A Little Corner of Paradise

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An old man once asked me, “Fr. Paisius, what is pride, and how does it come?” “Brother George, pride is when you consider yourself superior to someone else, that you’re better, nicer than another person.” Look, this is pride: when you consider that you know more than someone else, that you can do something better than someone else. This is pride. And it’s very dangerous because God does not like this pride. If you consider that you know more, that you’re more capable, that you can do more, take care that you don’t become like the man who pondered on all that he was able to accomplish, on the things that he could set aright, and on his fasting, while the one near the door wept and beat his chest because he has done nothing good. You see, I can say about myself, “Listen, my good men, I’m more sinful, stupid, and wicked than any other person.” But if someone starts to call me stupid and ugly, just see how puffed up and angry with him I become. “What’s that to you? Why are you concerned with me?” And so on. So, is this humility? When another person insults you and humbles you against your will, then see if you can say, “He had to do this to me… God allowed him to do it because I had insulted someone else.” This is true humility; not when I myself say that I’m stupid. When another person insults you, then prove your humility and quickly say, “God allowed him to insult me.”… This would be true humility. When I was younger, the abbot put me to the test. Once he kicked me out of the church. I had been singing in the choir, and I had been signing in my own way, “Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me,” and it seemed to me that I sang so beautifully. I had become prideful in my heart. And one time the abbot came in, and when he heard me, he gave me a jab in the ribs and said, “Get outside! Get out, you donkey, what is this bellowing? I thought I was singing so nicely, and then look what I experienced! And I think to myself even now: O insidious pride, how it clings to all the seams! To be dishonored by men - this is good. And what if people say that you have sins? Don’t you? We must endure everything with humility, my dear, endure with humility for the love of Christ, in order to win not all of paradise but only a little corner, however small. - Elder Paisius of Sihla -

Birthdays: Amelia Sh. (9th); Cole (11th); Chris F. (12th); Lelizaveta G. (14th); Joan D. (14th); Rdr. Joseph (15th) Anniversary: Pylypczuk Namesdays: Anthony, Olga, Vladimir Many Years!

Services This Week: Vespers: Weds. 6p.m. Parish Work Day: Saturday, 8am-noon Mahan Baptism: Saturday, 10am

Youth Contact Eric Jewett for Summer Activities: [email protected]

Moms: Contact Margaret Combs for summer schedule: [email protected]

Ladies Study - Thursdays, 9a.m. -

Men’s Study Group - Fridays, 6:30a.m. -

On Prayer… Any prayer is a gift from God. And we, the weakest, have merely prayer of the lips. For the time being, we fulfill this, my dear. The well is deep, but our rope is short, and our bucket is small…. Each one does what he can, just as a bee does not take all the nectar from a flower. But it’s very good if you do a little rule. I know this myself: If I get up and do a little of my rule, it seems as if I’m a different man all day long. But if you get up in the morning and you whirl around the house because you have this and that to do - then your whole day goes poorly. So, do a little of your rule every day, like the righteous Job, who offered sacrifice every day for his children. And if you say the Jesus Prayer one hundred times, at least ten times out of the hundred it will be said with real meaning. Thoughts will still come, but don’t talk with them. Don’t pay heed to them. Seek to have your mind occupied with your prayer… When we cannot weep in prayer, this is also for our humility, my dear, so that we will humble ourselves. We do not necessarily need to sob. “A sacrifice unto God is a broken spirit; a heart that is broken and humbled God will not despise.” The devil too can sometimes help you to weep, so that afterwards you’ll become prideful and be lost. A woman came here once and said to me, “Father, I do one hundred prostrations every day.” But she had been doing it without a blessing. And so I said to her, “From now on, don’t do one hundred but do only twenty-four prostrations each day. You have a blessing only for that.” And she came to me a month later, crying, and said to me, “Father, I was not able to do those twenty-four prostrations each day. I don’t know what happened, but I can’t do them - I, who had been doing one hundred prostrations, which were very easy for me to do, was not able even for one day to do the twenty-four prostrations that you gave me to do.” Do you see? A fight with the enemy occurred, because these were done with a blessing. When she had done the one hundred, she was doing them with a little pride. - Elder Paisius of Sihla -

Holy Theophany Orthodox Church + 2770 N. Chestnut St. Colo. Springs, CO 80907 (719) 473-9238 Fr. Anthony Karbo Fr. Lawrence Gaudreau Fr. Panayiotis Tekosis Dn. Gregory Jewett [email protected]

Hieromartyr Pancratius July 9th, 2017 Rom. 10:1-10 Matt. 8:28 - 9:1 “Woe to that man who receives praise that doesn’t correspond to his life and deeds.” - Elder Paisios of Sihla -