THE FOLLOWING NOTES are in actuality part of our tradition. Tradition is that which is handed down from one generation to another, and these notes were handed down to us by the sisters of the Convent of the Annunciation in Willesden. They were originally taken down by hand when the sisters were young teenage girls, studying in the school attached to the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem. (We have made some very slight grammatical and syntactical corrections). The notes might strike the reader as rather terse, but one should bear in mind their provenance; and terse though they may be they are full of soul-profiting instruction. It is sad to reflect, that this teaching was given in the nineteen-forties to young schoolgirls, but it is something which people who have grown old in Orthodoxy in our generation have not yet apprehended, though we hear the Beatitudes chanted at almost every Divine Liturgy. The teaching was imparted to the sisters by a Father Vasili who served at the Mission. May his rest be with the Saints, and through his prayers may we find spiritual benefit in his instruction.
The Beatitudes
Or the Commandments of the New Testament
In each Beatitude or commandment we discern: 1) the teaching; and 2) the blessing or rewards. Our Lord has offered these commandments not in the form of prohibition but in the form of a blessing because: 1) He was meek and did not like to compel, 2) because the virtues and blessings are attractive. St Matthew and St Luke recorded the Beatitudes. There is a difference in these records because Our Lord repeated them several times.
The conditions for the fulfilment of the Beatitudes:-
The means of acquiring the virtues is prayer.
Prayer is the lifting up of the mind and heart to God, which is expressed by reverent words of man to God.
Three kinds of Prayer:-
1) Praise – when we glorify God.
2) Thanksgiving – when we thank God for his mercy.
3) Petition – when we ask Him for our needs.
Prayer may be:-
1) Spiritual (interior) or mental (in the mind).
2) Oral (exterior), i.e. in words.
We must pray in both ways because St. Paul said “that we must glorify God in our body and our spirit”. Our Lord was very spiritual, but also used words and reverent movements in prayer, raising of eyes, bending knees etc. It is forbidden to force one’s emotion (tears); we must concentrate our attention on each word of the prayers. We must pray as much as we can. Our Lord spent whole nights in prayers. He said, “that men ought always to pray” (Lk.18). Our Lord said: “use not vain repetitions as the heathens do.” By these words He does not condemn the length of prayer but the number of subjects (food, clothes, pleasures). Sometimes God delays in giving us tears, because we have some sins or in order to preserve us from pride.
The First Beatitude
“Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”
To be poor in spirit mean to be humble. We must think that we have nothing good in us. The rich can also be poor in spirit, if they think that their riches can be easily taken from them. The poor can be poor in spirit only if they chose the poverty voluntarily for God’s sake or bear it without murmuring.
The reward: the kingdom of Heaven belongs to the poor in spirit:-
1) in the present life – interiorly through faith and hope.
2) In the future life – perfectly through participation in eternal Beatitude.
The virtue of this commandment is humility. This commandment is in the first place, because it is impossible to be a Christian without humility: the greatest commandment (virtue) is love of God and neighbours, but love cannot be obtained without humility.
Sins against this commandment are: pride and self-love. These passions are very strong in the human nature, therefore the Christians can conquer them only after a strong struggle.
The Gospel says that only those who were humble accepted the preaching of our Lord (Zacchaeus, Matthew, women sinners). But those who were proud rejected Him (the Pharisees, Scribes, Pilate and many of the Jews).
Bad custom requires us to seek revenge (a duel) for every insult (for example a strike on the face); but our Lord just contrary requires in such cases to turn other cheek the to the insulter (Mt. 5:39). Also our Lord, the Apostles and martyrs were beaten.
The first degree of humility is realization of the sinfulness of pride and self-love. The highest degree of humility is absolute indifference to human praise or blame. When we are so insensible to praise or blame as the dead, then we are truly humble.
