Daily Meditations Archives - Page 234 of 348

SEEING BY TORCHLIGHT (Part III)

06/23/2016

Evagrius insists as strongly as St. Hesychios on the importance of cultivating this first stage of watchful awareness. In our discovery of inner stillness, we first learn a good deal more about our obsessive mental habits than about inner stillness. But Evagrius is convinced that this ordeal with thoughts is crucial to our contemplative training and that we should take every opportunity to observe all we can about these thoughts; which thoughts “arc less frequent

REAL PEACE (Part VI)

06/22/2016

“So when we examine ourselves and discover that our behavior is similar to that of Christ, we can rejoice,” Fr. Maximos continued. “Otherwise we should humble ourselves. Never justify ourselves. Whoever tries to justify himself or herself will never reach metanoia.” “How does one humble oneself?” Maria wondered. “Thank God there are plenty of opportunities in our everyday life to humble ourselves! The more difficulties we have in life, the greater the opportunities for humility.”

Keeping Death before our Eyes Every Day (Part I)

06/21/2016

Keeping Death before Our Eyes Every Day In his Rule St. Benedict advises the monks to keep death before their eyes every day. In saying this, he summarizes what we are told in numerous stories about the monks: they lived in the awareness of their death. This makes them inwardly more vital and focused. Thinking about death liberated them from all fear. Thus a young monk asks an elder: “Why am I seized by fear

Monday of the Holy Spirit

06/20/2016

The Descent of the Holy Spirit By Bishop Alexander (Mileant) The descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost is described by the Evangelist Luke in the initial chapters of his book “Acts of the Holy Apostles.” It was God’s will to make this event a turning point in the world’s history. Pentecost, celebrated on the fiftieth day after the Jewish Passover, was one of the three major holidays of

Pentecost: The Descent of the Holy Spirit

06/19/2016

Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko In the Old Testament, Pentecost was the feast which occurred fifty days after Passover. As the passover feast celebrated the exodus of the Israelites from the slavery of Egypt, so Pentecost celebrated God’s gift of the ten commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai. In the new covenant of the Messiah, the Passover event takes on its new meaning as the celebration of Christ’s death and resurrection, the “exodus” of men from this

The Remembrance of Death (Part II)

06/17/2016

By Father Steven Kostoff Taken in isolation, “remembrance of death”—especially among those who “have no hope” [1 Thessalonians 4:13]—can have a horrible effect upon the soul. It only makes sense to forget about it! The Christian practice of the “remembrance of death” needs to be the result of a lively faith in Christ, the Vanquisher of death, for it to be the spiritually positive practice it is meant to be. Saint Paul has said it

The Remembrance of Death (Part I)

06/16/2016

By Father Steven Kostoff In the Orthodox Prayer Book under the heading “Before Sleep,” we find “A Prayer of Saint John of Damascus, said pointing at the bed.” This particular prayer begins, “O Master Who lovest mankind, is this bed to be my coffin? Or wilt Thou enlighten my wretched soul with another day?” As Saint John was a monk, we could, of course, dismiss or ignore such a prayer as “monastic excess,” or even

The Son of Disobedience is the Product of Oppression

06/15/2016

The Son of Disobedience is the Product of Oppression “A mother complained that her son no longer her, he doesn’t go to Church and the like. I told her, “You oppressed him for so many years. You ordered him around constantly. Now he wants freedom. Don’t order him around. Only pray with spiritual love for him. If you saw a Turk controlling your son and dictating to him to ‘Say this or that thing to

ON TIMES OF DARKNESS

06/14/2016

The weather shifts from cloudy to clear and then back to rain: thus it is with human nature. One must always expect clouds to hide the sun sometimes. Even the saints have had their dark hours, days and weeks. They say then that “God has left them” in order that they may know truly how utterly wretched they are of themselves, without His support. These times of darkness, when all seems meaningless, ridiculous and vain,

Meditation and Worship (Part V)

06/13/2016

St John Climacus gives us a simple way of learning to concentrate. He says: choose a prayer, be it the Lord’s Prayer or any other, take your stand before God, become aware of where you are and what you are doing, and pronounce the words of the prayer attentively. After a certain time you will discover that your thoughts have wandered; then restart the prayer on the words or the sentence which was the last