Feb 4, 2012

God does not come and go – your attention does.

Jan 12, 2012

Good news! Holy Transfiguraton Monastery has published a new edition of The Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian. I’d like to describe the differences between the two editions...

Oct 20, 2011

These three spiritual principles, or disciplines, are really a summation of the Philokalia, the collection of Orthodox Christian spiritual wisdom. And they are disciplines every single one of us can practice, no matter where we are in life...

Aug 31, 2011

Check our intention to see if we are as interested in others getting their needs met as our own...

Jul 30, 2011

Beware of temptations from this world and from worldly people; beware of hidden inner temptations that come from the spirit of indifference and carelessness in prayer, from the waning of Christian love.

Mar 27, 2011

Originally, askesis just meant athletic training: "Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race set before us."

Mar 17, 2010

There was a monk from Rome who lived at Scetis near the church. Having lived twenty five years at Scetis, he had acquired the gift of insight and became famous. One of the great Egyptians heard about him and came to see him...

Mar 15, 2010

Repentance is the state of the heart when it is in communion with God.

Mar 2, 2010

Sloth... is not merely idleness of mind and laziness of body: it is that whole poisoning of the will which, beginning with indifference and an attitude “I couldn't care less,” extends to the deliberate refusal of joy and culminates in morbid introspection and despair. One form of it which appeals very much to some modern minds is that acquiescence in evil and error which readily disguises itself as “Tolerance.”

Oct 15, 2009

Thinking about men I admired, it dawned on me that most had a quiet contempt towards any excess of material possessions. Their expertise and confidence were displayed by the fact that they did not require much to live successfully. Possessions had no control over the trajectory of their lives...