thoughts Archives - Page 5 of 6

Analyzing Our Thoughts and Feelings (IV)

09/15/2014

The third logismos of the instinctual desires, according to Evagrius, is greed. The striving for possessions is an essential part of human life, and it contains a longing for rest. Possessions lead us to expect that we will have no more cares and will be able to calmly spend our time living. But experience shows that possessions can possess us, that we are possessed by our striving for more and more things. Evagrius portrays the

Analyzing Our Thoughts and Feelings (III)

08/12/2014

Evagrius describes the second vice of lust as follows: “The demon of unchastity is concerned with greed for the body. Those who lead a life of abstinence find themselves more exposed to his assaults than others. For the demon would have them stop practicing this virtue. Anyway, so he would have them believe, it yields no profit. It is typical of this demon to play out before them impure actions, to dirty them, and finally

Analyzing Our Thoughts and Feelings (II)

07/18/2014

Evagrius’s account of self-observation might almost be found in a psychology textbook explaining the various mechanisms of the soul and the connections of the individual feelings and emotions: “It is very important for us that we also learn to distinguish the various demons and to determine the attendant circumstances of their appearance. Our thoughts can teach us this…. Furthermore, we should note which demons attack less often and which are the more burdensome, which abandon

Analyzing Our Thoughts and Feelings (I)

06/27/2014

The encounter with oneself that the monks sought in silence and that they saw as a prerequisite for the encounter with God is for Evagrius Ponticus primarily a meeting with the thoughts and feelings in one’s own heart. Among the desert fathers Evagrius is considered a specialist in dealing with thoughts and passions. He experienced them himself and wrote about them again and again in his books, to share his experience with others. It was

CLINGING TO DISTRACTION LIKE A DOG TO A BONE (Part I)

02/18/2014

Evagrius and others have a psychological description of how these inner videos are generated. There is within us a sort of mental craving that is fragmented and frayed (pathos was the Greek word he often used), with the result that we are nearly always either grasping at something or pushing it away and find it very difficult to receive with open palms of simple gratitude. What happens when this mental craving grasps some thought or

Full of Grace and Truth: Saint Euthymios the Great

01/20/2014

Saint Euthymios the Great came from the city of Melitene in Armenia, near the River Euphrates. His parents, Paul and Dionysia, were pious Christians of noble birth. After many years of marriage they remained childless, and in their sorrow they entreated God to give them offspring. Finally, they had a vision and heard a voice saying, “Be of good cheer! God will grant you a son, who will bring joy to the churches.” The child

Drawn to Interior Silence

08/20/2013

The practice of contemplation quiets the noise that goes on in our heads and allows inner silence to expand. This expanding inner silence is a wide and fertile delta that embraces the mud, reeds, and rushes of all sound, whether delightful or disruptive. Initially, however, the practice of contemplation can strike us as frustratingly awkward, and we react to everything within and without. Though we feel drawn to interior silence, what we find when we

Father Maximos on Temperance and Self-Control

07/23/2013

Fr. Maximos was fond of referring to a story of John Chrysostom, fourth-century patriarch of Constantinople who later was canonized as a major saint of the Church, both of the East and of the West. He was persecuted by the wife of the then emperor for being critical of her abuse of power and exploitation of the poor and weak. When John was warned by friends to stop his sermons against her on the ground

“KNOCK AND THE DOOR SHALL BE OPENED”

02/19/2013

“KNOCK AND THE DOOR SHALL BE OPENED” (MT 7:7; LK 11:9) “Let us sit still and keep our attention fixed within ourselves,” says Evagrius. Simone Weil describes prayer in much the same spirit when she says “Prayer consists of attention,” and “the quality of the attention counts for much in the quality of the prayer.” The practice of contemplation begins with our attention and our bodies. The basics are simple. We sit down and assume

CHRISTIAN ROOTS OF THE PRACTICE OF CONTEMPLATION

11/06/2012

For Christians Jesus himself is the prime example of the practice of contemplation. According to early Christian contemplatives, this example is not the healing of the demoniac, the rebuking of the winds, or the Transfiguration, but Jesus’ own temptation in the desert (Mt 4:1-11). The ordeal in prayer is fundamentally a battle with thoughts, and the early contemplatives noticed something vitally important in how Jesus dealt with the thoughts by which Satan tried to ensnare

Archive

Analyzing Our Thoughts and Feelings (IV)

Analyzing Our Thoughts and Feelings (III)

Analyzing Our Thoughts and Feelings (II)

Analyzing Our Thoughts and Feelings (I)

CLINGING TO DISTRACTION LIKE A DOG TO A BONE (Part I)

Full of Grace and Truth: Saint Euthymios the Great

Drawn to Interior Silence

Father Maximos on Temperance and Self-Control

“KNOCK AND THE DOOR SHALL BE OPENED”

CHRISTIAN ROOTS OF THE PRACTICE OF CONTEMPLATION

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