Elder Proclu: How to Make a Good Beginning
Lord, help us to humble ourselves! Because if we humble ourselves, we escape the evil spirits and everything else. We don’t have humility–we don’t have anything.
Interview with Fr. Proclu Nicau
October 23, 2016
Is it difficult to be saved today, father? How can we find salvation in such troubled times?
Listen, the Holy Spirit helps us to the degree that we humble ourselves. And when someone wants to insult you, tell him: “May God forgive you.” That is, don’t insult him, but say: “Lord, may Thy will be done!” We gain salvation to the degree of our humility. I must pray for all: “Lord, forgive them! Lord, don’t punish them! Lord, save them!” And if I forgive, the Good God forgives me too. It is a great miracle to be able to forgive.
Don’t you see that the world today is troubled, that people don’t want to see each other? Oh, poor people, I feel sorry for them, because they’re our brothers and sisters. Lord, help them!
The world is very troubled because of the Council of Crete. Some no longer go to the Divine Liturgy, they no longer commemorate hierarchs…
We shouldn’t meddle in this. Lord, help us! Lord, don’t abandon us! We must only pray and forgive one another, and we escape this. There are some evil spirits that have troubled the world. We should go to our spiritual father as much as we can, and we will evade these spirits. We must forgive everyone and pray: “Lord, help everyone to go to Paradise, including me!” We must go to the Divine Liturgy and pray: “Lord, help everyone, everyone in the Church, to go to Paradise!”
We must seek to not create ruptures in the Church. We must forgive everyone; we must pray for everyone: “Lord, help him to come back to Paradise!” This is because we talked with our thoughts, and thoughts are demons. As much as we can, we must pray: “Lord, help everyone to reach Paradise, to reach the Church!” The Church is God’s.
As much as we can, we must pray: “Lord, enlighten his mind to return to the Church!” Lord, don’t abandon us! Lord, don’t abandon us! You’ve seen how some monks left their monasteries, and it is very bad. Woe is me! We must forgive everyone and pray: “Lord, help him to return to the Church.” The Church is God’s and we left the Church.
Father, how should we behave with people who have created trouble in the Church?
We need to forgive, otherwise he says something to me, and I say something back to him…Lord forbid! When we say: “he said it to me, so I have to say it to him”–woe is me, we must guard ourselves against such “have to’s.” We have to forgive everyone. God’s judgments are impenetrable to our mind, and we’re indebted to pray for our hierarchs: “Lord, help him reach Paradise! Lord, don’t abandon him! Lord, don’t abandon us!” That is why what happened happened, because we lacked humility. Everyone said: “He said something to me so I’ll say something back to him.” But if he said it to me and I didn’t say it to him, then something good happened.
We are weak people. As much as you can, stick to your spiritual father. We escape the evil spirits to the degree that we go to confession. We must confess as frequently as possible, we must forgive one another.
I pray to the Good God: “Lord, don’t punish them! Lord, don’t abandon us, help us to escape!” I pray for everyone to reach paradise, only for the demons to remain in hell, that’s it. That all reach Paradise, that we forgive everyone. And we must pray to the Good God to save us and them. If we pray, the Good God can change evil into good. Prayer is the way, and to say this in your mind: “‘l’ll say something to him, but not today–tomorrow. I need to humble myself, and if I humble myself, the Holy Spirit will banish those spirits.
We need to make a good beginning and we need to dodge the devil. If a bad thought comes, this is what I say: “May all your blasphemy fall on your head.” After this, I say: “Glory to Thee, O Lord, glory to Thee! Lord, banish these spirits that trouble our Church!” And then the Holy Spirit will banish those spirits. Evil spirits make you tremble in fear, but we must pray: “Lord, don’t abandon us! Lord, help us!” We must fall asleep in prayer, and when you wake up you must pray again, and then the spirits will flee and you won’t be afraid of evil spirits anymore. First, evil spirits come in thoughts, and they say that this person is like this, that person is like that–and then by talking we gather evil spirits upon ourselves. We must say: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us. Amen!” We must say this prayer frequently.
The greatest sin is when someone can no longer humble himself and blames the other person. We shouldn’t blame the other person, but we should say: “This happened because of my sins. This is happening because I have evil spirits.” When the devil urges me to say something about someone, that’s it, a great fear takes hold of me–Lord forbid! We need to confess and not blame anyone. Because this is why we have so many temptations, because we blame others, and if we blame others, our head hurts.
Lord, help us to humble ourselves! Because if we humble ourselves, we escape the evil spirits and everything else. We don’t have humility–we don’t have anything. The devil likes to talk with us, but we must keep our mouths closed and say this: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us!”
May God bring you into Paradise–and, as much as you can, pray!
Source:
Elder Proclu, File de Pateric [Pages from the Patericon] (Manastirea Sihastriei Putnei, 2018).