Speaker 1: Why is it that so many well intentioned believers, so
Speaker 1: many people who confess the name of Christ, find it
Speaker 1: nearly impossible to get out of the block, so to speak,
Speaker 1: in putting their good intentions, their good thoughts about serving
Speaker 1: God into practice. And why is it also that so
Speaker 1: many who are capable of getting out of the block
Speaker 1: can't complete the race and turn the good intention into
Speaker 1: a studied, permanent, holy habit, something that will create a
Speaker 1: strong foundation for godly living and bring peace, because keeping
Speaker 1: the commandments of God is a great path to peace
Speaker 1: and stability and joy. Well. One of the reasons, A
Speaker 1: main reason is self sufficiency. It's relying upon oneself. I
Speaker 1: have a beautiful quote that I want to share with
Speaker 1: you from the great preacher and biblical theologian, Saint phil
Speaker 1: Out of Moscow, who reposed in the Lord in eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty seven. In the opening sermon, Saint Philarett meditates upon
Speaker 1: the danger of self sufficiency and how self sufficiency in
Speaker 1: fact kills spiritual progress. Let me read to you a
Speaker 1: word about that. This is Saint Philarette. Let us say
Speaker 1: that a man desires to become good, he seeks to
Speaker 1: know the law of justice. He arouses his heart to
Speaker 1: virtuous feelings, he begins to accomplish good deeds, and what then.
Speaker 1: Experience only proves that the desire to be virtuous is
Speaker 1: often weaker than the passions that incline one to sin.
Speaker 1: Virtuous often defeated by vice. Experience shows that the law
Speaker 1: offers virtue, but it does not give the strength to
Speaker 1: act upon it. Virtuous feelings coming from a cruel heart,
Speaker 1: like fire from flintstone, are difficult to bring to a
Speaker 1: steady flame, and they go out quickly as for a
Speaker 1: soft heart. Virtuous feelings may rise quickly, like a piece
Speaker 1: of linen catching fire, but they are destroyed just as quickly. Often,
Speaker 1: deeds that seem virtuous the surface prove themselves to be
Speaker 1: defiled by impure intentions such as avarice or desire for pleasure.
Speaker 1: In vanity, where true good is lacking, naturally, no spiritual
Speaker 1: success can occur. The correct conclusion to be made of
Speaker 1: these experiences must be this, self sufficient man will always
Speaker 1: lose hope in himself self sufficiency. This is the death
Speaker 1: of spiritual progress, and it has to be killed. It
Speaker 1: has to be killed. Saint Philaret continues and gives counsel
Speaker 1: on how in fact, to overcome self sufficiency, How to
Speaker 1: learn to rely upon the Lord, How in fact, to
Speaker 1: acknowledge your weakness in Saint Paul's language, so that in
Speaker 1: your weakness you can be strong and find that God's
Speaker 1: grace is sufficient for us to be transformed, to be changed.
Speaker 1: Listen again to Saint Philaret. If he does not want
Speaker 1: to perish, for a person will find nothing but failure.
Speaker 1: If he has no actual success or hope, he has
Speaker 1: no choice but to raise his desires and hopes to God.
Speaker 1: And even though he cannot yet see or anticipate how
Speaker 1: his success will occur, he must offer himself to God
Speaker 1: as a ruin that he cannot repair himself. Ooh, did
Speaker 1: you hear that? What a beautiful word. If we're going
Speaker 1: to make spiritual progress, we have to acknowledge who we are.
Speaker 1: In the words of Saint Philaret, he must offer himself
Speaker 1: to God as a ruin that he cannot repair himself.
Speaker 1: Think of that when you're preparing for Holy communion in
Speaker 1: the Divine liturgy. You're yearning to be united in a
Speaker 1: one flesh union with the Lord Christ himself, and you
Speaker 1: confess in that beautiful precomunion prayer when you say I
Speaker 1: believe a Lord, and I confess that thou art truly
Speaker 1: the Christ, the son of the Living God, who did
Speaker 1: come into the world to save sinners, of whom I
Speaker 1: am chief. Think of that, tell yourself when you say that, yes, truly,
Speaker 1: I am a ruin before God, and without him is grace.
Speaker 1: I will not be able to become what I need
Speaker 1: to be. Before his own personal efforts to do good
Speaker 1: were either completely suppressed inside him by his own evil inclinations,
Speaker 1: or they were proved to be incomplete and ineffectual. Now,
Speaker 1: when he commits his heart to the power of God,
Speaker 1: in that very weakness, the power of God begins to
Speaker 1: be accomplished within him, destroying evil and creating good. Oh,
Speaker 1: this is the path of your ones. This is the
Speaker 1: path to spiritual progress. This is a fundamental conviction, a
Speaker 1: basic principle of the traditional Christian path to spiritual progress.
Speaker 1: Of course, it is greatly contradicted by the spirit of
Speaker 1: the age, including the religious spirit of the age in
Speaker 1: the West, which doesn't want to take the necessary embrace
Speaker 1: of humility to get to this position. But it's the
Speaker 1: only way. It's the only way. May the Lord God
Speaker 1: help you to reject self sufficiency and to lean on
Speaker 1: the one who is sufficient for us. God be with you.
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Speaker 1: on your phone. It is a treasure trove of soul
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