The One Thing Progress Cannot Do

It is common among Orthodox teachers to identify prayer with the “one thing necessary” that Christ speaks of in John 11. This emphasizes prayer as communion with God – for communion with God is the very source of our life. I will expand this meaning of the “one thing necessary” to include the very “mind” required for its practice. And, as we shall see, it is strikingly at odds with the habits of our culture. Prayer has become perhaps the most difficult of all spiritual activities.

There is a very popular strain of teaching about prayer that resonates well with contemporary culture. This is prayer that “gets results.” Every few years, a new book will hit the market, offering a new prayer and promising wonderful outcomes. The Prayer of Jabez was a popular example. But even within Catholic Tradition, various groups advocate certain prayers or spiritual practices with promises of great results. Within Orthodoxy, certain saints gain great popularity because of their association with successful prayer. I note these latter examples only to say that “getting results” has always had an attraction for people of every mind.

Almost humorous have been the occasional experiments to find out if people praying as a group, or praying in a particular way, would have a statistical effect on outcomes. The headlines will ask, “Does Prayer Work?” And, of course, there are the frequent calls for prayer across a wide-spectrum with the implied message that the more people who are praying, the more a thing is likely to happen. This is prayer by democracy.

Experience tells me that this is simply not true. Such prayers are often little more than “well wishes.” “We’re sending out prayers to you!” the message reads. What does that possibly mean?

St. Paul often includes requests for prayer in his letters. Years ago, a Jesus freak buddy told me that he was praying for St. Paul —–. Startled, I asked him why? “Well, it’s in the Bible, so I thought I’d do what he asked.” I actually liked his answer. But missing in the Scriptures are any indication that prayer “works” in a manner that is more effective when undertaken by large groups. “Two or three” is pretty much the upper limit.

The mystery of “answered” prayer is indeed great. What seems most true, in the experience of the Church through the centuries, is that the prayers of some individuals seem quite effective, and that this mystery is also bound up with what we mean when we call someone a “saint.”  And it is the mind of such saints that holds my interest at this point.

St. Paul says, “Have this mind among yourselves,” and then describes the self-emptying of Christ on the Cross (Philippians 2:5-11). This “self-emptying” mind is the hallmark of sanctity and is at the heart of what we describe as “humility.” It is the humble heart that pleases God, we are told, whereas, God “resists the proud” (James 4:6). And it is at this particular juncture that modernity and its drive for progress are unmasked.

“I want to be a better man,” sounds like the words of a saint’s heart. But the opposite is true. St. Paul was such a “better man” when he was a Pharisee that he later described himself as “blameless.” That blameless Pharisee, strangely, had made himself the enemy of God.

It is the same St. Paul who writes with such eloquence and care about our weakness and sin. I have written previously that we are only saved “in our weakness.” Christ has not come to save the righteous – only sinners. By the same token, we are not saved through our excellence, nor our mastery of life. Those who imagine their life as a striving for progress and excellence risk making themselves the enemies of God. Fortunately, most of us are unable to be excellent, though our failure often only leads to despair rather than God.

There are recorded a number of examples in the gospels of those who came to Jesus and were refused. The man who came to Christ and wanted Him to make his brother divide the inheritance with him is simply rebuffed (Luke 12:13). In a similar fashion, Christ refuses to answer the questions of those who only seek to trap Him with His own words.

St. James offers a brief commentary on such refusals:

You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask badly, that you may spend it on your pleasures. (Jam 4:2-3)

All of us can think of many egregious examples from our own lives and those of others when our desires overwhelm us and our prayers. I can think of any number of times in my life that I prayed with great fervor for something that, in hindsight, was simply born of my desire to avoid the anxiety I suffered by not having it. And this is very much to the point.

St. James’ observation could easily be limited to those examples that seem obvious: greedy prayer gets nowhere.  But his principle runs much more deeply. We will not be saved by getting what we want. The only creatures in the universe who get what they want are demons – indeed, they have largely become nothing more than a “wanting”: their rationality has almost completely disappeared.

True prayer is a movement into ever greater self-emptying. It is the normative means of our daily union with Christ. Like Christ, it broods over the lost and those who are in bondage. True prayer willingly enters with Him into Hades (both literally and figuratively) to intercede for those who are held captive. St. Paul even willed that he himself be damned if it would mean the salvation of Israel. That is the heart of Christ.

No doubt, our modern world will continue to “make progress,” at least in its own mind. But those who adopt that mind for their Christian worldview will find themselves frustrated at every turn. The caricature that is the so-called “prosperity gospel,” with its boastful and begging TV preachers, is modernity at prayer. It builds empires on the sandy soil of people’s desire for progress and the promise of the next new formula. Such prayer does not make us holy but draws us deeper into delusion.

From earliest times it has been clear that religion exists to serve the desires of people. Whether averting disaster or procuring success in agriculture, fertility, or war, every religion attends to those things that fill our human desires. It comforts those whose desires have been thwarted and assures them that everything will someday be well.

I have termed this “religion.” As such, the Christian faith is not a religion, except when it has been hijacked. It is worth noting that this hijacking is a constant threat and is universal. No group of Christians is immune from the lure of religion. [I will note here that both A. Schmemann and John Romanides, and others, have used the word, “religion,” to describe this deformation. Obviously, the word can be used with other meanings.]

Christianity is not a religion. It is a spiritual path towards union with God. Jesus did not come to usher in a new system of how to get what we want. He “emptied Himself,” and repeatedly invited us to do the same. That emptying is the path of union, and the very definition of love. If unfulfilled desires can be of use to us, then this world becomes the perfect arena of our salvation. For, in truth, we generally do not have to become weak or incompetent in order to be saved. We already are. Those who are on the path know this and reveal it in their prayers.

About Fr. Stephen Freeman

Fr. Stephen is a retired Archpriest of the Orthodox Church in America. He is also author of Everywhere Present: Christianity in a One-Storey Universe, and Face to Face: Knowing God Beyond Our Shame, as well as the Glory to God podcast series on Ancient Faith Radio.



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66 responses to “The One Thing Progress Cannot Do”

  1. Anna Avatar
    Anna

    Father, what you describe as the “prosperity gospel” is exactly what happened to me when I was in that type of church. Since my prayers never produced the “desired results” I finally left the church & God for seventeen years.

    But God in His Goodness & Mercy sent someone to me who renewed my interest & I went to a Greek Orthodox festival, saw some books on Orthodoxy and the next thing I know is that I was a catechumen. Then I entered the Russian Orthodox church and never looked back.

  2. Christian Hollums Avatar
    Christian Hollums

    Would you agree that the patristic tradition does not reject the notion of growth (progress) outright?

    Would you agree that human beings were created to grow / progress?

    Would you agree with this statement

    “Maturation is the pattern of salvation history and the shape of spiritual life—it is not a conquest, but a ripening made possible through God’s self-giving.”

    Is your primary issue with the word “Progress” the modern philosophical baggage that is assumed in its usage?

  3. Esmée Noelle Covey Avatar
    Esmée Noelle Covey

    In Wounded by Love, Saint Porphyrios says that if Christ wants him in hell, then that is where he wants to be. This made a profound impression on me the first time I read it. He also says that he never prays for specific outcomes, but rather for God’s will to be done. I have followed his example and advice ever since. I love praying the Psalter and the Jesus Prayer for this reason; both are simply asking for His mercy – and they help me trust that whatever His mercy looks like in my life is what is ultimately best for me.

  4. Anthony Avatar
    Anthony

    Thank you for this post, Father. Proper prayer is something, in my experience at least, that requires constant vigilance.

    When you mentioned people praying against disaster, war, etc., it made me think of a passage from St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. I’ve slowly been reading through his work On True Christianity, which at first I found difficult in a comabative/critical way but have come to deeply appreciate. He mentions calamities on earth as being the result of God’s chastisement, wrath, and judgement (specifically using St. Tikhon’s language), which are meant to bring us to repentance and engender empathy with others. In our secular worldview, I find people either don’t consider negative events as acts of God or would laugh to scorn such a notion. Even within Orthodoxy, it seems as if people are hesitant to see any action of God that might be perceived as negative by our limited reasoning. Considering all this, would you think it still Christian to pray for God’s deliverance from various negative events but, when they happen, accept them as God’s chastisement and providence? Thank you for your time.

  5. Kevin Avatar
    Kevin

    Father:

    I’m a bit confused by your article which seems to conflate the desire for progress with simple self-interest. Prosperity gospelers are by definition interested in their own material aggrandizement, not progress. Those who are greedy or who desire badly aren’t interested in progress either. These examples seem to equate progress with simple self-indulgence.

    But progress might mean finding a cure for some forms of cancer, or effective treatments for other kinds of illness or injury. That human desire, born of love of God and neighbor, to alleviate the suffering of other people seems perfectly consonant with Jesus’s healing ministry, his love for the suffering. How does the medical researcher’s prayer for wisdom and insight — for progress — miss the mark?

    You also write: “We will not be saved by getting what we want.” Is prayer only about being saved? If the medical researcher gets what she wants, she may not be saved but she may make real progress towards alleviating the suffering of others. The liturgy is full of prayers for seasonable weather, peace, etc. Doesn’t prayer encompasses a whole range of proper human desire?

    And when we pray for a young mother dying of cancer, should only 2 or 3, maybe her husband and her mom and dad, pray for her? Is asking an army of friends and family to pray simply prayer by democracy? I know you have suffered grievous loss yourself; I don’t ask this flippantly. I genuinely don’t know how you think about this.

    Forgive me, Father, if this comes across too sharply.

  6. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    Christian,
    “Progress,” just like most words/things, has a good and proper meaning. The meaning was co-opted for the large part as modernity was being birthed. If you do a search on the history of that word in English, you can see how its meaning gets changed and co-opted. Originally, it meant to go from one place to another. Modernity co-opts the Christian narrative into a secular notion of worldly improvement as the means of creating a secular utopia. It now permeates our culture and our self-understanding.

    But, people grow, mature, change, etc. Obviously. It’s difficult, however, to use the word “progress” in such discussions or observations without inviting all the baggage of the heresy that dominates our Western world.

    There are others ways to talk about such things.

    The word “progress’ in its origin, means a journey from one place to another. The world is not heading anywhere. Technological change is not a narrative (unless you are watching Star Trek). It is just stuff happening. But the false consciousness that such changes are part of a story that arcs towards a better world is just mythology of the worst sort. It is the stuff told us by politicians and entrepreneurs.

    Because we believe so blindly in “progress” we’ve stopped asking very salient questions: will this use of technology hurt our children? (for example)

  7. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    Anthony,
    Christ prayed, “If it be Thy will, let this Cup pass away from me…” So, it’s absolutely ok to ask to be delivered from evil, to be spared the test, to be protected, etc. Nevertheless, sometimes, we go to the Cross – and, even there, God’s good will is trampling down death by death. And so we give thanks always and for all things.

  8. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    Kevin,
    In its positive form, the “army of prayer” is an expression of the greatest of our concern. It is not, however, a tool for effective prayer. Prayer simply doesn’t work like that (indeed, I think it’s probably wrong to think about how prayer “works”). But, our love asks others to pray with us. Human beings have always invented things. It’s good to have medical treatments – medicine and doctors, etc. are a gift from God:

    Honor the physician, for he is essential to you;
    for that profession was established by the Lord.
    2 The gift of healing comes from the Most High,
    and the king provides for the physician’s sustenance.
    3 His knowledge gives the physician high standing
    and earns him the admiration of those who are great.
    4 The Lord has created medicines from the earth,
    and no one who is sensible will despise them.
    5 Was not water once sweetened by a tree[b]
    so that his power might be revealed?
    6 He has endowed human beings with skill
    so that he might be glorified in his marvelous works.
    7 Through them the physician heals and relieves pain,
    8 and the pharmacist prepares suitable medicines.
    Thus, there is no end to the works of God,
    from whom well-being continues to spread throughout the entire world. (Sirach 38)

    But, everyone of us will die. Our modern world’s false notion of progress still imagines a world without disease and a life without death (and is willing to do bizarre things as a consequence). Indeed, our false notion about life and death has led us to kill people in order to relieve suffering.

    I am a bit cynical about our medical research – in that we speak in the language of compassion and work in the language of profit. It’s not compassion that drives the modern world’s love of progress – it is profit.

    “Is prayer only about being saved?” Yes, if you understand “saved” in its broadest, Orthodox meaning. Prayer is about union with God – we pray that He may dwell in us and we in Him. The great prayer for union (Jn 17) is quite revealing about this.

    It was always quite instructive to be praying at the bedside of those who were dying – I certainly prayed for healing, even there. Though, I understood that “healing” had a different meaning. Everyone has to die…but you don’t have to die “sick.”

    These questions can be delicate matters of the heart – perhaps I should write more and explore more.

  9. Justin Avatar
    Justin

    I may be dating myself, but I remember an old radio show by J. Vernon McGee. In the introduction he always declared with calm conviction, “… and prayer changes things.”

    I think this is exactly what you are getting at, Fr Stephen, the idea the prayer is “utilitarian” rather than relationship-building. It seems that everything in life is transactional, and I have (to my shame) used my spiritual practices to “bargain with God,” so to speak. *That* is the modern problem of progress, as I see it. (Let’s not mention how that problem has crept into my/our personal relationships as well…)

    Kyrie eleison.

  10. Matthew Avatar
    Matthew

    Wow Justin … J. Vernon McGee!!! Didn’t he have a Bible bus? I remember him from my seminary days in the American South! Memories!

  11. Dee of Sts Herman and Olga Avatar
    Dee of Sts Herman and Olga

    Father,
    Due to some circumstances I have a tendency to ask for God’s help. Such prayer is part of communion yet it does differ from such prayer when I ‘sit’ in prayer and just be, and periodically say the Jesus prayer in gratitude. Praying and glorifying Him feeds the soul.

    Someone commented (not on blog) about extraordinary events in my life that have taken place over this past year. It was attributed to me. I corrected and attributed to Christ. Befuddled the person said that I was conjoined with Christ in the effort. And I accepted that response. Yet we are so drenched in the ethos of progress in this culture that it is hard to hear and speak in the language of the Cross.

    Thank you for this article. I’ve been bummed about my lack of progress lately. It’s a helpful and healthful realization that this is not the Way. It lowers my anxiety of my weaknesses. May our Lord grant us grace to rest in Him.

  12. Owen Kelly Avatar
    Owen Kelly

    Fr. Stephen,
    I wonder what the place of dispassion is in this discussion. Several of the Fathers hold this state to be paramount and closely connected to pure prayer. How does it relate to what you’ve written above?

    Concerning desire, it’s been said the most prevalent addiction of our time is the Internet, and the most prevalent kind of webpage on the Internet is pornographic. Most people reading this know by experience the power of pornography (if you don’t, you’re rare) to excite the passions and leave one craving distraction. And by distraction, I mean anything that stimulates mind or body, as opposed to that calm, still, quiet state of focused attention needed for prayer.

    Do you think dispassion is the death to which Christ calls us? If so, perhaps Jesus calming the turbulent sea waves is a picture of the Cross…

  13. Byron Avatar
    Byron

    In the introduction he always declared with calm conviction, “… and prayer changes things.”

    Justin, I think it is proper to agree that “prayer changes things”–but the thing it most changes is the human heart. I consider with sadness the people who, after a great tragedy, hold up signs degrading prayer and asking for laws. Laws do not change the situation because the human heart remains stone.

    As an aside on the “prosperity gospel”, we have a church here in Tulsa whose mantra is “God wants you to WIN!”. It’s very popular, I think. “Prosperity” comes in many forms.

  14. Owen Kelly Avatar
    Owen Kelly

    Well said, Byron.

  15. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    Owen,
    Dispassion, yes. I prefer to think in terms of “nepsis,” that is, “sobriety,” not being driven around by distractions, anxieties, etc. I know that in my personal experience, I am far more vulnerable to every sort of temptation when I’m anxious.

    I love the example of the Mother of God at the Wedding in Cana. Her simple prayer to Her Son is, “They have no wine.” She trusts Him.

  16. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    Byron,
    Our population/culture is filled with angry people – so we say lots of dumb/hurtful things. May God have mercy on us!

  17. Alan Avatar
    Alan

    “True prayer is a movement into ever greater self-emptying. It is the normative means of our daily union with Christ. Like Christ, it broods over the lost and those who are in bondage. True prayer willingly enters with Him into Hades (both literally and figuratively) to intercede for those who are held captive. St. Paul even willed that he himself be damned if it would mean the salvation of Israel. That is the heart of Christ.”

    Pure gold. Thank you Father.

  18. Alan Avatar
    Alan

    Matthew / Justin, I too fondly remember hearing that oh so distinctive voice of J. Vernon McGee on the radio!

    Esmee, beautiful comments. Thank you!

  19. Owen Kelly Avatar
    Owen Kelly

    Father,
    I agree about distractions. Apatheia is “inner freedom,” or “detachment.” Detaching from the distractions of “the world” is, somehow, I think, synonymous with attaching oneself to God. If we could just still our distracted mind, what is already there could shine.
    Thank you!

  20. Margaret Sarah Avatar
    Margaret Sarah

    Owen,

    Your comments makes me think of CS Lewis in his address The Weight of Glory:

    “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

  21. Owen Kelly Avatar
    Owen Kelly

    Thanks, Margaret. Lewis says it so well. I know I’m far too easily pleased.

  22. Owen Kelly Avatar
    Owen Kelly

    I mean, Margaret Sarah. Sorry about that.

  23. Christian Hollums Avatar
    Christian Hollums

    Father Stephen,

    Thank you for this. There’s much I resonate with here.

    You’re right: the modern myth of progress has co-opted and disfigured what was once a far humbler and richer concept. As you noted, progressus simply meant “a going forward”, a journey, not a triumph.

    The trouble is that modernity has replaced pilgrimage with project what was once a spiritual and communal unfolding toward God has been rebranded as endless improvement toward utopia, often under the banner of technique, consumption, and optimization. This is a myth, and a dangerous one.

    But here’s where I think the path forward isn’t just rejection, but redefinition through transfiguration.

    St. Irenaeus, as interpreted by Michael Heintz and Jean Daniélou, speaks of human life as a divinely guided process of maturation—not mastery. Growth, for Irenaeus, is not the achievement of autonomy, but a slow unfolding into likeness, into deeper participation in divine life. Likewise, Aristotle Papanikolaou reframes freedom (one of progressivism’s core aims) as the capacity for kenotic love, not self-determination. In both views, becoming is not a march toward power, but a descent into communion.

    So yes, “progress” in the modern register is a heresy of hope detached from the divine. But perhaps that’s all the more reason not to surrender the term—but to redeem it.

    What if we reclaimed “progress” not as the myth of getting better, but as the mystery of becoming more fully human?
    Not as innovation, but as initiation?
    Not as utopia, but as union?

    In this sense, progress is not the arc of history bending toward justice; it’s the curved path of the soul bending toward love. It’s not a metric. It’s a metamorphosis.

    So, while I understand the instinct to discard the word altogether, I wonder if doing so risks conceding too much ground to the modern imagination.

    What if the deeper task is to invite people to discover that what they really long for when they say “progress” is not novelty, but transfiguration?

  24. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    Christian,
    Well articulated. I have no commitment to rescuing an English word that has largely (cf. its history) been associated with a heretical notion for most of its English-speaking history. Also, as a single writer (a flea on the butt of an elephant), I don’t imagine myself to be in the position of changing a dominant culture’s abuse of language. Indeed, I distrust the use of the word in translations – what word is it translating (as in Irenaeus)?

    There are other words I prefer – “movement” is one that I have used and prefer. It has little to no baggage.

    I’m more engaged with working to disabuse people of their belief in progress. It’s simply a lie. We’re not going anywhere…other than we’re all going to die (at least in the manner that the world can measure). There is truly an eschatological hope as the Kingdom of God. We’re not building it, adding to it, progressing towards it, etc. I hope to be “swallowed up” by it…which is quite a different metaphor.

    But I appreciate your thoughts. I’m very likely to soon to do a careful article on “Why I do not believe in progress.” In the meantime, here’s a wonderful article by a British writer (a Christian now) who wonderfully speaks of how she came to no longer believe in progress.

  25. Christian Hollums Avatar
    Christian Hollums

    Father Stephen,

    If “progress” is the wrong word, what is the right name for the human longing it misnames?

    Can theology offer a vision of becoming that preserves embodiment, honors dependency, and still speaks to the secular soul’s desire to become something more?

    Would you agree that the secular myth of progress distorts is not the desire to become more but the belief that such becoming can occur without grace, without limit, without nature, and without communion?

    I do think you’re right—if ‘progress’ means what the world means by it, it must be rejected. But if that rejection becomes mere negation, I think we risk ceding all imaginative ground. And yet I see in your story, and in so many others disillusioned by modern myths, not a giving up on becoming—but a yearning for something real, good, and true. I don’t think longing is an illusion. It’s the echo of our telos.

    “We’re not going anywhere… other than we’re all going to die (at least in the manner the world can measure)” is a potent line of thought. But it also risks falling into a kind of eschatological quietism.

    How do you feel about this statement:

    Death is not the end, but the womb of becoming.

    “It is fitting that the created should gradually be brought to perfection.” (Against Heresies, 4.38)

    Death is not a full stop. It is a threshold. It enters the world as a severance, but in Christ it becomes a conduit. Death is the place where transformation happens—where the human being, immature and incomplete, is reshaped into glory.

    So yes we all die. But what is death, if it is now filled with Christ?

    It is not stasis. It is not erasure. It is a cross-shaped passage through which God progressively brings creation to its telos. Death, rightly understood, is the very arena of true progress not toward worldly accomplishment, but toward divine union.

    What if death is not the terminus that reveals the lie of progress, but the furnace in which its falsehood is purified and its deepest truth revealed?

    I think you’re right to say death unmasks the lie that we are building anything of lasting permanence. The towers of Babel, even those baptized by progress, will crumble. But I wonder if the temptation then is to think that because we are not climbing up, we are not being drawn. If my reading of Irenaeus is correct, he seems to suggest that death is not just a fact of the Fall it is also, in Christ, the site of our formation.

  26. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    Christian,
    I understand the point. There’s the monastic admonition to “keep death ever before our eyes.” I don’t think that’s an invitation to be morbid – but it’s certainly an invitation towards humility. I think the longing in our hearts has a name: hope. That is a term that gets used too infrequently in its proper sense. And so, we work to articulate the “reason for the hope that is within us.”

    The false metaphor of progress utterly permeates the modern imagination – everywhere and in everything. So, I’m very cautious about it. We’re a death denying culture, in the worst sort of way.

    I think that when I consider death – I think of it primarily under the heading, “Be it unto me according to Your word.” There is a “self-abandonment to divine providence” (to use a Catholic phrase). If you will, I want death to do what it’s intended to do – like burning up the dross, etc.

    But, I’m a “preacher.” Most people (including most Orthodox people) have never(!) heard anyone deny a belief in progress. Most don’t know that it’s problematic, much less that life can be lived without reference to the notion. Irenaeus is a bit of an outlier (like Nyssa) in some respects. There’s just tons of material (patristic, liturgical) that seem to have no employment of either the term or the imagery.

    It became important to me to refuse it – perhaps as I was working at coming to grips with the various toxic notions within liberal protestantism (my background to a certain extent). I certainly gained a strong dose of critical understanding regarding modernity when I was studying under Stanley Hauerwas – immersed in the context of major contemporary issues and currents. At the time, I heard no one (including Hauerwas) say, “I do not believe in progress.”

    So, I think it was as I was quietly working out how to teach the Orthodox faith to catechumens – part of the acquisition of an Orthodox “mind.” One fruit of that work was my book on “Christianity in a One Storey Universe” (though I don’t remember having a chapter dealing with progress in the book).

    But, pretty invariably, when I read someone (including Orthodox authors) who have not critically engaged with the problems associated with modernity’s progress, I tend to find it seeping into places where it doesn’t belong. The Church is not a modern project – and should stand four-square against it. It is, in various aspects, the great heresy of our time, or the fount of heresies. Fr. Alexander Schmemann said that “secularism” was the great heresy of our time. Perhaps so. But secular progress is a deep part of it.

    That said, there is a rich eschatological hope beyond death. I think I like St. Paul’s words, “If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead…” so, forgetting the things that are behind and reaching towards the upward call in Christ Jesus…

  27. Mark Spurlock Avatar
    Mark Spurlock

    Thanks for that link to Mary Harrington, Father Stephen. I’ve shared it with my daughter.

  28. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    Mark,
    Mary Harrington is one of the most refreshing voices in the public sphere in a long time. There’s a few others. But, her take on feminism is out of the ballpark. You’d want to say it yourself – but I don’t have anything like the inside experience that she has. I’ve watched it from the “outside,” as it were, for these many decades. That someone has found the ball to drop and is able to articulate as powerfully and clearly as she does – without a bunch of anger – is just so welcome.

    I first ran across her on a Youtube interview and was very pleased. Here is a conversation between her and Paul Kingsnorth that I enjoyed. I did an interview with Paul at his invitation, discussing his new book (due out in September). Kingsnorth is an Englishman, living in Ireland, who is now Orthodox, in one of the most interesting contemporary journeys that I’ve encountered. Britain is so frightfully anti-Christian in many ways that it’s deeply pleasing to hear and meet the voices of those whom God has found in that context.

    Enjoy.

  29. Janine Avatar
    Janine

    Father, if I’ve never read anything else, I needed to read this!
    Christianity is not a religion. It is a spiritual path towards union with God. Thank you!
    And, We will not be saved by getting what we want. Wow, this hit me between the eyes. So much to think about.

    Over the course of the past few months, for some reason I’ve had experience with what I’ll call evil. This, too, seems like a mystery for me when I can find no reason for it.

    You may recall that a couple of months ago or so, I posted about a couple whose son had a very rare form of cancer. I was in a group on Facebook praying for them; I had met the father by chance. I wanted to be supportive and they were doing so much for their child, relocating to a treatment center, etc. But the form of prayer I kept reading in this group was troubling. It took the form of “Jesus’ Promise” (words I read repeatedly) which seemed to me that if only we believed hard enough for the outcome we wanted, it would happen. Sadly, the young man has passed after “suffering much from many physicians.” His parents are devastated. In our faith, I believe, we know that a destiny is prepared for human beings, related to a kind of replacement for the fallen angels. Sitting in church, wondering “why?” it struck me that this child was like an unblemished lamb, and who else but one who has struggled so hard and long(!) against such evil and with much faith on his part could possibly be destined by God for such a role? At any rate, I think it’s possible. That comforts me, but I don’t know what could comfort his parents right now.

    The second “evil” experience is with a rather notorious case of a woman who apparently had her husband murdered. I knew them both, her husband was a colleague of my husband’s and they worked on projects together. I found by accident, and privately, that I did not think she was very ethical. But this is something altogether extreme, and I keep trying to fathom how she went from the person I knew to what has happened. It is also a mystery for me, but it is — so it seems to me and the family of her now-deceased ex-husband — about what she wanted to get so badly.

    There is a third experience, quite personal, having to do with people in my family, which has been very hard to accept. But, there it is, and I cannot change it.

    So I have to think of prayer as you have written about it right now under these circumstances. Any advice is always something from you that benefits me. Thank you very much for this blog post once again. God bless.

  30. Esmée Noelle Covey Avatar
    Esmée Noelle Covey

    Janine – I know you did not ask me, but I wanted to offer the titles of two books which have helped me a great deal with the questions you are struggling with that you mentioned in your comment. – Esmée

    Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives
    By Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica

    The Sunflower: Conforming the Will of Man to the Will of God
    By Saint John Maximovich of Tobolsk
    (Ancestor of Saint John of San Francisco)

  31. Janine Avatar
    Janine

    Thank you Esmée
    I will take a look at those

  32. Kate Avatar
    Kate

    Father Stephen,

    There is a lot here to digest! I will need to spend some more time pondering this post.

    I have a question; if there is a situation I have been praying for over many, many years and I have not seen “results”, but it has deepened my communion with God, then would you call that “successful” prayer? (for lack of a better word)

    If that is the case, then no studies or statistics could possibly amount to anything, because, although no tangible results are seen, “progress” is being made which cannot be objectively evaluated! The experience is subjective so any studies would be purely based on anecdotes.

  33. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    Kate,
    “Successful” is a word that covers a wide range. I think you’ve answered your own question.

  34. Kate Avatar
    Kate

    I guess I did! I suppose I just needed you to confirm it.

    I really appreciate the comments section; I often learn as much from it as from the original blog post, and you are always very gracious, patient, and helpful in your responses. Thank you!

  35. Janine Avatar
    Janine

    Esmée, et al:
    I have started reading one of the books you recommended (The Sunflower). I’m not sure about the kind of categorical claim that all things are from God’s will, but I do think somehow we’re meant to cooperate with God’s will through all things, to meet all things this way. Personally that is something I think is the crux of spiritual battle.

    But I did recall that about Christmastime I had a strange dream: In the dream I walked outside at about noon and suddenly there was darkness everywhere, pitch dark. I realized I’d have to find my way home walking in the dark. So, we all know what “darkness at noon” symbolizes for us, I felt I was given a kind of warning about something that I didn’t understand at the time, but sensed a danger about it. Now I’m thinking I was given a kind of warning about a period I’d go through. So I’m still finding my way through.

    I think the biggest thing for me is a kind of mystery of evil. It doesn’t really make sense to me; I have no idea where it comes from. Maybe that’s as it should be. But I’m left with a lot of unknowing to just sit with, where nothing is clear. Maybe that’s the challenge; it seems quite difficult. I will say I feel through my prayer I’m being taught to say No to a lot of things and people that seem “good” on the surface but are perhaps not good for me in a hidden way.

  36. Esmée Noelle Covey Avatar
    Esmée Noelle Covey

    My understanding, Janine, is that everything happens either by God’s will OR His permission. Elder Thaddeus makes this distinction very clear in his book, as does Mother Gavrilia in The Ascetic of Love (another favorite of mine, which I also recommend, that addresses these same issues). God is never the cause of evil, but sometimes He allows it if He feels it will be beneficial for the salvation of our soul.

  37. Owen Kelly Avatar
    Owen Kelly

    The question about progress is very interesting. I just finished reviewing Fr John Behr’s new translation, Gregory of Nyssa: On the Human Image of God (formerly known as On the Making of Man). What makes this relevant is Gregory’s evolutionary perspective of nature. He understands this present world as a realm of process and pedagogy in which all persons eventually become virtuous and God becomes all in all. For Gregory, creation is not complete yet. The human being is being progressively formed into the image, in the Prototype, who is Christ. Man is “fashioned last, after the plants and animals, nature advancing in a certain way sequentially to perfection,” he writes. As I say, it sounds very evolutionary. The “total Christ” is revealed at the end, when the entire Body of humanity reaches the full stature of its growth in the image.

    Behr twice quotes Dostoevsky to reiterate Gregory’s main idea: “We are, clearly, transitory beings and our existence on earth is, clearly, a process, the uninterrupted existence of a chrysalis transitioning into a butterfly.” This all sounds like a kind of progress to me. Our current life is like a womb in which gestation takes place, and our death is a birth into New Life. Gregory seems to switch back and forth between a personal and a universal development, sometimes conflating the two, it seems: we each make progress – and we all make progress – through the pedagogy of Providence. I know he’s only one voice among the Fathers, but it’s a powerful one. Worth noting, I think.

  38. Simon Avatar
    Simon

    Esmee,

    Really good thoughts, brother. Evil and human suffering are irrational. Sometimes the only response evil leaves us with is an irrational response. I think that’s what stings the worst. That not only is it irrational but it also leaves us where there are no “good” choices. There are three things that are said about sin in the Philokalia Vol 1. Sin is said to be “ignorance”, “lunacy”, and “foul stench.” This is why you can’t make make sense of it. There is no sense that can be made of it.

    Also, if you could make sense of it, if you could pull back the curtain now and see the why of it, maybe that would take the sting out. Maybe. But, would you really want that? Or, would you always wonder to yourself, ‘What did I lose because I chose the anesthetic over uncertainty?’

  39. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    Owen,
    Nyssa is almost unique in several of his takes…I like him, though. There’s a vast distinction between his notion of “progress” (which I think I would translate with a different word) and our culture’s use of the term. In Nyssa, the movement is towards a clear goal – union with God. The accumulation of technological innovations that we describe with the term “progress” is aimless – without direction – other than increasing profits and often just building more effective killing machines. As such, the two uses of the term could not be more opposite. Modernity could be rushing headlong into hell, while calling it “progress” merely on the basis of speed.

    In point of fact, human beings themselves are not “progressing” in the thing that is called “progress.” We are cavemen with sophisticated toys and weapons, but with the same propensity for sin as ever. We are not becoming “better people.”

    Nyssa sees us, in our progress towards God, in a continual movement of inner transformation. It is of note that the “laboratories” of the spiritual life in Orthodoxy, to which we would often point if we wanted to see examples of Nyssa’s transformation, are largely unchanged through the centuries in terms of technology. But, even there, there is no accumulation in the aggregate of holiness. The monasteries are not holier than ever before. Some would say it is quite the opposite.

    But, you’re correct in describing Nyssa – but I wouldn’t confuse that with a wholesale approval of progress or evolution as a cultural metaphor.

    It is not the concept of progress itself that I have critiqued – it is modernity’s use (abuse) of the term to describe what is happening in our world. That is a delusional narrative, derived from false notions of the industrial revolution.

  40. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    Simon,
    I largely agree. The very character of evil is its irrationality. If it had a rational character – I’m not sure we’d call it evil. It’s very absurdity stings, as you note.

  41. Christian Hollums Avatar
    Christian Hollums

    Owen & Father Stephen,

    I agree that the modern notion of progress divorced from telos, emptied of communion, and bent toward domination is not only misguided, but delusional. The truth is, our civilization runs on the fumes of a secularized eschatology. The myth of progress has become a terminal faith.

    I’ve sometimes wondered about the phrase “acquiring the Orthodox mind.”

    What does that mean?

    Is Orthodoxy (true worship) a mindset to be adopted, or a mystery to be encountered—a life to be lived?

  42. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    Christian,
    That’s a good question. It’s a term that can easily be misused – confused with a sort of ideology, or even a cultural orientation. I think the truth of it is (or should be) understood as a “perception,” a “way of seeing,” but, when saying that, it’s a seeing closer to “blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” Most profoundly, there can be no true Orthodox “mind” that is not grounded in love.

  43. Janine Avatar
    Janine

    Re irrationality of evil:

    There are times when I don’t think evil is irrational but the opposite. That is, a kind of extreme “rationality” which is not bound at all by moral considerations. Many times its violence is just a means to an end. Someone wants something badly that another has and violence is a way to get it. Jesus was a threat to position, power, authority, and to kill Him a “logical” solution to the problem. The Nazis took pseudoscience and “rationality” to the limit of exterminating what they deemed “undesirable” populations. The premises may be false but the kind of logic is there.

    What I find mysterious is the lack of moral and even natural law — like for example the natural human aversion to killing. Maybe even more inexplicable is the coldness and lack of love of God.

    I’m trying to think of my recent experiences in terms of salvation; that’s where it gets hard. Just my salvation seems like a selfish perspective, in the sense that I’m not the only one involved. For the others I can see being clearly faced with choice, and choosing some form of manipulation, and seeking God’s will missing.

    However, if the Crucifixion teaches us anything is that “we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” This I do truly believe and have great faith in. There will be a way God wants me (or all of us) to cope with circumstances, to respond. It’s just hard perhaps to see that “good” without knowing more from our limited perspective.

    My experience has been so strange; it is a strange experience of good and evil on parallel tracks, going opposite ways, but existing side by side as part of experience in this world. (I’m sorry if I don’t make much sense.)

  44. Janine Avatar
    Janine

    PS just like the effects of sin we inherit in this world, the most tragic part is the children involved in the events I spoke of. They are the innocent victims who inherit the effects of the sins of their parents. Our world is present in the microcosm of these events, the suffering innocent who will need to cope with what they’ve been given (a kind of affliction) through no fault of their own.

  45. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    Janine,
    Thank you for thinking-out-loud with us. It’s always difficult to think about evil in any kind of context. Human beings are capable of great good (being averse to killing, for example) while being capable of great evil.

    Some years back I wrote an article thinking about some of this in a reflection on Dostoevsky. You might find it of interest.

  46. Janine Avatar
    Janine

    Thank you Fr. Stephen. Your comment is much appreciated. I will read the article.

  47. Esmée Noelle Covey Avatar
    Esmée Noelle Covey

    Thank you so much for posting a link to this article, Father Stephen.

    I tried searching your name and Dostoevsky just yesterday because knew you must have written about him, but this article did not come up. I read The Brother’s Karamazov 30 years ago before I was Orthodox and did not understand it at the time.

    After seeing so many positive references to it by other Orthodox Christians, and hearing that my late priest spent his last days re-reading all of Dostoevsky, I finally decided to revisit it.

    I slowly worked my way through an excellent audio version, but it felt like an arduous task. It was akin to my experience of reading through the Old Testament, wondering if it would ever end, haha!

    I know I need to read a print version to really be able to meditate on the deeper passages, and hopefully I will find time and strength to do that at some point. But your analysis in the post you shared is very, very helpful to me.

  48. Alan Avatar
    Alan

    Esmee, thank you for the book recommendations. I had not heard of “The Sunflower” nor “The ascetic of love.” Sadly, the Mother Gavrilia book seems to be out of print.

    Father, thank you for the info on Mary Harrington. I wasn’t familiar with her. I love Paul K and his work, so I can’t wait to watch the video with both of them.

  49. Esmée Noelle Covey Avatar
    Esmée Noelle Covey

    Alan –

    The Ascetic of Love was just reprinted. Here is the link to the publisher where you can order a copy:

    https://seasaltbooks.com/products/the-ascetic-of-love

    Mother Gavrilia was officially canonized in 2023, by the Ecumenical Patriarch.

    https://orthochristian.com/156430.html

  50. Alan Avatar
    Alan

    Thank you very much for that information Esmee!!

  51. Jenny Avatar
    Jenny

    Father,

    I did not know that the one thing necessary was prayer. Then prayer must mean to sit at the Lord’s feet and listen to His teaching and not be drawn away by anxieties.

    I once asked the Lord to give me something. I begged Him. I knew it was not good for me and it couldn’t be what He wanted for me, but I begged Him to let me have it anyway and in the end, I chose it.

    That was perhaps the most painful lesson I’ve ever learned, but because of it, I’m happy now to want nothing but what He gives and to be thankful for that.

    When my friends ask me to pray, I often think what they are asking for is to be known and remembered- they want me to know and share in their hurt.

    When I pray for them, the best kind of prayer is when I remember who the Lord is- that He already knows and loves them and He knows what is best. Any time I remember their pain or worry, I turn my mind to the Lord and remember again who He is toward them.

    That is a peaceful prayer because I don’t have to ask the Lord to do anything, because what do I really know about it or what is best to be done?

    And who am I to direct the Lord? Not even His Mother did that. I have read your articles that talk about that interaction between them in Cana- how in tenderness, He cautioned her that it would mean setting all the suffering in motion, and it need not start so soon. But she told the servants to do whatever He said and He turned the water into wine.

    I like to pray set prayers now, like St Basil’s prayer. That way my thoughts and requests are following a trusted course. I added an Orthodox prayer for my children recently and I pray it at night.

    Recently I was at that chapter in John whete two Greeks want to see Jesus and they ask Phillip about it. And Jesus says, “Now My soul is troubled, but what shall I say- Father save Me from this hour? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name!”

    And I thought about this article when I heard Him say that. A person could try to gain the whole world, but what would it matter if they could not be close to God and rest in Him? What compares to that?

    I agree, one does not have to try to be weak. One always is. It’s like saying, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. There is enough in each day to be always in a place of weakness and contrition. But the Lord can dwell with one who is contrite, so I do often ask Him that He should make me always contrite, so if possible, I can be a place where He can be at home. And He did say that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are blessed, because they will be filled. That is a very beautiful promise.

  52. Lucas Galdino Avatar
    Lucas Galdino

    Father, thank you for your wonderful blog that is always a joy to read.

    How can we know if we are praying greedily or simply in great need? In dark moments where we desperately need something, how should we avoid praying in the wrong way? I imagine a Saint, despite suffering, would never fall into despair, and pray always from a rational mind and well-oriented heart, making no exaggerations of his misery, asking humbly and remembering to ask for others too who share the same fate. But how might someone in the bowels of trouble, and spiritually, a child, attempt this? Thank you.

    Kind regards in Christ,

    Lucas.

  53. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    Lucas,
    I would simply seek to pray “authentically” – that is – being honest before God. Look at the Psalms – they are great examples.

  54. Kate Avatar
    Kate

    Jenny,

    What a beautiful reflection, so much of which really resonated with me! Thank you for sharing.

    “…prayer must mean to sit at the Lord’s feet and listen to His teaching and not be drawn away by anxieties.” It’s not about coming to Him with a shopping list of my wants and perceived needs, but about being with Him.

    “When my friends ask me to pray, I often think what they are asking for is to be known and remembered- they want me to know and share in their hurt.

    When I pray for them, the best kind of prayer is when I remember who the Lord is- that He already knows and loves them and He knows what is best. Any time I remember their pain or worry, I turn my mind to the Lord and remember again who He is toward them.

    That is a peaceful prayer because I don’t have to ask the Lord to do anything, because what do I really know about it or what is best to be done?”

    This truly is prayer from a place of peace and trust. I think for those who are asking us to pray for specific outcomes, we must pray for them to be able to sit at His feet and trustfully give themselves over to His will, and through that to know His peace “that passes understanding”.

    “A person could try to gain the whole world, but what would it matter if they could not be close to God and rest in Him? What compares to that?” To gain the whole world and not be near to God is a tragedy! If we could keep this at the top of our minds, it would make such a difference.

    “But the Lord can dwell with one who is contrite, so I do often ask Him that He should make me always contrite, so if possible, I can be a place where He can be at home. And He did say that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are blessed, because they will be filled. That is a very beautiful promise.” Yes, it is beautiful, indeed!

  55. David A Kontur Avatar
    David A Kontur

    Thank you, Father Stephen. I know you often talk about the modern cult of progress that marks modernity. It seems to me that this is really the thin veneer of what has become an insane and demonic lust for power and control. It seems that self-emptying as articulated by St Paul and embodied in the lives of the saints is the antithesis and rejection of this drive.

  56. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    David,
    I agree. In thinking “philosophically” about this problem in modernity – I would say that it has mis-identified what is good. That we should always move towards the “good” is consistent with Christian teaching. It’s modernity’s mistaken notions of the “good” that work against it. The acquisition of wealth is probably a primary culprit, as is the desire to “control” and “manage” history itself.

  57. Matthew Avatar
    Matthew

    I had an interesting exchange with my brother-in-law last week or so. He sends status updates which are almost always focused on how we are failing miserably at dealing with the very negative effects of climate change. Normally I don´t respond, but I was moved to share the following words of Jesus with him:

    “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his very life?” (New Catholic Bible)

    We then got into some banter about souls and what does the soul good and the saving of souls, etc. He said it does his soul “very good” to help mitigate the negative effects of climate change through the environmentally friendly company he owns (an electro mobility solutions firm). He believes he is doing “very good” things. He said the people sit in church and pray while the world is burning to the ground. I think he sees the religiously-minded as silly and unhelpful … not doing much “good” at all.

    I don´t think my brother-in-law is motivated ultimately by money, and I don´t think he is looking to manage or control history. He just wants to positively help society. I think there are a lot of people who want to do the same. Do they think their solutions offer spiritual transcendence? Probably not. Probably most of them are not even thinking about spiritual transcendence … and therein (for me) lies the heart of the matter; the heart of the problem.

    If they only knew what “good” really was …. if only ….

  58. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    Secularism (modernity) needs crises in order to justify its existence. It loves magnifying things into “existential crises.” A recent Pew Research study showed that most people (on the Left and the Right) incorrectly believe that the IPCC report on climate describes it as an existential crisis – that is – they think things are worse than they actually are. I don’t deny change…but I think that whatever change comes, we’ll not make much of a difference, and that we’ll mostly have to adapt (as human beings have done since the very beginning). Only modernity would imagine that it can manage the climate of the planet.

    Of course, electric stuff is also a mixed bag. Nothing is clean. Nothing is without environmental impact. The true existential crisis of our time (as always) is the health of our souls and how dangerous we have made the world for children.

    Of course, I remember the words of W.C.Fields: “The world’s a dangerous place. A man’s lucky to get out of it alive.”

  59. Owen Kelly Avatar
    Owen Kelly

    Matthew,
    It sounds like your brother is doing good work. Do we all need spiritual awakening? Of course. But his environmental sensitivity is laudable, in my estimation. It demonstrates a certain kind of maturity many Christians lack. We need his ecological mindset and the life of prayer, action and contemplation. I celebrate his practical ingenuity. I wish I had a little of it.

  60. Matthew Avatar
    Matthew

    Is climate change human induced or not??? If yes … then can´t we do something? If not … then you are correct, Fr. Stephen, it would probably be mad to think humans could manage it.

  61. Matthew Avatar
    Matthew

    Thanks Owen and Fr. Stephen.

  62. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    Matthew,
    I agree that human beings have played a role in our present climate change – though not to the amount or extent as some narratives seem to suggest. It is, I believe, also the case that there has been a concerted effort to keep a lively discussion and debate from taking place in the prominent journals – which suggests there’s more politics than science involved as well. I listen to a broad range of opinions. I am skeptical when science dampens debate. I am extremely skeptical when levels of public hysteria get involved – and we’ve had a lot of that over the past few decades across a number of topics and concerns.

    In certain parts of the world – particularly in the artic – the change over recent decades has been profound. The difficulty comes with the complexity of the problem. We absolutely do not have climate models (on super computers and such) that can describe with true accuracy what is taking place. The science is not “settled.” But, I suspect that for places like the artic, that are being radically impacted at present, there will have to be human adaptation rather than climate control. It’s a big planet.

    I try to avoid politics on the blog site – so I’ll not say much more on this topic. Forgive me if I’ve ruffled anybody’s feathers.

  63. Matthew Avatar
    Matthew

    Thanks Fr. Stephen

  64. Byron Avatar
    Byron

    He said the people sit in church and pray while the world is burning to the ground.

    This mindset always dumbfounds me. Prayer changes hearts–and we need that more than anything else. The practical work is always good; no argument there. But the prayerful, spiritual work is what actually brings real change, because it changes people. Just my thoughts.

  65. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    Byron, et al
    It’s always a false choice: either you’re out there “doing something” or you’re in Church praying. The actual facts are that active Christians do more charitable work outside the Church than non-Christians do at all. It probably has something to do with the heart – as you observe, Byron.

  66. Matthew Avatar
    Matthew

    Truth be told Byron, I only minutes ago shared my post about my brother-in-law with my wife and she claims he never said that. I am convinced he did say it. I guess I should ask him for clarification.

    Anyway … I heard this my wife heard that … I guess that´s one reason why we needed 4 Gospel writers ….. 🙂

    Thanks for the false choice comment, though, Fr. Stephen. Very helpful.

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