Maxims for the Spiritual Life

Maxims for the Spiritual Life

     For those few of you who enjoy reading my Orthodox blogs—a lot of folks read my strength-training blog; not so many my other two—please forgive my long delay in Orthodox blogging.

     One of the reasons for my lack of posts on Blue Jean Theosis is because I want to make sure that I actually have something to say.  I love Orthodox spirituality—and the great joy of my life has been my entrance into the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church—and I would love to do more writing on Orthodox hesychastic spirituality and its intersection with modern life, but I have often felt that my writing fails to capture the essence of my thoughts, and not just the essence of my personal thoughts, but also the “fragrance” or mindset of the Holy Fathers of the Church.  (Along a similar vein, I must confess “despondency” as my greatest sin, or at least the one I’m most frequently aware of, for we must confess our sins committed not just in “knowledge” but in “ignorance” as well, as the Divine Liturgy so often reminds us.)

     Having said that, I hope this is the first of what will be a more continual line of posts, even if the posts are rather short.  Although I often feel as if I don’t have much to write about from a unique perspective, perhaps there are those of you who will find some comfort and solace from what I have to say, even though it comes from such a broken person such as myself.  (For more on “brokenness” see my previous post “Paradox and Mystery”.)

     Earlier this morning—I’m currently “snowed in” from work even though I live in Alabama, which means I’ve had the luxury this morning of surfing the internet—I came across these 55 “maxims for the spiritual life” from Father Thomas Hopko.  Father Hopko is the Dean Emeritus of Saint Vladimir’s Seminary, and apparently this is a much-published, much-read series of maxims, but I had never seen them before until I came across them on Father Stephen Freeman’s “Glory to God for All Things” blog, so perhaps others have not read them either.

     If we were to focus on these basics each year, each week, each day of our lives, we would surely be on the road to salvation.  With that being said, here they are:

1. Be always with Christ.


2. Pray as you can, not as you want.


3. Have a keepable rule of prayer that you do by discipline.


4. Say the Lord’s Prayer several times a day.


5. Have a short prayer that you constantly repeat when your mind is not occupied with other things.


6. Make some prostrations when you pray.


7. Eat good foods in moderation.


8. Keep the Church’s fasting rules.


9. Spend some time in silence every day.


10. Do acts of mercy in secret.


11. Go to liturgical services regularly.


12. Go to confession and communion regularly.


13. Do not engage intrusive thoughts and feelings. Cut them off at the start.


14. Reveal all your thoughts and feelings regularly to a trusted person.


15. Read the scriptures regularly.


16. Read good books a little at a time.


17. Cultivate communion with the saints.


18. Be an ordinary person.


19. Be polite with everyone.


20. Maintain cleanliness and order in your home.


21. Have a healthy, wholesome hobby.


22. Exercise regularly.


23. Live a day, and a part of a day, at a time.


24. Be totally honest, first of all, with yourself.


25. Be faithful in little things.


26. Do your work, and then forget it.


27. Do the most difficult and painful things first.


28. Face reality.


29. Be grateful in all things.


30. Be cheerful.


31. Be simple, hidden, quiet and small.


32. Never bring attention to yourself.


33. Listen when people talk to you.


34. Be awake and be attentive.


35. Think and talk about things no more than necessary.


36. Speak simply, clearly, firmly and directly.


37. Flee imagination, analysis, figuring things out.


38. Flee carnal, sexual things at their first appearance.


39. Don’t complain, mumble, murmur or whine.


40. Don’t compare yourself with anyone.


41. Don’t seek or expect praise or pity from anyone.


42. We don’t judge anyone for anything.


43. Don’t try to convince anyone of anything.


44. Don’t defend or justify yourself.


45. Be defined and bound by God alone.


46. Accept criticism gratefully but test it critically.


47. Give advice to others only when asked or obligated to do so.


48. Do nothing for anyone that they can and should do for themselves.


49. Have a daily schedule of activities, avoiding whim and caprice.


50. Be merciful with yourself and with others.


51. Have no expectations except to be fiercely tempted to your last breath.


52. Focus exclusively on God and light, not on sin and darkness.


53. Endure the trial of yourself and your own faults and sins peacefully, serenely, because you know that God’s mercy is greater than your wretchedness.


54. When you fall, get up immediately and start over.


55. Get help when you need it, without fear and without shame.