"My Joy!": What does Saint Seraphim teach us with his life?
Our personal hell is in the mind, which deceives us. Lessons from the Saint of Sarov on how to conquer your mind and find joy in Christ.
Why does my heart respond with such love and tenderness to the memory of St. Seraphim of Sarov? The reason, of course, is not that I have read something about him. This feeling comes not from the mind but from the heart. We are all mysteriously connected in God with one another. And the greater the heart of the saint, the more love he radiates to those who can feel it.
St. Seraphim managed to embody what we only dream of: to become free from the world.
He was soft inside for God and firm outside against temptations. His only joy was Christ. And he shared this joy with everyone and continues to share it now. That is why we all hear his sweet voice: "My Joy!" – and feel that this is exactly the joy our suffering hearts are seeking.
Lose your "self" to gain the spirit
The main sign of a believing soul is its detachment from everything worldly. The personality of Elder Seraphim speaks to me more not through reading his life, but through an inner listening to his holy name. In this silent listening, Divine grace reveals to us the mystery of the spirit immersed in the bliss of the Kingdom of God. One can read and think a lot, but "thinking" has never saved anyone. What saves us is the renunciation of selfishness with complete trust in God. He who loses his "self" in God finds his spirit in Him.
Elder Seraphim left the world and found love because it does not live in this world. He left his mind and found the truth. He left words and in silence found Christ.
Our personal hell is in the mind that constantly deceives us.
Envy, fear, anger, lust – all these are the sticky tape that attaches us to the world. Dispassion detaches us from it. And love, humility, and repentance attach us to the heavenly world.
The biggest mountain is ourselves
What are we waiting for to be saved? Illness, war, or a push from God? We cannot decide to give up the feeling of possessing what does not belong to us but to Him. We hope to live a little longer, and maybe it will pass. A missile will fly by, a disease won't grab us by the throat, death will forget our address…
The biggest mountain we need to move with the power of faith is ourselves.
The hardest thing is to renounce oneself for Christ.
St. Seraphim could. But what about us?
What will we find if we renounce our "self"? Perhaps, the awareness that the whole world, the entire Universe is filled with Christ? That the world is held not by the force of gravity but by love and joy? When St. Seraphim saw this, his heart was filled with compassion for the perishing creature, and he began to pray for the whole world. We do not need proofs of God's existence, we need grace. War, life, health, body, thoughts – all these come and go. But our spirit remains unchanged, like God, in whose image it is created.
How to conquer the mind and find peace
To give everything to God without reserve means to enter the vestibule of paradise. No thought can comprehend God. He does not need to be sought because there is no place where He is not. Illnesses and sorrows are what bring us back to ourselves. Elder Seraphim knew God because he could calm his mind and open his heart to Him. Then he saw that the thrones of God are not Cherubim and Seraphim, but humble and meek hearts.
Having rid himself of all anxieties, he was able to give all his burdens to Christ, and He bore them. By giving Him his temporary life, Father Seraphim received eternal life. What prevents us?
One can pray a lot and about many things. Or one can simply say: "Thy will be done, O God, let it be as You want, not as I want". And find peace in that. Every thing is our thought about it. We have surrounded ourselves with thoughts-things and tremble, fearing to lose them. By letting thoughts about things go, we let things go too. This is how freedom is found.
What we sow, we will reap. That is why St. Seraphim said: "Acquire a peaceful spirit, and thousands around you will be saved". The more inner peace, the more grace enters the heart.
In the silence of his spirit, the elder saw Christ.
He heard with his spirit how the stars call out to people: "Return to the Heavenly Father," but people live with their heads down, not understanding why they are given this short life.
Suffering is brought to us by attachment to the world, to the body, to everything we consider our own. But the truth is that our spirit does not belong to the world. It belongs to the free God and is therefore free. Having no slightest attachment, Elder Seraphim gave all the strength of his soul to God and attained the greatest bliss. This is the sea of love into which his spirit was immersed.
Feeling this love, we want to partake in it so much. And the elder himself flies towards us, like a bright seagull from the infinite ocean of Divine Love, calling us into this wonderful light.
