Irrational anger with priests

OrthodoxWanderer

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I know I have seen this issue discussed before in Orthodox literature but I can't find anything about it now. Becoming irrationally angry at one's priest. The little quirks of the priest or minor decisions he makes provoking overblown reactions.It is obviously demonic, I'm aware of that. I just would like to remember where I've seen this delineated or find new sources.
 

Ezana

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Apologies in advance—I’m formatting this on mobile.

I totally get what you mean, and it’s incredibly annoying. I find these words of St. Joseph the Hesychast to be an effective remedy to any complacency in my mind regarding these sorts of irrational and wicked thoughts. Granted, we’re not spiritual children to any elders of Athos; however, I think we can still apply the essence of his message to the relationships with our priests.


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Lukaris

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I often wondered if it was irrational anger at a priest that split the congregation of our parish back in the 1940s during WW II. There was no moral corruption ( except for ill will of some sort) & no archdiocesan bishop to oversee the conflict (only a metropolitan of all America then). I found icons the harassed priest gave to my grandfather (before the conflict erupted) which was sad in the overall outcome. My grandfather ( & others) left the Church over this having a negative effect on the diaspora & potential witness for Americans who might have become Orthodox.

Disobedience by layperson to their priest, bishop etc. and vice versa tears down what God wants us to build up. My grandparents also witnessed top down problems too ( thankfully nothing morally deviant but damaging to faith) like in the example of Aftimios Ofesh:

Aftimios Ofiesh - Wikipedia
 
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OrthodoxWanderer

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Apologies in advance—I’m formatting this on mobile.

I totally get what you mean, and it’s incredibly annoying. I find these words of St. Joseph the Hesychast to be an effective remedy to any complacency in my mind regarding these sorts of irrational and wicked thoughts. Granted, we’re not spiritual children to any elders of Athos; however, I think we can still apply the essence of his message to the relationships with our priests.


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Thanks so, so much for this!!! "Know full well that he who is not obedient to one, will be obedient to many [i.e. many passions], and in the end remains insubordinate" well that hit hard lol. I might actually get that book. Of course I'm no monastic but as you say, we out to regard our parish priests with the same feeling.
 
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SalemsConcordance

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"During a fast" doesn't surprise, my own passions are much worse when fasting! When my Priest helps me with a talk, or a meeting, I get much more judgemental about him for a few weeks nearly without fail - it is frustrating.

Priestmonk Fr Kosmas (of Australia and Orthodox Talks series) states this is the enemy putting thoughts into your head, and loves getting you away from people who care for your soul. Everyone has passions, so you need to ignore the thoughts, fight them / struggle with them, or confess the thoughts if they get too big (3 stages, ignore, fight, confess). "If you are reading or listening to something spiritual and get a stupid thought, ignore it - normally you won't even remember in 5 minutes."

Every Priest is a person, so has passions as well, and the enemy will put annoyances in your head. Even the annoyances are 'true' he still has the priesthood (same for Bishops, which I've been judgey on lately - Lord have mercy).

A nice story Fr Kosmas brings up is someone who was annoyed at his priest, or said 'well he said some weird things' (can't recall which Saint dictated this). In the example, the man had a dream, found stream of beautiful water in the forest, crystal clear and refreshing. Wanting to find the source of the stream / brook - he rounded a corner, found it emanating from a dead, diseased dog. He was disgusted, and an Angel appeared, said "it doesn't matter if the priest is 'a dead dog' they are still ordained with the prietshood." This is heavily paraphrased.

Also your phrase "obedience" is odd, I thought I was also under "obedience" to my local parish priest - because I was reading too many monastic books. When I brought it up, he laughed - "you aren't under obedience" and corrected some other stupid thoughts I was having. This is a monastic thing, so careful of that unless you have a explicit Spiritual Father / Obedience relationship, which someone else would need to time in. [Edit, this is still something I'm unclear on I guess]

I'm just a struggling catechumen, so YMMV
 
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OrthodoxWanderer

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"During a fast" doesn't surprise, my own passions are much worse when fasting! When my Priest helps me with a talk, or a meeting, I get much more judgemental about him for a few weeks nearly without fail - it is frustrating.

Priestmonk Fr Kosmas (of Australia and Orthodox Talks series) states this is the enemy putting thoughts into your head, and loves getting you away from people who care for your soul. Everyone has passions, so you need to ignore the thoughts, fight them / struggle with them, or confess the thoughts if they get too big (3 stages, ignore, fight, confess). "If you are reading or listening to something spiritual and get a stupid thought, ignore it - normally you won't even remember in 5 minutes."

Every Priest is a person, so has passions as well, and the enemy will put annoyances in your head. Even the annoyances are 'true' he still has the priesthood (same for Bishops, which I've been judgey on lately - Lord have mercy).

A nice story Fr Kosmas brings up is someone who was annoyed at his priest, or said 'well he said some weird things' (can't recall which Saint dictated this). In the example, the man had a dream, found stream of beautiful water in the forest, crystal clear and refreshing. Wanting to find the source of the stream / brook - he rounded a corner, found it emanating from a dead, diseased dog. He was disgusted, and an Angel appeared, said "it doesn't matter if the priest is 'a dead dog' they are still ordained with the prietshood." This is heavily paraphrased.

Also your phrase "obedience" is odd, I thought I was also under "obedience" to my local parish priest - because I was reading too many monastic books. When I brought it up, he laughed - "you aren't under obedience" and corrected some other stupid thoughts I was having. This is a monastic thing, so careful of that unless you have a explicit Spiritual Father / Obedience relationship, which someone else would need to time in. [Edit, this is still something I'm unclear on I guess]

I'm just a struggling catechumen, so YMMV
Yeah, obedience between monastics and their spiritual mother or father is something else. That's not what I'm referring to but I don't know what to call it besides obedience. Priest offers advice, recommendations and occasional corrections which his flock is expected to reasonably try to obey. As opposed to hearing his good advice and becoming secretly angry and judgy and keeping score...

Fasting most certainly brings out my passions! It is a lot of work.
 
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E.C.

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I know I have seen this issue discussed before in Orthodox literature but I can't find anything about it now. Becoming irrationally angry at one's priest. The little quirks of the priest or minor decisions he makes provoking overblown reactions.It is obviously demonic, I'm aware of that. I just would like to remember where I've seen this delineated or find new sources.
Forgive me if this isn't related,

But my old parish in WA was founded by former Eastern Catholics who initially started going to the Orthodox church, initially organized by St Sebastian of Jackson, because the priest charged less for baptisms than the local Eastern Catholic priest ($2 vs $5). Later on sometime after St Tikhon consecrated the church, there was a priest who was tied to a power pole by his own vestments for wanting to charge more than the usual $2.
 
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