~By Father Stephen Freeman, April 10, 2022 One of the best-known sayings to have come from the Desert Fathers is: “Stay in your cell and your cell will teach you everything.” To a large degree the saying extols the virtue of stability. Moving from place to place never removes the problem – it only postpones the inevitable. Somewhere, sometime we have to face the heart of our struggle and by the grace of God overcome.
By Fr. Stephen Freeman, February 22, 2016 I can think of two experiences where words fail: before the presence of God and in the presence of deep shame. The first is too great and too wondrous for words, the second too bitter and painful. Both are essential for our humanity if it is to be lived to the fullest. They represent not only the boundary of our vocabulary, but also the boundary of our existence.
Breathing the Name Jesus AS WE TRY TO BECOME STILL, what do we do? The Fathers suggest that we begin by becoming aware of our breathing. We go gently inside. As the sixth-century monk St. John Climacus said in The Ladder of Divine Ascent, in the chapter “A Brief Summary of All the Preceding Steps,” “Let the remembrance of Jesus be present with your every breath. Then indeed you will appreciate the value of stillness.”5
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