Westernization of the orthodox East

ΤΗΕ ROLE OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH

previous:https://hristospanagia3.blogspot.com/2018/10/by-taking-healing-method-preserved-and.html

Westernization of the orthodox East

Why was Hesychasm and its practitioners persecuted? Because the places it flourished (Russia, Greece, and Romanity in general) started to gradually undergo a cultural westernization. It all started in Russia after the reformation by the so-called Great Peter (in fact, he was no great at all!).

Well, this “Great” Peter, as you may already be aware of, committed a big crime: he westernized Russia! He opened all doors and windows (figure of speech) of our Holy Russia and allowed for the entire heresy of Papism along with its relative, the distorting culture of the West, to come in and alter everything (more or less, the same happened here in Greece).

By taking the healing method preserved and applied in the monasteries and introducing it in our own homes and souls and apply it in our very lives, we get completely cured, both spiritually and physically.

ΤΗΕ ROLE OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH

previous:https://hristospanagia3.blogspot.com/2018/10/alteration-of-orthodox-tradition.html

By taking the healing method preserved and applied in the monasteries and introducing it in our own homes and souls and apply it in our very lives, we get completely cured, both spiritually and physically.

True psychotherapy, today, is unfortunately preserved and observed (almost exclusively and) only in orthodox monasteries. It may seem hard for many to believe this, but in the Byzantine times, this therapy was implemented also by the laity! Yes, indeed! Many lay people out there were practitioners of Hesychasm, they lived by and acted according to this “medical” treatment. They were, in fact, “hesychasts in the world”. If you read, for example, St. Ephraim the Syrian (4^th century A.D.), you will find him saying that people in the cities were more ascetic than the ones living in the monasteries. So, much to our surprise, lay people were more monastic than monastics!

Alteration of the orthodox tradition – persecution of its acting body (the monastics)-Hesychasm

ΤΗΕ ROLE OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH

previous:https://hristospanagia3.blogspot.com/2018/10/orthodoxy-is-medical-science-curing-man.html

Alteration of the orthodox tradition – persecution of its acting body (the monastics)

Back to our story again.

Well, our imaginary researcher has started to realize when this tradition began in time, what its roots are, for how many centuries and where it was applied successfully. In his quest for the truth, he discovers why this tradition no longer exists among the majority of orthodox believers today, and why Orthodoxy went through such an alteration.

It was because Hesychasm and its best legitimate ambassador, the traditional monastics, were both brutally persecuted and expelled from our society!

Hesychasm

When someone hears the word Hesychasm, their mind goes automatically to the monks and nuns of Orthodoxy, to the hermits who live in silence and peace. However, it is not only that.

Hesychasm, as we mentioned earlier and, unfortunately, many people have a wrong impression about it, is the healing method of Orthodoxy. We are all supposed to apply Hesychasm.