“How can we start?” Maria asked. “I mean, how can we practice temperance and self-control?” Fr. Maximos ate a piece of stuffed tomato before replying. “The proper way is to start with simple things, like being critical of your thoughts and actions. Let us say that a thought tells you you should do a certain thing, say buy a new television set. Examine it. Ask yourself, ‘Do I really need it?’ If you think you
The desert Fathers and Mothers were honestly not referred to that much, because they just told little stories. These stories seemed like harmless anecdotes, and we wanted to go ahead with serious religion. But in the last 30 years, there’s been a rediscovery of the absolute simplicity of their message and the fact that it isn’t concerned about the issues that we’ve been concerned about in recent centuries. In fact, they’re usually concerned about the
Jesus Mourns Jesus, the Blessed One, mourns. Jesus mourns when his friend Lazarus dies (see John 11:33-36); he mourns when he overlooks the city of Jerusalem, soon to be destroyed (see Luke 19:41-44). Jesus mourns over all losses and devastations that fill the human heart with pain. He grieves with those who grieve and sheds tears with those who cry. The violence, greed, lust, and so many other evils that have distorted the face of
We were created naked but clothed with light, light that shone upon the world to transfigure it. But at the Fall God clothed us with ‘garments of skins’ (Genesis 3.21) to protect us from a world become hostile. And now, in our fallen state, our own skin has become a barrier setting us apart from the universe, and signaling that the organism hidden within is a machine for consuming everything outside until its inevitable death.
As our practice deepens we see that thoughts are as porous as screen, porous to their grounding Silence. Realizing this, we are not quite so compelled to react or push away or grasp. Yet the externals of our practice remain basically the same; whenever we are aware that the attention has been stolen, we bring the attention back, whether or not we need to repeat the prayer word. While the externals of our practice are
“Delve deeply into the Jesus Prayer,” says the Russian monk Theophan. He obviously intends the Jesus Prayer as the prayer word. At an earlier doorway of practice such a statement would have made no sense. We might have recited it, been dedicated to it, been consistent in bringing the attention back, but to “delve deeply into” it would imply that the prayer word had some sort of dimension or depth. This is precisely the sort
There is a necessary and inherent dissonance in many of the texts in the Bible (Jesus calling a woman “a dog” in Mark 7:27). We largely remain unwise if we avoid these conflicts, dilemmas, paradoxes, inconsistencies, or contradictions; and I want to say those contradictions are in the Biblical text itself and presented to you for serious consideration—until you get the point. This is the real meaning of what we call Lectio Divina, or spiritual
Desperation Nothing is so strong as desperation. It knows no defeat at the hand of any, whether on the right hand or the left. When someone has cut off in his mind all hope of life, no one is more daring than he; no foe can face him, no rumors of affliction can weaken his purpose, for every affliction which may come is less than death, for he has resolved to accept death for himself.
HE WHO FINDS HIS LIFE WILL LOSE IT, AND HE WHO LOSES HIS LIFE FOR MY SAKE WILL FIND IT. —MATTHEW 10:39 Has it ever struck you that those who most fear to die are the ones who most fear to live? That in running away from death we are running away from life? Think of a man living in an attic, a little hole of a place with no light and little ventilation. He
Heal me, Please Jesus, what else should I ask from You more than healing? Please release me from the recent illness that is tormenting me. Outside the sun is shining, my God. Life is pulsing. And I am lying down exhausted with a fever and aches waiting for the return of health. I am torturing my own family. They are sick and tired of caring for me in my infirmity. They have high expenses. They
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