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.
