By Fr. Stephen Freeman, August 8, 2015 Everyone likes things for various reasons. This is perhaps my favorite piece that I’ve done this year. I’m not entirely certain why. I think that in some way it touches on the fragility of our existence and even of our belief. I hope that rereading it might be a blessing for you as well. From a Facebook conversation: Though I wish I believed otherwise, in the depths of my being,
God said, “Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness.” —Genesis 1:26 My dear people, we are already children of God; what we will be in the future has not yet been fully revealed, and all I do know is that we shall be like God. —1 John 3:2 The Judeo-Christian creation story says that we were created in the very “image and likeness” of God—who is Infinite Love flowing between Three, making unity out of clear diversity. (Picture
By Fr. Maximos (Constas) It seems clear that the very practice of the Jesus Prayer reflects the Biblical teaching of the nature of personal names, and especially of the Divine Name. We all know that the name is closely linked to the person that bears it so that to invoke the name is to invoke the person who bears it. So it’s logical that when there is a change of life there is also a
Many people on the path of contemplation wonder about other forms of prayer such as petitionary or intercessory prayer. The question is not simply theoretical; for when we go deeply into our practice all other forms of prayer are often integrated into the simple silence of just being. Yet many contemplatives also incorporate other forms of prayer such as going to church, praying the psalms, praying for other people’s needs and the world’s needs. There
“A donkey going round and round in a mill cannot step out of the circle to which it is tethered.” This is how St. Hesychios describes the state of awareness that is held prisoner to inner chatter. Although we may feel perfectly at home with going around and around and around in circles of inner chatter, he says that this actually blinds us to something deeper: “with our inner eye blinded, we cannot perceive holiness
Digging into Our Spiritual Resources When someone hurts us, offends us, ignores us, or rejects us, a deep inner protest emerges. It can be rage or depression, desire to take revenge or even an impulse to harm ourselves. We can feel a deep urge to wound those who have wounded us or to withdraw in a suicidal mood of self-rejection. Although these extreme reactions might seem exceptional, they are never far away from our hearts.
Humanity as Witness to the Unknown When we consider how human beings are made, we are filled with wonder at the wisdom of the Creator that is revealed in us. Suffice it to observe the different functions of the senses which all stem from one centre, the brain, and report back to it all sorts of perceptions: sight, smell, taste, touch …, and also to observe the other organs of the body both internal and
One of the elders said, “Just as it is impossible to see your face in troubled water, so also the soul, unless it is clear of alien thoughts, is not able to pray to God in contemplation.” Silence is the lost art in a society made up of noise. Radios wake us up, and timers on TVs turn off the day-full of programs long after we have gone to sleep at night. We have music
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