Orthodox Life
Doctors all over the world celebrate their professional holiday, International Doctors Day, on October 2. We have collected sayings of the saints and elders of Athos on how to maintain health and overcome diseases.
1. “At the time when we surrender to Christ, then our spiritual body comes into a peaceful state, as a result of which all organs and glands begin to function naturally. They all depend on our structure. Then we recover, we stop suffering... This also happens in the case of cancer: if we place our care on God and our soul calms down, then Divine grace, coupled with this peace, can act in such a way that both the cancer and everything else go away. If you don't know, for example, a stomach ulcer occurs due to neurosis. Because the sympathetic nervous system is under pressure, compressed, and suffering, an ulcer forms. One, two, three, compression, compression, again, again, stress one, stress - stress - stress, and - pop... - Ulcer! Thus, either an ulcer or a cancer occurs, both of them depend on the nerves. When there is confusion in our soul, it affects the body and health is undermined.”
(Reverend Porfiry Kavsokalivit)
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2. “When we are sick with something, we had better give ourselves entirely to Christ. We need to think that our soul has a much greater need for patience and praise during pain than for a “steel” body, with the help of which we can perform great bodily feats.”
(Reverend Paisiy Svyatogorets)
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3. “One nun wrote to me that she was suffering and if she did not have an operation, she would die. I write saying exactly the opposite. She again writes that the doctor told her: if she does not perform the operation, in a few days there will be a perforation and finally death. I repeat: “Have faith, cast everything on God, prefer death.” She sends me a reply that the disease has reversed. Do you see? Thousands of times I have experienced this. When you put death in front of you and expect it every moment, it runs far away from you. When you are afraid of death, it constantly haunts you.”
(Reverend Joseph the Hesychast)
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4. “Medicine, my child, means poison. Don't think that medications always only bring benefits. They also cause harm. Why do we take medicine? Because we are sick. Why do we get sick? Because we're nervous. Why are we nervous? Because we sin. But if we allow Christ to dwell in our soul, then sin runs away, nervousness runs away, illness runs away and we throw away medicines...”
(Reverend Porfiry Kavsokalivit)
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5. “In what era were there so many sick people? People weren't like that in the old days. And now, no matter what letter I open that they send me, I am sure to encounter either cancer, or mental illness, or a stroke, or broken families. Cancer used to be rare. After all, life was natural. We are not talking now about what God allowed. The man ate natural food and was in excellent health. Everything was clean: fruits, onions, tomatoes. And now even natural food cripples a person. Those who eat only fruits and vegetables suffer even more harm because everything is contaminated. If it had been like this before, then I would have died at a young age, because as a monk I ate what the garden provided: leeks, marulas, ordinary onions, cabbage and the like, and I felt great. And now - they fertilize, spray... Just think - what do today's people eat!.. Mental unrest, food substitutes - all this brings a person illness. By applying science without reasoning, people destroy themselves."
(Reverend Paisiy Svyatogorets)
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6. “If you take more care of spiritual health, you will experience fewer physical illnesses. Don’t love to be treated, but love to study health.”
(Monk Simeon of Athos)
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7. “Do not ask God to ease your suffering from various illnesses; do not force Him to do this in your prayers. But endure your illnesses with constant fortitude and patience - and you will see what benefits you will receive from it.”
(Reverend Porfiry Kavsokalivit)
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8. “Seeing that a person can endure a serious illness, Christ gives him this illness, so that for a little suffering in life, an earthly person will receive a great reward in heavenly eternal life. He suffers here, but will receive a reward there, in another life, because there is Paradise, and there is reward [for sorrows].”
(Reverend Paisiy Svyatogorets)
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9. “Temptations, sorrows, sorrows, coming either from the devil, or from people, or excited by the world that we carry within us - all these are medicines, all this is sent by God’s Providence so that the mental health we have lost will return to us. The health of the soul and heart is dispassion, sinlessness, this is real holiness, which will pass with us into another world.”
(Elder Ephraim of Philotheia)
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10. “When the body is tested, the soul is sanctified. The body, our adobe house, suffers from illness, but the owner of this house - our soul - will forever rejoice in that heavenly palace that Christ is preparing for us. According to this spiritual logic, which is illogical for the people of this world, I also rejoice and boast about the bodily illnesses and defects that I have. The only thing I don’t think about is that I have to receive heavenly reward.”
(Reverend Paisiy Svyatogorets)
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11. “Bodily infirmities serve the many and varied purposes of the ineffable love of God. Here it is appropriate to recall the primitive popular opinion that illness is God’s punishment for sins, and health is a reward for virtues. But in reality it may be quite the opposite. Thus, very many saints are burdened with many bodily ailments, and many people living in sin and far from repentance never get sick. Of course, no one denies that a soul broken by sinful passions is fertile soil for the development of many bodily ailments, and vice versa; a peaceful soul filled with divine tenderness creates the necessary prerequisites both for its own healing and for bodily health. Nevertheless, the health of each person, which, like a sea wave, comes and goes, serves the pedagogical purposes of God, hidden from us, but revealed to His saints.”
(Reverend Porfiry Kavsokalivit)
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12. “One day a man came to us, who had spent many years in monasticism and lived in Switzerland. Since he had three serious and terrible and, moreover, incurable diseases. And he spent a fortune on medicine. <…> So, I told him that he would get well right away if he only believed that God could heal him. <…> ...he didn’t leave me and didn’t go away, but he didn’t want to believe it either. Until God helped and until he clearly heard a voice: “Why don’t you want to obey in order to get well?” And so he was freed. Because I asked him to eat the opposite - what he said he would die if he ate it - and put all my hope in God and, leaving knowledge, followed faith. And instead of ten times a day, as he ate, he ate once. God only needed three days to test him. And I prayed earnestly for him.”
(Reverend Joseph the Hesychast)
Prepared by Daria Malashina-Mazur
Foundation "Orthodox Heritage of Ukraine on Holy Mount Athos"
Don’t ask for earthly things.
You need to say for everything: “Glory to God!” We are unworthy to receive what the Lord sends us (hieroschemamonk Aristokliy, metochion of the Athos Monastery in Moscow) How to be saved? Some answer that we need to pray to God. And they don’t leave this circle. Meanwhile, the prayer of a passionate person will not save him. The only purpose of our life is to eradicate passions and replace them with virtues. We have all passions, but some to a greater extent and others to a lesser extent. We must determine what passion dominates us and arm ourselves against it. It is impossible to fight all passions at once - they will strangle you. Having conquered one passion, one must move on to eradicating another, and so on (Reverend Barsanuphius, Optina Pustyn) Do not judge your neighbor: you know his sin, but his repentance is unknown. In order not to judge, you must run from those who judge and keep your ears open. Let’s take the rules for ourselves: do not trust those who condemn, never speak ill of those who are absent. Let us remember the old folk sayings: “Whatever you condemn someone for, you yourself will remain in that,” “Know yourself, and it will be done with you” (Elder Simeon, Pskov-Pechersky Monastery) You should never ask the Lord for anything earthly. He knows better than we what is useful to us. Pray like this: “I surrender, Lord, myself, my children, relatives and neighbors to Your holy will.” The prayers of loved ones, mother, friend are especially powerful - they have great power (Reverend Seraphim Vyretsky, was the confessor of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra). Salvation is given only through awareness of sins and heartfelt repentance, as well as through patience with sorrows. If people knew what awaited them after death, they would pray to God day and night. Otherwise they think he’s dead and that’s the end of everything. Our life after earthly death is just beginning; through earthly suffering we earn Eternity. He who knows God endures everything (Reverend Theodosius of the Caucasus) Do not seek peace until death. A person is born not for peace, but in order to work and endure for the sake of the future life (peace). Here we are wanderers, strangers, and strangers have no peace in a foreign country. They move forward step by step in order to quickly reach their native fatherland - the house of God, the Kingdom of Heaven. Death is inexorable! Not a single rich man in wealth, not a hero in strength, not a king, not a warrior can buy off death. No one can take with them anything acquired by them. Naked man was born, naked and departs. Only faith and good deeds go with him into the future life, and no one will help - neither friends, nor relatives (Reverend Elder Sebastian of Karaganda)
