The Hard Sayings of Christ & His Saints: How Should We Respond?

This extended podcast seeks to address the teachings of our Lord and His Saints that have the potential to create a stumbling-block on our spiritual path, and how we can view them in the context of the relationship with the spiritual father and our individual path of purification.

Our review will include the command to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, of adultery including lust in one's heart, and of the many references to the narrow path, ascetic self-denial, abstinence and fasting which seem offensive or overly restrictive to modern man, as well events from Acts, Church history and the lives of the saints which some find hard to accept.

Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? (Jn 6:60)

Beholding herself in chastity, the holy one spake boldly unto Gabriel: The strangeness of thy words seemeth hard to my soul to receive;
(The Akathist Hymn to the Theotokos)

References from this lecture:

‣ St. Mark the Ascetic — On the Spiritual Law: 200 Texts, #124
‣ Eat My Body - Drink My Blood — John 6: 47-69
‣ The Divine Apostle Paul: Impiety & No Fear of God Brings Sickness and Death — 1 Corinthains 11: 28-32; ONT trans.
‣ Saint John Chrysostom Commentary on Impiety & No Fear of God Brings Sickness and Death — Hom. 28, P.G. 61:251 (cols. 233-4)
‣ St. Cyprian of Carthage: Outside of the Church There is No Salvation — ST CYPRIAN, LETTERS 74.11.
‣ St. Gregory the Theologian: Respect the Holy Days and Fasting Periods — Patrologia Graeca (PG), Vol. 37, p. 1542. St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Letter to a New Bride
‣ St. Seraphim of Sarov: One Who Does Not Fast Is Not A Christian — From a sermon of Metropolitan Philaret, quoted in The Ladder of Divine Ascent, pub. Holy Trinity Monastery, Pg. xxxiii.
‣ Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou: Fasting is for Our Benefit and Cleansing — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw-XMLxbdMA&t=499s
‣ Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica (Serbia): Abstinence is for Everyone — From Thoughts Determine our Lives, St. Herman of Alask Brotherhood Press, Platina, CA., p. 85.
‣ St. Ambrose of Optina: Honor for Holy Days in Marital Relations — Letter 105 to laypeople, letter to a Roman Catholic: https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Amvrosij_Optinskij/perepiska-s-mirskimi-litsami/#0_105
‣ Venerable Saint Finnian, Abbot of Clonard: Ancient Western Witness to Common Patristic Outlook — The Penitential of St. Finnian Medieval Handbooks of Penance, p.96
‣ St. Porphyrios of Kafsokalyvia: On Marital Relations — From a forthcoming publication by the diocese of Morphou, which will be distributed by Uncut Mountain Press
‣ Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou On the Consequences of Unnatural Relations — https://youtu.be/RYRt9eX3Bd4?si=9Ra2Ou-ggyf1k4ny
‣ Saint Paisios the Athonite On Marital Relations and Spiritual Struggle — Spiritual Counsels 4: Family Life, p. 67, footnote 4
‣ On the Spiritual Laws — Elder Hadji-Georgis The Athonite (1809-1886)
‣ St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite: Fasting: Abstain from Weddings and Intercourse — Footnote 98 of St. Nikodemos in The Rudder
‣ Canons of St. John the Faster: Commentary by St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite — Canon 22 of St. John the Faster in The Pedalion, repeated in The Exomologetarion of St. Nikodemos, footnote 241 (same canon.)
‣ St. Seraphim of Sarov On Marital Relations — An Extraordinary Peace: St. Seraphim of Sarov (p. 186)