Elder Paisios of Mt. Athos - Spiritual Awakening

God’s Benefactions Break the Heart

  – Geronda, what is it that God wants from us?

  – God wants from us our good intentions, our good will, which will be expressed by even our limited but full of philotimo spiritual struggle, and the awareness of our sinfulness. Everything else is given by Him. One doesn’t need muscles in the spiritual life. We must struggle hum­bly, we must ask for God’s mercy and we must be grateful to Him for everything. He who abandons himself into the hands of God, without any plan of his own, will pass into God’s plan. As long as man is hooked onto himself, he remains behind; he does not progress spiritually because he obstructs God’s mercy. In order to grow spiritually he must place great trust in God.

At all times God caresses the hearts of all the people with His love, but we are not aware of it because our hearts have gathered a crust. When man has cleansed his heart, he is deeply moved and madly excited, because he can then see the benefactions, the blessings of God, Who loves all people in the same way. 

 For those who are suf­fering, God is pained; for those who are living a spiritual life, He rejoices. When a philotimo-filled soul thinks of God’s blessings, it is enough to send it exploding towards Heaven, even more so if the soul also meditates on its many sins and God’s abundant mercy and compassion~ When man becomes aware of God’s providential care. and the eyes of his soul have been purified, he can experience and live the fullness of divine providence with his cleansed heart, which is then overwhelmed by a pro­found sense of gratitude and spiritual madness, in the good sense of the term. 

For God’s blessings, when man is aware of them, create a crack in his heart, and break it. Then, as the hand of God caresses his philotimo-filled heart and touches the crack, man experiences an inner ex­plosion that increases his gratitude toward God. All those who struggle and are aware of their sinfulness and God’s blessings, entrusting themselves to His abundant mercy, elevate their soul to Paradise with great certainty and less bodily effort.

Gratitude to God for Little and for Much

 Some people say, “I believe God will help me,” and at the same time they try to make lots of money so that they won’t be deprived of anything. These people mock God, because they do not entrust themselves to God, but to money. If they don’t stop loving money and placing their hope in it, they won’t be able to establish their hope in God. 

I’m not saying that people shouldn’t put some money aside for a time of need; I’m saying that they shouldn’t set their hopes on money and set their heart on it, because this way they forget God. Whoever makes his own plans, without putting his trust in God, and then says that this is how God wants it, is actually blessing his own work in a demonic way and is constantly tormented. We have not understood the power and goodness of God. We do not allow Him as Lord to govern us, and this is why we are tormented. (…)