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We need always to have thoughts of love for our brothers and sisters...We need to have goodness and love in our soul... Wisdom of Elder Porphyrios from the book 'Wounded by Love'.

Man has such powers that he can transmit good or evil to his environment. These matters are very delicate. Great care is needed. We need to see everything in a positive frame of mind. We mustn't think anything evil about others. Even a simple glance or a sigh influences those around us. And even the slightest anger or indignation does harm. We need to have goodness and love in our soul and to transmit these things.

We need to be careful not to harbour any resentment against those who harm us, but rather to pray for them with love. Whatever any of our fellow men does, we should never think evil of him. We need always to have thoughts of love and always to think good of others. Look at Saints Stephen the first martyr. He prayed, "Lord do not hold this sin against them". We need to do the same.

We should never think about someone that God will send him some evil or that God will punish him for his sin. This thought brings about very great evil, without our being aware of it. We often feel indignation and say to someone: 'Have you no fear of God's justice, are you not afraid of God's punishment?' Or else we say, 'God will punish you for what you've done', or 'O God, do not bring evil on that person for what he did to me', or 'May that person not suffer the same thing'...

In all these cases, we have a deep desire within us for the other person to be punished. Instead of confessing our anger over his error, we present our indignation in a different way, and we allegedly pray to God for him. In reality, however, in this way we are cursing our brother.

And if, instead of praying, we say, 'May God repay you for the evil you have done to me', then once again we are wishing for God to punish him. Even when we say, 'All very well, God is witness', the disposition of our soul works in a mysterious way and influences the soul of our fellow man so that he suffers evil.

When we speak evil about someone, an evil power proceeds from within us and is transmitted to the other person, just as the voice is transmitted on sound waves, and in point of fact, the other person suffers evil. It is something like the bewitchment of the evil eye, when someone has evil thoughts about others. This occurs through our own indignation. We transmit our evil in a mystical way. It is not God who provokes evil, but rather people's wickedness. God does not punish, but our own evil disposition is transmitted to the soul of the other in a mysterious way and does evil. Christ never wishes evil. On the contrary, HE commands, Bless those who curse you...

The evil eye is a very bad thing. It is the evil influence that occurs when someone is jealous of, or desires something or someone. It needs great care. Jealousy does great harm to the other person. The person who exercises the evil eye doesn't think for a moment that he is doing harm. Remember the Old Testament says: For the bewitching eye of wickedness obscures what is good (Wisdom 4:12)

When the other person, however, is a man of God and makes confession and receives Holy Communion and wears a cross, nothing does him any harm. Even if all the demons were to fall on him, they would achieve nothing.

PART II...continuation....

'The noise of murmurings shall not be hidden'

Within us there is a part of the soul called the 'moralist'. This 'moralist', when it sees someone going astray, is roused to indignation, even though very often the person who judges has strayed in the same way. He does not, however, take this as an occasion to condemn himself, but the other person. This is not what God wants. Christ says in the Gospel: You, then, that teach others, will you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? It may be that we do not steal, but we commit murder; we reproach the other person and not ourselves. We say, for example: 'You should have done that and you didn't do it. So see now what's happened to you!' When we think evil, then it actually happens. In a mysterious and hidden manner we diminish the power of the other person to move towards what is good, and we do him harm. We can become the occasion for him to fall ill, to lose his job, or his property. In this way we do harm, not only to our neighbor, but also to ourselves, because we distance ourselves from the grace of God. And then we pray and our prayers are not heard. We 'ask and do not receive'. Why? Have we ever thought of this? 'Because we ask wrongly.' We need to find a way to heal the tendency within us to feel and think evil about others.

It is possible for someone to say, 'The way that person is behaving, he will be punished by God', and to believe that he is saying this without evil intent. It is not a simple thing, however, to discern whether he has or does not have evil intent. It does not appear clearly. What is hidden inour soul and how that can exercise influence on people and things is a very secret matter.

The same is not true if we say with a sense of awe that another person is not living well and that we should pray for God to help him and grant him repentence; that is, neither do we say, nor deep down do we desire that God will punish him for what he does. In this case not only do we not do harm to our neighbour, but we do him good. When someone prays for his neighbour, a good force proceeds from him and heals, strengthens and revives him. It is a mystery how this force leaves us. But, in truth, the person who has good within him radiates this good power to others, mystically and gently. He sends light to his neighbour and this creates a shield around him and protects him from evil. When we possess and good disposition towards others and pray, then we heal our fellow and we help them progress towards God.

There is an invisible life, the life of the soul. This is very powerful and can have effect on the other, even if we are miles apart. This also happens with the curse, which is a power that works evil. But if, conversely, we pray with love for someone, whatever the distance that seperates us, the good is transmitted. So distances do not affect the power of good and evil. We can transmit these across boundless distances. Solomon the Wise says this very thing: 'The noise of murmurings shall not be hidden.' The noise of our soul is transmitted mysteriously and affects the other, even if we don't say a word. Even without speaking we can transmit good or evil, irrespective of the distance which seperates us from our neighbour. What is not expressed generally hs greater power than words.

Dear Friends,

I thought this was very deep spiritual material from an Orthodox point of view, from a very recent saint/staretz, and to very contemporary urban and non-urban faithful on how interconnected our souls really are here on earth.

I thought that since it was Holy Week and/or Lent, that such spiritual food for thought might be discussed a little and that is why I took the time to type it out from the book...

I remember how much many of you liked the posts of the Russian startetz that Alexander used to post, so I am a little disappointed that you wouldn't also appreciate some material from staretz that lived in our modern, troubled times.

This will be my last posting of the modern Greek saints, staretz and fools for Christ.

Alice

Dear Alice,

Please don't think that a lack of comments means a lack of appreciation. I think a text like this one takes a little while to digest fully.

I was struck by this passage:


Thanks for posting this! I think sometimes, deep down, we are aware of a particular fault in ourselves, but we don't want to acknowledge it openly. However, in some deep way we are then extra aware of this particular fault, and are quick to recognize it in others and blame them for it, instead of blaming ourselves. Does this make sense to you at all?

Dear Sister Alice,

I thank you that you are taking the time to post these. It takes effort and commitment to 'feed' a people. It is up to us to take the time to 'read and digest' what is being given to us. So I truly appreciate your efforts.

I also apologize though, on my part, right now with all the craziness of this Lent - which I am sure God knew was going to happen - my mind just isn't doing any really solid reading for now. I feel like a little kid rebelling going Lord, things just don't 'compute'. I do look forward to reading them after things have settled down a bit more.

I need one of those little off topic guys here:
ROFL at self! And I was excited about Great and Holy Lent coming so quickly after Christmas. Eyes have not seen, and ears have not heard, all that the Lord has in store for us. I am sure the craziness of the Lent, was just what the Lord had in store for us. It's just not the way I would have planned it. However, we did get Deacon Stan out of hemo and into paratineal dialysis. If all of this craziness had not of happened, we would not be there yet. Glory to God!

God bless you sister!

This too is very striking: "if [...] we pray with love for someone, whatever the distance that separates us, the good is transmitted." I hope and pray and believe that this is true. Love of God and love of neighbour are the two great reasons for prayer, I think.

Alice:

Please continue to feed us. With the world in the shape it's in, we need all the examples and encouragements we can get.

In Christ,

BOB

Dear Alice,

Please don't refrain from posting the teachings of Saints. If comments take a while, that is a compliment - it means that the teaching is profound, requires time and thought, and may be like the seed which falls in the ground and bears fruit a hundredfold.

Fr. Serge

AMEN!

Agreed--these posts take some time to digest and really ponder what they mean.

Alice,
I am de-lurking to say how very much I appreciate the posts you have taken the time to write.

They are very edifying; I will be printing this one out so I can re-read it frequently.

I have a great love for Elder Porphyrios and hope to see his canonisation in my lifetime !

Please keep posting them !

Elizabeth

Yes. I'll take a seconds at Alice's Soul Kitchen.

-- John

Alice, this one, like all those you['ve posted is quite profound food for thought, and boy do they speak to you. Latin Catholic is right, that we do tend to be especially hard on people who's sins are the same as our own; sort of like the parent that's harder on the child that reminds him of his flaws or looks like the relative that most made life difficult for him.

here may be some who are layng off the internet for Lent,so that could account for the minimal response. Thanks so much for introducing me to Elder Porphyrios;I'm looking for that book next week.
Please don't stop. These postings as Alexander's were, are the best use of the forum.
Peace,
Indigo

Thanks for the encouragement, all....

What I found profound, though perhaps it is more a cultural phenomenon of the Middle East and Southern Europe, where the Elder lived, is how the hateful and/or jealous passions of one's heart can negatively affect the life of the person they hate/envy...

And how good of the heart can positively affect another.

Perhaps this is why Orthodoxy holds the attainment of blessings from priests, bishops and other religious as so important and necessary.

Perhaps it is hard to place this for some here because Christians who are Western European and Americans are pretty 'chill' with the passions...but some people from these places (southern Mediterranean, Middle East), also from some African and Caribbean islands I understand, can be very sinfully passionate in their dealings, emotions, and feelings for others...thus wishing revenge on those they do not like, as well as curses, and bad things...

And the Elder implies that our souls are all interconnected, so that good that flows from our hearts towards others blesses them, but that evil that flows from our hearts towards others can affect them...

Perhaps on a more American cultural level (new agey/secular) one often hears of 'good auras' and 'bad auras'...That is exactly what he is talking about!!

Alice

Alice, it is now only 09 April and I just saw this for the first time even though you posted it two days ago. I was in awe how deep this is and how I often felt the same things as he expressed but didn't know if it was just my own imaginings or whether it was in fact based on truth. There are people who don't read the forum every few hours and you never know who may be touched by what you posted, but it might take a few days or even a year later - I recently saw things on the fasting thread for the first time though they were posted during Lent last year! This is powerful stuff and I'm saving it.

Thank you!!
-Ruthenian