May 7, 2012

Saint John Climacus writes in The Ladder that the beginning of prayer consists in chasing away invading thoughts…

Mar 29, 2012

When the sea is calm, the fisherman's eyes can see the movements of the fish deep down...

Jan 30, 2012

There you are.

Jan 24, 2012

A brother once went out on a pilgrimage from the monastery of Abba Poemen, and came to a hermit, who lived in love towards all and received many visitors...

Jan 11, 2012

Spurious knowledge, or ‘knowledge falsely so called’ (1 Timothy 6:20), is that which a man possesses when he thinks he knows what he has never known. It is worse than complete ignorance, says St. John Chrysostom, in that its victim will not accept correction from any teacher because he thinks that this worst kind of ignorance is in fact something...

Dec 21, 2011

St Paul wrote his New Testament advice to elders and overseers. By the end of the first century, St John's disciple Ignatius wrote about how these orders of clergy interacted in his experience...

Nov 12, 2011

Now some of the women who came begging for alms wore ornaments and bracelets, and this was reported to the patriarch...

Oct 20, 2011

The world is the general name for all the passions. When we wish to call the passions by a common name, we call them the world...

Jun 13, 2011

“The old authorities decided to accept that baptism which in no way errs from the faith. Thus they used the names of heresies, of schisms, and of unlawful congregations...”

Jun 11, 2011

Some people are convinced that sacred tradition is guarded by episcopal synods. But contemporary synods are not like those in the age of the early Christians: their aim was to preserve and protect the Church’s therapeutic method.