The Hermit Anthony the Silent (III)

Father Antony's Notes on the Pages of the Paterikon

“Out of fear of the cold, I sought a garment, and Jesus Christ with His Mother are my garment of inner warmth. Now I no longer fear the cold.

Out of fear of hunger, I sought food. And my food is meditation on the truth of Christ. Now I no longer fear hunger.

Out of fear of loneliness, I sought a friend, and I found Him. This is Jesus Christ. His Peace, His Love, His Truth, my God.

Out of fear of sin, I sought a path, and I found it. And that path is the one of union with God the Father through His Son Jesus Christ. «I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life».

Out of fear of thirst, I sought to drink. And the true drink is the nectar of Christ's love.

Peace and love. Peace and light”.

* * *

“Be unceasingly sober-minded, with your mind on Christ, and everything that comes your way is blessed and permitted by Him. But you are to humble yourself unceasingly ‒ and thus, whether in falls or in risings, you will have joy and gratitude”.

* * *

“Only when a person thinks about acquaintances who have a different life than his own, does he give the devil permission to bring to his mind the images of those he thought of. Or, rather, he takes on the form of those we have thought of. Therefore, a person must cleanse his mind of all memories, be it of matter, or of human beings, or of any created thing, because the devil attacks a person's mind through what he thinks or through what he has in memory. But we must give Christ a pure mind, that is, cleansed of all known things, so that we may receive Christ purely and send Him pure prayer, unmixed with anything vain. These are the mandatory conditions on the path of the pure Prayer of the heart and mind of man. Only in this way will we be able to overcome these aerial spirits. Thus, the forgetting of all and everything for Christ is an obligation to be able to overcome, with Christ, the spirits of the air”.

* * *

“Temptations come to a person because he is dominated by passions, and temptations are the only things that enlighten him and prompt him to renounce passions and live in piety and purity. The saints of old, being pure, no longer needed temptations, because they died while alive for Christ. Having no more passions, temptations no longer came. If they came for the raising up of the weak, they did so, for a person, overcoming temptation with the power of Christ, He who raised the fallen, will be even more glorified in Christ's Paradise. Thus, we attract temptation through our sinful life, for where there are sins and passions, there is undoubtedly also temptation. Temptations being medicines that heal the soul of passions. Remove temptation and no one will be saved anymore”.

 * * *

“This is the work that was given to Adam for his return to Paradise:

- with the mind, unceasing Prayer with attentiveness to thoughts;

- with the body, free natural movement and natural nourishment, without changing the food from the state in which it is given to you.

By doing these things with humility, you will have gratitude for the chance of union with God and the acquiring of the angelic image, from which Adam fell through disobedience”.

 * * *

“Flee from those who do not share your free way of thinking.

Flee from those who do not practice free movement.

Flee from systems created by man.

Through this flight, you respect their freedom to live, but also God, Who does not interfere at all in their way of life”.

 * * *

“The purity of spirit and body makes those around us without malice”.

 * * *

“Whoever dwells in the world will be filled with strife and malice, and the worst thing is that his mind will be darkened, so that he will not even be able to see his sins and heal them. Therefore, the purpose of this withdrawal from the world is that, by staying in stillness, you may be able to see your sins and, with the help of Christ, heal them one by one, that is, Christ should heal all your wounds”.

 * * *

Regarding these notes left by Father Antonie on the margins of his books, yellowed by smoke and dirtied by his stay in caves, I would like to make just a short comment. It must be emphasized that these notes clearly reveal the niptic-hesychastic character of his spiritual struggle, the fact that his asceticism had this profound understanding of the Philokalic method, namely that for the purification of the heart from passions, the illumination of the mind (Unceasing Prayer), and union with the Light of God, the human mind must return from its wandering, which occurs through the senses in the surrounding environment. The guarding of the inner man was the Father's capital theme. Therefore, even if outwardly he chose such a harsh way of life, rarely encountered today, at an extreme of spiritual living that no one can recommend to another, his path was the authentic path of the Church. Father Antonie, as can be seen from his notes, followed the traditional way of life – hesychia, the only path to our healing and deification.

(to be continued)

Mircea Stanciu

From "Orthodox Family", April 2019

Read also:

Antonie the Silent Hermit (I)

Antonie the Silent Hermit (II)

Antonie the Silent Hermit (IV)