# Mindless Piety and Spiritual Babble - Spiritual Capsule (2)

> No offense on the phrase "spiritual babble", but in a youthful way: "babble" means talk with no point or value that we listen to anyway, much like the state of our spiritual life, where we live in a huge amount of "spiritual babble" and don't know what we're praying with or why...

*2017-01-26T14:13:20Z*

![Oil painting of a scene inside the temple: the boy Jesus stands among the teachers at the center while His mother, in a blue cloak and red robe, approaches him.](/uploads/sites/1274e232-e31c-46f4-a48b-27b854406479/media/spiritual-capsule-2-spiritual-chatter.jpg?w=736&h=600)

No offense on the phrase "spiritual babble", but let's say it in a youthful way: "babble" is a word for talk that has no point and no value, but that we listen to anyway. That's pretty much the state of our spiritual life: we're living in a huge amount of "spiritual babble". We don't know what we're praying with, we don't know why we pray, and we don't know why we worship, and at the same time we're digging deep into shallowness in a terrible way. "By the way, an example of digging deep into shallowness is, say, my wondering why we eat sugarcane and taro on the feast of the Divine Epiphany (Theophany)." And when you try to talk to one of these mindlessly pious folks about theological matters, or about a purely doctrinal subject, and explain an Orthodox way of thinking and so on, he says to you: "Come on, keep it simple, no complications." Theology has become "complication", and God's revelation of Himself to human beings has become something too heavy for God's believers to accept, because of all the mindless piety and spiritual babble that you can predict in every sermon, sermons that the people have actually memorized by now. We've ended up studying at the theological college, in the department of Coptic sermons 😃

This "spiritual babble" didn't just make us flatten everything; our spiritual life has become just like the Book says in Revelation: "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth."[^1] Yes, exactly as you're saying right now, it turns us into a state of spiritual lukewarmness, where you don't want to go to church, or attend meetings or sermons, and your heart may truly be repentant and you may be living a life of real repentance, as we talked about (the metanoia #Mystery\_of\_Repentance #Spiritual\_Capsule), but unfortunately you have a state of spiritual coldness and distraction that makes you not want to hear anything or accept anything that has to do with talk about God! Or else you enter another state, the state of mindless piety, spiritualizing everything, and your life is confined to a worship whose outward form is beautiful and whose inside is full of Pharisaism. "By Pharisaism we mean the worship of the scribes and Pharisees: tombs whitewashed on the outside, and on the inside bones and all uncleanness[^2]." So what should we do about this?!

#Simplicity (the difference between true simplicity and the simplicity of the naive):

One of the things that most puts us into this state, "the state of mindless piety and spiritual babble", is our mistaken understanding of the concept of simplicity!!! Why? When someone begins to go into the depths, people start saying about him, "You're complicated," or "You're not simple," or "You're arrogant," and other utterly pointless talk. But in truth, that is the first step he is taking into the depth, because, as the Lord Jesus said: "Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets."[^3] It's hard to be walking rightly and find everybody agreeing with you; there has to be some friction. And of course, one of the famous sayings we hear is "When the theologians debate, the simple slip into the Kingdom." We don't even know who it was originally attributed to, but in any case it is an un-Orthodox saying, and unsound from every angle. Why? Because it makes theology something complicated and unintelligible to the simple, when the Lord Jesus taught otherwise in the first place!

So what did the Lord Jesus teach us?! He taught us that simplicity is what will make us understand theology, and that the glory of the Father is revealed to us through the Lord Jesus by the Holy Spirit. So He said: "And said, 'Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."[^4] The Lord's word is clear. That doesn't mean we should be ignorant and say theology is hard and that staying away from theology will let us slip into the Kingdom. Why? Because St. Paul clarified this matter and put it bluntly, saying: "Brethren, do not be children in understanding; however, in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature."[^5] This is the simplicity of children that the Lord Jesus means: simplicity in doing evil. I don't know how to do evil, because I have a mind that is a child in evil. But as for the Spirit and worship, I need to have a mature mind!

Chrysostom says: "For he that is a babe in wickedness ought also to be wise. Since as wisdom with wickedness would not be wisdom, so also simplicity with folly would not be simplicity, it being requisite both in simplicity to avoid folly, and in wisdom wickedness."[^6] The comment is clear, because he made plain that there is a kind of simplicity mixed with foolishness ("ignorance, that is"), and St. Paul rejected this, as we understood from Chrysostom's words. Accordingly, that strange saying we said we don't know the source of leads us to the ignorance ("foolishness") that Chrysostom is talking about, and at the same time makes us break the commandment of the Lord Jesus, who taught us: "Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves."[^7] We hold on to simplicity and say whatever we want in its name and preach many sermons, while wisdom just gets a quick pass-over! And this is probably one of the things that push us into spiritual lukewarmness, and strongly.

So #Conclusion: let's understand that there is no such thing as "When the theologians argue, the simple slip into the Kingdom", because if you are simple in evil and mature in mind, you will be a theologian in the first place, but not a theologian because you read two books of theology, but because Jesus revealed Himself to you by the Holy Spirit. And this revelation is permanent, continuous, and never stops, so every day you'll have something new and renewed, and you won't feel "mindless piety or spiritual babble"!

#Pharisaic\_Spirituality:

Can anyone say that the Church's rite is bad?! Can anyone say that praying the Agpeya is bad?! Or forget that, can anyone talk about the Bible and say it's very stereotyped and the spiritual life in it is stifling?! Most likely we all say these things, but only quietly, under the surface, without anyone noticing, because they'd say we're not Orthodox and call us heretics and Evangelicals and Protestants, and we might even turn out to be the ones who got the cheese 😃:D

Pharisaic spirituality is that you live a very stereotyped life, very much bound by certain texts, rites and prayers, and this is far removed from Christianity, where the principle of worship is freedom, as St. Paul says: "So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths."[^8] The spirit of Orthodox piety is a free spirit, tied to only one thing, and that is divine love, which powerfully drives the heart to worship and prayer and the rest. But what we want to focus on here is our understanding of the rites and prayers, the liturgy[^9], and the spiritual life, a sound theological understanding that makes us see the Church with the spirit, not with the outward eyes. We begin to understand where this rite came from and where this liturgy came from, why we pray this way and why it isn't said that way, and we understand and deepen every word we pray with, not just do the parrot act, because simply, God doesn't want parrots; God wants hearts that worship Him in spirit and truth. And by the way, the Greek verb for the word "worshipers" (προσκυνητής), pronounced "pros-koo-neh'-o", which came in (John 4:23), came in the sense of "lover"![^10] So worship is a movement of love that springs from within, not just a few rites we perform and be done with, for the purpose of pleasing God, I mean.

So #Conclusion: let's understand that rites and liturgies and other customary things stay lukewarm if I'm worshiping in outward form, a Pharisaic worship, but if I understand what I'm praying with, the situation will surely be different, because then I'll pray with the spirit and I'll pray with the mind also, so my spirit will pray and my mind will be fruitful.

#The\_Practical:

We have to understand something very important: God is infinite, and I can't limit Him, neither in theological talk nor in any theological theories in any way. But at the same time He reveals Himself to every person who receives Him through the Holy Spirit. So if you enter into this state of revelation, you'll never feel lukewarm, and even if you fall into any sin you'll still be able to repent easily, because the Holy Spirit who reveals God to you will keep changing your depths continually. So the steps are easy..

1- Focus on the work of the Holy Spirit in your life:

Very often we run after books and research and the academic form in order to learn theology, and if our motive is knowledge alone, we usually don't reach any spiritual progress, simply because we study theology as philosophy or as mere intellectual enjoyment. But if we ask the Holy Spirit, "who guides into all truth", to explain to us and describe to us the depths of theology, then the Spirit can't wait for you to ask so that He can be poured into you richly and reveal to you the riches of the Kingdom and the true wedding feast of the Bridegroom, which is full of freedom and a setting out toward the Father

2- Enough spiritual babble and mindless piety:

If you're one of the people who are convinced that theology is something remote and we can't get close to it, know that you're at the stage of strange mindless piety, or spiritual babble. So run away from it quickly by treating the problem of naivety, and start making a metanoia about this matter, so that God opens your eyes and brings you out of the atmosphere of spiritual mindless piety you're living in, and you begin to worship with more freedom.

3- Judge things by their inner reality, not by the outward appearance:

Of course, I'm talking here about judging matters, not persons, because judging persons is condemnation, but I'm speaking about ideas. Therefore I need to judge everything, from the rite and the different liturgies to everything I hear in the Church, in the light of its depth, not its shallowness. And in order to judge any spiritual teaching I hear, I first have to give room to the Holy Spirit inside me to clean my ears so they hear well and are trained to the voice of the Spirit.

And from there I'll be able to measure every teaching against a few sources: (the Holy Bible - the writings of the Apostolic Fathers - the canons of the Church councils - the writings of the Apologist Fathers), in that order of course in terms of the importance of the source. So any Church teaching has as its source the Holy Bible as handed down by the Apostolic Fathers, interpreted by the Apologists, and affirmed by the three great ecumenical Church councils.

And this, of course, is not a fixing of the form of teaching, because the Spirit blows where He wills, but it is impossible for the Spirit to contradict Himself, so most likely if you receive something new from the Spirit, you'll find it in agreement with the previous sources.

Fady Mondy

21/1/2017

[^1]: See (Revelation 3:15-16)
[^2]: See (Matthew 23)
[^3]: See (Luke 6:26)
[^4]: See (Matt 18:3)
[^5]: See (1 Cor 14:20)
[^6]: 1 In 1 Corinh., hom. 36:1
[^7]: See (Matt 10:16)
[^8]: See (Col 2:16)
[^9]: The word liturgy is taken from the Greek words laios orgon, made up of two parts (laios) and (orgon), and it means public (people's) worship. The word was used in the Book of Acts to denote the communal acts of worship that the whole Church takes part in at one time, and in modern times we have used it to describe the ritual prayers such as the Divine Liturgy and the Agpeya prayers and so on..
[^10]: Tarjamat bayna al-Suṭūr [Interlinear Translation] by Fr. Boulos Faghali, p. 449, Greek – English Lexicon of the new testament pa 548

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Source: https://abba.fadymondy.com/en/blog/spiritual-capsule-2-spiritual-chatter