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The Cell, Meeting God and Ourselves (Part X) The Cell and the World

07/05/2017

The Cell and the World Is anachoresis a rejection of the inhabited world? Is the solitude and inwardness of the cell a selfish endeavor? The desert abbas and ammas helped form a wider Christian monastic tradition that combines seeking God with conversion of life. In the cell the monk risks all in the battle between the ego (subjectivity) and openness to the Other. Through ascetic praxis the boundaries of the self are extended beyond itself

A Layman in the Desert (Preface, Part IV)

01/09/2017

There is a second key mistake that we often make in our assumptions about the essential nature of life in the world, which mistake makes monastic literature difficult to approach. We often conceive of worldly life as merely a kind of default existence that anyone who is not specially called to monasticism or ordination simply ends up leading. We assume that it is only the monk, nun or priest who has a special call, while

Shaping Life Spiritually (Part IV)

02/18/2016

The monks have always practiced what many psychologists today talk about (for example in autogenous training), namely, finding comfort through expressions of trust. For the early monks spiritual life also meant the art of healthy living. It was no accident that so many of the monks got to be very old. Their asceticism didn’t deny life, it promoted it. For their spiritual life the monks adopted dietetics, the art of healthy living, which was the

Venerable John Climacus of Sinai, Author of “The Ladder”

03/30/2015

Saint John of the Ladder is honored by Holy Church as a great ascetic and author of the renowned spiritual book called THE LADDER, from which he is also called “of the Ladder” (Climacus). There is almost no information about St John’s origins. One tradition suggests that he was born in Constantinople around the year 570, and was the son of SS Xenophon and Maria (January 26). John went to Sinai when he was sixteen,

Eighth Day of Christmas: Saint Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia

01/01/2015

Saint Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, “belongs not to the Church of Caesarea alone, nor merely to his own time, nor was he of benefit only to his own kinsmen, but rather to all lands and cities worldwide, and to all people he brought and still brings benefit, and for Christians he always was and will be a most salvific teacher.” Thus spoke St Basil’s contemporary, St Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium. St

FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT (IV)

02/21/2014

“Do you mean by perspicacity a form of prophecy?” Eleni asked. “No. Prophecy is a more developed and important gift. Perspicacity is one of the first and simple gifts of the Holy Spirit, which allows the person to see through you and read your soul, as it were.” I understood Fr. Maximos to mean that such a person is gifted with heightened intuitive abilities to understand others. As an example of what he meant, Fr.

Destiny and Eros: Monasticism, the Fulfillment of Eros, Obedience, Chastity, Poverty

10/23/2013

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

The Destiny of Eros: Monks and Martyrs

10/04/2013

When the emperor was converted, and the ever-present danger of martyrdom disappeared, monasticism arose to take its place. There was a fear that Christianity would be secularized, that, as it stood, it would become the cement of an earthly city. Monasticism was the revolt against all compromise. Monasticism, in its early form, was a steep path, that of ‘the violent, who take the kingdom of heaven by force’. Utter obedience to the Gospel demands the

Anthony of the Desert

03/23/2012

Around the year 270 C.E., while attending the liturgy, the twenty-year-old Anthony heard the words of Jesus: “Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me” (Mark 10:21). The words struck the young man to the heart. He sold his inheritance and went off into the desert. First he locked himself up in an abandoned fort, cut off from all contact with the

Saint Basil the Great

12/30/2011

The Archbishop of Caesarea, Saint Basil is revered—together with Saints John Chrysostom and Gregory Nazianzos—as one of the “Three Holy Hierarchs” of the Church. Together with that same Nazianzos and Saint Gregory of Nyssa, Saint Basil is revered as one the “Cappadocian Fathers,” whose homiletical and mystical writings helped establish what is now considered the heart of Orthodox theology and spirituality.

Archive

The Cell, Meeting God and Ourselves (Part X) The Cell and the World

A Layman in the Desert (Preface, Part IV)

Shaping Life Spiritually (Part IV)

Venerable John Climacus of Sinai, Author of “The Ladder”

Eighth Day of Christmas: Saint Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia

FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT (IV)

Destiny and Eros: Monasticism, the Fulfillment of Eros, Obedience, Chastity, Poverty

The Destiny of Eros: Monks and Martyrs

Anthony of the Desert

Saint Basil the Great

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