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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spiritual life is in active conflict with earthly reason falsely so-called, which has become the guide of modern man. Having heard their pastors\u2019 simple and, it would seem, accessible words of instruction, having heard the Word of God, people can only accept an assimilation and understanding of these truths when they are fulfilling them in their own lives; otherwise the Word would be distorted and profaned.<\/p>\n
Then comes another stumbling block. The word they have heard does not reach fulfillment in their lives. Fulfillment requires much labor and effort over oneself. When the Word of God has penetrated the heart and taken root there, it gives courage, strength, and power to the self-sacrificing soul for the endurance of temptations. The spiritual father\u2019s word is a spiritual sword empowered to cut off impurity \u2013 it causes pain and torment in the spiritual child\u2019s heart, and requires humble self-denial and much patience of him.<\/p>\n
All of these difficulties \u2013 the need to labor, endure, and to humble one\u2019s egotism \u2013 become an obstacle to progress in spiritual life for many who are used to seeking only joy and pleasure in life.<\/p>\n
The salvific cross which every person should consciously take up and carry with love \u2013 the cross which is the only means by which we can tear ourselves away from earthly attachments and passions \u2013 is cast off as an unbearable yoke.<\/p>\n
Outwardly bowing down before the great Cross of Christ and His Passion, singing the praises of the weapon of our salvation, one skillfully and inventively side-steps one\u2019s own personal saving cross.<\/p>\n
Then what often occurs is a horrendous pseudo-spiritual life \u2013 a playing with spiritual life. This game, by giving birth to a false understanding of spirituality, has begun to swamp the world with false spirituality. It is becoming ever harder for the Church to stand up against this modern catastrophe which, by responding to people\u2019s inner inclinations, leads them away from the saving way of the cross\u2019 following after God, and toward a search for one\u2019s \u201cself,\u201d which has already grown out of control in the soul and now directs one away from God.<\/p>\n
– Letter on the Work of a Pastor<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Spiritual life is in active conflict with earthly reason falsely so-called, which has become the guide of modern man. Having heard their pastors\u2019 simple and, it would seem, accessible words […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-modern-orthodox-elders","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10973"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10975,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10973\/revisions\/10975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}