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Daily Meditations

The Purpose and Method of Christian Life (Part V). Virtues (Part I): Detachment

07/20/2017

According to the Conferences, to cultivate purity of heart means to live a life of Christian virtue. For the fathers, speaking about virtues is like placing the white light of purity of heart through a mental prism. Virtues are like the colors that make up the light, combining indivisibly into a single whole, but capable of being discussed on their own. Many of the fathers in the Conferences talk at length about virtues, their nature,

PRAYING WITH ICONS AND STATUES

07/19/2017

Icons and statuary make important contributions to any spiritual environment that nurtures prayer. Morning after morning, I used to watch a ninety-eight-year-old woman walk brightly into church and take her usual seat. She would turn her head slightly to the right and give a nod to the statue of Mary and then turn her head a good deal more to the left and wink at the statue of St. Joseph. She would then sit down

Patience (Part II): The Biblical Roots of Patience in Desert Asceticism

07/18/2017

The sources of desert wisdom are the sayings of the abbas and ammas and written accounts of incidents from their lives. The wisdom embodied in their actions and teaching was formed through years of meditation and teaching about the Bible and the life of Jesus of Nazareth. The Greek words used for patience in these sources can help us understand the role of patience in the lives of the desert monks. The Greek verb “hypomeno”

Watching the River

07/17/2017

To live in the present moment requires a change in our inner posture. Instead of expanding or shoring up our fortress of “I”–the ego–which culture and often therapy try to help us do, contemplation waits to discover what this “I” consists of. What is this “I” that I take so seriously? To discover the answer, we have to calmly observe our own stream of consciousness and see its compulsive patterns. That’s what happens in the

Face to Face—Beholding God

07/14/2017

My mind wandered back to these thoughts as I pondered the growing phenomenon of “selfies.” Of course, the “selfie” is the passion-driven distortion of the theology of the face – existence as ego. For the mystery of the face is not to look at myself, but to look at the other. You are God’s “selfie.” Ponder it. Nothing about the human body is as intimate as the face. We generally think of other aspects of

The Purpose and Method of Christian Life (Part IV). The Goal and Telos of Christian Life (Part IV)

07/13/2017

In this vein, the difference between the kingdom of God and God himself can begin to blur in the words of the Abba. For example, he notes that the reason Christians pursue their goal, purity of heart, is to attain the telos of a permanent connection not just to holy things, ideas or states associated with God, but to God himself. This, then, must be our primary undertaking-chis the never-altered destination and never-failing pursuit of

PRAYER OF PETITION: HUCK FINN AND DENYS THE AREOPAGITE

07/12/2017

Many people on the path of contemplation wonder about other forms of prayer such as petitionary or intercessory prayer. The question is not simply theoretical; for when we go deeply into our practice all other forms of prayer are often integrated into the simple silence of just being. Yet many contemplatives also incorporate other forms of prayer such as going to church, praying the psalms, praying for other people’s needs and the world’s needs. There

Patience (Part I): Partners in the Cell

07/11/2017

Abba Antony said “Whatever you find in your heart to do in following God, that do, and remain within yourself in Him.”1 “Go, sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything.”2 Abba Moses knew the cell was essential for the ascetic life of the monk. There must be a specific place for encountering God and one’s self. But the “place” was not an end in itself. Abba Ammonas said, “A man may

Alternative Consciousness

07/10/2017

I often use this line, a paraphrase of Albert Einstein: “No problem can be solved by the same consciousness that caused it.” Unfortunately, we have been trying to solve almost all our problems with the very same mind that caused them, which is the calculating or dualistic mind. This egocentric mind usually reads everything in terms of short-term effect, in terms of what’s in it for me and how I can look good. As long

The Marriage of Love and Hate

07/07/2017

By Father Stephen Freeman The genius of Dostoevsky lies in the profound theological insight of his tumbled novels. They can be difficult reads for many people – particularly in our modern setting. He has “too many characters” and they “talk a lot.” His characters are complex: I was a scoundrel, and yet, I loved God…  Good and evil are in a monstrous coexistence within man.  So says Dmitri Karamazov. And this statement describes all of

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