Wilderness Pilgrimage

These pictures are a month overdue, but before any more time slips away I want to post these pictures. Also, these will hopefully be shortly followed by pictures from Italy. My wife and I just returned from our 10th Anniversary trip, and have many pictures to share!

These pictures are from the Muzzleloader Season in Colorado, where my good friend Shelby Wadsworth and I spent 10 days in the West Elk Wilderness at 10,000 feet, hunting the elusive Wapiti!



These 2 pictures are an overview of the meadow and our camp at 10,000 feet. The meadow still had very good grass for the horses to graze and we were at the source of a spring which provide very cold and good water. These pics are of our horses nicely grazing once we figured out the best system for keeping them "hobbled".

This land was incredibly rugged...the most rugged I have hunted. Lack of oxygen, plus steep and rocky, made for exhausting days! This is a picture of Shelby leading the team of horses with our gear on the way in to camp the first night. This rock slide is typical of the West Elk Wilderness terrain, flowing down from the mountain like a river. Rumored to have been caused by an ancient Volcanic eruption....or God just created it that way to keep us guessing. I was just in awe!



We erected a small chapel behind our tent complete with icons and aspen hewn cross. The first day we appropriately prayed the Akathist of Thanksgiving, before beginning the assembly of our camp or preparing to hunt. Shelby and his family recently became catechumens in Delta, Colorado, and it was a special time to be able to share this new "bond" with and old friend!




The views speak for themselves...sorry I got in the way of this second view!!

Podvig

After some troubling news it tends to make me contemplate my own journey of salvation. Too often it is once I have removed myself from the self-righteous attitude of "what were they thinking" or "I can't believe they would do such things", to get down to the reality of...."I have had those thoughts" and "I have contemplated such things".

I have been bombarded recently with troubling news of "falls" and my soul is very heavy.

Today is the feast of St. Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons who was a disciple of St Polycarp of Smyrna who was an disciple of Apostle John the Theologian.

The first quote I heard of St. Irenaeus, I must admit was not from Orthodox sources but from John Eldredge's book, "Wild at Heart". The quote, "The Glory of God is man fully alive", has stuck with me just like Elrond's words to Aragorn, "Put aside the ranger. Become who you were born to be!". (Any "Orthodorks" out there who know the source of the Irenaeus quote please let me know")

This "putting off" of the "Old Man" or the "false self", and living out of that deep calling of who God called us to be is a great mystery, but even a greater reality.

Fr. Hopko quoted a church father(I will try to find out who), who said, "He who see's himself as he truly is has seen a miracle greater than raising the dead. In fact he who see's himself as he truly is has in fact been raised from the dead".

This is the great struggle to which we have all been called, and to which we will all give account. Some much of the journey is in accepting the struggle as the path of salvation.

So badly the world wants Christianity to be a message of health, wealth, and happiness detached from struggle, perserverance, suffering, and even martyrdom.

What do we do with these following quotes if not to accept that the true path of salvation is in fact guaranteed to be filled with pain, suffering, and difficulty.....for our salvation.

27 No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

1 Corinthians 9:27 (New International Version)


" The endurance required from one who climbs a mountain physically is required likewise from those who would ascend the mountain of God."

- Bishop Kallistos Ware


" God demands everything from a man--his mind, his reason, all his actions...Do you wish to be saved when you die? Go and exhaust yourself; go and labour; go, seek and you shall find; watch and knock, and it shall be opened to you."

- The Sayings of the Desert Fathers



Abba Anthony said to Abba Poemen, 'this is the great work of a man: always to take the blame for his own sins before God and to expect temptation to his last breath.'



-4th saying of St. Anthony of Egypt



He also said, 'Whoever has not experienced temptation cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. 'He even added, 'Without temptations no-one can be saved.'



-5th saying of St. Anthony of Egypt

17For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

Corinthians 4:17 (New International Version)



10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Philippians 3:10-11 (New King James Version)

33"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

John 16:33 (New International Version)

I have no credibility to speak because I myself am a sinner, and yet I must speak that which is a groaning of my heart.....KEEP FIGHTING! Do Not Give Up! Do not believe the Lies! Do not fall prey to Delusion! If you fall...get back up. If you fall again....get back up. Yes, even if you fall again....get back up! You must...for your own salvation, and for those around you! Do not think yourself greater than you are, but accept yourself a sinner Loved by God, and keep struggling. Pick up your cross daily and follow! Do not think you are free from temptation, but humble yourself! Do not trust in your own wisdom, but lean on the scriptures, the mind of the Fathers, the very wisdom of God. DO NOT QUIT FIGHTING!!

Live radically in opposition to the world! Pray for discernment that we do not confuse the message of the world with the message of the Kingdom! Do it now....now is the time of salvation!

I say these things having failed myself so many times at what I am crying out for, but we must keep fighting...we can't give up...we must die to this world and reject it lies! We must love those around us so much that we choose this path, so that maybe...just maybe, they will see in us a little glimpse...a small spark...a small light that will open their eyes to the Kingdom of Heaven and give courage and hope.

Lord Jesus Christ, Have Mercy on me a sinner!

The Arena

Our Priest, Fr. Andrew, is very intentional about preparing us for the lenten season. What I may have at first perceived as a little strict, I can now see as essential, and what he is doing is for our salvation.

Among the specific things he encourages during the lenten season is to free some time in your day and pick a book on the spiritual life, or lent, by a Father of the Church.

I have picked, The Arena, by Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov. Fr. Thomas Hopko made a statement in a talk in regards to this book saying, "The Bible, The Arena, and 38 sayings of St. Anthony of Egypt, that's all you need. (This is my recollection of his quote)" His premise was that these 3 "say it all".

Last night we had a great discussion in men's group about spiritual battle and being able to discern the reality of the battle and to fight, versus the ever tempting draw to escape reality...put back on the blinders and find a drug of choice to soothe the pain.

I was reading in the Arena this morning, and I thought this passage appropriate:

If you deny yourself and constantly renounce your own opinions, your own will, your own righteousness, or what amounts to the same thing, the knowledge, understanding, will and righteousness of fallen nature, in order to plant within you the knowledge of God, the will of God, and the righteousness of God taught us in the holy Gospel by God Himself, then fallen nature will open fire within you and declare a savage war against the Gospel and against God. Fallen spirits will come to the help of fallen nature.

Do not fall into despondency on this account. By your firmness in the struggle show the tenacity of your purpose and the stability of your free-will. When thrown down, get up. When duped and disarmed, re-arm yourself afresh. When defeated, again rush to the fight. It is extremely good for you to see within yourself both your own fall and the fall of the whole of mankind. It is essential for you to recognize and study this fall in your own experience, in your heart and mind. It is essential for you to see the infirmity of your knowledge and intellect, and the weakness of your will.

The vision of one's fall is a spiritual vision. The vision of one's infirmity and weakness is a spiritual vision. In this matter the spectator is the mind. The vision is obtained by grace, which is planted in us by baptism. By the action of grace the blindness of the mind is dispelled, and it begins to see clearly in the arena of its struggle what hitherto it has not seen through being outside this arena. It discovers the existence of what it did not even suspect.

Archimandrite Sophrony

I honestly cannot remember where I stumbled across this quote, however I do know Archimandrite Sophrony, is one of my Parish Priest's favorites. This is very hard stuff, but so crucial.

I know the hardness of heart from negative thoughts of others. Lord grant mercy that I might see your "beloved".

"Everything that you gain in your inner battles will be reflected in your life in God. Struggle against every passion which arouses in you critical thoughts about others. Do not accept what the enemy suggests to you against someone who is unjust towards you. Whether you are alone in your room or in company, every critical thought, every negative inner movement, create a crack in your spiritual fortress and in that of your community. No thought is born or passes without consequence. With good thoughts, you will be able to see in every person that you meet someone very beloved. With negative thoughts, on the contrary, your facial expression and your psychological energies will spoil your relationships and affect the environment around you. When grace is with us, we do not see the defects of others; we only see the sufferings and the love of our brethren."

Archimandrite Sophrony