Hello, my dear ones. Um, it's very early here I usually record either in the evening
or later in the day but today I thought I would take you to the coast
I kept thinking what I should be recording for us because Lent is approaching
we are what two weeks away from Lent from the Orthodox Lent and um I wanted to share something
with you that would help you the way it's helping me as we find our way through Lent and
one of these things has to be what I want to share with you today so let's just leave
behind our church Kilninian and find our way to the coast God bless you all I'll see you soon
there is a reason I'm taking you to the coast today I'm not just going there
because I love being there although I do love being there but there is a reason I am
I'm looking for something a bit of mud not that I'm looking for something that might help me by
the grace of God during Lent and um I'm not going to tell you what it is because really
what I would like you to take away from this video is the idea that sometimes in life
and particularly so in moments like for pascal preparing for Lent doing something
that's spiritually particularly important particularly relevant
it helps to have a secret between your heart and Christ it helps to step away from what is
our usual dependency on the approval of everyone else and actually do something that is only known
to you to your heart and Christ of course your spiritual father has to bless it
because otherwise you end up just serving your own pride but ultimately this should be a secret
between you and your creator see how beautiful Kilninian is perched up there in the in the hills
I'm sorry the sun is just blinding me I'm going to let it blind you too for a second there you are
God bless you I'll see you a bit later when I'm at the coast
the idea behind all of this is that initially when when we are created God creates us with
the correct salvific instincts and thoughts and emotions and um everything about us
everything that makes up who we are and our being is naturally oriented towards God it's like
the instincts of our being are all healthy and directed towards God there is nothing bad in us
and everything in us because it's created by God is either good or at least has the potential to to
be good in time that changes um our behaviour our habits the choices we make in our lives sometimes
in knowledge other times in ignorance these choices end up shaping us as well and it's as if
the experience of this world reshapes who we are reshapes our instincts and our thoughts
and our emotions and all of a sudden before we even learn who we are we
we find ourselves torn between a version of ourselves which is defined and shaped by our
creator and a vision of ourselves which is defined and shaped by our sin by ourselves in the bad
choices we make and by the evil spirits that have pushed us and um encouraged us in making those bad
choices
okay this this actually looks like a good place
sorry I just want to get my bag uh because otherwise I forget where everything is and then I
end up running the whole day trying to find everything
I'm here for a reason I'm here because I want to create a little secret between me and my God
and this is what I want to encourage all of you to do during Lent at least during Lent because
Lent is a limited time it's a period of time we feel we can manage create something between you
and God create a little secret known to you your heart and God and obviously as I said blessed by
your spiritual father and then allow that secret to inform who you are and to shape you the way do
you remember when we were children for instance and we shared secrets with our best friends and
that created a sense of communion between us that we didn't share with anyone else or later
on when you trusted your favourite I don't know God parent or your favourite parent or brother or
later in life the person whom you love you share secrets with them you you allow your
heart to be completely open and this sacred space between two open hearts like two open
doors that no one else can see and no one else can partake of this creates the one being
that friendship and love and to its highest degree the relationship with our Creator can become
choose a secret choose a secret and then get the blessing of your spiritual father and then
keep on practising that thing through Lent and it can be all sorts of things it can be something
as I mean an example I've already shared with you from previous Lents for me is to sleep outside in
a tent for two or three nights a week during Lent but there are many other things that you could do,
you could if you wanted to you could choose to sleep on the floor for instance on Wednesdays
and on Fridays in order to keep before the eyes of your mind the betrayal of Judas which took place
on a Wednesday and the Crucifixion of the Lord which took place on a Friday you could choose to
fast completely with no food no water if your health allows you on either Friday for the
Crucifixion of the Lord or, or the Saturday for example the Saturday is another wonderful day
which is the day when Christ in his mercy descended into hell to to bring the good
news of salvation to all those who were ready to receive it even there in the depths of hell
and we each and every one of us know what hell is because each and every one of us have experienced
at some point in our lives the hell of despair and of sin there are so many things you can do
all these things that deal with your body but then there are also things you can do
that involve your mind for ex---for instance you could choose to follow the example
of the Fools-for-Christ and on several occasions well chosen well planned beforehand
you could just make a fool out of yourself willingly purposely in front of of the very people
whom you judge if for instance you feel superior towards someone and you've got this sense of pride
in your heart um when you compare yourself in your own mind with that person you could choose
to purposely say something absolutely stupid or just fake false in front of them allow them to
contradict you and then just leave with the shame of having made a mistake in front of that person
of course all of that will generate an outburst of pride because you've done that thing
but already you've pushed the battle a bit deeper you're no longer at the same level you've been at
for months or maybe years the pride you're fighting now is a different kind of pride
you could if you are someone obsessed with control and I know a lot of parents
have this problem and it's understandable because if you don't take care of your family your family
is going to go mad you have somebody has to keep order in a family the same way somebody has to
keep order in a monastery but you could for Lent again if you think about it in a safe wise way
you could choose to let go of your control in ways that you wouldn't normally naturally do
and these things shouldn't be things you announce to everyone these things should be the secrets
of your heart between you and God so that these secrets the things you do in secret can shape you
or better said can reshape you into who God created you to be
I was hoping that's why I was down there a bit earlier getting my bag and checking to see if um
if there are any of those little streams on the beach you know when the waves uh go back
into the ocean at low tide they leave behind these claw-like threads in the sand like little rivulets
and a day or two ago I was walking on the beach and I thought I thought my God this
is this is what is happening with us when God creates us all our thoughts all our emotions
they come with their own natural streams their own riverbeds that are naturally theirs and that would
direct every one of our thoughts and every one of our emotions in a positive salvific direction
because everything in us naturally craves longs to be reunited with God all our thoughts
are naturally finding their full potential their fulfilment in God or our emotions everything that
we are when God created us he also created in us a natural river bed if you want for these flows
of thoughts and emotions but then during the years through mistakes that we make and habitual scene
and under the influence of the evil spirits around us we end up digging deep in our consciousness and
and we just carve new riverbeds we carve new courses for our thoughts and for our emotions
so that fear for instance fear which should be fear of losing the love of God fear of losing
something so beautiful and life-giving as our own creator the one who brought us into being out of
non-being the fear that should keep us away from sin and close to God the way the way a baby deer
is close to his mama that fear instead of following that riverbed that stream
the natural stream that God created for it into our being ends up following a different direction
a different flow which has been imprinted in us carved in us by our sin and instead
of fear keeping us away from evil and close to God it ends up doing precisely the opposite it
keeps us away from God and pushes us through despair and despondency into the hands of sin
and you can do that with almost every single thought any emotion that we have everything in
us came with a good blessed way of being used so that it brings us closer to the Kingdom
and then we ended up just just carving onto our minds and our hearts new ways of misusing these
tools that God has given us and instead of them being tools for salvation they become tools for
well our I don't want to say perdition because in my heart I hope with everything that I am that God
will find a way for everything and everyone but the risk is there because God tells us
of eternal punishment and he does tell us of a hell and the torments of hell
so I was hoping to find some of those claws that the waves
leave in the sand but it's it's still high tide this morning so there aren't any
that's another thing about the tide that I thought about yesterday or the day before
yesterday how everything that we do is just like a sign that the water leaves in the sand
and when you look at it at low tide it feels as if it's been there forever and um
and as if nothing can change that and then just a few hours later it's all gone and
the ocean has erased everything all all that we are everything that we are here
on this earth because it's made of the same earth is like those signs of um of the waves left in
the sand and that's not something that should discourage us that's not something that should
throw us into despondency quite the contrary at least for me it was quite the opposite it
gives me a mad courage to try everything because nothing lasts forever at least I know I've tried
at least I know I've taken risks and I've taken chances and I've tried everything that I could
think of and that I could bring myself to do during this short lifespan here on earth at the
end of the day when high tide comes again all of that will be erased and everything that will be
left is that sense of intimacy sense of oneness sense of belonging to my creator choose a secret
between your heart and God a secret that is aimed to fight one particular passion
that has been tormenting you for months or four years and then get the blessing of your spiritual
father and for the length of Lent allow that secret to slowly correct those river beds of your
thoughts and of your emotions so that we we erase the false ones created onto us by our sinfulness
and we rediscover the beauty of following the natural ones of flowing according to the direction
of those riverbeds carved onto our being by God himself who created us out of love and for love
Lent is coming my dear ones and it comes with this amazing hope and potential for every one of us
it doesn't matter how badly you've fallen it doesn't matter how badly you feel about yourself
how low you feel you've fallen Lent comes every year with this endless potential and perfectly
wonderful hope that we can do everything because at the end of it all the most blessed
high tide will come over and erase everything and embrace us in God's love Pascha my dear one
the joy of Pascha is approaching. Be blessed, my brother, be blessed, my sister. Amen, amen, amen.