Page 65 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 10

ding” whereby a person knows that love is ulti- son, affect, will and relationships making them
mately victorious. They have not yet undergone means of grace. In the tradition of the Ortho-
the “change of mind” that consists in saying: I dox Church, the ascetical disciplines aren’t “ru-
am accepted by God; and what is asked of me is les for behavior and the evaluation of individu-
to accept the fact that I am accepted. That is the al character” rooted in authority or convention
essence of repentance (Ware, 47). and accepted “on utilitarian grounds” but “the
To summarize: The formation of conscience, dynamic response of personal freedom” to that
has only one goal: To accept with thanksgi- divine grace by which we are saved (Yannaras,
ving that I am loved and accepted by God. This 14–15). To put the matter simply, asceticism re-
transforms not only my own self-image but has forms us so that we become ever more willing
the potential to likewise change my relationship to center our life on God.
to the world of persons, events and things. This One brief qualification is in order before we
is because the same God Who loves and accepts proceed.
me also loves and accepts you. While asceticism is a necessary element in the
right formation of conscience, the classical spi-
The Ascetical Disciplines: The Path of Repen- ritual disciplines outlined here are not in and of
tance themselves sufficient. There is also an intellec-
Having seen something of the teleos of consci- tual and catechetical element to the formation
ence, we can now shift our focus and ask how, in of conscience—we must also know the Gospel
the pastoral practice of the Orthodox Church, and we must know moral right from moral
are we formed to grow in our openness and wrong. So, with that caveat, let’s conclude our
awareness of God’s love for us. Brugger (2009, conversation here with a very brief description
p. 5) argues that human nature is constituted by of each practice and how it opens the person to
“eight irreducibly distinct but interrelated an- God’s love (Jensen, xx-xx).
thropological facts.” We are “(a) bodily, (b) ra-
tional, (c) volitional, (d) interpersonally relatio- Prayer
nal, (e) substantially one, (f) created by God in For the tradition of the Orthodox Church, the
his image, (g) weakened personally and inter- personal and liturgical prayer are our entrance
personally because of sin; and (h) invited to be- into the life of the All-Holy Trinity. St. Augusti-
come a member of the body of Christ through ne in his “Letter to Proba on Prayer” (Groeschel,
faith and baptism.” 1995, p. 155) that God “knows what we need be-
Rooted in the last of these eight facts (the grace fore we ask him” and so there is no need for us
of baptism), and mindful that divine grace al- to tell Him “what we want.” After all Augustine
ways exceeds our apprehension of its work in says, God “cannot fail to know it.” So why does
our lives, I would identify four ascetical prac- God inspires to pray? So “that we may be able
tices (spiritual disciplines) as essential for for- to receive what he is preparing to give us.” And
ming conscience so that it serves a life of rep- what is it that God would give us? God would
entance: prayer, fasting, almsgiving and manual give us a “gift is very great indeed.” While God
labor. The first four dimensions of human na- gives us a wide range of created blessings, ulti-
ture that Brugger identifies are the context for mately the gift God give us is Himself. We—I—
ascetical struggle and so the ongoing transform need to pray because my “capacity is too small
of the constant flux of human life into an event and limited to receive it.” Through prayer we
of communion with God and neighbor. Asce- “spur ourselves on to deepen” our desire for
ticism functions in the life of the individual in union with God. Prayer, in other words, teaches
a manner analogous to the work of Christ for us to desire God more. Prayer also teaches us to
the whole family. Just as through His voluntary “desire unceasingly that life of happiness which
death, Jesus transforms the “instrument of death is …eternal” and to “ask … of Him Who is able
into a source of life” (Canticle Seven, Matins for to give it” to make us worthy of this life.
Sunday of the Veneration of the Holy Cross), so
too asceticism transforms the human body, rea-

63