By throwing off the outer bonds, you throw off the inner as well. While you are freeing yourself from external concerns, your heart is freed from inner pain. It follows from this that the hard warfare you are compelled to wage with yourself is exclusively a means. As such it is neither good nor bad; the saints often liken it to a prescribed cure. However painful it may be to follow out, it nevertheless remains
By Father Vasile Tudora Warning: This article contains some details about photography techniques. However, reading it until the end will prove highly beneficial. There is no secret for anyone that I like photography. I have always been and I always will be fascinated by the mystical revelations of the dark room, where all your dreams of light and shadows take life under the gleaming shine of the red safelight. When seen through the camera lens,
SOME VARIETIES OF SILENCE Not all silence is the same. There is the awkward silence of the road trip with someone we do not know quite well enough to be silent next to, the refrigerating silence of hardened anger, the reverential silence of dogwoods in winter, the vast silence of a cathedral, the focused silence of absorption in our sewing or a good book, the stunned silence of seeing the status of our pension fund.
In a society that gives much value to development, progress and achievement, the spiritual life becomes quite easily subject to concerns expressed in questions such as, “How far advanced am I?” “Have I matured since I started on the spiritual path?” On what level am I and how do I move to the next one?”—”When will I reach the moment of union with God and the experience of illumination or enlightenment?” Although none of these
There is one thing that stands as a line of demarcation between Egypt and the desert, between slavery and freedom; it is a moment when we act decisively and become new people, establishing ourselves in an absolutely new moral situation. In terms of geography it was the Red Sea, in terms of the Lord’s Prayer it is ‘Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive’. This ‘as we forgive’ is the moment when we take our
The first task of the Church and of Christians is therefore to open up history to the eternity whither she is destined to ‘pass’ one day in a final Passover, whither she is already ‘passing’ by the prayers and the blessing of the liturgy and of liturgical people. To those who see with the ‘eye of the heart’, the reintegrating power of the sacraments holds the world in being, preserves history from decay and slowly
Just when you think you’ve seen it all, the Church of England comes to the rescue. This summer a couple was married in the church of St. Mary’s and St. Martin’s in the town of Blyth in Nottinghamshire. After the Vicar, a lady named Kate Bottley, tied the matrimonial knot with the words, “Those whom God has joined together, let no one put asunder”, she then led the newly-married bride and groom in a pre-arranged
ON THE PROPER KIND OF SELFISHNESS The first thing I want you to understand, if you really want to wake up, is that you don’t want to wake up. The first step to waking up is to be honest enough to admit to yourself that you don’t like it. You don’t want to be happy. Want a little test? Let’s try it. It will take you exactly one minute. You could close your eyes while
Some Other Things He Told Me about His Life on the Mountain One day, I arrived at his little trailer home about two to two-thirty in the afternoon. “Welcome. How is it that you arrived here at this time of day? Is there another person outside?” “No, I’m the last one. I have come to find out from you how we can acquire the Grace of God.” “I was in obedience to two elders on
Evagrius’s account of self-observation might almost be found in a psychology textbook explaining the various mechanisms of the soul and the connections of the individual feelings and emotions: “It is very important for us that we also learn to distinguish the various demons and to determine the attendant circumstances of their appearance. Our thoughts can teach us this…. Furthermore, we should note which demons attack less often and which are the more burdensome, which abandon
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