Ignatius Brianchaninov: The Holy Spirit Instils Christ in the

Inner ManTuesday, May 22 2012

EASTERN ORTHODOX and Ignatius Brianchaninov adoptive sonship, deification, grace, heart,Holy
Spirit, indwelling, redemption, Trinity, truth markarmitage 9:26 am
And of His fullness have all we received, and grace for
grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (Jn. 1:1617).
This means that Jesus Christ brought not some more or less detailed and clear understanding of
grace and truth, but the grace itself, the truth itself, essentially bestowed upon people, instilled in
people. We have been made partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4).
Truth has a characteristic Spirit. This spirit is called the Spirit of Truth (cf. Jn. 15:26; 16:13).
It is Spirit, proceeding from the Father (cf. Jn. 15:26). It is the Holy Spirit of God (cf. Jn. 14:26). It
is the Spirit of the Son (cf. Gal. 4:6), as inseparably close to the Son, as comprising together with
the Father and the Son one undivided and unmingled Divine Essence.
Accepting the Truth, we also accept the Holy Spiritthat is why the All-Holy Truth says of Himself,
that He will send the Holy Spirit from the Father to His disciples.
Naturally, the Holy Spirit of Truth will be present where Holy Truth acts, and will leave the effect
of its action.
In like manner, where the Holy Spirit works, there will be an abundant manifestation of Truth, as
the Lord also said to His disciples: Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you
into all truth (Jn. 16:13).
Describing the wondrous relationship of the Divine Word to the Divine Spirit, the Lord said of the
Spirit: He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that
the Father hath are mine (Jn. 16:1415).
The Spirit shows and manifests to people the Son co-natural to Him. The Holy Spirit spiritually forms
the true Christian and transforms him into a dwelling place of God (cf. Eph. 2:22).
He represents Christ and instills Him in the inner man (cf. Eph. 3:1617). He makes people Gods
children by adoption, making them like unto Christ, establishing Christ-like qualities in them (cf. Jn.
14:6).
People who have been made children of God by adoption turn to Him in their prayers as to their
Father, because the Holy Spirit very clearly and tangibly witnesses to the spirit of a person renewed
by Him (cf. Rom 8:16) concerning that persons union with God, his adoption by God.
And because ye are sons, says the Apostle, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father (Gal. 4:6).
Such worshippers are recognized as true worshippers of God! Such worshippers, who worship God in
Spirit and in Truth, seek and receive God.
There is no knowledge of God outside of true Christianity, and no service of God.
Ignatius Brianchaninov (18071867; Russian Orthodox): Homily on the Sunday of the Samaritan
Women on Worshipping God in Spirit and in Truth translated by Nun Cornelia Rees @ Pravoslavie.
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Ignatius Brianchaninov: Who Shall Roll the Stone from the Tomb
for Us?Thursday, May 3 2012
EASTERN ORTHODOX and Ignatius Brianchaninov baptism, Christ, heart, interior life, paschal
mystery, passions, resurrection, sin markarmitage 9:49 am
Who shall roll the stone from the tomb for us?
These words of the holy women have their own mysterious meaning.
[...] The tomb is our heart.
The heart was once a temple, but it became a tomb.
Christ enters it by means of the sacrament of Baptism, in order to dwell in us and work in us. Then
the heart is consecrated as a temple to God.
[...] Brought in by Baptism, Christ continues to abide in us, but He is as if wounded and mortified by
our behavior.
The temple of God not made by hands is turned into a cramped, dark tomb.
A very great stone is rolled over its entrance.
The enemies of God set a guard over the tomb, and seal its entrance blocked by the stone.
They seal the stone to the cave so that in addition to the stones great weight, this famous seal
forbids anyone to even touch the stone.
The enemies of God themselves watch over the preservation of this deadness!
They have thought through and set up all these obstacles in order to forestall the resurrection, to
prevent it, and make it impossible.
The stone is the souls illness by which all the other spiritual illnesses are guarded incurably and
which the holy fathers call insensibility.
[...] According to the fathers, insensibility is the deadening of spiritual feelings, the unseen death
of the human soul with respect to spiritual things/
[...] When insensibility stagnates in the soul and becomes a property of it, then the world and its
rulers place a seal on the stone.
[...] Who shall roll the stone from the tomb for us?
[...] The heart stricken by its former careless life as by a mortal wound does not discover any signs
of life.
[...] It is asleep in a deep sleep, the sleep of death; it is asleep, drunken with sinful poison.
Who shall roll the stone from the tomb for us?
This stone is very great.
[...] An angel of God, at Gods command, comes down to help the laboring and troubled soul, rolls
away the stone of hardness from the heart, fills the heart with compunction, announces to the soul
the resurrection, which is the usual result of continual compunction.
Compunction is the first sign of a heart revived toward God and eternity.
Compunction is a persons feeling of mercy and compassion toward himself, toward his grave state,
his fallen state, a state of eternal death.
[...] Christ is resurrected in the person who is prepared for it, and the tombthe heartagain
becomes a temple of God. Arise, O Lord, save, O my God (Ps. 3:7).
In Thy mysterious and yet essential Resurrection is my salvation.
Ignatius Brianchaninov (18071867; Russian Orthodox): Homily on the Sunday of the Myrrh Bearing
Women on Spiritual Deadness translated by Nun Cornelia Rees @Pravoslavie.
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Ignatius Brianchaninov: When the Heart is Filled with a Feeling
of RepentanceThursday, Apr 5 2012
EASTERN ORTHODOX and Ignatius Brianchaninov corruption., heart, Holy Spirit, humility,interior life, Jesus
Prayer, justification, logismoi, mercy, mind, prayer, redemption, repentancemarkarmitage 9:11 pm
The disciples of prayer who lean upon its breastthe holy
Fatherscorrect a major mistake that deprives the praying ascetic of all the fruits of his ascetic
labor.
They instruct us to pronounce the words of short prayers and of all kinds of prayer without haste,
observing scrupulous attention to the words of the prayers.
When the prayers are read unhurriedly, it is possible to have such attention, while hurried reading
leaves no place for attention.
Prayer without attention is like a body which the soul has left: it has no fragrance of humility, it
does not ascend to God.
Stricken and deadened by dispersed thoughts, it crawls along the earth of corruption and foul smell,
imparting this corruption to those who pray carelessly and coldly.
Mental attention at prayer is reflected in the heart by blessed grief over sins, which is that very
repentance that God commands us to have.
When the heart is filled with a feeling of repentance, it in turn draws the mind to increased
attention.
Once there is attention and tender feeling, all the gifts of the Holy Spirit enter into the soul,
making it a temple of God.
Let us provide our prayer with two qualities: attention and repentance. Let it fly up to the heavens
with them as upon two wings, then appear before the face of God, and intercede for us to gain His
mercy.
The blessed publicans prayer had these two qualities. Penetrated by the awareness of his
sinfulness, he did not have any hope in his own deeds to receive salvation; he had hope only in
Gods mercy, which calls all sinners to repentance, and grants them salvation for repentance alone.
As a sinner who had no goodness of his own, the publican took the last place in the temple. As a
sinner who is unworthy of heaven, he did not dare to lift his eyes unto heaven.
His eyes were directed toward the ground; and beating upon his heart with repentance from deep
within his heart, he pronounced with his whole soul the prayer united with his confession: God be
merciful to me, a sinner.
His prayer was so effective and strong, that the sinner left the temple of God justified.
Ignatius Brianchaninov (18071867; Russian Orthodox): Homily on the Sunday of the Publican and
the Pharisee on Prayer and Repentance translated by Nun Cornelia Rees @ Pravoslavie.
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Ignatius Brianchaninov: Explanation of the Parable of the
Prodigal SonThursday, Mar 29 2012
EASTERN ORTHODOX and Ignatius Brianchaninov Holy Spirit, Lent, passions, repentance,sin, thoughts, will
markarmitage 10:04 am
According to the holy fathers, the younger son could also
be an image of all fallen mankind and of every sinner.
The younger sons inheritance is Gods gifts, with which every person is endowed, especially
Christians.
The most supreme gifts of God are the mind and heart, and especially the grace of the Holy Spirit
given to every Christian.
The sons demand that the father give him his inheritance to use according his own will is mans
attempt to cast off his submission to God, and follow his own thoughts and desires.
The father ceding the inheritance is a portrayal of the self-governance with which God honored man
for the use of His gifts.
The far country is a sinful life, distancing and alienating us from God.
The squandering of the inheritance is the exhaustion of the powers of our mind, heart and body; in
particular the outrage against the Holy Spirit and its expulsion from ourselves through our sinful
deeds.
The younger sons poverty is the souls emptiness, which comes about from a sinful life.
The permanent inhabitants of the far country are the princes of the darkness this age, the fallen
spirits, permanently fallen and alienated from God.
The sinner submits to their influence.
The herd of unclean animals [swine] is the sinful thoughts and feelings that roam in soul of the
sinners, grazing on its pastures.
They are the inevitable consequence of sinful acts.
In vain does a man think to silence these thoughts and feelings by fulfilling themthey are most
impossible to satisfy!
Man can carry out these passionate thoughts and dreams, but that does not destroy themit only
rouses them to redouble their strength.
Man is created for heaven; only true goodness can be his satisfying, life-giving food.
Evil, which attracts and seduces the hearts taste damaged by the fall, is only capable of despoiling
mans nature.
How horrible is the emptiness of soul brought on by a sinful life!
Unbearable is the torment from passionate, sinful thoughts and feelings, when they roil like worms
in the soul, when they tear at the soul that has submitted to them, the soul that has been violated
by them!
Often a sinner who is tormented by fierce thoughts, dreams, and unfulfilled desires comes to
despair.
He often tries to take his own life, both temporal and eternal.
Blessed is the sinner who comes to his senses during that terrible period and remembers the
boundless love of the Heavenly Father, and the measureless spiritual riches overflowing in the house
of the Heavenly Fatherthe holy Church.
Blessed is that sinner who, horrified by his own sinfulness, wants to be free of its oppressive weight
through repentance.
Ignatius Brianchaninov (18071867; Russian Orthodox): Instruction on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son
on Repentance translated by Nun Cornelia Rees @ Pravoslavie.
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Ignatius Brianchaninov: Gods Mercy is Nothing Other than the Grace
of the All-Holy SpiritSunday, Feb 26 2012
EASTERN ORTHODOX and Ignatius Brianchaninov humility, Jesus Prayer, Lent, mercy,repentance, sin markarmitage 9:51 pm
Throughout the forty days fast, at all the Church services,
the prayer, God, have mercy on me, a sinner! is repeated aloud.
[...] What meaning do the verb phrases, have mercy, or be merciful contain in all these prayers?
It is mans awareness that he is perishing;
it is the perception of the mercy and pity that the Lord commanded us to feel toward ourselves, but
which very few actually do feel;
it is the rejection of our own self-opinion;
it is a request for Gods mercy, without which there is no hope of salvation for the one who is
perishing.
Gods mercy is nothing other than the grace of the All-Holy Spirit, and we sinful ones should
ceaselessly and unrelentingly ask it of God.
Have mercy, my Lord, upon the disastrous state into which I have fallen, having been deprived of
Thy grace, and again make Thy grace to dwell in me.
Strengthen me with Thy governing spirit (Ps. 50:12), a spirit of Thy power, so that I might withstand
the temptation brought against me by the devil, and the temptation that comes from my fallen
nature.
Send me a spirit of chastity, so that I might come out of this state of delirium, and correct my moral
steps.
Give me the Spirit of Thy fear, so that I might have [godly] fear of Thee, as it is proper for a weak
creature to fear his great God and Creator, so that by my awe before Thee I might hold Thy
commandments sacred.
Root love for Thee within my heart, so that I may never again be separated from Thee, nor be
distracted by an irresistible attraction to loathsome sin.
Grant me Thy peace, that it might preserve my soul in unperturbed calm, not allowing my thoughts
to wander over the entire universe without need and to my own injury, to my own confusion; that it
might concentrate them in introspection, and bear them upwards thence to Thy throne.
Give me a Spirit of meekness, so that I might refrain from anger and malice, that I might be
continually filled with goodness toward my brother.
Give me a Spirit of humility of mind, so that I would not be high-minded, or dream about myself, or
seek praise and human glory; but that I might rather remember that I am earth and ashes, a fallen
being, cast down to the earth for my unworthiness.
I must be taken from this body and world by death, and appear before Thy dread and impartial
judgment.
God, be merciful to me a sinner! Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me! Lord, have
mercy!
Ignatius Brianchaninov (18071867; Russian Orthodox): Homily on the Sunday of the Publican and
the Pharisee on Prayer and Repentance translated by Nun Cornelia Rees @ Pravoslavie.

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Ignatius Brianchaninov: When True Repentance Begins to Shudder in
the SoulMonday, Feb 20 2012
EASTERN ORTHODOX and Ignatius Brianchaninov Jesus Prayer, logismoi, mercy, mind,prayer, repentance, sin, soul, thoughts
markarmitage 2:52 pm
The prayer of the publican is shown drawing Gods mercy
to him. This prayer consisted of the following words: God be merciful to me a sinner (Lk. 18:13).
[...] This prayer is commended in the Gospels; it is set forth as an example of prayer, and it
becomes our sacred duty to piously contemplate it.
Why didnt the publican choose some majestic and moving psalm by which to pour out his heart
before God, but instead had recourse to such a brief prayer?
[...] When true repentance begins to shudder in the soul, when humility and contrition of spirit
arises there because ones eyes have been opened to the souls sinfulness, then loquacity becomes
unbearable, impossible.
Concentrating within itself, turning all its attention upon its disastrous condition, the soul begins to
call out to God through some form of short, concise prayer.
When an encompassing view of his own sinfulness is granted to a person by God, it cannot be
described by eloquent speech or an abundance of words.
More exactly, the person expresses this awareness by sighs and groaning of soul, clothed in very
brief and simple words.
Whoever wishes to unfold a deep feeling of repentance within himself uses short prayer to reach
that state, pronounced with as much attention and reverence as possible.
Abandoning excessive words, even though they be sacred words, allows the mind to completely free
itself of distractions and to strive for introspection with all its strength.
When you pray, do not permit yourself to use many words, says St. John Climacus, so that your
mind might not be distracted from considering the words.
One word from the publican brought him Gods mercy, and one faithful utterance saved the thief.
Much speaking in prayer often brings the mind to distraction and dreaminess, while sparse words
usually gather the thoughts.
Because of the great benefit that brief, attentive, concentrated prayer brings, the Holy Church
enjoins its children to timely learn some form of brief prayer.
One who has learned such a prayer possesses a ready ability to pray in any place, at any time. While
traveling, in the refectory, doing handiwork, or in the company of others, he can cry out to God.
When it is not possible to pray with the lips, it is possible to pray with the mind.
The convenience of brief prayer is obvious in this regard: it is quite easy to lose the meaning and
order of lengthy prayers when we are occupied with something else, while short prayer always
preserves its integrity.
If it is left off for a time, one can return to it with little difficulty.
Ignatius Brianchaninov (18071867; Russian Orthodox): Homily on the Sunday of the Publican and
the Pharisee on Prayer and Repentance translated by Nun Cornelia Rees @ Pravoslavie.
http://enlargingtheheart.wordpress.com/2012/05/22/ignatius-brianchaninov-the-holy-spirit-instils-
christ-in-the-inner-man/