presence Archives - Page 4 of 4

Keeping our Faces in a Facebook World (Part II)

07/29/2015

By Father Lawrence Farley The truth is that real communication and authentic communion with another always involves face to face encounter—that is why there is so much hugging at airports when people are physically reunited after being separated for a time. Did those people who greet each other at the airport not keep in touch by Facebook while they were gone? Did they not phone each other? Did they not exchange e-mails? I’ll bet they

THE SILENCE OF THE ELECTRIC SAW (Part I)

08/25/2014

It is one thing to see the unity of silence and sound when our teachers are birdsong and the sea’s breaking waves. But what might Wallace Stevens or Robert Penn Warren say about unpleasant noise? Can noise also be a vehicle of that “peace after perfect speech”? Does the sound we would prefer not to hear have anything to reveal? Can noise, too, be a teacher pointing to the Silence that is the ground of

Yearning

02/07/2013

Abba Nilus said: “Do not want things to turn out as they seem best to you but as God pleases. Then you will be free of confusion and thankful in your prayer.” WHO is THERE who hasn’t, at some time or other, wanted life to be different than it is? Who of us has not wanted it ourselves? We get tired of what we’re doing or where we are. We look for better days somewhere

I am Thirsty for Light. Hold my Faith Upright.

01/31/2013

I am thirsty for light My God, I am thirsty for light. I beg for light. I find myself in such confusion, I walk in such a fog, that I have an urgent need of Your enlightenment. My ideas are indescribably confused. You see what a mess I am inside. Have pity on me. I have studied in such an undisciplined way, God. I listened with a kind of curiosity that almost bordered greediness. I

Make Me Feel Your Presence. Years without Prayer.

01/23/2013

Make me feel Your presence Lord, I have to tell You that prayer is a problem for me. How should I collect my spirit, which is split and squandered in a thousand pieces? How should I concentrate; how can I close off from all around me and within me each entrance from the outside world, appearances, and sensations? My mind buzzes like a beehive. My ears are bombarded by a million noises. In my eyes

Father Maximos on the Acquisition of the Holy Spirit

01/22/2013

Before we began eating, Fr. Maximos recited a short prayer that he offered before any meeting where he was expected to give a talk. Everybody stood up, and in a low voice he began: “O Christ, the True Light that illumines and sanctifies every human being who comes into the world, may the brightness of your face become sealed in our souls so that we may behold the Ineffable Light, and guide our steps to

Silence, Awareness, and Contemplation

10/02/2012

Stand diligently at the gate of the heart. —St. Philotheos The practice of stillness is full of joy and beauty. —Evagrius By the grace of creation and redemption, there is a grounding union between God and the human person. In the depths of this ground, the “between” cannot be perceived, for it is completely porous to the Divine Presence. Indeed there is more Presence than preposition. While this is the simplest and most fundamental fact

Prayer

05/31/2012

Abba Poemen said: “The nature of water is yielding, and that of a stone is hard. Yet if you hang a bottle filled with water above the stone so that the water drips drop by drop, it will wear a hole in the stone. In the same way the word of God is tender, and our heart is hard. So when people hear the word of God frequently, their hearts are opened to the fear

The Spirit of Jesus; Absence

03/08/2012

The Spirit of Jesus Listening in Us Listening in the spiritual life is much more than a psychological strategy to help others discover themselves. In the spiritual life the listener is not the ego, which would like to speak but is trained to restrain itself, but the Spirit of God within us. When we are baptized in the Spirit—that is, when we have received the Spirit of Jesus as the breath of God breathing within

Archive

THE SILENCE OF THE ELECTRIC SAW (Part I)

Yearning

I am Thirsty for Light. Hold my Faith Upright.

Make Me Feel Your Presence. Years without Prayer.

Father Maximos on the Acquisition of the Holy Spirit

Silence, Awareness, and Contemplation

Prayer

The Spirit of Jesus; Absence

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