Through a Monk's Eyes

'All is well, but I feel dry. Where there was life, I now have only the memory of it.' We tend to formalise our spiritual life, but Life is not in formalities: Life is in the Spirit—We need to reset our spiritual life to factory settings, jumping out of our comfort zones into a new, living faith.

Fr. Seraphim Aldea reminds us that prayer is 'the art of arts and the highest science'. Prayer is hard, it is exhausting and it will slowly burn the sinful parts of your being. This is why prayer is naturally painful and extremely difficult. In its perfect form, prayer is impossible for our fallen selves, but it becomes possible by grace (for the Saints) and in Christ's Kingdom, when we shall fina...

Fr. Seraphim Aldea answers the question "If God is perfect, why did He create imperfection?", by reminding us of His love for His creation.

Would you tell the demoniacs whom Christ healed that they are 'perfect as they are'? Would you tell Mary Magdalene that the seven demons who fought her made her 'who she was'? Would you stop Christ from forgiving sinners because there is no need for them to be forgiven? If we are 'perfect as we are', then what need do we have of Christ? THIS is why the idea that we do not need to change, that we h...

The devil wants us to forget him. His ultimate success would be to make us believe that he is not even real, that he is just the product of our imagination. Once that happens, the flood-gates of sin are wide open in us and our salvation is in great danger.

Why can't I stop sinning when I want to stop with all my being? Why is it that I cannot pray with the strength with which I want to pray? Why can't I be the person I want to be for the love of Christ? And is there a way to actually move forward from all this sin and to grow in our spiritual life?

Fr. Seraphim shares a message of forgiveness at Christmas.

The opinion of others can destroy one's self-esteem. We need to found our life on Christ's values, regardless of the response that generates in those around us. We may be unpopular, but we are truly ourselves, and that is worth carrying this Cross for.

No good can come from constantly re-assessing our decision to enter a marriage or monastic life. The time for assessing is before we enter the Sacrament; after that, we should allow Christ to freely use the 'tool' of the Sacrament to shape us into the Saints He created us to be.

There is no fall too deep for Christ's love for us. Never lose hope, my brothers and my sisters.

We sometimes pray very hard for Christ to release us from our sin, but it feels as if He just looks away and doesn't want to help. Almost always, this betrays a much more serious sin in us, hiding underneath the one that troubles us. Pride, judgement, and condemnation of others can prevent Christ from releasing us from our sin.

Hope and repentance are the two wings of spiritual life.

What has happened in the last year and a half at the Orthodox Monastery of All Saints?

Fr. Seraphim Aldea explains the hiatus from recording the podcast for 18 months.

This battle is now way above our heads. We need to humbly wait in the loving palm of Christ.

Why can't we just focus on the spiritual side of life and live as spiritual beings? Why is the Church so keen that we should learn to control our bodies and their passions? Does God even care what we do with our bodies?

We often gather our forces to fight our spiritual enemies at the wrong 'gate' of our being. Most frequently, evil enters our life through the gates of our mind and heart, not that of the body. We need to pay attention and learn the behaviour of the evil one, so we may guard well the fortress of our being. Once we learn to decode his behaviour, we can finally begin to plan a strategy to fight back.

The world attaches no value to our bodies and it often feels as if the Church shares the same vision: the body is evil, worthless, a sort of dark gate through which demons, passions and sins enter our being. But is this the revealed truth and is this really what the Church confesses? We need to escape this confusion, we need to rediscover the worth of our bodies before we start preparing our fight...

Why is God so interested in what we do in the bedroom? Why is the Church so keen that we should learn to control our bodies and their passions? Why can't we just focus on the spiritual side of life and live as spiritual beings?

Some things are to be discerned with one's mind, but others - the most important ones - should be approached based on faith and love alone. One cannot 'discern' one's vocation for married or monastic life; this is not a choice to be made based on logical assessment, but on the love one feels in one's heart.

My will or God's will? The will of the world and that of our families have become components of our own will. To discern and follow the will of God, we must free ourselves from the dominion of these three: the will of the world, the will of our immediate circle of family and friends, and our personal will. The best teacher for this is the wonderful St John of the Ladder (of Sinai).

Back in March 2020, when I promised that I'd be recording these videos to keep each other company through the pandemic, I definitely had no idea I would still be doing this a whole year later. One year of the pandemic, one year with the virus, and we are still here, helping each other on our way. I have learnt enormously from you during this past year and I want to thank you all, on behalf of the...

If your aim is to be 100% happy, 100% of the time, you can be 100% certain that you will fail into utter misery. We are constantly being fed ready-made recipes for happiness, impersonal visions of what happiness looks like, false idols of who we should be in order to be happy. We can grow from the darkness in our lives, as much as we grown from its light. Happiness comes from unexpected places and...

What is the Orthodox practice of total fasting? How do you keep it and why would you? What are the spiritual benefits of fasting for a period from all food and water for the love of Christ?

As we begin our Lenten journey, Fr. Seraphim Aldea reminds us of the importance of repentance for our salvation.