Vespers

St. Philothea (read her story here)

"This is why God has allowed you to have more: not for you to waste on prostitutes, drink, fancy food, expensive clothes, and all other kinds of indolence, but for you to distribute to those in need." -St. John Chrysostom (second homily on Lazurus and The Rich Man)

Reflecting on this statement in St. John's homily, I begin to think that saintliness is perhaps the most simplistic path for life. The issue is that it is not easy and, in keeping with the prayer of St. Basil, I am "lazy and full of sin." The struggle lies not in the difficulty of the life itself as much as to all that opposes it, namely myself. Everything becomes a chore for I, who wish to indulge in every desire of the flesh. And so I must "make time" for prayer, charity, the reading of scripture and the writings of the saints.

Or, as I am often prone to do, I am caught up in the few good deeds I do. Or perhaps they are plenty. And this fills me with arrogance. Perhaps I am a man of piety, reading the scriptures, attending the services, keeping rules or prayer, reading the scriptures and the saints, but being so puffed by my superior life, when I must simply be still for a day or week or maybe longer due to some illness or perhaps something else, I become a monster seeing as how my causes for hubris have been stripped from me. "Become like dead men," is what St. Emphraim the Syrian says. Or as the chaplain at my college would put it, "If God does something miraculous for you, give thanks, and continue on in faithfulness."

Under all this virtue and piety, is stillness, "dispassion." It is not the absence of passion, but the perfect control of it. This can be clearly seen in the faces of the icons of the church. These faces reflect dispassion, for all their passions (their desires and energies) are fixed upon the person of Christ. This is also why saints in the same icon with Christ look like Him, they have been glorified and now bear his glory. The balance is to not think anything of myself in any regard, whether by praise or slander. But to patiently and with stillness, keep silent in worship in the heart and in purity of action, in love of God and neighbor.

To hear one of the ancient vesperal chants of the Syriac Christians, click here.