In this time of testing, when many of us are restricted to being at home every day, we need to take special care and thought to how we act and treat those in our homes, the members of our families. Now, more than ever, we are able to see where we fall short of the […]
Despite the apparently universal human need to look back to a golden age of long summers, full churches, and ecumenical unanimity, the reality of human history is replete with examples of chaos and catastrophe in every age. There has never been a century, or even a decade, when there have not been devastating storms, calamitous […]
Jesus answered and said unto her, Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. John 4:13 The theme of this Gospel reading for today is found in the words of our Lord when he says, Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give […]
What do we do when the doors of the Church are closed to us, and it seems that everyone around us is filled with panic and anxiety? There are three easy options that will not help us very much. They reveal a lack of depth in our spiritual lives, it seems to me. But it […]
It seems to be very easy to be busy in service, and even in theological studies, and to have a low view of the Scriptures. I mean that we can be sure that the Bible is important. And we can even feel that we really should read a portion of the Bible ourselves every day, […]
St John Cassian teaches about sinful desires Our second struggle is against the demon of unchastity and the desire of the flesh, a desire which begins to trouble us from the time of our youth. This harsh struggle has to be fought in both the soul and the body, and not simply in the soul, […]
In the last post on anger, I asked readers to… Write down what was happening when you started to feel anger. Write down what you were thinking or what memories were in your mind. Write down any words that were in your mind at the time. Try to write down… I was feeling anger because […]
We have thought that anger often has a cause in us not having what we want, or expected, or losing something that we had. It can be trivial, it can be something intangible. But very often it is the desire to have something or control something which plants the seeds of anger within us. Our […]
The great spiritual fathers of the Church have insight into every aspect of human psychology and spirituality. At the beginning of the life of the Church they were able to describe, categorise, and provide from their own experience a very detailed understanding of what goes on inside of us. These are a few thoughts about […]
It is in silence that the first signs of the life of prayer reveal themselves. The Spirit of God does not force Himself upon us. He is gentle as a dove. When the Lord told Moses that He would appear to him we read that He was not in the wind, nor in the earthquake, […]