{"id":3471,"date":"2024-04-10T06:23:50","date_gmt":"2024-04-10T12:23:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/?p=3471"},"modified":"2024-04-10T06:25:31","modified_gmt":"2024-04-10T12:25:31","slug":"four-nails-in-every-christians-cross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/?p=3471","title":{"rendered":"Four nails in every Christian’s Cross"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Continuation of “The Three Wheels of the Chariot<\/a>” <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And when a man follows the path of renouncing the world, this chariot of hell will certainly come out to meet him, to tempt him, to force him to follow after it; it will cut across his path to stop him. The chariot is headed in one direction, and the man who has renounced the world in another. And every Christian must necessarily be crucified on the cross of renunciation of the world; it\u2019s not only monastics who renounce the world, but everyone who bears the name of Christian, for they cannot love the world, nor those who are in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christians also have four nails that nail them to the cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first is self-denial.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This nail pierces the right hand, because it\u2019s precisely our right hand that mainly creates and works. It\u2019s an image of the active principle, and it\u2019s nailed by the nail of self-renunciation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does it mean to renounce ourselves? To not pay attention, to not take notice of ourselves; if they berate you\u2014don\u2019t get upset; if they praise you\u2014don\u2019t rejoice, as if they\u2019re talking about someone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second nail is\u00a0patience<\/strong>, which nails the left hand, because the left hand is considered a symbol of the evil inclination and protest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Christian\u2019s right foot is nailed to the cross by the nail of prayerful vigil, endurance in prayer<\/strong>.\u00a0Pray without ceasing<\/em>, says the word of God (1 Thess. 5:17). It\u2019s necessary that even when the body is sleeping, when it\u2019s resting, the soul should be vigilant, praying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fourth nail, which pierces the Christian\u2019s left foot, is the work of\u00a0prayer<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not correct to say that prayer is easy, that prayer is a joy. No, prayer is a labor. The Holy Fathers say that when a man prays easily, with joy, it\u2019s not him praying himself, but an angel of God praying with him, and it\u2019s good for him. When prayer doesn\u2019t go well, when you\u2019re tired and you want to sleep, when you don\u2019t want to pray, but you pray all the same, that\u2019s when your prayer is dear to God, because you yourself are praying, laboring for God, and He sees this labor and rejoices in your effort, in this work for Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many say: \u201cI didn\u2019t pray this morning. I wasn\u2019t in the mood.\u201d Only an uneducated Christian could speak like that. When you\u2019re not in the mood, then go to church and stand in prayer, so your feet would be as if nailed to the cross. A crucified man can\u2019t go anywhere, so let your feet be nailed by standing in prayer and prayerful labor.<\/p>\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s always a crown of thorns resting upon the head of a Christian\u2014this is our thoughts<\/strong>. They constantly make themselves known to a Christian; they painfully pierce us, like a thorn. A man stands in prayer, and his thoughts spring up and perturb him in the church; even before the Life-Giving chalice, these thoughts bother us, and they\u2019re often terrible; they frighten a man, and he must uproot them. This is painful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spear that pierces the heart of a Christian is love for Christ<\/strong>. Whoever has this love always sees the Sweetest Lord before him; whoever has this love always hears in his soul: \u201cLord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.\u201d Such a man has no time to think about the world, about the mundane\u2014his mind is ever occupied with the image of his Savior; he has no time to judge others, to analyze their actions\u2014he judges only himself so as not to offend His beloved Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Ignatius the God-Bearer had such love. He exclaimed: \u201cOh, my love\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I pray to God that none of you will get on the chariot of the world, that not a single wheel would touch you, that you would ever be nailed to the cross, bearing the wounds of the Savior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lord, Jesus Christ, we pray Thee, grant us to be co-crucified and co-buried with Thee, that we might be resurrected unto eternal life with Thee…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Seraphim (Zvezdinsky) of Dmitrov
Source: Orthodox Christianity<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continuation of “The Three Wheels of the Chariot” And when a man follows the path of renouncing the world, this chariot of hell will certainly come out to meet him, to tempt him, to force him to follow after it; it will cut across his path to stop him. The chariot is headed in one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-encyclicals"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3471"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3478,"href":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3471\/revisions\/3478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}