{"id":767,"date":"2013-11-28T21:31:47","date_gmt":"2013-11-28T21:31:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orthodoxviews.wordpress.com\/?p=2668"},"modified":"2015-06-30T16:06:25","modified_gmt":"2015-06-30T16:06:25","slug":"fr-arsenie-boca-on-the-beginners-spiritual-shortcomings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/?p=767","title":{"rendered":"Fr Arsenie Boca: On the Beginners\u2019 Spiritual Shortcomings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reproduced from http:\/\/valahia.wordpress.com\/2011\/09\/30\/on-the-beginners\u2019-spiritual-shortcomings\/<\/a>
\nExcerpt from C\u0102RAREA \u00ceMP\u0102R\u0102TIEI \u2013\u201dThe Way to the Kingdom\u201d \u2013 by Fr. Arsenie BOCA (+15\/28 Nov 1989)<\/p>\n

Propensity for Haughtiness<\/h3>\n

They are more readily inclined to give lessons, rather than to receive them. They condemn within their heart those who do not understand faith as they do and they manifest that condemnation \u2013at first, secretly held in their hearts \u2013through their words \u2013 and that is when you feel like you hear the Pharisee who thought he was worshipping God when he was vaunting himself for his own deeds, while despising the tax-payer. That sort of attitude is to please the devil. All of these things drive one\u2019s soul to pride and haughtiness. They are of no use whatsoever to the beginners (on the contrary, they change whatever else they have good in them, into sins), as they cease bearing with one another and if anyone comes up to belittle their fellowman, that pleases them. They will see the straw in their brother\u2019s eye yet will fail to notice the beam in their own eye; they will make a big deal out of the other\u2019s minor deeds and will efface their own \u2013 greater \u2013 faults.<\/p>\n

They don\u2019t like confessor Fathers who do not praise them for their actions and don\u2019t appreciate their good behaviour \u2013because such spiritual sons\u2019 sole pursuit is to be praised and commended in everything they do.<\/p>\n

They even try to convince others that they have an accomplished spirit and harbor true piety.<\/p>\n

They even go as far as not confess their sins anymore, lest they should downplay themselves in the process and they avoid mentioning their mistakes in order to render them lighter. They will avoid by all means praising others, but they do not like not being praised by others. Sometimes they will go as far as to ask others to praise them. Beginners very seldom escape such weaknesses.<\/p>\n

Propensity for Spiritual Stinginess<\/h3>\n

They complain whenever they don\u2019t receive the comfort they expected from their spiritual Fathers or their fellowman. They always look to filling up their minds with spiritual advice and teachings. They dedicate all their time to reading and have no more of it left for the spiritual work, which should be their first and foremost duty.<\/p>\n

Propensity for Anger<\/h3>\n

They are always in a bad mood.<\/p>\n

They do their duty sloppily.<\/p>\n

They get upset for the slightest thing and end up being unbearable to the ones around them.<\/p>\n

They blame others.<\/p>\n

They badmouth others.<\/p>\n

They give moral lectures in a bitter and high voice, as if they were the only ones who would have access to being virtuous.<\/p>\n

Propensity for Spiritual Greed<\/h3>\n

They exhaust themselves carrying out prayer rules.<\/p>\n

They apply themselves to fasting without limits.<\/p>\n

They keep away from people who would invite them to take bodily food.<\/p>\n

They lack discernment.<\/p>\n

They work against the commandments.<\/p>\n

They want bodily canons (rules) rather than mind-based canons.<\/p>\n

They don\u2019t listen to their spiritual Fathers.<\/p>\n

They take pride in making various efforts without discernment.<\/p>\n

Such spiritual \u201csons\u201d are encouraged by the devil to behave this way.<\/p>\n

They always look for pulling out counsels that suit them, from their spiritual Fathers.<\/p>\n

In case one rejects their ideas, they sulk like children.<\/p>\n

Whatever they do, they do superficially, because they are convinced that they do nothing good before God, whenever He doesn\u2019t work [in their life] as they would like Him to.<\/p>\n

They take the Eucharist many times, without their spiritual Father\u2019s approval.<\/p>\n

Propensity for Envy and Worldliness<\/h3>\n

Their fellowman\u2019s spiritual wellness always gets into their eyes.<\/p>\n

They suffer when they hear someone else being praised.<\/p>\n

Another person\u2019s virtue makes them sad and if given the chance, they will belittle and persecute it, in order to break off all praise for that person.<\/p>\n

They want to be the first in everything.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reproduced from http:\/\/valahia.wordpress.com\/2011\/09\/30\/on-the-beginners\u2019-spiritual-shortcomings\/ Excerpt from C\u0102RAREA \u00ceMP\u0102R\u0102TIEI \u2013\u201dThe Way to the Kingdom\u201d \u2013 by Fr. Arsenie BOCA (+15\/28 Nov 1989) Propensity for Haughtiness They are more readily inclined to give lessons, rather than to receive them. They condemn within their heart those who do not understand faith as they do and they manifest that condemnation […]<\/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-767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767","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=767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}