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YouthQuestions and Answersby Bishop Moussa
[shadow=red,left]Youth:[/shadow] (What happens when we reach a certain level of spirituality, but every so often we all? )
Bishop Moussa: Even though we may see our spiritual life as progressing in a zigzag, this zigzag is on an upward trend. But each time we realize. We are falling, we must call out to the Lord to deliver us, and we must repent. We may look at our spiritual life as being up and down, but God sees that we are improving. Each time I fall, I experience three things: * the realization that I am weak so I must be humble, * The fact that Satan is always attacking, so I must be careful, * How much God is always loving and caring and forgiving. Therefore never feel despair or frustration because of weaknesses. If your spiritual life is up all the time, it will lead to much pride. For this reason, we do not want people to exaggerate in their spiritual lives by increasing the fasting and prostration's and so on without the guidance of their spiritual father, for if this happens they will be exaggerating out of ego centrism to prove to themselves and to others that they are a hero, and not out of love and sincerity to God. In the Paradise of the Fathers it is written, "If you see a young man moving rapidly towards spiritual levels, pull him down lest he suffer from the danger of pride." So in this sense, weaknesses are helpful because they keep one humble, even St Paul the Apostle said that he had a thorn in his flesh in order to keep him humble.
"St. Anthony the Great once said, 'This is the great work of man: always to take the blame for his own sins before God and to expect temptation to his last breath, for whoever has not experienced temptation cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, for without temptation no one can be saved" (Sayings of the Desert Fathers).
http://www.youthbishopric.com/HomePage.asp?Lang=en
Bishop Moussa: Even though we may see our spiritual life as progressing in a zigzag, this zigzag is on an upward trend. But each time we realize. We are falling, we must call out to the Lord to deliver us, and we must repent. We may look at our spiritual life as being up and down, but God sees that we are improving. Each time I fall, I experience three things: * the realization that I am weak so I must be humble, * The fact that Satan is always attacking, so I must be careful, * How much God is always loving and caring and forgiving. Therefore never feel despair or frustration because of weaknesses. If your spiritual life is up all the time, it will lead to much pride. For this reason, we do not want people to exaggerate in their spiritual lives by increasing the fasting and prostration's and so on without the guidance of their spiritual father, for if this happens they will be exaggerating out of ego centrism to prove to themselves and to others that they are a hero, and not out of love and sincerity to God. In the Paradise of the Fathers it is written, "If you see a young man moving rapidly towards spiritual levels, pull him down lest he suffer from the danger of pride." So in this sense, weaknesses are helpful because they keep one humble, even St Paul the Apostle said that he had a thorn in his flesh in order to keep him humble.
"St. Anthony the Great once said, 'This is the great work of man: always to take the blame for his own sins before God and to expect temptation to his last breath, for whoever has not experienced temptation cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, for without temptation no one can be saved" (Sayings of the Desert Fathers).
http://www.youthbishopric.com/HomePage.asp?Lang=en
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