St Justin Popovich: To acquire the capacity to see into his own soul, a man must first open his heart to grace...
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Lessons by our Holy Fathers
To acquire the capacity to see into his own soul, a man must first open his heart to grace. “To the extent that souls are impure or darkened they can see neither themselves nor others.”
Insight will come “if a man purifies his soul and brings it back to its primal state.” “He who desires to see God within himself must strive by constant recollection of God to purify his heart; and thus, with the light from the eyes of his mind, he will see God at every hour. As it is with a fish out of water, so it is with an intellect that has turned aside from the recollection of God …
For the man with a pure mind, the realm of the Spirit is within himself; the sun that shines within him is the light of the Holy Trinity and the air breathed by the inhabitants of this realm is the Holy Spirit, the Comforter…
Their life, their joy and their gladness is Christ, the radiance of the Father ’s light. Such a man is always gladdened at the contemplation of his soul, marveling at its beauty that is indeed brighter than a thousand suns.
This is Jerusalem, the Kingdom of God, hidden, as the Lord says, within us (Luke 17:21). This realm is the cloud of God’s glory into which only the pure of heart may enter to behold the face of their Master and to fill their intellects with the radiance of His light …
A man cannot see the beauty that is within himself until he has discounted and despised all the beauty that is outside him…
A man who is healthy of soul, who is humble and meek—such a man, as soon as he turns to prayer, sees the light of the Holy Spirit within his soul and rejoices at beholding the rays of His light, delighting in the contemplation of its glory.
St Justin Popovich
