Spiritual Insight #8 — St. Paisios of Mt. Athos (23 Insights in 23 Days)

I decided to take a break from Fr. Peter Heers’ compilation of Paisios’ insights in order to write here about my own discovery and findings within the works and quotes of Saint Paisios. Below is a saying of Saint Paisios that is relevant to many of us today:

Grumbling is caused by misery and it can be put aside by doxology (giving praise). Grumbling begets grumbling and doxology begets doxology. when someone doesn’t grumble over a problem troubling him, but rather praises God, then the devil gets frustrated and goes off to someone else who grumbles, in order to cause everything to go even worse for him. You see, the more one grumbles, the more one falls into ruin.

Sometimes the devil deceives us and makes us unable to be pleased with anything; however, one can celebrate all things in a spiritual manner, with doxology, and secure God’s constant blessing.

- Saint Paisios

Doxology comes from the Ancient Greek roots of “doxa” and “logia” (logo) — doxa means “glory” whereas logia means “saying” (or logo meaning “word” or “speaking”)— together this can mean to sing hymns to the Lord, or mean to praise the Lord. As Paisios says above, “giving praise” is the doxology.

Why do we praise the Lord? As the Psalmist says, we praise the Lord for He is good. Indeed, He has been ever good to us. We praise God not only for He is good, but also because He is God and He deserves praise. We praise Him for more reasons beyond this even, such as his love and mercy poured out for us. Praising God also shows gratitude.

By praising God we are also showing gratitude for we acknowledge and place Him above all things. We recognize that all things that we are given are from God. Therefore, we praise Him. We can praise him by singing hymns, by praying, by worshiping Him.

The only thing we must be careful of is grumbling. Just as easy as it is for Israel to grumble and complain in the desert, so too is it easy for us to grumble in our own lives. But as Paisios puts it, the devil grows tired of those who won’t grumble and moves on.

To conquer this grumbling is by praising the Lord. We go beyond hymns and worship to our very lifestyle: we too can show Him that we are pleased with our lives, and celebrate what we have. This is another way of showing gratitude.

As spoken through the Prophet Isaiah, the whole earth is filled with God’s glory. We can participate in this glory by giving Him all the glory. His glory is high and we too much lifted our voices high.

Join me in prayer

Lord, teach me the way of gratitude. Helpful me to acquire a thankful heart. Let us adore you and praise you above all things. Forgive us when we grumble and complain. Teach us your holy way. Amen.