Father .
An offering of
love , in response to the summons of Love ;
An offering that
fills the House of God with its own beauty and perfume .
Father
Lazarus
Fr. ANTHONY ALEVIZOPOULOS
Dr. of Theology - Dr. of Philosophy
Refuting the Dogma of Reincarnation
The Foundation of
Reincarnation
If we want to determine the premise of reincarnation, we need to make reference
to its dogma that every person, according to their innermost self, is eternal
and subject to the eternal law of cause and effect, called karma. This law
pushes the person into consecutive births after each death. A basic cause which
makes up the 'fuel', so to speak, for the continuous movement of this wheel of
deaths and births is a person's attachments and desires in connection with
external reality. Each and every thought, word or deed returns to that person
during his new incarnation. His new life composes a living movie, and he is now
called to be like a perfect actor to reenact this 'drama' on the new screen.
http://www.impantokratoros.gr/dogma-reincarnation.en.aspx
If anyone wishes to contact me privately to
discuss
anything in confidence please will you send the
email
With prayers
Father Lazarus
I was recently invited to go on a pilgrimage .
I declined explaining the real solitary makes a
different kind of pilgrimage.
A pilgrimage within .
We journey within ;
To go deeper in to Him ;
And at the same time journey towards the Home
Land .
A journey to God in God .
I continued "The real solitary has everything
they need within the four wall of their cell.
The wisdom of
guarding the solitude is clear .
Leave only when the spiritual rule or necessity
dictates .
The Fathers understood from experience the
treasure to be discovered from "within."
"Sit in your cell and your cell will teach you
everything ."
Guard the solitude .
The news of a passing world is no longer your
concern .
Your only concern is the one thing necessary .
It is minute by minute being open to the Holy
Spirit who leads you deeper in to the will of God .
It is the Holy Spirit who brings revelation of
Gods will ,
Gives the char-isms necessary to utter our
"fiat" with our whole being ;
And the graces to further respond .
Guard the solitude well .
Concentrate fully on each activity .
Nothing else matters apart from that activity .
Presence to God in and through sacrament of the
present moment .
Quietly follow the order of the day .
If your thoughts go to something else return
quickly to what you are doing .
Guard the solitude well .
Seek no position of responsibility or take on
no new task unless "obedience " calls you to it .
That is obedience towards your spiritual Father
or Superior .
Guard the solitude well .
"Ah we know not what each other says ."
Respect for the Brother or Sisters solitude .
You pray for all but leave them to their
solitude .
What is happening with them is between them and
the Spiritual Fathers who have the
ministry of service .
Be present to your solitude and do not waist
precious moments speculating what is happening to them
or going to happen with them .
Guard your solitude well.
Keep before you every hour the warning ;
"You do not know what hour of the watch the
master of the house may come and call you in ."
Father Lazarus
No one comes here very often .
We do not advertise this place .
If some one however does make their way here we offer a unique form
of hospitality .
The Solitude has its own hospitality to offer .
It draws us in and calls us to drink the cup of nothing .
A cup so full to the top and overflowing .
You must surrender all to drink of such a deep cup .
You are never free if you constantly seek to hold or grasp on .
Hold on to nothing .
Nothing comes and goes according to our real needs.
The hand of the Lord will give ;
The hand of the Lord will take away .
Drink the cup of nothing and be a free man or woman .
Do not even hold on to yourself .
Your plans , images , perception of self let it all fall away .
Become nothing of this world and listen to Gods thoughts .
Little by little as you stand in the light that never changes you will
begin
to perceive the real you as God sees you .
Many people in the world waist their God given life not being the
person that God created
them to be.
You want to become wise ?
Drink the cup of nothing and begin again .
All our thoughts are but a tiny drop in the ocean compared to what "I
am love" is relay like .
You will only learn the truth when you come to that place of inner
stillness .
Listen to the still , small , calm voice within .
You will only live when you let go of all and become the feather on
the breath of God;
When you live , move , and have your being in "I am love."
So the invitation has been issued .
The drink of the solitude is prepared .
Come and drink the full cup of nothing .
Our message from within our walls of solitude and houses of peace ;
"You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free ."
Father Lazarus
God is everywhere .
He
is in the Universe that He created.
There is something of God in
every man and woman .
We can come to see God in all
things and all things in God .
However our point of contact with
God in the midst of this is not around us .
The point of contact is deep
within us .
"The kingdom of God is within you
."
At the centre of our soul He
awaits this meeting with us .
Our true self and our true
beauty is within that soul , and in Him in our soul .
We see Him which no eyes has seen
and hear Him whom no ear has heard
through this continuous encounter
of love .
It is eternally an unfolding of
the sacrament of the present moment .
At that point of encounter ;
And in that moment of encounter
the true image of God is in man .
God in all his dealings with us ;
In all actions as part of the
Divine Plan for us ;
This God reveals Himself in just
three words ;
Prayer is the way of becoming our
real selves from within .
Our real self in the present
moment .
The presence of love who is "the
way the truth and the life" holds
us in the palm of His hand .
Despite every other human being
that lives at this moment God meets
us individually within this
encounter .
When we live the solitude within
and within Him ;
We are separated from all and yet
united to all .
Then we will come to know what it
is to be loved by this God who is love in its truest
"I will sing forever of your Love
O Lord " proclaimed the psalmist .
For us the song of love is the
song of silence and solitude as we pray our lives
back to God in our houses of
peace and prayer .
The God who is "I am love " and
the source and creator of all things .
Day by day through an infinity of
little moments our lives slip silently away in to the eternity .
Then one day we are heard of no
more .
God comes and takes us Home "
Father Lazarus
I just want to inform everyone that I have
transferred my priestly and contemplative life ,
and profession to Trinity International Priory South Africa and am now under the
Hermit Bishop responsible for that Priory
>From this day I am Incardinated within that Priory
I will continue my vocation to prayer and solitude in France
Please pray for me and all connected with the Priory
Father Lazarus
Every man and woman has a cross to carry so
the old lament goes.
In the House of God we do not just Carry the cross we live it .
There was once a bird that flew from point to point never singing its true song
.
Then one day by the grace of God it arrived at the still point of it all.
The point the bird had been created for .
At this point in the House of God ; the Gate of Heaven ;
The bird in the silences and solitude began to sing the true song of its life .
It began to cry many tears and sing the most beautiful song of love and
suffering .
A song so deep ; so true and beautiful that even the word in all its noise and
busyness
was drawn to the still point to listen to .
A song the bird payed its life to sing .
It sacrificed everything for this one song .
God heard this song and gently came and carried the bird home .
Then all was well ;
And the bird was hidden with Christ in God forever .
Father Lazarus
Fr Gregory Carling ordained at Parkminster
http://the-hermeneutic-of-continuity.blogspot.com/2011/08/fr-gregory-carling-ordained-at.html
Dear Father
YES, that sums it up
- it is like breathing, all the time and everywhere
Many people may
agree with this, but very few actually live it and
understand it from personal experience.
Many people do NOT
understand this and do not have that
prayer life/living
as prayerfulness.
I also pray Liturgy,
Offices etc - but they are part of a life of prayer.
Yes, I had the same
problem in all places where I went and tried to stay -
They only understand
set ways of prayer,
That has caused a
lot of harm to many saints over the ages.
Why the brothers
imprisoned John of the Cross - he could merely sit in
silence, they wanted
him to be busy and do what they do.
Same here - I often
tried to pray the Office and Liturgy out loud
then soon I find
myself not praying them aloud and not in words - but just
being them
just resting in God.
It is so natural to
me, absolutely necessary to be in solitude
hardly anyone really
undestand this
. The problem is
some people cannot be alone, they are not made for solitude
so they will never
understand the few who are called to that -
to be directly at
the foot of the cross,
who are so close and
one with the Eternal, and that all the time-
Yes, when I do read
the Offices - it is very, very slowly
and I just disappear
very soon with certain words,
and prayer with
words are for me for a very long time not needed. But it is
impossible to explain this to those who
are still and always
will be stuck with the notion that prayer is something we
ask as petitions for oneself or intentions for others. I
accept and leave them at that, but they could never
understand our silence. a silence that is very different
from and much more than merely the
absence of sound.
A HERMIT
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Hermit
You ask a direct
question about my prayer life
I was tempted to reply in one sentence "It is like
breathing I just do it !"
It is always
the prayer of a poor man , a beggar knocking on Heavens
door asking for mercy;
It is important
we stay humble before God.
I love the story from the Fathers that a certain gifted
Monk was dying and the disciples who believed secretly he
was some sort of saint gathered around him .As the moment
of death approached the monk began to plead more intensely
with God to be given more time . The disciples could not
understand why he behaved liked this as he had chrisms
and could perform miracles. He said "I have just seen the
vision of God and now I realize I have only just begun to
repent of my sins ."
As it all deepens our worldly life is purified . We
needless and less of our past life and all the props we
had
It is a life of simplicity and peace .
We just needthe
four walls around us and the roof over our head . I find
it difficult if I am in and out for many days in a rowe.
I am happy just
being in the solitude
I am no
educated one in the eyes of the world. I have passed few
exams .....I go to the chapel and pray the liturgy and
offices ; apart from that I paint a little now a my friend
purchased some paint for me and I,write a little- what
comes to me in the heart .Sometimes a particular message
for some one comes so I pass it on like they asked the
Fathers of Old to "speak a word"
If someone
comes my way I occasionally hear a confession , give
spiritual direction ,or pray an exorcism or give the
benediction of the sick , but most of the time I simply
pray the Jesus prayer quietly . It is what I said ,"Rest
the mind in the heart and go on repeating the prayer as
long as life lasts"
Once you are at
this point it can not or should not be reversed....I never
understood the attempts of some of trying to reveres a
spiritual state ....We should remember the hymn of the
profession "Blessed is the servant who dwells in the House
of God.He is entitled to be the instrument that the Deity
is using ."
It is true when
praying we can get that sence of being on holy ground or
on top of the world.The little office book
I use reminds
us "Whenever we stand in your sanctuary , we are
considered as standing in the paradise...."
This is not an intellectual
thought but a living reality .
Yes things echo
in the silence and you become aware of much.............
I sing the
liturgy each day and another service out loud but apart
from that I find it very difficult to sing all the prayers
out loud
I prefer to sit
in the silence and read the offices quietly and slowly
...A lot of vocal prayer is no longer necessary or helpful
for me .