“A relationship with a spiritual father takes sacrifice. I am not talking in images or metaphors here – I mean real, emotional and bodily sacrifices. The more valuable the relationship, the greater the spiritual fight against it and the greater the sacrifices one needs to make to preserve the relationship, help it grow and gather its fruit. It involves pain, effort and a real fight.
Remember that saying from the Desert Fathers? ‘Why are there no spiritual fathers anymore? Because there are no spiritual sons.’ Having or not a spiritual father is largely up to us, because Christ can turn a stone into a spiritual father if He sees a real spiritual child in need. This is something we – the spiritual sons and daughters – are responsible for.
The beginning belongs to us. And it all begins and grows on sacrifice – real, emotional and bodily sacrifice.
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I was huffing and puffing as I recorded this one, going down a wooden path on Athos to meet one of the fathers living alone in the forest. Please forgive the extra noise – it is proof that I take you with me everywhere, and that you are always in my heart and in my prayer. ….”
Fr. Seraphim Aldea narrates the importance of struggle in the relationship with a spiritual father, through his own physical journey from his monastery to the Holy Mountain.
https://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/monkseyes/the_sacrifice_to_get_a_spiritual_father#38889
*Specially dedicated to my hermit Gerondas and my Spiritual Father thousands of miles apart, but always so close each other and me!
*Specially dedicated to my fellow travellers in search of a spiritual father. To have a good spiritual father in your life is truly a gift from God!
ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN FAITH AND LIFE 