By Abbot Tryphon, November 4, 2019 Centers for prayer and spiritual healing Monastics are an integral part of the Church and should not be seen as independent of the Church Universal. Monks are bound by the same Gospel as other Christians and need to avail themselves to the missionary and pastoral needs of the Church, as needed. Although a primary role of monasticism is to be found in worship and contemplative prayer, monks also have
Learn to Laugh in a Relaxed Way Laughter is a sign of friendliness so long as it is not coarse. In general, a person can do whatever is natural, but it must be in due measure and at the right time. Therefore, you ought not to laugh always simply because you have the capacity, any more than a horse is always neighing because it is capable of neighing. We ought to control our laughter, to
The prayer then turns us to four key virtues Christians should struggle to attain. During Lent, we are to intensify our efforts to acquire them: humility, chastity, patience, and love. HUMILITY IF PRIDE IS, as all Christian teachers have believed, the ultimate spiritual sin that blinds us to our own sins and shortcomings, then humility is the virtue that sees things as they really are. Therefore, it is only when we humble ourselves that we
Like John lying on his Master’s breast at the Last Supper, and later, in old age, seeing the dazzling face of the Lord of the universe, the monk is fascinated by the incomparable beauty of the Risen Christ. In him eros is altogether robed in the beauty of love and light, all the more beautiful because it shines through the disfigurement of the Passion and the Cross. There is no more room here for another
These four [the spirit of sloth, faint-heartedness, lust of power, and idle talk]are thus the negative “objects” of repentance. They are the obstacles to be removed. But God alone can remove them. Hence, the first part of the Lenten prayer— this cry from the bottom of human helplessness. Then the prayer moves to the positive aims of repentance which also are four. Chastity! If one does not reduce this term, as is so often and
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