"The Patristic teaching on pain of heart," Fr. Seraphim wrote, "is one of the most important teaching for our days when 'head-knowledge' is so over-emphasized at the expense of the proper development of emotional and spiritual life. . . . The lack of this essential experience is what above all is responsible for the dilettantism, the triviality, the want of seriousness in the ordinary study of the Holy Fathers today; without it , one cannot apply the teachings of the Holy Fathers to one's own life. One may attain to the very highest level of understanding with the mind of the teaching of the Holy Fathers, may have 'at one's fingertips' quotes from the Holy Fathers on every conceivable subject, may have 'spiritual experiences' which seem to be those described in the Patristic books, may even know perfectly all the pitfalls into which it is possible to fall in spiritual life--and still, without pain of heart, one can be a barren fig tree, a boring 'know-it-all' who is always 'correct,' or an adept in all the present-day 'charismatic' experiences, who does not know and cannot convey the true spirit of the Holy Fathers."
--Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works, p. 472
Posted by Clifton at March 5, 2004 06:53 PM | TrackBack