Fr. Spyridon is a traditional Orthodox priest who always brings words of wisdom from the Holy Fathers. His speech is like a breeze of sanity and gravity in a world of madness and levity.
Fr. Spyridon Bailey is a priest of the Diocese of Great Britain and Western Europe of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, serving in England and Ireland, famous for his powerful sermons & messages, being the author of the best-seller "Orthodoxy and the Kingdom of Satan".
TRANSCRIPTION:
Fr. Spyridon Bailey: Saint Ephraim reminds us that just like a small rudder can guide a ship anywhere it wishes, so too the tongue may lead the soul to good or to evil. When we speak slander of other people, judgment on other people, then we are choosing evil. We're allowing the rudder of the tongue to guide our heart and soul to evil. To judge other people is an act of ego and pride. It places us above them. It judges them. We only do this when we overlook the sins in our own hearts.
One of the Desert Fathers said, some men are extremely careful about the food they take in, they're extremely health conscious. They watch every morsel that they swallow up. And yet they think nothing of the words that they speak. The Fathers say such men are negligent because they will not control the anger in their hearts or the lust in their flesh. If we are to have a pure heart, we must guard every word that comes to our minds.
Say Moschos was asked by a brother, "why do I always sit in judgment of my neighbor?" The Saint said to him, "you do so because you don't yet know yourself. He who knows himself and knows the depths of his own sin can never see sin and his neighbor".
Elder Ephraim says that force of will in the spiritual life is like a great wall protecting the garden, the garden of the soul. Without this force of will, effort in the spiritual life, with negligence, then the river will flow into the garden and destroy everything the garden has worked for.
Saint Theophan the Recluse teaches us that there will be a judgment full of shame and fear, but he says to us, "rush now to confession, feel that shame and fear now in this life, that God may forgive us on the day of judgement".
The Fathers remind us that it is in this life that we have the time to repent. This time that we are given is precious. We may exercise our free will and choose repentance. For at death, this opportunity, this choice will be removed from us and we will face judgment. Let us use this precious time to repent. To seek forgiveness of our sins, that we may face judgment and enter into God's kingdom.
Saint Theophan the Recluse encourages us every night, when we lie down to sleep, to call to mind the sins we've committed, not just that day, but throughout our life, but specifically to repent, to confess our sins before we sleep for all that we've done that day. For Saint Theophan says we should treat lying down to sleep as though we were departing this world. We must do so with a clear conscience, with everything confessed to God.
St. John Climacus says to us, when we die at our judgment, we will not be asked by God to account for why we haven't worked miracles while we haven't performed healings while we haven't raised the dead, but we will be called to account for why we haven't mourned continuously for our sins.