Moderation and the Royal Path

The other night I googled "royal path" just to see what is out there. What I found is that a lot of Orthodox use that term without knowing what it means. And a lot of Orthodox imagine themselves to be on the royal path when they are not.

Much of the confusion seems to come from confusing the Holy Fathers' teaching of moderation in all things to be synonymous with 'royal path'. So somebody who is not overly strict with themselves, but not overly lax either, might consider themselves to be on the royal path. They stress moderation in all things, whether it be fasting, prayer, church attendance, almsgiving, entertainments, socializing, shopping, exercise, etc.

This is a pitfall. Using moderation does not cause us to be on the royal path. Moderation is a characteristic of the royal path. And using moderation is first a result of being on the royal path.

This pitfall can lead to an Orthodox person deciding for himself what is moderate. On the royal path we submit to what the Holy Church teaches. Our Church has already defined what is moderate. In fasting, for example, the Church has already defined the rules of how to fast moderately. If there is a desire to fast more strictly, or if there is a medical need to relax the rules, we need a blessing from the Church [through our spiritual father] to do this.

While the Church may modify the rules of fasting for an individual in certain circumstances, a jurisdicition [church] is not permitted to change the rules of the Church for itself or its flock. The rule of the Church is the consensus of the Holy Church Fathers of all generations including today's generation. It does not change using the excuse that "today" things are different. There is nothing new about "today".  Any jurisdicition that deviates from this consensus is not on the royal path, no matter what they claim.

The Holy Fathers have defined every aspect of Church life including how a jurisdiction is to be formed.  Many of the jurisdicitions in the political extremes [left wing and right wing] were formed improperly, so their very canonicity is imaginary.  The results are tragic worldliness, cancerous fragmentation, and spiritual starvation.

If a newcomer finds himself in one of these extremes, he can know this: it is the royal path that produces saints. But the saints [Holy Fathers] are accessible to all Orthodox, including our brothers in the extremes. The right wing says that the left wing is heretical and therefore outside the church and graceless. The left wing says that the right wing is uncanonical, schismatic and outside the church. The royal path sees the extemes are in the Church, but suffering from grievous spiritual disease. For this we recognize they need our prayers all the more and not our condemnation . This is the royal path, the way of the saints.

Just what exactly is this "royal path"?

Just what exactly is this "royal path"?

The Orthodoxy Church is divided into areas or JURISDICTIONS. Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox, etc. From the beginning of Christianity it was so. St. Paul wrote letters to the Church in Corinth, the Church in Ephesus, Galacia, etc.

Unfortunately and shamefully, today there are political divisions, also. So in a given area we could see the Church divided into LEFT WING and RIGHT WING with each division operating as a separate "JURISDICTION". The royal path is neither to the left nor to the right. And in some areas the "ROYAL PATH" is completely squeezed out by these political extremes, The royal path is the way of the Holy Fathers, as Fr. Seraphim shows us in his writings.

The largest political division is the LEFT WING. All new calendar churches are left. But an Old Calendar church could be either left or right.

To be exact: The royal path has 4 Churches: The Greek Synod In Resistance, the Old Calendar Romanians, the Old Calendar Bulgarians, and the Russian Church Abroad under Metropolitan Agafangel.

In the left wing the newcomers usually are told to "Stay out of politics". In the right wing they are often steeped in politics. In the royal path, though, we ask our newcomers just to be aware these divisions sadly exist and to expect to develop, in time, a spiritual discernment of the royal path. In reading lives of saints things have a way of falling into place.

Orthodox who are raised strictly in either the left wing or the right wing, usually fail to develop the ability to recognize the royal path. The left sees it as right wing. And the right sees it as left wing. lf a newcomer keeps in mind that the royal path does exist and keeps an eye out for it, eventually he will start discerning it. There is no rush. Orthodoxy is a wonderful journey. The discoveries are never-ending. It is quite OK to savor each delightful step. Things come in God's time.

http://startingontheroyalpath.blogspot.com/2009/08/royal-path.html

http://rocorrefugees.blogspot.com/2009/12/inside-view-royal-path.html

Lives Of Saints Not Completely Safe?

Generally we should be able to expect that a newcomer could freely read any and all Lives of Orthodox Saints found on the internet or elsewhere. And basically this is true. I would only want to warn that the left wing has been very selective in which lives they offer in their stores and libraries. They tend to overlook saints who were against the liberal innovations they use. An example is that they ignore the saints who fought against the new calendar. Or they will overlook certain things about certain saints, such as St. Seraphim of Sarov's Diveyevo Mystery [19th century].

The right wing is good about including these Confessors who speak out against heresies, and about including Prophets who teach about the antichrist; but they tend to distort a saint to their right wing advantage. An example is St. Philaret [†1985] who held a private opinion that supports their ideas, so they present St. Philaret's opinion as if it were a canonical law. The left wing has done their share of distorting, too - recently with St. John Maximovitch [†1966]. They took something he did totally out of context and used it to justify a false union with Moscow.

A newcomer should be safe reading any and all lives of Orthodox saints, if he is aware of these tendencies of the extremes and aims to keep one foot on the solid ground of the royal path. Also it best to stick to Orthodox sources [not Roman Catholic, even for pre-schism saints], and to aim for a variety of types of saints: ascetics, confessors, martyrs, theologians, prophets, monastics, laymen, from different countries and all centuries including our most recent saints such as St. John Maximovitch 1966†, St. Philaret 1985†, and contemporary uncanonized righteous such as Jose Munos 1997†.

Should We Compete For Converts?

How can the Royal Path compete for converts?  We have so little and the OCA has so much!

A person is brought to the Orthodox Church by God.  Not by us.  It is by the person's will, their determination and with God's help that any one enters the Church.  There is nothing we can do to cause a person to become Orthodox.  If a person is being guided by heaven, and possesses the necessary determination, there is nothing we can do or fail to do that would change their course..

Such a person is brought into the fold only through his love for God and Truth.  However, somebody who is also seeking "churchy" benefits and/or protestant ideals, will naturally be drawn to the OCA.  And then there is nothing we can do.  Let them go.

This NEWCOMER'S PAGE on this STARTING ON THE ROYAL PATH BLOG is for us.  So that we have something to give someone who might ask direction of us.   Something we can give them with a clear conscience.  We can't send them to the nearest OCA church with a clear conscience.

Books By/About Fr. Seraphim Rose

Go to http://www.sjkp.org/ and type "Fr. Seraphim Rose" in the SEARCH BOX. Then click on GO.

The St. Herman Press, of the Platina Monastery, Fr. Seraphim's monastery, also sells retail, and may have additional titles.

Platina was in the Royal Path prior to Fr. Seraphim's death in 1982. After that Platina monastery left the Royal Path and ended up joining World Orthodoxy [the "left wing"] in 2001. Since then Platina has come to believe and to put forth the idea that Fr. Seraphim would approve of this and that he was headed for World Orthodoxy himself before he died. They rewrote Fr. Seraphim's biography partly, but not entirely, to reflect this new belief.

The original biography was published in 1993:

NOT OF THIS WORLD

The Life and Teaching of Fr. Seraphim Rose

Pathfinder to the Heart of Ancient Christianity

The rewrite was published in 2003

FATHER SERAPHIM ROSE

His Life and Works

The original is no longer in print. The rewrite is better in many ways. I own a copy of each. If I had to give one up, it would be the rewrite.

Everything written or co-written BY Fr. Seraphim Rose is going to be before he died in 1982. He knew his time was short so he published the important things first. As for things written or emphasized ABOUT Fr. Seraphim after his death, these can draw a fuzzy picture. Some writings published after his death, he may have never intended to have published. The book, Letters, for example, is a collection of personal guidances and encouragements that Fr. Seraphim gave to one man considering only that man's particular spiritual needs and spiritual condition. While the letters might be helpful to others, it is best to keep this in perspective. His writings to "all" were intended for everyone, and give a clearer picture not just of his teachings, but also of his self. Far worse, is that there is even a book somewhere out there written by a non-Orthodox about Fr. Seraphim's pre-baptism sins.  Out of love and respect for the righteous man Fr. Seraphim became and gratitude for his writings, I would not read that book.

Other wonderful books of immeasurable spiritual value are the Optina Elder series which Fr. Seraphim labored greatly to make available to us. Type "Optina elders series" in the search box at SJKP.org