Dear Barry,<\/p>\n
May the blessing of our Lord be with you!<\/p>\n
First of all\u2014yes, you are welcome to come and visit with Dan on June 5-7, or whenever you can make it. I trust you know from Dan that we have \u201cprimitive\u201d accommodations.<\/p>\n
I will be glad to talk with you about confession. However, you should be encouraged to know that according to Orthodox Church rules there is no sin whatever that can prevent a man from becoming a monk\u2014since the monastic state is supposed to be specifically one of repentance. Priesthood, of course, is something different, but even there, it is possible for a monk to be ordained priest after being divorced in the world and repenting his sins. But this is something you definitely should not think about for some time after becoming Orthodox\u2014it will only cause you unnecessary temptations. God will show you what is right for you when the time comes.<\/p>\n
Dan is right\u2014don\u2019t be too taken up by \u201cfantasies.\u201d But don\u2019t entirely squash them, either\u2014 without dreams, we can\u2019t live! May God grant your Ruben the grace to be baptized and find his place to be a fruitful Orthodox Christian. It is true, though, that our modern parishes would present a problem for him. Here in the monastery we are largely free of such problems; in fact, at various times we\u2019ve had quite a collection of \u201cmisfits\u201d staying here. God will provide the answer for Ruben also.<\/p>\n
I hope you will be able to force yourself to finish your courses\u2014you will be surprised how later some of the things which now seem so useless will turn out to have a use after all (even Kant and Skinner!).<\/p>\n
May God grant you to continue with such freshness towards Orthodoxy as you felt when reading St. Symeon\u2019s Homiliesl Be aware, however, that this will be possible only with sufferings; everything you need to deepen your faith will come with suffering\u2014if you accept it with humility and submission to God\u2019s will. It is not too difficult to become \u201cexalted\u201d by the richness and depth of our Orthodox Faith; but to temper this exaltation with humility and sobriety (which come through the right acceptance of sufferings) is not an easy thing. In so many of our Orthodox people today (especially converts) one can see a frightful thing: much talk about exalted truths and experiences of true Orthodoxy, but mixed with pride and a sense of one\u2019s own importance for being \u201cin\u201d on something which most people don\u2019t see (from this comes also the criticism against which you\u2019ve already been warned). May God keep your heart soft and filled with love for Christ and your fellow man. If you will be able to have a spiritual father with whom you can confide the feelings of your heart, and can trust his judgment, all this will be easier for you\u2014but if it\u2019s pleasing to God for you to have such a spiritual father, it will come \u201cnaturally,\u201d as all things do in spiritual life\u2014with time, patience, suffering, and coming better to know yourself.<\/p>\n
With love in Christ,
\nUnworthy Hieromonk Seraphim<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Barry, May the blessing of our Lord be with you! First of all\u2014yes, you are welcome to come and visit with Dan on June 5-7, or whenever you can make it. I trust you know from Dan that we have \u201cprimitive\u201d accommodations. I will be glad to talk with you about confession. However, you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1445\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}