Living Orthodox Elders

[Ioustinos]

Apart from Elder Ephraim of St. Anthony's in Arizona, who are some living Orthodox elders?

It seems as if many of the contemporary Elders (St. Paisios, St. Porphyrios, Elder Sophrony, Elder Iakavos of Evia, etc.) all left us in the 1990's.

 

[ArmyMatt]

A lot of the abbots and abbesses at his monasteries are very holy. Elders Joseph at St Nektarios and Paisios at St Anthony's, and Mother Olympiada at Holy Protection are all still alive. Here at St Tikhon's I would add Fr Daniel Donlick as well

 

[jckstraw72]

there's Fr. Ilie from Optina, and on Athos there's an Elder Gabriel- a spiritual child of St. Paisios

 

[gzt]

Well, there are some recently reposed people, confessors even, like Fr Roman Braga...

I think one of the things is that recognition of people tends to lag a little bit, perhaps rightly so.

 

[Ioustinos]

Does anyone else ever get discouraged by reading the lives of saints and elders?

Not due to their life but because people are blessed to come into contact with them and often many of their troubles are solved or lessened.

It can be discouraging to be struggling and looking for help and you read about someone being benefited from a 2 minute talk with an Elder.

 

[ArmyMatt]

Not for me, it just adds motivation for me to find one of them

 

[Ioustinos]

Not for me, it just adds motivation for me to find one of them

I guess my struggle is that I can't afford to travel to find one. I write letters instead but I never hear back (I even include return envelopes and postage).

I was able to go St. Anthony's earlier this year but was unable to see Elder Ephraim or Abbott Paisios. I had the blessing from my SF to go to St. Anthony's but when my parish priest found out I was visiting he became quite upset and in order to not cause problems I agreed not to see either Elder Ephraim or Abbott Paisios for confession. It was very hard for me to do but my wife really likes this parish and I didn't want to do anything to cause tension even though I disagreed with my priest's stance.

So I don't know what else to do and all my efforts so far have been failures. I'm kind of at an impasse

 

[jckstraw72]

seems to me that if your parish priest is ok with you having someone else as a spiritual father then he needs to let you be free to follow his spiritual advice ...

 

[Ioustinos]

seems to me that if your parish priest is ok with you c someone else as a spiritual father then he needs to let you be free to follow his spiritual advice ...

I don't know if he is okay with it per se. He just inherited the fact because my spiritual father is the one who baptized me and was my first parish priest. Even though we both had to move to different parts of the country we've kept that relationship. I'm not sure if my current priest would have allowed me to seek out another SF if I hadn't already had one. He may have but I'm not sure.

 

[~Anastasia~]

I will start a new thread, but that reminds me of a question I wanted to ask.

You have some particular issue I take it? I don't really know, of course, about any elders or anything. But I can sympathize with needing to look for an answer. Some months back I ran into an issue I couldn't sort out, and my priest couldn't either. He asked me to seek particular guidance, but there was no one readily available to help. To be honest, I did a lot of looking, and put myself "out there" quite a bit more than I'm comfortable with. I did get replies, sometimes, but they always stopped short of actually addressing the question. It was finally a friend of a friend who took pity on me and let me ask in detail, and finally put me in touch with someone he judged could help.

So if nothing else, I understand the difficulty in searching, though it was a short time for me. All I can offer are my prayers, such as they are, but you have them from now on, if you don't mind them.

I can say one thing I discovered. I don't recall the Saint the quote came from, but their advice if one was unable to find spiritual direction one needed, was to pray, and simply go to who is available, trusting God to speak through that person. Faith in God, they said, would provide what was needed. And I must say, I found that to be true. Maybe my faith wasn't even so strong, but perhaps the mustard seed works here. My priest listened to me, then said he wasn't comfortable helping with that and wanted me to find someone else. But then he said there were some things that came to mind, and he shared those with me, and those were the first things I needed to hear.

And to be honest, the person who is directing me now, is not someone I have heard of. Very possibly not someone others know about. But as it turns out, he has given me advice that has been beneficial in every case, even in things I thought I would never make progress on, and seems to have a way of anticipating questions and things I need to hear - all this in conversations that rarely last more than ten or twelve minutes. But he is not some famous sought-after special elder. And my situation was not a simple one. Yet still I receive good help from him, by the grace of God.

Sorry - I'm trying to be encouraging. I'm not sure if I'm managing. My point was that I never got to travel to meet any of those elders either, and may never get that chance. But I have help. How about - you have my prayers, and I sincerely hope you find what you need. God be with you!

 

[prodromos]

Does anyone else ever get discouraged by reading the lives of saints and elders?

Not due to their life but because people are blessed to come into contact with them and often many of their troubles are solved or lessened.

It can be discouraging to be struggling and looking for help and you read about someone being benefited from a 2 minute talk with an Elder.

You don't know how long they had to struggle before they finally met the elder. God's timing.

 

[Ioustinos]

I will start a new thread, but that reminds me of a question I wanted to ask.

You have some particular issue I take it? I don't really know, of course, about any elders or anything. But I can sympathize with needing to look for an answer. Some months back I ran into an issue I couldn't sort out, and my priest couldn't either. He asked me to seek particular guidance, but there was no one readily available to help. To be honest, I did a lot of looking, and put myself "out there" quite a bit more than I'm comfortable with. I did get replies, sometimes, but they always stopped short of actually addressing the question. It was finally a friend of a friend who took pity on me and let me ask in detail, and finally put me in touch with someone he judged could help.

So if nothing else, I understand the difficulty in searching, though it was a short time for me. All I can offer are my prayers, such as they are, but you have them from now on, if you don't mind them.

I can say one thing I discovered. I don't recall the Saint the quote came from, but their advice if one was unable to find spiritual direction one needed, was to pray, and simply go to who is available, trusting God to speak through that person. Faith in God, they said, would provide what was needed. And I must say, I found that to be true. Maybe my faith wasn't even so strong, but perhaps the mustard seed works here. My priest listened to me, then said he wasn't comfortable helping with that and wanted me to find someone else. But then he said there were some things that came to mind, and he shared those with me, and those were the first things I needed to hear.

And to be honest, the person who is directing me now, is not someone I have heard of. Very possibly not someone others know about. But as it turns out, he has given me advice that has been beneficial in every case, even in things I thought I would never make progress on, and seems to have a way of anticipating questions and things I need to hear - all this in conversations that rarely last more than ten or twelve minutes. But he is not some famous sought-after special elder. And my situation was not a simple one. Yet still I receive good help from him, by the grace of God.

Sorry - I'm trying to be encouraging. I'm not sure if I'm managing. My point was that I never got to travel to meet any of those elders either, and may never get that chance. But I have help. How about - you have my prayers, and I sincerely hope you find what you need. God be with you!

Thank you for sharing and for your prayers. It does become disappointing and you often feeling like a fool for opening up to so many in the hopes someone can have the answer.

 

[Ioustinos]

You don't know how long they had to struggle before they finally met the elder. God's timing.

I understand. It has been something I've dealt with for 10 years and after a while it becomes very difficult to keep from despairing and becoming despondent.

 

[MrJim]

I've thought it would be helpful if some monks/nuns (semi-hermits?) actually lived at local parishes...available whenever for counsel and confession...then the rest of the time would be their own...

 

[ArmyMatt]

I guess my struggle is that I can't afford to travel to find one. I write letters instead but I never hear back (I even include return envelopes and postage).

I was able to go St. Anthony's earlier this year but was unable to see Elder Ephraim or Abbott Paisios. I had the blessing from my SF to go to St. Anthony's but when my parish priest found out I was visiting he became quite upset and in order to not cause problems I agreed not to see either Elder Ephraim or Abbott Paisios for confession. It was very hard for me to do but my wife really likes this parish and I didn't want to do anything to cause tension even though I disagreed with my priest's stance.

So I don't know what else to do and all my efforts so far have been failures. I'm kind of at an impasse

not trying to find a loophole here, but going to talk to them is not the same as going to confession. have you thought of merely going for spiritual counsel?

 

[Ioustinos]

not trying to find a loophole here, but going to talk to them is not the same as going to confession. have you thought of merely going for spiritual counsel?

As I understood him they were one and the same. He told me that going to an "Ephraimite" monastery was spiritually dangerous and that I shouldn't talk to Elder Ephraim or Abbott Paisios.

I have written to both Elder Ephraim and Abbott Paisios for counsel but I haven't responded. I'm sure its mainly to their duties and the volume of letters and pilgrims they receive on a daily basis.

Next time if I go to St. Anthony's I won't tell anyone but my SF since he encourages me to go to monasteries. But I had to save several months and work overtime just to make my first visit to St. Anthony's happen so I doubt I will be able to return in the near future. This is why I stick to writing letters, but I understand it may be difficult for them to give counsel to someone they haven't met in person.

So I don't know what else to do but just wait and see. I've pretty much exhausted my list of persons whom I thought might be able to help, which is why I started this thread. But like I mentioned, after a while of contacting strangers and being very transparent with them you begin to feel like a fool - especially when you get no response at all.

 

[ArmyMatt]

counseling is just getting advice, confession is the sacrament. in fact, Elder Ephraim encourages folks that are not his spiritual children to confess to their confessors before coming to him. when I went to St Anthony's, while I went to confession with Elder Paisios, I did have a brief sit down with Elder Ephraim as well through two friends who are fluent in Greek.

 

[~Anastasia~]

Thank you for sharing and for your prayers. It does become disappointing and you often feeling like a fool for opening up to so many in the hopes someone can have the answer.

(BTW, I think Matt had a great answer.)

I DO understand the part about looking like a fool. I did it publicly on FB too many times (not all the details but enough to open conversations with various kind monks and priests - who then got some level of the details). It is difficult to feel foolish over and over and over. I often told myself I'd just shut up and stop asking, but the situation pressured me too much to let it go.

It is hard to get a reply from someone you contact "blind", and there are those who won't speak via messages to those they haven't met, or are just too busy.

I don't know if this can help at all. If you have a SF and he doesn't know anyone, I'm even less sure. But a certain degree of "networking" helped me. What I'm thinking is that perhaps the priest monks at many places might know elders/abbots who could help, but who might be less "famous". Not only that, but just maybe if you talk to them, they can sympathize with your problem and kind of put in a word with someone who might help?

Forgive me please if I'm out of line for saying that. I just don't like to think of you struggling for so long with a problem. Surely God is able to help.

Either way, you do have my prayers.

 

[St Herman's Ghost]

Bishop Ware?

 

[Ioustinos]

counseling is just getting advice, confession is the sacrament. in fact, Elder Ephraim encourages folks that are not his spiritual children to confess to their confessors before coming to him. when I went to St Anthony's, while I went to confession with Elder Paisios, I did have a brief sit down with Elder Ephraim as well through two friends who are fluent in Greek.

I understand the difference. The problem was that the trip was a big deal with my current parish priest. He does not allow his spiritual children to visit Elder Ephraim's monasteries. My wife likes this parish (it's the only one in the area that serves liturgy in English entirely) and so I didn't want to cause problems that may have made it necessary for us to attend a different parish.

Perhaps I shouldn't have cared since I had the blessing of my SF but I didn't think it would be beneficial to create tensions and hurt my wife's spiritual growth.