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    Post details: An Outline of the Orthodox World View of St. John of Kronstadt

    12/10/05

    An Outline of the Orthodox World View of St. John of Kronstadt

    Fr. John teaches an entirely different idea:

    God, Father of the Word, is also our benevolent and loving Father. “When saying ‘The Lord’s Prayer’, we must believe and re- member that the Father in heaven, never forgets and will not for- get us, for what earthly father forgets or does not care for his children? Remember that our Heavenly Father constantly surrounds us with love and care, and not in vain is He called your Father. Father this is not a name without meaning and force, but a name with great significance and power’. (1, 198). “Should we not recognize Him all the more benevolent, because He gave … the greatest gift of his benevolence, wisdom and omnipotence by this is meant freedom, …, not being shaken by the ingratitude of those who received the gift, in order that his goodness could shine brighter than the sun before everyone? And has He not shown by His deed His boundless love, and unlimited wisdom by bestowing upon us freedom, when, after our fall into sinfulness, and our withdrawal from Him, and, spiritual ruin, He sent into the world His Son, the Only-begotten One, in and the heart of man with the earth” (11, 138). “One must believe that as the shadow follows the body, action so follows the word, as with the Lord, word and action are inseparable; for He speaks and it is; He orders and it is done … The trouble is that we are of little faith, and separate words from deeds, as body from soul, as form from contents, as shadow from body” (1, 187).

    It is evident that in the majority of expressed thoughts, Fr. John speaks about prayer, about the power of prayerful words spoken with faith.

    But in action not every word retains its power. Father John observes: “The word on the lips of some is spirit and life, and on the lips of others, dead alphabet (for example during prayer or sermon)” (11, 256). Finally, the word can be a negative force. “With the devil, who fell away from God, there remained only the shadow of a thought and word without truth, without the essence of a deed, a lie, a shadow; and as the true word being the image of God-the-Word, and proceeding from Him, is Life, so a false word from the devil, being his image, is death; a lie is inevitable death, for, naturally, that brings death to the soul, which itself had fallen from life into death” (1, 207).

    The Second Person of the Holy Trinity is also called Hypostatic, i. e. Personal Wisdom of God. Why do we believe that Wisdom of God has a Personal attribute? Father John answers: “How could God be without Wisdom, and not be Personal, how could God not be the Creator, how could He be without His own living self-existent Wisdom? Glance upon all in this world, how wonderful it all is! … Imagine: how God, having created innumerable reasonable. personal, wise living creatures, could not Himself generate from within Himself Personal Wisdom? Is this wise? Is this possible? Is this in conformity with the perfections of God? In God there must be the Hypostatic Wisdom, or the Hypostatic Word of the Father as equally as the Living Spirit, Which proceeds from the Father, and rests in the Son” (1, 57), but in God, as in Life Itself, It is a Personal Spirit, not divided.

    The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Holy Trinity. ‘Within you, there is the breath of substance, impersonal in nature, but simple, that gives Life to everything” (1, 57). “You will ask further: Why is the third Person called Spirit, and why He—a separate Person, when God is without this Spirit? I answer: The Holy Spirit is called Spirit in relation to creatures: the Lord breathed with His Hypostatic Spirit, and there appeared, by the power of His Life Giving Spirit, an innumerable host of spirits: In the power of His Spirit lies their strength; He breathed with His Spirit into man’s body: and man became a living soul, and from this Breath, until now, people are born, and will be born until the end according td the commandment: increase and and multiply. If the Lord created by His Spirit so many personal separate beings, then why is it impossible to be a Person, or a personal creative Being for the Holy Spirit Himself. If there are countless numbers of created personal spirits, then is God Himself to remain without Spirit, as without His Independent, Hypostatic Personality?” … (1, 56). “The Holy Spirit, like air, is everywhere and penetrates all” (11, 60). “The Lord Jesus Christ Himself likens the Holy Spirit in His action to the substance water (John 7, 38-39), air, or wind (Io. 3, 8)” (1, 261). “As the air in the room is identical with the outer air, and comes from it, as it necessarily presupposes the air spread out everywhere, so in like manner, our soul, the breath of the Spirit of God, presupposes the existence of the omnipresent, and the transcendent Spirit of God” (11, 243). “The Spirit is and gives life” (John 6, 63). The life in creatures belongs to God, from the time of their creation, and to God the Son, the creation bringing them from non-existence, to existence … The Holy Spirit creates us in the womb of our mother; our spiritual wealth belongs to the Holy Spirit” (1, 312).

    Our soul lives by the Holy Spirit, through Him we pray, through Him we become purified, through Him we save ourselves. “As breath is necessary for the body, and without breathing man cannot live, so without the Breath of the Holy Spirit, the soul cannot live the true life. What the air is for the body, that the Holy Spirit is for the soul. Air is likened to the Spirit of God. The Spirit breathes wherever It wishes” (1, 6). “He, who prays whole-heartedly, draws unto himself the Holy Spirit, and prays by the Holy Spirit” (11, 196). “Prayer is the breath of the soul, as air is the breath of the natural body. We breathe by the Holy Spirit. You cannot say a single word of prayer from your heart without the Holy Spirit” (11, 221).

    “As in a conversation with people, the sound-conveying medium between our words and the words of another is air, which is everywhere and fills all space, and through air the words reach he ear of another, and without air it would be impossible to speak and hear: so in a spiritual manner, in communication with spiritual beings the mediator is the Holy Spirit, the omnipresent and transcendent” (11, 332).

    “We are filled with One Spirit: Do you see how the Holy Spirit surrounds us like water and air on all sides” (11, 339).

    “For a long time I did not know with full clarity how necessary was the strengthening of our soul with the Holy Spirit. And now the Most Merciful One gave me the opportunity to find out how indispensable it is. Yes, it is necessary every minute, as is breathing, necessary at prayer, and throughout life. It is necessary that our heart rest on a rock. And that rock is the Holy Spirit” (1, 90-91).

    All upright people are filled by the One Divine Spirit, similarly as is a sponge saturated with water. The comforting Holy Spirit, filling the universe, penetrates through all the believing, humble, good, and simple souls of men, and living in them, revives and strengthens them; He becomes all for them: light, power, peace, joy, success in deeds, especially in an upright life, He is all goodness” (1, 162-163).

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