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What do Orthodox faithful need to hear and learn? Perhaps it’s our wildly pluralistic, secular culture, but this question has been increasingly difficult for me as a priest to answer. St. Paul told the young Corinthian church that “I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able” (I Cor. 3:2). One can almost hear a faint sigh in the Apostle’s voice. But time and again, we realize that we — all of us, really — need to go back to the basics of our life in Christ. In this return, we are given immense help by Father Evan Armatas, a priest of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese and pastor of a thriving parish in northern Colorado, in his lovely book, Toolkit for Spiritual Growth: A Practical Guide to Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving.
Certainly, most of us know about prayer, fasting, and almsgiving; we might be tempted to pass by such a book. However, Fr. Evan has built a beautiful bridge connecting these ancient aspects of our Orthodox spiritual life to our particular day and lifestyles. And, in this, his book is immensely valuable.
One of the challenges facing any Orthodox Christian today is the way any sort of spiritual discipline or ascetical activity is understood. Father Evan, in his Introduction, frames these labors of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving as, in fact, things that free us. As we consider the things we love in this world — the things that drive us and shape our decisions and lives — we begin to see that we are trapped by our own disordered desires and loves. Naming many such things, Father Evan offers to us the classic labors of following Christ and elegantly declares that “these spiritual disciplines liberate us. They free us from a disfigured way of life.” As St. Paul wrote, Christ is the divine “yes,” and not “no” (2 Cor. 1:19). Our liberation from sin and the passions — our Exodus — is a crucial and uplifting perspective. It reflects the teachings of the fathers, and it properly reframes spiritual disciplines as gift, not burden.
Regarding prayer, Fr. Evan offers us a strong word on why we Orthodox have set prayers and prayerbooks. He begins with our Lord Himself: He is our eternal High Priest (Heb. 7:17), which is precisely a liturgical office. Because our own prayer life is rooted in our own priesthood in Christ, those prayers are also done in a set and liturgical way. “Winging it” is not priestly. Of course, there’s a place for us speaking to God in our own words, Fr. Evan assures us. In fact, our set prayers liberate us from the trappings of our own fragmented hearts. Further, Fr. Evan lays out the other vital aspects of our prayer lives in our homes, such as having our own prayer corner. In addition, we are reminded about the necessity of physical actions in prayer, especially in doing prostrations and making the sign of the Cross. It is a refreshingly frank yet eloquent discussion; in this regard, one of Fr. Evan’s favorite phrases is “Matter matters.” This is “the physical side of spirituality,” of which Fr. Peter Gillquist of blessed memory wrote back in the 1980s. Prostrations, prayer books, holy icons, candles — these keep the Gospel in our world and deliver us from an overly spiritualized, disembodied spirituality. And this, of course, connects our own personal prayer life with the prayers of the Church’s services.
When discussing almsgiving, or “works of mercy,” Father Evan is adamant from the start that our activity of almsgiving should be as personal as possible. Of course, giving money to help the poor is wonderful, but true almsgiving really means giving of ourselves to real people. This is what the Parable of the Good Samaritan depicts: loving “hands-on” care of a victim of violence. To this emphasis on personal works of mercy, Fr. Evan also weaves in the Parable of the Last Judgment in Matthew chapter 25. Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and visiting the prisoner are concrete, personal actions of love that, in the end, are done to our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Another valuable aspect of Fr. Evan’s discussion is how each one of us can begin to cultivate our lifestyle of concrete, loving acts towards others. This is wonderfully practical; we are urged to “create space” in our lives in which our loving, face-to-face outreach to others can grow. As we do in prayer, so we do in almsgiving.
Last, Father Evan develops our call to fasting as a liberating spiritual discipline. He helps us to see that fasting has to be appropriate to our particular situations and health. However, Father Evan urges us to get outside our comfort zones as we heed our Lord’s call to fast.
Father Evan helps us to see fasting not simply as the deprivation of something we like to eat, but rather as something the “builds our spiritual muscles so we become able to conquer the tougher passions.” Again, we learn that “Matter matters!” This strong biblical and spiritual foundation for the “why” of fasting is so helpful when our culture is awash in messages of self-indulgence. This is at the heart of fasting: a deliverance from a compulsively “self-conducted, self-inflicted enslavement to our physical appetites.” Fasting is a chief way to reordering our desires and loves, liberating us from their lordship and mastery over our lives.
Father Evan goes on to describe how creating a space in our lives for fasting by following the church year is another way of harmonizing our lives with God’s creation. In all these, Father Evan provides an approachable engagement with Holy Scripture and the foundations of fasting found in the historic Christian Faith.
Our Church fathers and mothers often beckon us with the call “to make a beginning.” No one, even those advanced in Christ, is above this. Clearly, returning to the first principles of our life in Christ is a joyful renewal of the Gospel in us. It’s of interest that St. Peter — like St. Paul — also wrote of the returning to the basics in terms of mother’s milk, yet in a more encouraging manner. “Like newborn babes, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation” (I Peter 2:2). Great Lent is actually this sort of thing, too: renewing and refreshing our walk in Christ. What was once the last spiritual sprint of catechumens for the baptismal font is our own renewal of our “beginning.” This is what Father Evan’s lovely book, Toolkit for Spiritual Growth: A Practical Guide to Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving, is all about. It is a wonderful way to rediscover and partake of the “pure spiritual milk” of the disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. I highly recommend it. In addition, this book has a lovely study guide available online: https://fatherevanarmatas.wixsite.com/home/resources
This would make a fine group or church-wide read.
The Diocese of the West is the geographical district of the Orthodox Church in America consisting of the Western United States. The diocese has active parishes in Montana, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, California and Hawaii. San Francisco is home to the diocese’s cathedral, Holy Trinity, as well as the Chancery offices. The diocese is led by His Grace Vasily, Bishop of San Francisco and the West.
