Dear Friends
Why is it, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we know about certain holy people and not others? There have been countless millions of saints through the twenty centuries of Christianity who have died and lived for the sake of Christ. Of most of these we know nothing.
For most they are happy since a saint—a holy one—does not want to bring attention to himself or herself: they want the attention to be on God.
And yet the Lord wants to share his authority and power: he sends angels to us to guide us and give us his word. And for a small portion of the saints he allows some to become known so that we, the faithful, may be guided by them, encouraged by them, helped by them.
One such saint remained hidden away in northern Greece for much of the first half of the last century. From poor and humble origins, he quietly got on with his work in the mill and would have remained unknown to the world except for an encounter with a young monk, Sophrony. St Silouan, along with his disciple St Sophrony, stand as two great saints of the twentieth century. St Sophrony was able to recognise in his elder the greatness of his reception of the Holy Spirit, of being transformed into the likeness of Christ through the Spirit’s indwelling.
I pray Thee, O Merciful Lord, for all the peoples of the earth, that they may come to know Thee by the Holy Spirit.
And St Silouan sees as key to the reception of the Holy Spirit prayer for our enemies. This works both ways: in order to receive the Holy Spirit we must pray for our enemies and, paradoxically, to pray for our enemies is a grace of the Holy Spirit.
But he who will not love his enemies cannot come to know the Lord and the sweetness of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit teaches us to love our enemies, so that the soul pities them as if they were her own children.
There are people who desire the destruction, the torment in hellfire of their enemies, or the enemies of the Church. They think like this because they have not leant divine love from the Holy Spirit, for he who has learned the love of God will shed tears for the whole world.
You say that So-and-so is an evil doer and may he burn in hell-fire.
But I ask you — supposing God were to give you a fair place in paradise, and you saw in the fire the man on whom you had wished the tortures of hell, even then would yo really not feel pity for him, whoever he might be, an enemy of the Church even?
Or is it that you have a heart of steel? But there is no place for steel in paradise. Paradise has need of humility and the love of Christ, which pities all men.
The grace of God is not in the man who does not love his enemies.
O merciful Lord, by Thy Holy Spirit teach us
to love our enemies, and to pray for them with tears.
The Lord has allowed us to know St Silouan, whom we commemorate this Sunday (24th September), precisely because his words are so needed in our time. In our age of conflict, of war, of enmity between brothers and sisters, we need to pray for healing, for reconciliation, for peace with our enemies. Ours is to pray for peace, to pray for our enemies, so that we may receive the Holy Spirit and become, by God’s grace, as Christ.
We serve a meal following the Liturgy on Sundays. All are welcome.
Do you, or someone you know, want to join our mailing list and receive our weekly email? Then let me know.
Sermon
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
René Descartes, the seventeenth-century French philosopher, is perhaps the father of the modern age. His maxim, “cogito, ergo sum,” “I think, therefore I am,” has had a profound impact on western thought. Put in other words, “I doubt everything else. The only thing I can be sure of is that I am a thinking being.” And coming out from his work, human beings have been thought of as “thinking beings” where the mind, the intellect, is our primary faculty, more important than all others, “I think, therefore I have existence; I think, therefore I have worth; I think, therefore I am.”
“If anyone wishes to come after me,” says the Lord, “let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” And I hear this saying, and I think to myself, “I wear a cross, I make the sign of the cross: I have done enough.” And the cross I wear as a piece of jewellery, the sign I make on myself as a mere habit, have become so far from the word of the Lord as to become an insult to God and a millstone around my neck (see Matthew 18:6, Mark 9:42, Luke 17:2). Because if I am to come after Christ, if I am to be a true Christian, I must deny myself, take up my cross and follow the Lord.
And so I must change. The Lord says, “For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” This does not glamourise the laying down of one’s life because it must be done for the sake of the Gospel. I must be willing to lay down all that which in my life draws me down to the earth that I might ascend to the Lord. And the Lord gives to each one of us a cross which we may bear as we follow him, along with each other, that we may rise to him: the cross of repenting, the cross of bearing ridicule, the cross of serving others, the cross of prayer. And should I do this, should I accept willingly the cross the Lord has prepared for me, I would learn to deny myself, learn to follow him, learn to be a Christian.
…
Read last Sunday’s Sermon, I carry my cross.
Archive of Past Sermons.
Services this week
Friday 22nd September
Discussion on the Divine Liturgy, 8 pm
Online only
Saturday 23rd September
Great Vespers, 6.30 pm
At St Francis’ Hall, Eastleigh
Sunday 24th September
Matins & Divine Liturgy, 9 am
At St Francis’ Hall, Eastleigh
Online session is via Google Meet: please get in contact for the details.
Please join us: all are welcome, come and see.
Attending Church
We meet at St Francis’ Hall, Nightingale Avenue, Eastleigh, SO50 9JA. Come and See.
Can I help you?
I am here for you, you need only ask. Is there a way I can support your life of faith? Get in touch.
Can you help the parish?
Yes, absolutely. Offer yourselves to the Lord: pray! Make available to him all your talents and ask him how he would like you to use them — listen for his reply.
Your prayers!
With love in Christ
Fr Alexander
[email protected]