On the Acquisition of the Holy Spirit

St. Seraphim’s guidance in the spiritual life was focused on acquiring the grace of the Holy Spirit, and, as you will see, his use of the word “acquire”, a money and business term, is no accident:

"Prayer, fasting, vigil, and all other Christian practices, however good they may be in themselves, do not constitute the aim of our Christian life, although they serve as the indispensable means of reaching this end. The true aim of our Christian life consists in the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God."

"'Acquiring is the same as obtaining,' he replied to me. 'You understand, of course, what acquiring money means. Acquiring the Spirit of God is exactly the same. You know well what it means in a worldly sense, your godliness, to acquire. The aim of life of ordinary worldly people is to acquire or make money, and for the nobility it is in addition to receive honors, distinctions, and other rewards for their services to the government. The acquisition of God's Spirit is also capital, but grace-giving and eternal; and it is obtained in very similar ways, almost the same way as monetary, social, and temporal capital.' ...'God the word, the God man, our Lord Jesus Christ, compares our life with a market, and the work of our life on Earth he calls trading, and says to us all: trade till I come (Luke 19:13), redeeming the time, because the days are evil (Eph 5:16), that is to say, make the most of your time for getting heavenly blessings through earthly goods. Earthly goods are good works done for Christ's sake and conferring on us the grace of the All-Holy Spirit."

And when speaking of acquiring the grace of the Holy Spirit—this “acquiring the Holy Spirit”, in my understanding, is the same “Spirit of Peace” or “peaceful spirit” in his famous quote, that is, the same “treasury of blessings” and “giver of life” to whom we address prayers at the beginning of every service—is most effectively and efficiently accomplished through prayer:

"Of course, every good deed done for Christ's sake gives us the grace of the Holy Spirit, but prayer gives it to us most of all, for it is always at hand, so to speak, as an instrument for acquiring the grace of the Spirit."

Prayer is “always at hand”, but is not the only means by which we may conduct this business:

"Acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit also by practicing all the other virtues for Christ's sake. Trade spiritually with them; trade with those which give you the greatest profit. Accumulate capital from the superabundance of God's grace; deposited in God's eternal bank which will bring you immaterial interest, not four or six percent, but one hundred percent for one spiritual ruble, and even infinitely more than that. For example if prayer and watching gives you more of God's grace, watch and pray; if fasting gives you much of the Spirit of God, fast; if almsgiving gives you more, give alms. Weigh every virtue done for Christ's sake in this manner."

We can see in his explanation of the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, a clear, business-like understanding to living out our lives in Christ. The "Acquire the Spirit of Peace" part of his quote can be understood in this way. Understanding the second half, "And thousands around you will be saved", requires us to set aside our simplistic, in-or-out, saved-or-not, heaven-or-hell kind of mentality. If salvation were that simple, if life in Christ were that simple, if heaven and hell were that simple, then why would our Lord say the kingdom of heaven is within us? I, personally, without the help of quotes from St. Seraphim, will delve into that in the last post.