Acquire the Spirit of Peace

“Acquire the Spirit of Peace and a thousand souls around you will be saved” – Saint Seraphim of Sarov.

This is perhaps the most famous quote of the great Russian saint, Seraphim of Sarov. Given the recent commemoration of his Feast on August 1st, it seemed appropriate to explore the meaning of the saint’s instruction.

Discerning St. Seraphim’s words “Acquire the Spirit of Peace” can take one to the very heart of Orthodoxy. Many of the gifts of St. Seraphim were undoubtedly manifested in such a powerful fashion on account of his years of monastic podvig (asceticism), silence and prayer, but his statement “Acquiring the Spirit of Peace” is not nearly as complicated or mysterious as some might think. In the theologoumena* of the Eastern Church, the acquisition of the “Spirit of Peace” can be understood as grace, the uncreated Divine energies of God. 

Grace is a divine gift that doesn’t require going anywhere to get what one already has been given. What one needs to do is to freely allow God’s grace to manifest in one’s life. As St. Paul exhorts:

“We entreat you not to receive the grace of God in vain” (2 Corinthians 6:1).

Each of us in our Baptism and Chrismation has been given the grace of God for our salvation – that is to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit and to conform us to the image of God in Christ. Grace that is released in our lives produces dividends of grace. St. Seraphim did not become what he was through a momentary gift, but through a lifetime of ascesis and “reinvesting” the grace given him.

St. Seraphim instructs practical means to acquire grace: 

“You cannot be too gentle, too kind. Shun even to appear harsh in your treatment of each other. Joy, radiant joy, streams from the face of him who gives and kindles joy in the heart of him who receives…  All condemnation is from the devil. Never condemn each other; instead of condemning others, strive to reach inner peace… Keep silent, refrain from judgment. This will raise you above the deadly arrows of slander, insult, and outrage and will shield your glowing hearts against all evil.”

*A theological statement or concept in the area of individual opinion rather than of authoritative doctrine.

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