St. Ephrem of Syria, Deacon and Doctor of the Church

The feast of St. Ephrem of Syria is celebrated every June 9. He is often called the "Harp of the Holy Spirit" because of his many composed hymns. To know his biography, visit this link.

St. Nilos of Soza and How to Fight Evil Suggestions

Introduction

This blog post is based on, "In Search of True wisdom: Visits to Eastern Spiritual Fathers", by Sergius Bolshakoff and M. Basil Pennington, OSCO. The book is filled with the spiritual wisdom of the Eastern Church Fathers - many of whom are from the Greek and Russian Orthodox traditions.

One method which these Eastern Church Fathers teach is the Jesus Prayer (a prayer which is based on Scripture, specifically found in the gospel passage on the healing Blind Bartimaeus). St. Nilos of Soza, one of the Eastern Church Fathers, teaches how the practice of the Jesus Prayer can be combined with his teaching on fighting evil suggestions (how to distinguish good thoughts from dangerous ones).

prilog

St. Nilos of Soza teaches that in one's spiritual life, an image or idea may appear in one's mind and heart. This is prilog. The idea or image can be a thought suggested by the devil, who tempts us to do one thing or another.

connection

Connection is the next stage. In this stage, one begins to discuss with the appearing thought or image. If one does not resist prilog, and begin to dialogue with the sinful suggestion or idea, a connection is made.

fusion

St. Nilos calls the third stage fusion. After a connection with the sinful image or suggestion, the person may finally decide to do what the thought urges him to do. This is called fusion. And fusion is of two types. The second type of fusion is when the person, who has decided to follow the devilish suggestion, but does not have the opportunity to act on the suggestion, will really truly act out the suggestion when the opportunity presents itself.

imprisonment

Imprisonment is the next stage of fusion. This stage has two degrees also - like fusion. The first degree is when the person is really overpowered by the devilish suggestion. In this first degree stage of imprisonment, through divine assistance, the person can still turn away from the devilish idea and suggestion, and return to his regular business of prayer and good works. The second degree of imprisonment is when the person's mind is overwhelmed as by a tempest or storm. The person then finds it very difficult and impossible to return to his former quiet and peace.

Degree of sinfulness

The degree of sinfulness is measured by the way the person is overpowered by the evil idea or suggestion. The person already becomes a slave of the devilish suggestion. He is led to, as an example, to a drinking spree, an act of fornication or adultery, an act of stealing, or any act that makes a person commit a serious or mortal sin that will weaken or destroy his relationship with God.

How to fight evil suggestions

The best method to fight an evil suggestion from the devil, is to cut off the very first prilog and to practice unceasing prayer. At the first sign of prilog, the person must reject it at once, and not enter into dialogue with it. The prilog distracts us from our regular way of prayer and good works. We must reject the prilog and look into the depths of our heart and say the Jesus Prayer:

"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."

One wise advice from the Eastern Spiritual Fathers is to be spiritually vigilant and alert. When an idea, thought, word, or image presents itself to us, even if it appears to be a good one, yet if we feel some uncertainty and hesitation about it, we must reject the prilog at once. The key to overcome this initial temptation is not to lose courage and persevere in the Jesus Prayer. If the temptation persists, we are to continue not to take notice of it, and pray and call on the Lord Jesus. If we feel ourselves weakening or in despair, we must still call on the Lord Jesus, asking for His help and never giving up prayer. If we are firm in our prayer and our calling on the Lord, the temptation will vanish. So the solution to fight evil suggestions is to practice vigilance and to pray constantly.

Knowing the Historical Jesus

Images of Jesus

Popular images of Jesus are often related to devotions - like the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Divine Mercy, the Infant Jesus of Prague, and the Black Nazarene. There are also popular images of Jesus like the image of Jesus the Good Shepherd, the image of Christ the King, the Risen Christ, the crucified Christ, and many more. These popular images of Jesus, and the devotions that were born from them, have a basis from the Bible. It is only when a particular aspect of the person of Jesus is emphasized that the images are given form and a devotion is born from the image.

The Historical Jesus

Realizing that the popular images of Jesus have some basis in Scripture, then it follows that knowing the Scriptural image of Jesus is as close as we can get to the historical Jesus. One biblical scholar stated that there are words in the gospel uttered by Jesus that are Aramaic in origin. One such Aramaic word is "Abba", which means Father. The result of this study suggests that Jesus was of Aramaic descent. Another plain understanding of what racial stock Jesus came from is from the genealogy given in the gospel of Matthew. From this genealogy, Jesus was a descendant from the Jewish family of David. And we can also gather that Jesus was brought up as a Jew by the observance of Joseph and Mary of the Jewish rituals when Jesus was young - like the offering of a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.

Jesus and table fellowship

One other aspect of the historical Jesus that is often overlooked, is that Jesus used the meal and the social gathering around these meals as occasions for his preaching and teaching. Sometimes focus is made on Jesus as the Crucified One that many Catholics forget that the entire ministry of Jesus was one of drinking and eating with both the Scribes and the Pharisees and with the sinners and the tax collectors. Being together in a meal in the time of Jesus meant table fellowship. If two men were not in good terms with one another, they would not eat together. But Jesus exactly used the context of a meal to create Christian relationships that bound people together. This is why the Last Supper was highly emphasized in the Gospel and soon became the source for the institution of the holy Eucharist.

Jesus was not discriminatory

Although men counted more than women in Jewish culture, Jesus had women disciples following Him. He even permitted a woman to wipe her hair on his feet as an expression of her deep sorrow for her sins. And not only was Jesus not discriminatory to women, but He was very accepting of all people - the outcasts, the marginalized, the lepers, the sinners, the tax collectors, the widows, the orphans, the poor, the foreigner [the Samaritan woman], and many more. Even though Jesus was raised in Jewish culture, because of the mission entrusted to Him by the Father, He let love transcend the laws of His culture and created a culture that is specifically Christian.

Jesus was a man of prayer

The gospel of Luke especially heightens the person of Jesus as a man of prayer. There would always be references and allusions to Him as going out to a lonely place to pray. Also, in the gospel of Luke, he says and teaches a lot about the subject of prayer. It is in the gospel of Luke (and also to be found in Matthew) where He teaches the Our Father (Lk 11:2-4). Any serious decision that He had to make, He made it a point to pray. This can be seen also before He chose the twelve apostles. (Lk 6:12-16) This passage says that Jesus went out to the hills to pray; and He spent the whole night in prayer to God. And the next day he summoned His disciples and picked out twelve of them. Also, we have the gospel account of His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane before His passion.

Jesus was a man of action

Although Jesus spent many times in prayer, He was also a man of action. His ministry is filled with many accounts of preaching, teaching, healing and the working of miracles. In fact, He was so active (as a Gospel passage states) that He leads a crowd to gather in a way that they could not even have a meal! (Mk 3:20-21). He went from town to town preaching about the Kingdom, teaching many things, and healing many people - making the blind see, the deaf hear, the mute speak, the lame walk, the lepers clean and driving evil and unclean spirits from the possessed.

The historical Jesus is the biblical Jesus

Those who study more in-depth the historicity of the bible accounts and also examine the cultural elements embedded in the text, discover more about the person of Jesus as He had lived as a Jew in His time. There are also other sources for knowing who Jesus is aside from the biblical texts. One other source is the Dead Sea Scrolls. Another is the Shroud of Turin. And the most popular ones are the gospels of Thomas and the other writings on Jesus not considered canonical by the Catholic Church. Although these other sources are not counted by the Catholic Church as official sources for knowing the historical and biblical Jesus, they can bring some light upon certain biblical passages that we may not know of without them.

Conclusion:

The more one prays and study the gospels, the more one becomes familiar with the biblical and the historical Jesus. The image of Jesus provided by the passages of the Gospel will help purify images of Him that have been popularized by the many devotions that have been handed down from folk religiosity. Also, one would benefit a lot from the meditation made on passages of the Gospels. Such prayer and meditations strengthen one's relationship with God.