"There is no such thing as a Christian without a Cross." "Your cross is nothing to be ashamed of."We share in Christ Cross when we acknowledge our Cross.
God is always working. Yesterday I was in the hospital sick again, i went in and my blood pressure was low, i was replaying all of my near death experiences and one was a blood infection that included low blood pressure . I had been watching many of your videos and took much of your advice. I began praying and focusing on God & the lady came out to recheck my vitals right as I began my prayer and my blood pressure was normal. Twenty min. Later my labs came back normal. I have been having a lot of health issues as I try to draw closer to God. At first I seen it as spiritual attacks, now I see it as a thorn to keep me from falling from God again and I am thankful that my physical suffering has drawn me closer to him! It has allowed me to see his grace and love for mankind and allowed me to see the sinner I am and how he answers our prayers, yet not always how we expect him to
I have been through much of the same. I ask that you would pray for us. My wife Cathy especially. I am seeking Orthodoxy. My wife is not on board. Thank you and God bless you always 🙏
Great video. Your talks are always Inspiring. I have bipolar depression and I don't know what I would do without my Catholic faith and prayer. Awesome video!
I just found this, today Sept. 11, 2020. Yet, when I was at confession last Wednesday Father told me to pray for those who suffer from the sins I confessed to him. I now see why this is so powerful. The weakness of my sin is the power of my prayer.
Glory to the Almighty God for letting me find you father. May The Holy Mother of God watch over your heart. Don't stop reaching out, teaching, guiding. We lost souls here , we need shepherds like you. Thank you. Respect and Love from Ethiopian Orthodox Christian ❤🇪🇹
May God bless you, dear one. I am not a shepherd by any standard and I don't say that out of humility, but because I have met real shepherds and I know what they look like. We are all weak, but we can all grow by each other's prayers. Thank you for your kind words and for your blessing.
I suffered from severe depression for years...no longer praise god...I prayed constantly but couldn't feel christs presence but still I prayed...I see now looking back christ was very near when I saw the light in things it shone very brightly .... like the moon against a black night time christ led the way .. I spent many years on iona in my youth and now have great devotion to the celtic saints. I live in Ireland and feel the saints are still very present here. Last year I visited st endas monastery on aran islands and imagined columba visiting there and st ciaran being taught there before going to clonmacnoise....when john paul 2 visited ireland he asked to be brought to clonmacnoise .. in his short visit he said...this is the home from where my faith comes. Thanku for your talks and vocation
May God bless all of us, dear one. Thank you for sharing this with us - very often, things happen just as you describe. We move in darkness and we feel completely alone and abandoned, only to realise much later that we've always had a guiding light before us. It often happens that we expect that guiding light to take certain forms, but Christ knows better than ourselves what we need and He shows Himself to us in the most unexpected ways. Please keep me and the Monastery in your prayers.
Another excellent video Father. Say a prayer for me , a year of hard work , patience , and prayer has paid off. They will be setting a chrismation date for me soon , at the church I attend
Incredible. I was crying out to God about just this issue and in despair and then your video appears on my RU-vid "suggested videos" page. God is amazing!
If this video will not be recomanded by youtube today, I would have fallen into dispair. Thank you, dear God, thank you, dear Father! Hope you know how important are for us these videos in this period of time! God bless you and the entire world! 🙏
“Your Cross is what gives life to your prayer...” amen 🥰. This prayer you are describing I have felt before, like everything I have faced is a fractal of all others who have also faced it.
Thank you again Father. I rejoice every time I see you have posted because I know it is going to lead me deeper. Please continue as long as our Lord enables you.
May we all be blessed, dear James. May we continue together on the path to His Light, and may we find the strength to keep praying for the life and salvation of the world. Thank you for your kindness.
This is so life giving to me. I cannot seem to overcome my chronic illness that takes me down regularly, especially when I extend myself to serve the church in leading choir. This has been a years long struggle for me. I get a little better, have hope that now I can serve this way (which I love to do), and then fall ill right afterwards yet again. The same was true of my career as a hospice nurse, which ended 9 years ago because of this. I find myself isolated and feeling as if in a cage. Then I succumb to despondency and spiritual paralysis. I have other major crosses in my life as well and have felt like nothing but a burden in the world. But this shows me another way, and gives new meaning to my circumstances. Thank you for reaching out to all of us this way.
Thank you Father, your words encourage me to pray for others in my own suffering. Please keep making your wonderful videos, they do make a difference. God bless you Father.
As someone who has diagnosed ADHD and am getting a diagnosis for autism, finding my true self has been very difficult. I trudge on trying to develop my faith as God leads me, but, at times it feels really hopeless.
Thank you Fr. Seraphim. This was so timely as I have struggled with beliefs of loved ones that were in the church but left for reasons I'll not share here. I was at a loss as to how to handle this. In my weakness I not comfortable talking with them because by social media posts and responses to others I knew it was out of my league. Just this morning I handed them over in prayer and chose that to be the way I can love them. I will continue to show them love and hold them up in prayer!
Thank you Father. I often find it difficult to pray. It seems like there's so much going on in the world that its hard to know where to start. No matter what I might pray, the words don't seem adequate. It's certainly even more difficult to pray from my " hell" and from the "cell" of my own flesh. Its like having a wound that you keep covered up even though you know the only way it will heal is to expose it. Thank you Father Seraphim for your spiritual wisdom and for challenging us to be authentic, to be Christians.
That is so close to what I was trying to say, dear Larry. I remember my frustration during my first years as a monastic - I had thought that, leaving the world, my heart would somehow 'harden' and be less affected by the suffering of 'the world'. Instead, I found myself complains to my monastic brother that my heart felt like a boxing bag, hanging from the roof in a public room, for all to punch it as hard as they could. Our wounds are our treasures - they teach us humility, they teach us love, they teach us prayer. May Christ teach us everything, dear one.
Father, as ever you speak the words that we really need to hear, not what we want to hear but we need to hear for our salvation and to draw others to salvation
I didnt pray to God, I spoke to Him. I thank God for what I have in my life, and what I have had, for all good and challenges have made me who I am, and in a greater sense of trust for the Divine. Sometimes it was something more sinister at play, but when God laid challenges before me, they made me stronger and He restored. Satan destroys so it is simple then to know the difference. I think your words are needed in these times to reach a wider audience. No doubt this is part of your missionary. I wondered recently how you were doing amidst all of what is going on. It's good to see you on here. Blessings 🙏🏻
This is such a moving and inspiring video Fr. Seraphim! I was moved to become a Permanent Deacon about ten years ago when I underwent some very serious surgeries that had me terrified, and I realized that I was in the hands of others whose goodwill and expertise I depended on--this made me realize that if I am to be of any use at all, I must pray for those who suffer similar things and for whom I have a particular solidarity because I have been in their place. Your words ring so true for me, please pray for me!
That is what I experienced, too, dear Scott. Physically, emotionally and spiritually - we all have our 'tribes', groups of people to which we belong. These tribes depend on those few who have been blessed enough to know Christ, and we have a responsibility to 'move the mountains' of their weakness and suffering. May we all be blessed, for the prayer we offer for each other.
I thankyou heavenly father for accepting our burdens while struggling with the end times prophecy. I am asking today to be thankful and happy with my family that want to be healed heathy and accepted as one with you heavenly faither. I say all of this is jesus name.
The Verba or "Word" of Abba Antony the Great that Fr. Seraphim spoke of: Three Fathers used to go and visit blessed Anthony every year and two of them used to discuss their thoughts and the salvation of their souls with him, but the third always remained silent and did not ask him anything. After a long time, Abba Anthony said to him, “You often come here to see me, but you never ask me anything,” and the other replied, “It is enough for me to see you, Father.”
I give thanks to God for giving us, through your presence, your experience, your prayer, the "taste" and the reality of deep prayer and what it really gives, that is to say light to the heart from hell. Thank you Father Seraphim, faithful "useless" servant to the Lord, for sharing with us the gifts received ! With the help of God, may you continue to "impregnate" us with living words, like the subtle dew that acts without any drop seen from the sky ! In communion of prayer with you and your blessed monastery.
So much spiritual treasure shared in one compact message. I have only just barely begun to understand the concept of “our salvation” as opposed to what I had always understood as “my salvation.” I have only just begun to barely understand the true power that prayer actually is-how God chooses to use weak sinners like me to perhaps “move mountains.” Your way of explaining has illumined my understanding more and I pray that it will lead to more than just head knowledge but a true change in my actions. Thank you, Fr. for sharing what you have learned with us.
Thank you for taking the time to write these words, dear one. It helps enormously to hear that there is some use in all of this. Thank you for your kindness and your encouragement - may we all grow together; may we all find our salvation together.
Father bless Thank you for this wonderful message of hope. Indeed God's message has been the same throughout the ages. The late Archimandrite Simeon used to tell me to turn despair into repentance, and that despair is from the evil one, and repentance from God. Then there is as you know Saint Silouan's revelation from Christ "Keep thy mind in hell and despair not". Remembering our unworthiness whilst at the same time remembering, hoping and trusting in Christ's mercy and love. In the Gospel of Luke 17:10 Christ reminds us of the humility we should have, we are: "...Unprofitable servants..." The context being: "even if we have kept all the commandments". The darker and seemingly hopeless moments you mention Father, remind me of someone who in their darkest moments, used the last of what was left in their hearts and cried out "how do I stop these evil sins", straight away received the answer, "Crucify yourself".
I listened to this video a second time to absorb what you say and I have received it. Thank you for your inspiring words, again. I must overcome much of what I have learned, empty myself of false conceptions of what prayer is. Your thoughts on prayer have made me realize what you mean by the hell we share with others and so must pray for ourselves to lift us out of it. Yes, contribute our two cents worth. My education taught me Sartre’s concept of l’enfer c’est les autres and that is false. We are together in hell, but others are NOT bastards that make up a place such that as individuals we shun each other because that is the human condition. We are all brothers and sisters. Bless you, father. I will continue to pray for you.
Thank you, Father. I really needed this. In fact I need this beaten into my thick skull! Second, Father, I want to be a monastic. However I've been told to stay where I am. I'm trying to be obedient. The longer I stay put the more deeply unhappy and deeply ingrained into the world and debt I become. I can't afford to travel (current plague not withstanding) and have no monasteries in Canada to run to for brief respite. Please pray for me. I really need it. Lastly, thank you for introducing me to Saint Fillan. I think we'll be good friends!
I understand completely and appreciate the connection with your comments when we pray for others by being with them in their Cross. Sometimes it comes by understanding and have experienced the same, but other times it is an interior knowing of what they are carrying just by being in their presence or near them - truly united in prayer. We are dying and rising each day. When you refer to depths of our hell - I have referred to this as the bowels of our suffering. Thankyou Father, for your love and kindness in giving us Truth. God bless from Canada.....
May Christ bless us all, dear Margaret. Finding something common in the suffering of our brother or sister, finding something of ourselves in them helps enormously in prayer. And yes, you are right - at times, that happens naturally, as we share the experience of their cross; other times, their pain is somehow communicated to us simply by seeing them or being in their proximity. Either way, this is a great gift for us - Christ allows us ti enter the pain of our brother and sister, and two pray for them. It is a gift for us, because this is the way to our own salvation. Please remember me and the Monastery in your prayers.
Thank you for your kindness, dear one - it gives me great courage to know that there is any help, any use, any joy coming from these videos. I am aware they may come across as intense, but the hope behind all of them is that - God willing - someone, somewhere may actually benefit from something in them. May we all be blessed. Please keep me and the Monastery in your prayers.
Thank you so much, Father. This message encouraged me GREATLY as I presently live house bound / bed bound with CFS/ME. That as a monastic, yet unable to do hardly anything, my 1¢ can still contribute. Glory to God in all things!
God bless you and thank you for your 1 cent. Doubtless it has helped me. I too have CFS/ME at the root of which is an autoimmune disease. I found Orthodoxy out of this illness, yet it continues to disable me. I was house/couch bound almost all of last year. This year I am experimenting with medication which is giving me some very limited freedom. Your prayers matter to me.
While I do not have your dx, I was dx with fibromyalgia and was once declared disabled. I was introduced to an infrared sauna. It is also a great material cell and a place to shut-in and pray as you sweat out the toxins.
Beautiful treatise about prayer. Something I really need right now thank you. Monasticism is the salve the world needs right now. Laudáte Jesus Christus! Thankyou, Fr. Seraphim.
Thank you and God bless Father Seraphim. I hear you and I whilst I do feel as if you talk to me (in all of your videos) I realise that we are all one and share our struggles. You do God's work - thank you
I do speak to you in a sense, dear one. To the best of my ability, I try to speak to one person only, because I don't want these videos to sound theoretical and cold. If I don't have someone in mind, if I don't speak to a real human being (in my mind, at least), I struggle to be open and honest, because I cannot open myself before an impersonal group of people. Each of these videos is made for one person, in the hope that there will be others who will find something helpful in them too, since we all share the same struggles. May we all be blessed, dear one.
Father Seraphim, thank you for another penetrating teaching that sat me back and had me reflecting on things I hitherto did not think about. Your words prompt me to ask about an anxiety of mine that I’ve not voiced before: I honestly fear that my prayers are simply too weak to be of any use to anyone (because I don’t concentrate enough, I’m easily distracted in prayer, I’m spiritually weak and undeveloped etc) I pray for others but my prayers are a drop in the ocean of what is needed. I do feel spiritually inept but I pray nonetheless because I figure I won’t get any better if I don’t keep praying but right now, my prayers are probably pathetic.
There is no heavier and painful humility than to see your own passions, your own demons. It's so heavy that it crushes you and if the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't help you, you'll become crazy. And the most terrifying thing is to realize that those ill-thoughts, passions are not the result of the demons' attack, but they spring out from your heart. You are shocked by what is inside yourself, shocked by discovering the other "me", an ugly, sinful and wicked one. You try to analyze yourself, to find an answer, to understand where all these came from, to understand who are you and who is the other one. And , grabbed by the despair, you look inside you or even in the material mirror and try to find out how you became like this, when did you allow the passions to dominate you, where the guards of your mind and heart have been? You, who thought about yourself being a nice person and thinking that you have a good heart , discovered the dark that is inside yourself in which demons and passions dwell, the hell. The only solution is to call Jesus Christ, to talk to Him, to fall on your knees and ask Him to come down in this hell and give you the freedom.
💟☦️. Thank you for this. First time viewer of a video on your channel. I needed to hear this as I am struggling in ways you have described. Lord have mercy on me, a sinner! 💟☦️
Yesterday and today I have read Mark 5, about which you talk, about the man who Jesus cured of a legion of demons. I am praying for my family member who is being attacked by demons.
Thank you Father! I feel your pain when you pour out your message that is a Very important message. I am playing it more than twice to make sure I get it all!!! God Reward You for giving us this important message!!!
Thank you, timley message, these days we are surrounded by plastic people as we used to say in the 70s, no one wants to be real with one another. Streses and trials stack up which make you want to hide away. These words spoke through the blessed Spirit are life and ebcouragement Bless God and His servants.
Thank you Fr for giving me the encouragement to be brave and plunge into my past pain and suffering to use it when praying for others. May God bless you and the monastery.
