humility: Saint Dorotheus said: "The humble person does not
anger anyone, nor is he angered by anyone. " He does not make
anyone angry because he asks for the blessing and prayers of
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everyone. He is not angered by anyone because he always lays
the blame for everything on himself. Whoever is in this
situation lives in peace with all people. If he loses his humility,
he loses his calmness. Likewise, the humble person does not
lose his calmness because of running after desires, as he does
not see himself as deserving of anything and he does not want
to be raised above the situation which he is in already.
7.
The relationship between calmness, faith and
surrender: Whoever lives a life of faith, lives in peace,
surrendering his whole life to God, accepting everything in faith
from His loving hands, is not upset or annoyed by anything, ,
but rather is continually peaceful, saying with the Prophet
David: "Though an army may encamp against me, My heart
shall not fear." (Ps.27)
In faith he says, "All is for the best". If a problem surrounds him
he has faith that God will solve it, which is why his heart stays
calm. If troubles exhaust him, he says, "Their course will come
to an end," and his heart once again becomes calm.
In contrast to this is the person who is remote from the life of
faith and surrendering to God, whose thoughts tire him and who
never becomes calm. If problems occur they completely
exhaust him because he does not put before him the help that
comes from above. Those who do not live a life of faith try to
disturb other people's tranquillity by the harm and damage that
they bring upon them.
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8.
The connection between calmness and living with
God: How beautiful are the words of Saint Augustine in the
book of his confessions, when he addresses the Lord with this
beautiful, deep phrase: "Our heart is restless until it finds its
rest in you." This is because the source of the heart's
tranquillity is not the world, with its passions and desires, but
God alone. No one who lives far from God can live in peace,
his heart remains troubled as if stopped by the winds of his
desires, until he comes to know God and experiences the
sweetness of living with Him. Only then does he find calm and
peace, like a traveller on a troubled sea who reaches the port of
safety.
The Benefit of Calmness
In calmness, a person can think in a balanced way. With
calmness he can solve his problems, with no agitation or
confusion of thoughts. In calmness he can deal with people and
they accept his words. Generally speaking, the peaceful person
is loved by others. How beautiful are the words of Saint Peter
the Apostle: "the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet
spirit". (1 Pet.3:4) Calmness, then, is something which
beautifies the soul.
A life of calmness and quietness is a holy commandment to
which the Bible calls us. Saint Paul the Apostle said: "aspire to
lead a quiet life". (1 Thess. 4:11). The Bible also says:
"Calmness can lay great errors to rest". (Eccl.10:4).
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Even in practical matters of life, whatever is done calmly tends
to produce better results.
The Communion bread which is baked over a gentle flame turns
out perfectly, while that which they bake over a fierce flame
gets burnt on the outside and is underdone on the inside. In the
same way, any food that is cooked over a gentle flame turns out
better and is more beneficial to the health. In farming there is
the example of land which is irrigated gently.
In dealing with people, the calm way is more effective for the
soul and brings the right result. In contrast to this, forceful
methods bring bad reactions. We will talk about the benefits of
calmness in more detail in the coming chapters.
The Disadvantages of Lacking Calmness
The person who is not spiritually calm places the worries of the
world on himself, thus causing him many problems. He loses
his inner peace and experiences anxiety and mental frustration
because of the troubles involved. He may also experience
depression, sadness and confusion. As a result, he may become
afflicted with numerous illnesses such as mental fatigue. Loss
of peace causes nervous tension and this results in a person
losing his peace of mind. Each is a cause and effect of the
other. The person whose nerves are not calm does himself
harm, physically, emotionally and socially.
He changes his personality and loses other people's respect for
him. The teacher who is calm and firm is respected by his
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pupils. The one who rants angrily with threats, reprimands and
harsh words towards his pupils, loses their respect for him and
is not taken seriously by them. Whenever they want to provoke
him they can do so easily.
Likewise a mother who shouts loudly, scolds, yells, smacks and
threatens her children, imagining that by doing this that she is
bringing them up properly, instead makes her relationship with
them a constant row and struggle.
The person who is not calm loses his composure with other
people. He gets angry with them and they get angry with him.
If he loses his calmness and clashes with them, how easy it is for
them to react in the same way! He loses their friendship and
love and he may also lose their respect. He may be confronted
with their hostility and enter into bad relationships.
If he loses his calmness he may become noisy, unruly and start
creating trouble. He may become rebellious and rude. By
losing his peace, his internal confusion may also become
apparent externally with his behaviour appearing unbalanced.
Because he is not calm, the slightest word bothers him, the
slightest action of another provokes him.
He may have a desire for revenge, to defend himself, to prove
his existence, or to preserve his dignity, becoming agitated
without achieving any result, and thus clashing with others. The
calm person, even if provoked, replies calmly and wins the
situation as a result of his calmness.
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A person who is not calm loses in a conflict and mistakes are
pinned on him. Perhaps he is the one who was originally
wronged, but replying rudely or answering with the wrong reply
results in the situation being reversed. He becomes the
aggressor rather than the injured party!!
The calm person, however, even if the discussion gets
overheated, can calm it down. As the Bible says: "A soft
answer turns away wrath." (Prov. 15:1) and also: "The quiet
words of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouts of a
ruler of fools " (Eccl. 9:17). The person who is not calm is
prone to many errors, while the Bible says: "Calmness can lay
great errors to rest" also: "A wholesome tongue is a tree of
life," (Prov. 15:4).
We cannot calculate the damage and negative effects that result
from handling things with violence, forcefulness or tension. A
restless person might imagine that by expressing himself so
forcefully, he is expressing his masculinity and strength of
character!!
A forceful and aggressive approach does not in any way prove
masculinity or strength of character. The calm person is always
stronger because he is able to control his temper and
words, stronger also because he has risen above the level of
being easily provoked or incited, stronger because in his
calmness he is able to control the situation and think of a way of
solving the difficulty without getting upset. Thus the Apostle
says: "We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples
of the wear". (Rom. 15:1).
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What a deep stumbling block it is for children whose parents
quarrel. The house loses its calmness and the father and mother
are tense, perhaps they are abusive or fight each other. Each
wants to prove that they are stronger, that they are right, that
they can give as good an answer as the other. The result is that
they lose their children's respect because of the stumbling block
and bad example they represent. These parents also lose their
good reputation with the neighbours, who may start to say "that
is a house which has lost its peace"! Perhaps the following pages
will clarify in greater detail the negative effects of losing one's
calmness.
Examples of Calmness
The most outstanding example is God Himself, blessed be His
name. If only we could contemplate the tranquillity in which
God created the world and the peace the Bible speaks about in
the events of the Creation.
For example, the Bible says: "And God said, 'Let there be light',
and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He
separated the light from the darkness." (Gen. 1:3). This
wonderful event is conveyed by the simple phrase, "and there
was light".
The peace of God in the face of paganism and atheism is
something quite marvellous. There are those who deny the
existence of God or who worship stones and statues instead of
Him, yet no rebellion is raised in heaven against them. God
does not send down fire from heaven to burn them or destroy
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them. People blaspheme against God, but He is calm. Yet
these blasphemers remain alive to live and enjoy themselves, as
if nothing has happened.
Indeed, men seek their revenge against God, but God does not
seek to avenge Himself! God is leaving them all until the Day
of Judgement, and for now, he still offers them opportunities to
repent and return.
In fact, even more than this, the Bible says of God that He: "He
makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain
on the just and on the unjust." (Matt. 5:45), which means that
the wicked and the unjust enjoy his universal blessings too, just
as if they had not broken his commandments!!
How great is God's calmness also in his dealings with Satan!!
This evil being who opposes the Kingdom of God so violently
and with such indifference, trying with all his craftiness to keep
people away from God and to spread corruption on earth.
Nevertheless, Satan still exists. Although it has always been
within God's power to destroy him and wipe him out, God has
not done that. He confronts all Satan's disobedience calmly and
has left him on the principle of giving him his equal opportunity
to test the believers until he obtains his punishment on the Last
Day.
Sometimes the Devil goes too far and God calmly stops him
when he has reached the limit. He often removes Satan's evil
and trials far away from us, so calmly that we are not even
aware of it.
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Look at the stillness in which the miracle of the Incarnation was
performed. The Lord came to our world very quietly, not in a
procession of Cherubim or in the midst of psalms and hymns
from the angels, but in such quiet circumstances that Herod did
not realise it or know where he was to be found! Many people
on entering a place are preceded by their noisy fuss, they raise
their voices to indicate their arrival or call to others from here
and there.
Further, look at how quietly God performs miracles. Miracles
often happen in secret without anyone seeing and without God
announcing them, and people only learned of it later. So many
miracles have taken place which have not been written about in
the Bible, "if they were written one by one, I suppose that even
the world itself could not contain the books that would be
written." (John 21:25).
As an example of this there are the miracles which happened
during the visit of the Holy Family to Egypt, which were
performed quietly and not recorded in the Gospels. We only
know of a few of them that history has recorded.
Look also at heaven with its serenity, filled with the angels and
the saints. They are a wonderful example of calmness. All the
angels who are there carry out God's commands with amazing
swiftness and quietness. They have put before them the phrase,
"Thy will be done". The angels also work on earth with us and
around us, in such wonderful calmness that we may be unaware
of them and their actions. Even so, "Are they not all
ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will
inherit salvation?" (Heb. 1:14). In the same quiet way the
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saints work with us. They have learned serenity from the Lord
Jesus.
Reflect also upon the tranquillity of the Lord Jesus when he
lived as a man on earth, the calm replies he gave to his
adversaries among the scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, high
priests and elders of the people, and the remarkable calmness
with which he faced their challenges, insults and false
accusations. Look at how he replied to them objectively and
persuasively without rising at their hurtful words, when they
said to him, "Aren't we right in saying that you are a Samaritan
and demon-possessed?" Or when they said of Him that He was,
"a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and
sinners!" (Matt. 11:19).
What is more amazing still is the Lord's calmness during his
arrest. He waited calmly for that hour, and faced it calmly: both
inwardly and outwardly. He stood saying calmly to them,
""Whom are you seeking?" And when they replied, "Jesus of
Nazareth", He said, "I am He". On account of his extreme
composure the soldiers drew back and fell to the ground. (John
18:5-8)
Calmly he received the kiss of Judas the Traitor without hurting
his feelings in return. In fact He said to him, "Friend, why have
you come?" (Matt. 26:50).
All of Christ's behaviour at that critical hour was extremely
calm. He was concerned for the safety of his disciples and said
to the soldiers, "If you seek Me, let these go their way". (John
18:8). When Peter the Apostle wanted to use force and drew
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his sword and struck the servant of the high priest cutting off
his ear, the Lord charged him to preserve the peace saying, "Put
your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish
by the sword." (Matt. 26:52).
During His trial He was very calm "He was led as a lamb to the
slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He
opened not His mouth." (Is. 53:7). In the council of the
Sanhedrin they confronted him with accusations, "But He kept
silent and answered nothing." (Mark 14:61). Before him were
false witnesses whose testimonies did not agree. Before Pilate,
He was also very calm. He stood silent and when He spoke His
answers baffled the governor so that he said: "what evil has He
done? I have found no reason for death in Him." (Luke
23:22).
When Jesus was buried, he rose from the dead in such a
remarkable, quiet way, at an hour of which no one knew,
without any noise, without any announcement before the people
and without any outward show of greatness and power, that the
Jews even doubted his resurrection. Thus they spread rumours
that his disciples had come by night and stole his body (Matt.
28:13-15). What a wonderful thing?! We do not have the time
here, nor are we able to speak about all that took place so
quietly.
From the example of the Lord comes the calmness of the
martyrs during their martyrdom; remarkable calmness during
their arrests, during their trials and torture, in their periods of
imprisonment and at the hour of death. In fact, they used to
sing hymns and psalms in praise of God while in the depths of
prisons, just as Paul and Silas did when they were in the inner
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dungeon with their feet bound (Acts 16:24-25).
How did they face death in such total calmness and total joy?
Their stories which are long and have many aspects, give a
shining picture of tranquil spirits whose peacefulness was
derived from a deep faith in a better life after death, or perhaps
from visions and revelations which provided assurance to the
soul on its eternal course.
The stories of the tranquillity of the saints during their lives are
long and wonderful, but perhaps we can just present a few
examples of them here.
There was the peacefulness in which our fathers lived in the
desert, the wonderful tranquillity of nature, the stillness of the
soul within that they showed and the serenity of its thoughts
and contemplations. There is also the calmness with which they
faced the attacks of the Devils, without fear or distress. Also
the calm in which they conducted their lives, so that it was said
of them that they were 'earthly angels or heavenly humans'.
This was due to the excellence of the gentle way of life by
which they were characterised and the calmness of nature which
they showed by not rebelling or getting angry however much
external factors pressed upon them and however much they
were exposed to insults and false accusations.
How wonderful was the tranquillity of Saint Marina for
example, when she was accused of adultery - as a man - and of
having fathered a son from a young girl like herself! And how
she spent a period of repentance for a sin she did not commit,
all without the least complaint or grumble!
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Then there is the example of the saint whom they called AI-
Habila (ie foolish), in the days of the Saint Anba Daniel. How
she endured continuous insults with total serenity and joy as
though they were crowns upon her head.
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