How did Saint Joseph the Hesychast live his life and reach holiness? Read a fragment from one of his letters:
When, by praying and asking for something from God, you reach despair, then the fulfillment of the request is near to you. Christ wants to heal some hidden passion from you, so He delays the fulfillment of the request. If you get the request faster than you expect, your passion remains unhealed. If you wait, you also receive what you asked for and, also, the healing of the passion.
And then you will rejoice with great joy and be thankful for the warmth of God, who wisely builds them all and does them for our benefit. You have no use, therefore, if you grieve, if you get angry, if you say hard words. You have to shut your mouth. Nobody should see what you have inside you. Let the steam come out of your eyes, not of your nose. Don’t give in, to ease yourself, as it is said, but rather to calm down yourself. By waiting and long-suffering you will burn the devil.
I – the witness is my Lord, He who loses all those who speak lies – I have used much of what I tell you now. So great and heavy were the temptations that I thought that my soul would come out of pain like smoke on the stove. And yet, after the trial passes, so much comfort comes, as if you were in heaven, without a body. Christ loves you, Mother of God loves you, the Saints praise you, Angels marvel at you.
Do you see how much goodness the temptations and troubles bring? If you want to see, to enjoy the love of Christ, endure what comes to you. Not in what you like, but in what the Lord wants you to try. Nothing in what we willingly do is as useful as what the Lord sends us without our consent. God wants the devil’s enemy to fiercely fight the man, bone over bone, blood over blood. So much so that it melts like wax at the fire.
Based on Saint Joseph the Hesychast
Below are photos with descriptions with moments from the life of Saint Joseph the Hesychast and with places where the saint lived.
The brotherhoot at New Skete: From left to right: father Charalampos, father Arsenios, Saint Joseph the Hesychast (with the cross), father Joseph of Vatopedi, father Theophylactos, father Ephraim of Arizona
The family of the mother of the Saint Joseph the Hesychast
Saint Joseph the Hesychast as a young monk
At the caves of Saint Anne (minor)
The tomb of Saint Joseph the Hesycast
A carved icon made by Saint Joseph the Hesychast
A carved icon made by Saint Joseph the Hesychast
On the top of Athon. The chapel of Transfiguration where the Saint Joseph the Hesychast met father Arsenios.
father Arsenios, the cave-dweller
The skete of Saint Basil
The cave where the Saint Joseph the Hesychast saw the three children representing the Holy Trinity
The tomb at the New Skete (Nea Skiti) - where the Saint Joseph the Hesychast lived the last part of his life
Inside in the chapel at the caves of Saint Anne (minor)
At the caves of Saint Anne (minor) - the chapel (outside)
Inside in the chapel at the caves of Saint Anne (minor)
The skete of Saint Anne (minor)
The skete of Saint Anne (minor)
The caves near to Skete of Saint Anne (minor)
The Holy Altar in the chapel at the caves of Saint Anne (minor)
The caves near to Skete of Saint Anne (minor)
The brotherhoot at New Skete: From left to right: father Charalampos, Barbayannis, father Arsenios (down), father Eustathios, Saint Joseph the Hesychast (with the cane), father Joseph of Vatopedi, father Athanasios, father Theophylactos (down), father Nikodimos, father Ephraim of Arizona
The cell at New Skete where the Saint Joseph the Hesychast died
The cane of the Saint Joseph the Hesychast
The brotherhoot at New Skete: From left to right: father Athanasios, father Ephraim of Arizona, father Arsenios, father Joseph of Vatopedi, Saint Joseph the Hesychast (with the cane), father Theophylactos, father Charalampos
At the end of his life.
The tomb of Saint Joseph the Hesycast at New Skete
A letter of the Saint Joseph the Hesychast
A letter of the Saint Joseph the Hesychast
father Arsenios, the cave-dweller
The New Skete (Nea Skiti) - where the Saint Joseph the Hesychast lived the last part of his life
The Panagia refugee - near to the top of the Athon.
The New Skete (Nea Skiti) - where the Saint Joseph the Hesychast lived the last part of his life. The cell of the saint is the upper-leftmost one.
The New Skete (Nea Skiti) - where the Saint Joseph the Hesychast lived the last part of his life
The cell of the saint at New Skete (Nea Skiti) - where the Saint Joseph the Hesychast lived the last part of his life
The Saint Joseph the Hesychast as young layman
The tomb of the Saint Joseph the Hesychast at the New Skete (Nea Skiti)
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Joey Lighty
There is a Place Called I Don’t Care