Saint Anne Orthodox Church

Today’s spiritual lesson will focus on negligence in the spiritual life, and we will continue to learn from the teachings of Elder Joseph the Hesychast. Negligence is a terrible conspirator against our lives, one of the greatest enemies if not the greatest and implacable one. Called in the language of the Fathers acedia, listlessness, as well as sloth, negligence is leading to spiritual death. When asked about the chief cause of man’s failure in his spiritual purpose, Elder Joseph would reply that it was negligence. Negligence is like a drought in which nothing grows.

 One of the important statements from the last article was that the spiritual law can be viewed as the expression of God’s comprehensive providence, through which the misfortunes that befell us, are to be regarded as appropriate instruments for our correction, arranged for the benefit of our souls.

 It is almost impossible to talk about the Orthodox Church without its icon, its protection and its model, Mary the Mother of God. Love and veneration for the Virgin, is the soul of Orthodox piety, its heart, that which warms and animates its entire body. A faith in Christ which does not include His virgin birth, and the veneration of His mother is another faith another Christianity from that of the Orthodox Church.

After we developed an understanding on how to discover the will of God through prayer and advice from spiritual fathers, today we will try to learn few things about another aspect of the divine will which is called divine providence. Accepting and understanding the will of God in everything that is happening around us and with us, both good and bad, is a subject that occupies an important place in Orthodox spirituality.

Another way of discovering the will of God is through the advice received from spiritual fathers and confessors.

After understanding how important is to develop a rule of life, and why the Holy Fathers always stressed the importance of order and of the typicon, we shall consider today the most important aspect of our spiritual becoming, namely, understanding and following the will of God. St Siluan the Anthonite is teaching us that the most precious thing in the world is to know God and understand His will. But how should one recognize the divine will?

According to tradition, in Orthodox churches, prayer ought to be accompanied by the light of candles or of oil lamps. The lighting of candles in the Orthodox Church, points to the light of Christ, and to our striving for perfection in Him. A burning candle can symbolize an offering, the offering of our whole being, which should be burning for Christ, leaving behind spiritual light and heat. Building on this understanding, the lighting of candles can become the expression of our faith in God.

We continue to develop our spiritual understanding based on the teachings of the blessed elder Joseph the Hesychast. The Holy Fathers stress the necessity of keeping to a spiritual regime, while they describe disorder in blackest of colours. St Ephrem the Syrian said: ‘Those who have no guidance fall like leaves’ which points to the lack of any regime.

As we concluded in last week’s lesson, the call to salvation, sanctification and life is the central message of the Scriptures and of our whole life in Christ. Knowing the direction in which we are called and the purpose of Christian life, we need to draw closer to the fulfillment of the divine call, to understand the practical steps we need to take in order to experience change in our lives and real growth in our spirituality.

Traditionally, when we enter or leave the church, we express our respect for the Lord, His Mother, and our patron, St. Anne, as well as the saint or saints that we may be commemorating that day by venerating their icons.