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Topic of the Week: Are We Vessels of the Holy Spirit, or Filled With Worldly Thinking?

“…faith is not renounced overnight. Renunciation can happen bit by bit every day, and then a straw will be enough to break a camel’s back.

Sometimes it is enough to remain silent so as not to stand out and be “like everyone else”, finding convincing excuses for your cowardice—and this will be a small step away from faith.

It may be a millimeter long and barely perceptible step, but “a Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with a Single Step”, as the Chinese say.

It’s very important for a Christian to discern in time the moment when the soul makes a choice….“

Excerpted from “You don’t exist, you’re just a vessel” / OrthoChristian.Com

 

Adult/Family:

“…From the first seconds of our conversation, the psychiatrist seemed extremely odd to me…. I struggled to figure out whether he was a healthy person who was testing me in this way or a sick person in search of a like-minded man. I needed a certificate, so I just smiled sweetly and nodded, occasionally making minor remarks. Our dialogue was amusing in the Chekhovian style, but I will only retell its “finale”.

“You shouldn’t be sure of anything,” the psychiatrist said. “The world is changing, you are changing, and your body is undergoing internal changes…. In fact, you are nothing, Marina. Your personality doesn’t exist…” he went on.

Then some “safety fuse” clicked inside me, and without hesitation I blurted out:

“I’m Orthodox, and I have a… soul….”

(“Ending up in a mental hospital now would be the most absurd suffering for the faith in history. Nobody asked you! Why are you interfering?” the thought flashed through my head).

“This delusion will pass soon,” the psychiatrist came to his senses.

“I don’t think so.” I decided there was nothing more to lose. “What do you believe in? Do you believe God exists?”

“I don’t know, maybe… but it’s very personal!”

“Sorry…”

We sat in silence for a while, looking at each other.

“Go this way, please!” The psychiatrist stood up and went towards the door.

I dragged myself after him, imagining how I would call my family from a mental hospital and explain how I got there. The license was already of little interest. We reached the window where a young nurse was writing out certificates.

“The young lady is fine!” my doctor said and retreated, winking at me.

At last I received my paper and proceeded to take the license with my…. soul sunk into my boots.”

Excerpted from “You don’t exist, you’re just a vessel” / OrthoChristian.Com

 

Preschool/Elementary:

“There was once a wealthy, but miserly man, who was gifted a very expensive bottle of fine French wine. The next evening he was invited to a dinner party in the home of a duchess. He decided that since he needed to take something to present as a gift for the dinner table he would take that expensive bottle of wine.

But then the more he thought about it, he decided that he wanted to try the wine first. So he took a corkscrew, opened the bottle of wine, poured a little of it into a glass, and he loved it. So he had a little more, and found he loved it even more, and decided that this was too good a wine to “waste” on that dinner party.

So he poured it into an empty bottle of inexpensive wine while pouring the inexpensive wine into the now empty bottle of the expensive French wine, and then took it to the dinner party. Now of course it was noted by the butler that the bottle had already been opened, and he thought that was rather peculiar. But he allowed the wine to be brought to the table.

When the grand duchess had a little poured in her glass and toasted everyone, she tasted one of the worst wines she had ever tasted. And her grimace carried with it a look telling everyone that they probably didn’t want to try the wine, and they didn’t.

There’s a comparison here to who we are. We are the vessels, and we are filled with the Holy Spirit upon our baptism. Then we progress on and we essentially waste what the Holy Spirit has filled our vessel with. Then we start thinking about temptations that come our way, and even though we have the grace that’s within us to resist the temptations, we give in and surrender to them.

We judge other people, we lose our temper, we take God’s name in vain, we use foul words, we cheat on our income tax, we short-change people when we can, we don’t leave much of a tip for the waitress who’s working very hard and has a family to support. We do all of these things that are contrary to what it means to be a Christian.

Essentially every time we make an infraction against God and His commandments and the grace that dwells within us, we are pouring the expensive wine out of the vessel. And, since the vessel cannot remain empty, who comes along and starts to fill this vessel? The demons come and fill it, and the original contents of this vessel, the Holy Spirit, is displaced by them. And thus we waste God’s grace by the way we live, as if we are not a Christian and never were.

We need to think about this, and with God’s help we need to reform, and take our Christian life seriously, behaving like a Christian.

Can you imagine what it would be like to see that lovely, pious old woman that you see in church every Sunday who lights candles and greets everyone with a kiss suddenly losing her temper in the grocery store and cussing someone out, using foul words? It would impact you in a terrible way. And yet each and every one of us at some point does the same thing, scandalizing other people. But most of all we turn our back on God at that moment.

 

We need to pay attention to what we allow to be placed into our vessel.”

 

Reprinted from The Vessel – The Morning Offering (abbottryphon.com)

Middle School:

The author was an actor before becoming Orthodox. Read Story 3 about what happened during a first reading at a rehearsal.

“Acting is not the best occupation for a Christian. But what should you do if you have become a churchgoer at a mature age, having worked as an actor all your life, and have no idea how to do anything else? Try to combine one and the other. Moreover, history knows mimes who became martyrs for their faith: Sts. Porphyrius, Gelasius and Ardalion… You can be saved anywhere….”

What were the consequences for the author speaking out negatively about the word usage in the play? Why did the actor speak out anyway even though he knew what would happen? What had the monks told him about swearing? Even though the author lost his part in that play and the director would never again hire him, what good came out of what he did? The author is still trying to decide if there was anything he could have done differently ‘to get out of the situation in a different way.’ Do you think there was? What if you were in a situation where you would be deprived of something you really wanted for speaking up for your faith? Would you compromise your faith?

High School:

The author was applying for her dream job. Her acquaintance gave her some advice on getting the job:

• “You see, our specialists examine the pages on social media of each candidate applying for a job. And your ‘Religion’ column says ‘Orthodox Christian.’ Remove it from there! No one is forcing you to stop going to church. Just don’t tell everyone about it—it’s personal. Remove it and you’ll be invited for an interview.”

What do you think she should do? Read Story 2  to see what she did and what happened.

In a few short years from now you will be looking for your own ‘dream job.’ What will you be willing to do in order to get that job? What will you be willing to do in order to keep that job? We are not just Orthodox while we are in church for a few hours every week. We either live Orthodoxy in every aspect of our lives without making justifications, or we will wind up renouncing our faith – something that has ramifications for eternity.

Have you already had any encounters where you were given a choice to do something that went against your Orthodox faith or made you deny your faith? What decision did you make? Do you wish you had behaved differently? What will you do next time?

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