New Confessor Julian Stoicescu: The Road to the Inner Jerusalem
In commemoration of his falling asleep in the Lord on Sep 30, 1996
Abba Julian the Pure in Heart
by Dr. Gandu
Look how we spiritual children were breathless because our benefactor, called to the Lord, remained in our heart–his words full of spiritual substance and benefit, which each of us will have to tirelessly put into practice, carved with letters of spiritual fire.
We inscribed in our affective memory, with fiery gratitude and love, many of his simple yet life-giving words. Look at a dialogue recorded ad litteram on February 22, 1996–a dialogue which we believe those who have found the road to the inner Jerusalem, and those who battle to find it because they sense its secret, life-giving place within themselves, will appreciate alike:
–How are you, dear Father?
–With joy from deep within and hope for the better.
–Father, what depth is deeper: the one from the heights of the depths, or the one from the depths of the heights?
-Both, son; both are equally deep and high, and holy joy sustains both of them.
–Father, how can we recognize this holy joy without being mistaken?
–From its unending peace. May God preserve the grace of divine joy with the heart in light, brother!
–Amen. Amen. Amen. Your blessing, Father.
Abba Julian, the tower of the living light of Orthodoxy, of whom the priest Abba Dumitru (Stăniloae) the theologian and defender of Orthodoxy said that if our nation had ten priests like him, the entire Romanian people would be resurrected; the one who lived, thought, worked, and preached the way of the Lord, like the Abbas of the Patericon.
A blameless heart and chosen vessel of God, an awe-inspiring knowledge of the state of the soul that came for confession; a brief, concise expressiveness, yet full of realism; a clear sight rarely encountered (you could come to Abba Julian with the most delicate problems and it seemed like they dissolved miraculously in the flame of his spiritual, incandescent love).
A healthy, subtle humor that freed one from useless tension and stubborn-mindedness; a unique ability to immediately sense the essence of your turmoil and then, at the end of the confession, ask seemingly simple yet overwhelming questions: “Do you forgive those who wrong you? And if you forgive them, do you desire with all your heart to receive the Holy and Divine Sacrament of communion with the Holy Body and Precious Blood of the Lord?” Then followed absolution, repeated with secret calculation, wisdom, goodness, and overwhelming humility; the power of his prayers heard by God directed many souls to his confessional chair.
People of all strata of society, on all rungs of life, of all ages–laypeople, priests, monks, people with little education, people with solid and exceptional studies–came to him, all drawn to the inner Sun of his spiritual love and uninterrupted, healing service and the example of his exemplary Christocentric life.
To the delicate question of a spiritual child as to whether he felt tired (he had reached 85 years), he responded: “And if I am tired, does it help in any way for me to acknowledge it?” He loved people so much that he came to be, living compassionately-dispassionately, a permanent point of reference for his spiritual children. His teaching was simple, direct, overpowering in its naturalness. Everything was clear in his presence; and we named him “pure in heart” because our intuition makes us believe that, in a secret manner, he fulfilled many of the Beatitudes, of which this one as well: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
He loved his family with a bright love, and he loved his spiritual children with tender love, and he loved his enemies with unshakeable love, praying for them steadfastly–although those of us who loved him, each in his own way, could not quite understand how someone could not love Abba Julian!
His living theology was essentially active. Abba Julian, as a perfect fisher of souls, carried our cross and encouraged us to do the same for others, until, being strengthened, we could carry it on our own.
At his passing to the eternal [resting place]–because in a visible way, it is a passing that is announced–Saint John of Damascus’ words are fitting: “Death, death, it would be better for us to call you life!”
Abba Julian would regularly repeat a saying from his father to us: “Better tomorrow, today without trouble.”
For Abba Julian, the eighth day arrived finding him prepared, with the undying candle of love lit, that is, as it is best.
Therefore, with the mercy of God, on bended knees before this pure, wise soul and greatly tested servant of the Lord, we spiritual children thank him for all of his sacrifice and ask him to guide us in continuation, because we firmly believe that Abba Julian, having acquired holy boldness in the victorious Church, will save us with his prayers of fire. In one of the last confessions he heard, he told the spiritual child: “I have been thinking much about what Abba Paisius [Olaru] the long-suffering from the Holy Monastery of Sihastria said: ‘If I leave now, what response will I give our Lord Jesus Christ Who is glorified in Trinity? Maybe I sometimes absolved sins too easily, maybe other times too slowly.’ May the mercy of God be with you all.” And when the spiritual child asked for an icon as a gift, he covered the spiritual child with kisses full of holy joy, as a child giving his first gift to someone!
This gesture, of an ancestral simplicity–I would say archetypal—shook us profoundly, because in a flash of our lowly consciences, we realized that a living image of divine glory lived before our eyes whom we had the privilege of knowing without mediation, of listening to him, touching him, of seeing him glow in his unique, inimitable, perfect and perfecting way!
Source: Un preot de foc: Prarintele Iulian, ed. Costion Nicolescu (Bucuresti: Editura Bizantina, 2000), p. 193-197.
I remember well Fr Iulian's smile and his warmth.