To support our Monasteries on Mull and Iona, join our Online Community here mullmonastery.com/our-online-community/ Sign up for our 2025 Summer Pilgrimages to the Celtic Isles here mullmonastery.com/the-celtic-islands-pilgrimage/ Sign up for our 2025 Pilgrimage to Romania here shop.mullmonastery.com/product/pilgrimage-to-romania-2025/ To make a donation, click here mullmonastery.com/donation/ May God bless us all!
I can’t tell you dear father of how much I needed to hear this message . I literally always feel like au underachiever and often decide I will fail before I try even anything . These thoughts stifle any will I have to act. What a horrible deception from the devil that literally freezes you into doing nothing today and tomorrow . May we all proclaim with Saint Paul « By the grace of God I am what I am »🙏✝️ ❤
Thank you father for this message. I am constantly breaking down crying as I feel doomed to a life of sadness. I was abused horrifically as a child and I have deep pain that keeps me from praying when I want and need to. I pushed away the only man I truly loved because of this pain and now I am pushing Jesus away. I feel like a lonely little girl in need of mum and dad. Please pray for me. I know that He loves me. I wish I could love myself.
Please pray for my daughter, Mary who is embarking on a foolish relationship with someone. Sadly, it’s a relationship leading to sin and error. Please pray for my daughter to receive clarity of thought and wisdom. May Almighty God guide her. I am praying alone at the moment. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them. Matthew 18:20 With love and thanks, Stephen
May God bless her, dear Stephen, and may your own heart be strengthened. Don't lose courage, despite the pain and sadness you feel now. God willing, she will be open to receive the clarity you pray for; if not, may she at least learn as much as possible from this mistake and may this become a turning point towards Christ in her life.
Thank you Father Seraphim for your kind reply and guidance. Yes, I so hope she can be open to receive the brilliance and love that only God can provide. I too will attempt to keep a strong heart. And thank you to you all for your prayers. All glory to God
I have a sneaky way of convincing myself that I am not focused enough to give my full attention to God. So I delay for “the proper time “. Thank you for addressing this.
This is not your way, dear one. This is the way of the evil one and he uses it against an incredible number of people. May we all see through his confusion and may we offer Christ our two coins with confidence that He will receive them and multiply them.
Hristos a înviat! Va avem in rugaciunile noastre Părinte Serafim,pentru toata osteneala,pentru tot cuvantul intelept pe care il picurați in sufletul nostru! Dumnezeu si Maica Domnului sa vă aibă in paza Lor! Doamne, ajută!
Thank you Father for everything I learned sitting at your feet, hearing the words, and putting it into praxis. God bless you and the monasteries again, and again, and again! ☦
As I also procrastinate, recently heard the Holy Spirit say, "You need to take evil more seriously. Evil desires to destroy you, everyone, & everything around you. It's the only way to keep evil at bay". Then I was reminded of the manna provided during the exodus. It was only was good for 24 hrs, no matter how much they tried to collect & keep it.
Dear Fr. Seraphim, Thank you! You cannot imagine, or maybe you can, how much weight you lift from my heart every time I listen to you. Tears of joy, tears of repentance, smiles of relief, or many "aha!" moments. And so much more... I wanted to write this comment to let you know that your words are indeed full of God's grace, and they surely speak directly to my heart. Even if we don't know each other personally, even if there's just this interaction through your videos, please be sure that you've become a beam of light for my path in Christ. I'm praying that our Dear Lord, through the prayers of our Holy and most Blessed Mother and of Saint Paisios the Athonite, will grant you, and the whole Monastic Community, His grace, light, and strength so that you will continue to offer us all these amazingly beautiful fruits, which are indeed words of eternal life. May God bless you always, and please keep me in your prayers. Amen! ☦ Greetings from Greece, Konstantinos
I like the part where you describe to keep trying until our non-realities become our realities. The evil one often likes to use our minds to create false delusions and I struggle with this so much. I’m exhausted by it, but I hold on to faith in patience to receive the grace of God to make it through this nonsense heaping pile of rubbish the devil is trying to put on me.
Thank you, Father! I am a Catholic sister in Christ and I love your videos. They help me grow in practicing the faith. Sending much love in Christ. Thank you for these talks!
Oh, beloved Fr. Seraphim, if only I could hug you right now and thank you in person for so eloquently and lovingly delivering this message from Christ! Glory to God! ☦️ This is the third time this week that I have heard an Orthodox Father speak and was immediately reminded of this quote: "It is not one's own efforts which lead to the goal, because without grace, efforts produce little. Nor does grace without effort bring what is sought, because grace acts in us and for us through our efforts."-St. Theophan the Recluse Without God’s Grace, we would be that bird wildly flapping one wing and going in a circle our whole lives. 🕊️
This is an exact response to the week I’ve had. I cannot understate how poignant this is. This week I’ve been totally consumed in my failures and sin and inability to fully remove myself from transgressing (I am quick to anger over many things). And it’s been a vicious cycle this week. Thank you. I don’t know if God wills for me to come into His kingdom. But I must go to Him no matter what. He is the only good, the only hope, the only Truth, the only Way, and that’s all there is to it. May God have mercy on this fool that I am.
Not to comfort myself in my battle against my passions but my neighbours- the story of St Paisios and the drunk monk who reduced his alcoholism by one glass a year through prayer has been a wonderful story of God's mercy. People saw a drunk, Jesus saw a warrior.
Thank you Father Seraphim. God used you on this message to speak directly to me. This message is what I needed today. God Bless You. Kind regards from Guatemala.
@@mullmonastery Father Seraphim, do you have a video on what you just replied there, about the fear of God and navigating it? If not, will you consider doing one? I have been on a very long journey seeking what the true fear of God is. Thank you for all that you do. 🙏🏻
This is such an important message and needs repeating more often. Without a consistent faithful covenental praylife we don't have a leg to stand on against the enemy.
I never really understood this until now, as you have taught us. I have a desire to enter religious life, but I keep meeting road blocks because my family is in constant need of me. I feel trapped because nothing is going my way. Thank God, my faith is keeping me in the hope that one day, I will be able to answer the call. I kindly ask you to please pray for me . Thank you, Father, for your most beautiful and helpful words. God bless and keep you strong and healthy to continue your work. 🙏🕊
Beautiful word, especially for someone coming from a Muslim tradition, that is based on the idea that we earn our salvation through prayers. I deeply, deeply, deeply thank you Father Seraphim. With much love I kiss your hand, Hassan
Thank you Father. I'm routinely in need of this reminder as I am prone to assessing myself and God's relation to me purely on my performance. The analogy of the two wings of the bird takes me right to Philippians 2:12-13. The one wing: "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" and the other wing: "...for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure."
Dear father bless, and a thousand thanks for your pod cast tonight. So much truth in what you said tonight, in what you did in holding up to us the true picture of the false values of the world in the cultic worship of 'being successful' as the ultimate measurement of our intrinsic worth. The world loves a winner. The stark image of a 'nobody" quietly doing his best in his life and for the life of his family is accounted as worthless in the world's scale of values. Humility of the heart, and love that is unconditional , combined witha complete dependency upon the grace of God in our hearts. Thank you dear father for your urgently delivered message, spoken in love and assurance to us all. In Christ ,Bethan
The way I see it, as long as we are trying to earn our way into Heaven, we are hirelings. We must be children, doing the bidding of our Father in His Kingdom. Further, if we are children, then we will look like Him. So, we must work for free in this Kingdom, which is our inheritance and do so with gladness. Amen.
You're filled with the Holy spirit of God and anyone can sense that even miles away behind a screen . I thank God for you for these great encouraging words. Amen.
Father, how did you know I needed to hear exactly this? I don’t know where or when in my life I picked up this idea that my value was based on my performance but this attitude is absolutely pervasive in my life. It is perhaps my deepest struggle. And then, for over a decade, I was part of a church that told me my works for Christ were filthy rags and God does all the work in me do what is the point? I’ve been Orthodox for 15 years now, (thanks be to God!) and I am just now learning and maybe starting to understand that I have worth simply by being an image bearer of God and that His love and approval is not based on whether or not I succeed. I am learning to do hard things because I LOVE Christ. And your encouragement today has done more for my understanding of myself and why I’m so obsessed with performance than a year of therapy. I will continue to put my head down and do the work God has called me to do and not worry about the results. Thank you THANK YOU FATHER! We are in prayer for you always, but especially now when the pilgrims are with you. God be with you! GenevieveH
God bless father Seraphim for such edifying words, just like beacons of light in our walk with Christ! Having the right understanding and the right heart posture towards our Christian life in general, takes so much fine tuning, so many subtleties of the mind and so many traps that wait ahead to lead us astray from our true salvation. I pray God continues to bless us through such strong pillars of faith, like this father is! Amen
Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Father Seraphim. Again and again, you renew us with the pure Gospel, the only Gospel. The sheep hear HIs voice and will not follow the voice of a stranger! Thank you for strengthening us in this battle!
“There is no need to be afraid of illusion (prelest). It overtakes those who become vain, who begin to think that as soon as warmth has come into the heart they are already at the summit of perfection. In fact this warmth is only the beginning and may not prove to be stable. For this warmth and peace in the heart may just be something natural-the fruit of concentrated attention. We have to labour and labour, to wait and wait, until the natural is replaced by the grace-given. It is best never to think of yourself as having attained anything, but always see yourself as poor, naked, blind, and worthless.” - St. Theophan the Recluse, Art of Prayer
Forgive me for my bad disposition but this almost gave me despair. Becuase i keep on giving myself willingly to sin beside trying to stop. I truly do nothing good. But i hope in God to free me when he wills. Iam too proudfull and that is the root of my problem yet i cant seem to humble myself despite all my wretched falls.
Beg God for mercy and run to a priest for confession. Reveal all to Christ in the sacrament of confession and you will begin to have the strength to stop sinning. If you are not Orthodox, go anyway to reveal what you are dealing with. Any effort in the right direction (repentance) is good. Don’t let the devil tell you that you should hate yourself or hurt yourself or fix yourself. Only go humble yourself before God and you will be blessed.
Christ wants you to be free now, my dear one, but there must be something in you (your pride, probably, as you indicate) that makes it impossible right now. Keep praying, keep hoping, keep turning back - eventually, you will get close to the brink of true despair and on that edge you will have to open up to Him in humility. Once humility prevails over pride, Christ's will for you will be done in you. Just keep fighting, even if your fight is merely spiritual survival.
@@mullmonastery thank you father. Im from Georgia 🇬🇪 but i wasnt baptized in to the church as a child becuase my parents seperated. And i grew up in sweden with mum who isnt practicing so i grew up an atheist. But my biological father is taking me now to be baptized in a couple of days. So it has been very tough with these constant falls so close to my baptism
@@Lilo82531 Dear one, what a blessing! It is thrilling to hear you will be baptized. Glory to God!!! You will find that when you are doing the right things (like preparing for baptism) you will have many temptations that come at you to discourage you from doing those good and right things. Be happy because you are being attacked precisely because you are entering the doors of salvation and the evil one is angry! That is proof that you are on the right path. I hope this does not sound ridiculous, but I am sure that if you ask Fr. Seraphim, he can direct you to a video where he talks about this very thing. I am just an old grandmother, so forgive me for talking so much. I will leave you alone now. But I want you to know that my heart is filled with joy to hear your story.
It seems my commdnt didnt send but this is a very wondeful blessed and relevant video for me as ghe true regretful chief of Procrastination :( thank you Fr. Seraphim
This is an issue for me. I don't feel spiritually worthy unless I'm doing something. I'm not patient with myself, nor do I feel spiritually worthy toward God. Please pray for me brother. Thank you for your messages. I appreciate so much your humility and message.
All I can say is that humbling yourself is difficult and even when you think you have humbled yourself, you actually have not. BUT the best thing is that God's love is everlasting and He is patient and merciful. Imagine if He was otherwise...where would we be? Worse than we are. I have a prayer card that says 'love me as you are' . Jesus wants your love now, broken as it is because He will bring perfect and better love as He lives within you (assuming you are recieving Holy communion). Yes we are evil but don't forget where we come from, God's love and light is within us, hidden so we must wash our souls of evil to see the light
Ascetical struggles alone do not save as they too can be hijacked by the need to prove our worth just as we use our worldly endeavours to do so. No, we are saved by feeling the Spirit move through us by allowing it to enter our hearts and purify us often, and then praxis is not as necessary esp. if those practices are reinforcing the very spiritual ego that we think is being relinquished through these practices. I found a new power through reading a chapter a day of the Gospel of John. I am feeling the supernatural power and presence of Christ working and walking through those words and allowing that to penetrate my soul and transmute it. I also combine it with some prostrations in the morning and evening. All actions that spring from it are not mine, they are inspired by the love of God who allows me to achieve what was impossible from my darkened state of mind. This is the joy of Spirit and we are called to live from there, not from debasement.
I pray everyday, dear brother, but if you are so kind to make a prayer for me sometime I will be eternally thankful🙏. (María Beatriz V.L., is my name).
Dear Father Seraphim, Christ is risen! Do you have a transcription of this video (one that is easy to print) that I could access? I have a friend in prison whom I believe would really benefit from your words.
Thank you Father, my biggest issue is sitting still, without talking and just listen. I'm Catholic but since my conversion I have read about fasting from the Apostolic Fathers but I can't seem to have the willpower to do an actual fast. I noticed coffees helps with my hunger but is that cheating?
Look at Psalm 22 (maybe a different number, "eloi, eloi,", that one). The singer is a worm, not a man, and that many others can be saved, but seems hopeless... until he cries out to God. Then he has a "precious life".
Hi would really like to fast, but i can't by myself. I have no community and fasting it's no something you can do alone, it's the church fasting not only me.( That's what I was told) And I know the Orthodox fast from milky products and meats every Wednesday and Friday. I am very young and I have lost too many pounds, my mom told me that i have to take 5kg because i need to grown up healthy, and I understand that. So my parents wants me to drink milk every day, and i don't want to create my own rule and just fast from meat ( i don't know if it is possible). I know that i have to talk with this to a priest but, again i don't have an Orthodox community i only go to catholic but they have this such every fast i think. Help me
Keep trying, my dear one. These are our two coins, everything we have to offer - we are the widows, offer your two coins and Christ will gladly receive them and multiply them.
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May God bless us all!
Thank you for this
I can’t tell you dear father of how much I needed to hear this message . I literally always feel like au underachiever and often decide I will fail before I try even anything . These thoughts stifle any will I have to act. What a horrible deception from the devil that literally freezes you into doing nothing today and tomorrow . May we all proclaim with Saint Paul « By the grace of God I am what I am »🙏✝️ ❤
Thank you father for this message. I am constantly breaking down crying as I feel doomed to a life of sadness. I was abused horrifically as a child and I have deep pain that keeps me from praying when I want and need to. I pushed away the only man I truly loved because of this pain and now I am pushing Jesus away. I feel like a lonely little girl in need of mum and dad. Please pray for me. I know that He loves me. I wish I could love myself.
Powerful message ☦️📿
Please pray for my daughter, Mary who is embarking on a foolish relationship with someone. Sadly, it’s a relationship leading to sin and error. Please pray for my daughter to receive clarity of thought and wisdom. May Almighty God guide her.
I am praying alone at the moment.
For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them. Matthew 18:20
With love and thanks,
Stephen
You are such a caring and thoughtful father...pray we will❤
Dear Stephen, I know the pain you are feeling. May God protect Mary and save her.
May God bless her, dear Stephen, and may your own heart be strengthened. Don't lose courage, despite the pain and sadness you feel now. God willing, she will be open to receive the clarity you pray for; if not, may she at least learn as much as possible from this mistake and may this become a turning point towards Christ in her life.
You sound like a great loving dad I will pray for her
Thank you Father Seraphim for your kind reply and guidance. Yes, I so hope she can be open to receive the brilliance and love that only God can provide. I too will attempt to keep a strong heart.
And thank you to you all for your prayers.
All glory to God
I have a sneaky way of convincing myself that I am not focused enough to give my full attention to God. So I delay for “the proper time “. Thank you for addressing this.
This is not your way, dear one. This is the way of the evil one and he uses it against an incredible number of people. May we all see through his confusion and may we offer Christ our two coins with confidence that He will receive them and multiply them.
Yeah I am nearly in tears. Out of all people I see and speak to you are saying what I cannot vocalize. Thank you
As a protestant this was revelational. Thank you Father
Glory to God! ❤
Hristos a înviat!
Va avem in rugaciunile noastre Părinte Serafim,pentru toata osteneala,pentru tot cuvantul intelept pe care il picurați in sufletul nostru!
Dumnezeu si Maica Domnului sa vă aibă in paza Lor!
Doamne, ajută!
Thank you Father for everything I learned sitting at your feet, hearing the words,
and putting it into praxis. God bless you and the monasteries again, and again, and again! ☦
As I also procrastinate, recently heard the Holy Spirit say, "You need to take evil more seriously. Evil desires to destroy you, everyone, & everything around you. It's the only way to keep evil at bay". Then I was reminded of the manna provided during the exodus. It was only was good for 24 hrs, no matter how much they tried to collect & keep it.
Dear Fr. Seraphim,
Thank you! You cannot imagine, or maybe you can, how much weight you lift from my heart every time I listen to you. Tears of joy, tears of repentance, smiles of relief, or many "aha!" moments. And so much more... I wanted to write this comment to let you know that your words are indeed full of God's grace, and they surely speak directly to my heart. Even if we don't know each other personally, even if there's just this interaction through your videos, please be sure that you've become a beam of light for my path in Christ.
I'm praying that our Dear Lord, through the prayers of our Holy and most Blessed Mother and of Saint Paisios the Athonite, will grant you, and the whole Monastic Community, His grace, light, and strength so that you will continue to offer us all these amazingly beautiful fruits, which are indeed words of eternal life.
May God bless you always, and please keep me in your prayers. Amen! ☦
Greetings from Greece,
Konstantinos
Dear Father.. God Bless You.. God Bless You.. God Bless You.. your sister in Christ ☦️🙏🕊❤️
I like the part where you describe to keep trying until our non-realities become our realities. The evil one often likes to use our minds to create false delusions and I struggle with this so much. I’m exhausted by it, but I hold on to faith in patience to receive the grace of God to make it through this nonsense heaping pile of rubbish the devil is trying to put on me.
Amen!
Thank you, Father! I am a Catholic sister in Christ and I love your videos. They help me grow in practicing the faith. Sending much love in Christ. Thank you for these talks!
Oh, beloved Fr. Seraphim, if only I could hug you right now and thank you in person for so eloquently and lovingly delivering this message from Christ! Glory to God! ☦️ This is the third time this week that I have heard an Orthodox Father speak and was immediately reminded of this quote:
"It is not one's own efforts which lead to the goal, because without grace, efforts produce little. Nor does grace without effort bring what is sought, because grace acts in us and for us through our efforts."-St. Theophan the Recluse
Without God’s Grace, we would be that bird wildly flapping one wing and going in a circle our whole lives. 🕊️
This is an exact response to the week I’ve had. I cannot understate how poignant this is. This week I’ve been totally consumed in my failures and sin and inability to fully remove myself from transgressing (I am quick to anger over many things). And it’s been a vicious cycle this week. Thank you. I don’t know if God wills for me to come into His kingdom. But I must go to Him no matter what. He is the only good, the only hope, the only Truth, the only Way, and that’s all there is to it. May God have mercy on this fool that I am.
God's will is for all of us to come into His Kingdom! May you be comforted by the grace He bestows on all who seek Him.
Not to comfort myself in my battle against my passions but my neighbours- the story of St Paisios and the drunk monk who reduced his alcoholism by one glass a year through prayer has been a wonderful story of God's mercy. People saw a drunk, Jesus saw a warrior.
Thank you Father Seraphim. God used you on this message to speak directly to me. This message is what I needed today. God Bless You. Kind regards from Guatemala.
Glory be to God for that, my dear one. Please remember us in your prayers.
Fear is the big problem
Only fear of God is leading to Life, and even that fear can be destructive if one does not have a guide to navigate the experience of it.
@@mullmonastery Father Seraphim, do you have a video on what you just replied there, about the fear of God and navigating it? If not, will you consider doing one? I have been on a very long journey seeking what the true fear of God is. Thank you for all that you do. 🙏🏻
This is such an important message and needs repeating more often. Without a consistent faithful covenental praylife we don't have a leg to stand on against the enemy.
God bless!
Hello!!!!
Thank you so much for this. It's so helpful and clarifying. Bless you and your monastery!
I never really understood this until now, as you have taught us. I have a desire to enter religious life, but I keep meeting road blocks because my family is in constant need of me. I feel trapped because nothing is going my way. Thank God, my faith is keeping me in the hope that one day, I will be able to answer the call. I kindly ask you to please pray for me .
Thank you, Father, for your most beautiful and helpful words. God bless and keep you strong and healthy to continue your work. 🙏🕊
May Christ hear your prayer and may you have the courage to follow the path He will open for you, dear one.
You can still believe and be with your family
Thank you Father Seraphim. God bless the Holy Eastern Orthodox Church.
Amen, my dear one, amen.
Beautiful word, especially for someone coming from a Muslim tradition, that is based on the idea that we earn our salvation through prayers. I deeply, deeply, deeply thank you Father Seraphim.
With much love I kiss your hand,
Hassan
Thank you Father. I'm routinely in need of this reminder as I am prone to assessing myself and God's relation to me purely on my performance. The analogy of the two wings of the bird takes me right to Philippians 2:12-13. The one wing: "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" and the other wing: "...for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure."
Thank you for that scriptural reference.
So what I understand is we pray and we wait for his grace.
Glory to God for all things. 💛
Amen, dear one, amen.
❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤🥹🙏I m sending all my love to You!Thank You so,so much!I m speechless!😢
Thank you father for those wise words❤🇭🇷
Glory be to God that there was something good for you in this, dear one. Please remember us in your prayers.
No, we thank you, Father! Christ is risen!
Dear father bless, and a thousand thanks for your pod cast tonight. So much truth in what you said tonight, in what you did in holding up to us the true picture of the false values of the world in the cultic worship of 'being successful' as the ultimate measurement of our intrinsic worth. The world loves a winner. The stark image of a 'nobody" quietly doing his best in his life and for the life of his family is accounted as worthless in the world's scale of values. Humility of the heart, and love that is unconditional , combined witha complete dependency upon the grace of God in our hearts.
Thank you dear father for your urgently delivered message, spoken in love and assurance to us all.
In Christ ,Bethan
Hello Bethan! Christ is Risen dear heart!
Christ is risen indeed. All communications from Mull and Iona Monastery, are valued gems of spiritual teaching. @@s.d.berquist6866
The way I see it, as long as we are trying to earn our way into Heaven, we are hirelings. We must be children, doing the bidding of our Father in His Kingdom. Further, if we are children, then we will look like Him. So, we must work for free in this Kingdom, which is our inheritance and do so with gladness. Amen.
Thank you for what you do.
Glory be to God for all good things, my dear one.
You're filled with the Holy spirit of God and anyone can sense that even miles away behind a screen . I thank God for you for these great encouraging words. Amen.
Thank you Father. God bless you
Father, how did you know I needed to hear exactly this? I don’t know where or when in my life I picked up this idea that my value was based on my performance but this attitude is absolutely pervasive in my life. It is perhaps my deepest struggle. And then, for over a decade, I was part of a church that told me my works for Christ were filthy rags and God does all the work in me do what is the point? I’ve been Orthodox for 15 years now, (thanks be to God!) and I am just now learning and maybe starting to understand that I have worth simply by being an image bearer of God and that His love and approval is not based on whether or not I succeed. I am learning to do hard things because I LOVE Christ. And your encouragement today has done more for my understanding of myself and why I’m so obsessed with performance than a year of therapy. I will continue to put my head down and do the work God has called me to do and not worry about the results. Thank you THANK YOU FATHER! We are in prayer for you always, but especially now when the pilgrims are with you. God be with you! GenevieveH
God bless your soul always, Father! I keep you in my heart and prayers 💌
God bless father Seraphim for such edifying words, just like beacons of light in our walk with Christ! Having the right understanding and the right heart posture towards our Christian life in general, takes so much fine tuning, so many subtleties of the mind and so many traps that wait ahead to lead us astray from our true salvation. I pray God continues to bless us through such strong pillars of faith, like this father is! Amen
Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Father Seraphim. Again and again, you renew us with the pure Gospel, the only Gospel. The sheep hear HIs voice and will not follow the voice of a stranger! Thank you for strengthening us in this battle!
Thank you dear Father for this badly needed message. May God bless and protect you and your communities. I am certain Christ walks beside you all. ❤
May we all be blessed, my dear one, and may we all follow Him all the way into the Kingdom.
@@mullmonastery Father please pray for my safety.
“There is no need to be afraid of illusion (prelest). It overtakes those who become vain, who begin to think that as soon as warmth has come into the heart they are already at the summit of perfection. In fact this warmth is only the beginning and may not prove to be stable. For this warmth and peace in the heart may just be something natural-the fruit of concentrated attention. We have to labour and labour, to wait and wait, until the natural is replaced by the grace-given. It is best never to think of yourself as having attained anything, but always see yourself as poor, naked, blind, and worthless.”
- St. Theophan the Recluse, Art of Prayer
You are a blessing to us!
Forgive me for my bad disposition but this almost gave me despair. Becuase i keep on giving myself willingly to sin beside trying to stop. I truly do nothing good. But i hope in God to free me when he wills. Iam too proudfull and that is the root of my problem yet i cant seem to humble myself despite all my wretched falls.
Beg God for mercy and run to a priest for confession. Reveal all to Christ in the sacrament of confession and you will begin to have the strength to stop sinning. If you are not Orthodox, go anyway to reveal what you are dealing with. Any effort in the right direction (repentance) is good. Don’t let the devil tell you that you should hate yourself or hurt yourself or fix yourself. Only go humble yourself before God and you will be blessed.
Humility is being honest before God, yourself and others about your sins.
Christ wants you to be free now, my dear one, but there must be something in you (your pride, probably, as you indicate) that makes it impossible right now. Keep praying, keep hoping, keep turning back - eventually, you will get close to the brink of true despair and on that edge you will have to open up to Him in humility. Once humility prevails over pride, Christ's will for you will be done in you. Just keep fighting, even if your fight is merely spiritual survival.
@@mullmonastery thank you father. Im from Georgia 🇬🇪 but i wasnt baptized in to the church as a child becuase my parents seperated. And i grew up in sweden with mum who isnt practicing so i grew up an atheist. But my biological father is taking me now to be baptized in a couple of days. So it has been very tough with these constant falls so close to my baptism
@@Lilo82531 Dear one, what a blessing! It is thrilling to hear you will be baptized. Glory to God!!! You will find that when you are doing the right things (like preparing for baptism) you will have many temptations that come at you to discourage you from doing those good and right things. Be happy because you are being attacked precisely because you are entering the doors of salvation and the evil one is angry! That is proof that you are on the right path. I hope this does not sound ridiculous, but I am sure that if you ask Fr. Seraphim, he can direct you to a video where he talks about this very thing. I am just an old grandmother, so forgive me for talking so much. I will leave you alone now. But I want you to know that my heart is filled with joy to hear your story.
It seems my commdnt didnt send but this is a very wondeful blessed and relevant video for me as ghe true regretful chief of Procrastination :( thank you Fr. Seraphim
Thank you so much father
AMEN ❤
Exactly what I needed to hear! 😊
Thanku father 🙏🏽
Perfect timing
Thank you brother.
Thank you brother. This message and your heart for Christ matter and make a good difference to me and to many I'm sure. Yah bless you ❤
God bless you for wisdom father, may we all try and follow in Jesus steps and repent daily, to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 🙏🙏🙏🙏❤️
May Christ hear your prayer, dear one, and may He multiply His grace in you and all of us.
This is an issue for me. I don't feel spiritually worthy unless I'm doing something. I'm not patient with myself, nor do I feel spiritually worthy toward God. Please pray for me brother. Thank you for your messages. I appreciate so much your humility and message.
Please remember us in your prayers too, dear one. I have confidence that Christ hears you.
@mullmonastery I will certainly pray for you and your work. You are a light in a dark world my brother. Godspeed and God bless you always.
I need to fuse the image of how we need both wings into my memory.
Such a glourious saying.
❤
This is great!! I think we all struggle with this. ❤
Thank you, lucky I am to watch this video now. This was the answer I needed deeply. May God lead us to the straight path. Amen
Amen
All I can say is that humbling yourself is difficult and even when you think you have humbled yourself, you actually have not. BUT the best thing is that God's love is everlasting and He is patient and merciful. Imagine if He was otherwise...where would we be? Worse than we are. I have a prayer card that says 'love me as you are' . Jesus wants your love now, broken as it is because He will bring perfect and better love as He lives within you (assuming you are recieving Holy communion).
Yes we are evil but don't forget where we come from, God's love and light is within us, hidden so we must wash our souls of evil to see the light
I love this posts
Ascetical struggles alone do not save as they too can be hijacked by the need to prove our worth just as we use our worldly endeavours to do so. No, we are saved by feeling the Spirit move through us by allowing it to enter our hearts and purify us often, and then praxis is not as necessary esp. if those practices are reinforcing the very spiritual ego that we think is being relinquished through these practices. I found a new power through reading a chapter a day of the Gospel of John. I am feeling the supernatural power and presence of Christ working and walking through those words and allowing that to penetrate my soul and transmute it. I also combine it with some prostrations in the morning and evening. All actions that spring from it are not mine, they are inspired by the love of God who allows me to achieve what was impossible from my darkened state of mind. This is the joy of Spirit and we are called to live from there, not from debasement.
I pray everyday, dear brother, but if you are so kind to make a prayer for me sometime I will be eternally thankful🙏.
(María Beatriz V.L., is my name).
I am so happy when ever you post because your message always rings true. I think these postings which reach so many people is your true calling!
❤❤❤❤
Dear Father Seraphim,
Christ is risen! Do you have a transcription of this video (one that is easy to print) that I could access? I have a friend in prison whom I believe would really benefit from your words.
Thank you Father, my biggest issue is sitting still, without talking and just listen. I'm Catholic but since my conversion I have read about fasting from the Apostolic Fathers but I can't seem to have the willpower to do an actual fast. I noticed coffees helps with my hunger but is that cheating?
How do we take night vigils?
See Father’s series of videos on this channel on prayer at night
I've become embittered and at enmity with both man and God. My spiritual life is a mess. How do I reverse this?
Look at Psalm 22 (maybe a different number, "eloi, eloi,", that one). The singer is a worm, not a man, and that many others can be saved, but seems hopeless... until he cries out to God. Then he has a "precious life".
Father, where can I get your beanie??
Hi would really like to fast, but i can't by myself. I have no community and fasting it's no something you can do alone, it's the church fasting not only me.( That's what I was told) And I know the Orthodox fast from milky products and meats every Wednesday and Friday. I am very young and I have lost too many pounds, my mom told me that i have to take 5kg because i need to grown up healthy, and I understand that. So my parents wants me to drink milk every day, and i don't want to create my own rule and just fast from meat ( i don't know if it is possible). I know that i have to talk with this to a priest but, again i don't have an Orthodox community i only go to catholic but they have this such every fast i think. Help me
Dear Reverend Father, what if I discover that God wants my death as penance?
Can you please pray for me too? my name is julia. I came to the end of my life and future.
I try to pray in my weak efforts don’t get anywhere close to what i need to - over nights etc.
Keep trying, my dear one. These are our two coins, everything we have to offer - we are the widows, offer your two coins and Christ will gladly receive them and multiply them.
Amen