Archive

BLIND WITH ANGER

[Desert Father] Evagrius helped lead another student into liberating insight into the nature of her very active mind, especially the connection between her anger and her fear. While she was less revealing of the details of her struggles, she was grappling with the fallout and follow-through of an intervention initiated by concerned friends. She admits it needed to be done but she still struggles with feelings of betrayal and more. She wrote: Evagrius seems to

The Fourth Monday of Great Lent: The Poor, Debts & Your Enemies: Learning to Forgive

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, July 12, 2017  He who has pity on the poor makes a debtor of God. (Prov. 19:17) Jesus told a story about a man with a huge debt. He owed it to his master and was unable to pay. When he was dragged before his master, he begged for mercy. Strangely, the master was so moved by the man’s begging that he forgave him the entire debt. This same man, Jesus

When People Don’t Forgive

Published by Pemptousia Partnership, June 1, 2017 Abbot Tryphon There are people who insist on holding on to resentment, often inventing situations in their minds that never happened, justifying their bad behavior, and putting the blame on others. They see themselves as the abused party, always quick to take offense. Rarely are they able to have healthy relationships, for they are in reality, the abusers. Their world centers around them, and any attempt by others

The Abuser (Part 2)

Abusive behavior betrays a deep spiritual and psychological illness By Abbot Tryphon, January 10, 2020 There are people who insist on holding on to resentment, often inventing situations in their minds that never happened, justifying their bad behavior, and putting the blame on others. They see themselves as the abused party, always quick to take offense. Rarely are they able to have healthy relationships, for they are in reality, the abusers. Their world centers around

The Sixth Wednesday of Great Lent. Fast from…Feast on…

FAST from self-concern and FEAST on compassion for others. FAST from discouragement and FEAST on hope. FAST from lethargy and FEAST on enthusiasm. FAST from suspicion and FEAST on truth. FAST from thoughts that weaken and FEAST on promises that inspire. FAST from shadows of sorrow and FEAST on the sunlight of serenity. FAST from idle gossip and FEAST on purposeful silence. FAST from problems that overwhelm you and FEAST on prayer that sustains. FAST

Practice of the Heart

Abba Poemen said, “Teach your mouth to say what is in your heart.” Many of the desert fathers and mothers, as well as the Philokalia in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, have described prayer as bringing your thinking down into your heart. It always seemed like soft piety to me until someone taught me how to do it, and I learned the immense benefits of the prayer of the heart. As a Catholic, I was often

Dealing with Our Passions (Part I)

In reading the description of these nine logismoi we sense how much psychological experience Evagrius gathered in his kellion. But he thought there was something still more important than knowing about the logismoi: handling thoughts and feelings. Evagrius advises a different method for every passion. The three basic drives – eating, sex, and greed – are transformed through fasting, asceticism, and almsgiving. Here discipline is a good way not to suppress the drives, but to

The Lord’s Prayer (Part III)

There is one thing that stands as a line of demarcation between Egypt and the desert, between slavery and freedom; it is a moment when we act decisively and become new people, establishing ourselves in an absolutely new moral situation. In terms of geography it was the Red Sea, in terms of the Lord’s Prayer it is ‘Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive’. This ‘as we forgive’ is the moment when we take our

BLIND WITH ANGER

Evagrius helped lead another student into liberating insight into the nature of her very active mind, especially the connection between her anger and her fear. While she was less revealing of the details of her struggles, she was grappling with the fallout and follow-through of an intervention initiated by concerned friends. She admits it needed to be done but she still struggles with feelings of betrayal and more. She wrote: Evagrius seems to know that