self-knowledge Archives

The Fifth Tuesday of Great Lent. Lent: The Other Dimension of Life

04/01/2025

Fr. Andreas Agathokleous Amid the turbulence of our life, the deafening noise surrounding us, the long and pointless conversations on the telephone or in person, the stress and uncertainty regarding the state of the world today and tomorrow, the Church offers us the period of time of Great Lent. What meaning can this period, beginning with Monday in the first week and lasting until Great Saturday, have for all of us who live the modern

The Seed of the Word of God and the Ground

02/18/2025

Ioannis Karavidopoulos, Professor of the School of Theology of the University of Thessaloniki The parable of the sower is a wake-up call for self-criticism and self-knowledge. People often wonder and are surprised at the apparent failure of Christianity in the world, which can be seen to a greater or lesser extent in different places. Shouldn’t we be looking at a greater impact on the part of Christianity on humankind and a more encouraging implementation of

Drag My Soul to Paradise

06/17/2022

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, May 2, 2018 A Prayer to Our Lord Jesus Christ My most merciful and all-merciful God, O Lord Jesus Christ! In Thy great love, Thou didst come down and become flesh in order to save all. Again, I pray Thee, save me by Grace! If Thou shouldst save me because of my deeds, it would not be a gift, but merely a duty. Truly, Thou aboundest in graciousness and art inexpressibly

The Second Tuesday after Pascha. CHRISTOS ANESTI! CHRIST IS RISEN! Staying by Oneself (Part II)

05/07/2019

The inner attitude with which monks are supposed to sit in their cells is described by another elder in a drastic image: “When you dwell in the desert as a hesychast [a person who practices quietistic meditation], don’t imagine that you are doing something great. Instead, think of yourself as a dog that has been driven away from the crowd and tied up because he bites and bothers people.” The monks do not remain sitting

Trinity: Creative Continuation

01/29/2018

Daniel Walsh, who was Thomas Merton’s primary philosophy teacher, says he’s not sure if the human person can even legitimately be called a creation, because we are a continuance of, an emanation from, a “subsistent relation” with what we call Trinity. Wow! This is getting very wonderful and also very dangerous. [1] He taught that the human person must see itself in continuity with God, and not a fully separate creation. We are “chosen in

SHARP TRIALS IN THE INTELLECT (Part II)

07/26/2017

Study and learning are spiritual disciplines much esteemed in the Christian contemplative tradition (as they are in many religious traditions). When this discipline is being strengthened and purified to make the discursive mind a better servant of God, we become aware of a not-so-subtle tendency to show off how much we have come to know in all our reading and study. This need not be a public display; we can look down on people less

The Fourth Wednesday of Great Lent: Progress in Self-Knowledge & God has Created Nothing Evil

04/06/2016

Progress in Self-Knowledge I pray you, brothers and sisters: let us strive with every means at our disposal to know ourselves. Then each one of us, starting with this self-knowledge, will be able to discover what is too high for us. We need to know ourselves so well that we can say like David: ‘I am a worm and no man’ [Ps. 22:7] or like Abraham: ‘I am dust and ashes.’ [Gen. 18:7] Otherwise it

The Presence of God

03/11/2016

You cannot not live in the presence of God. You are totally surrounded by God all the time and everywhere. You have no choice in the matter, except to bring it to consciousness. St. Patrick said it well in the prayer attributed to him: God beneath you, God in front of you, God behind you, God above you, God within you. You cannot earn this God by any practice whatsoever. You cannot prove yourself worthy

WATCHFULNESS IN DIVINE WORSHIP (Part II)

01/13/2016

There are many and varied degrees and a great variety of pointing ways to watchfulness. We see this also in the Hymns of Repentance in the Octoechos and the Triodion, in which this many-faceted and proper cultivation of neptic life is offered. We note a few to demonstrate this: Because of all my wicked thoughts and deeds I stand condemned: put into my heart, O God, my Saviour, the thought of turning back to Thee,

Voices of Wisdom (II)

08/26/2015

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please You does in fact please You. And I hope that I

Archive

The Fifth Tuesday of Great Lent. Lent: The Other Dimension of Life

The Seed of the Word of God and the Ground

Drag My Soul to Paradise

The Second Tuesday after Pascha. CHRISTOS ANESTI! CHRIST IS RISEN! Staying by Oneself (Part II)

Trinity: Creative Continuation

SHARP TRIALS IN THE INTELLECT (Part II)

The Fourth Wednesday of Great Lent: Progress in Self-Knowledge & God has Created Nothing Evil

The Presence of God

WATCHFULNESS IN DIVINE WORSHIP (Part II)

Voices of Wisdom (II)

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