prayer Archives - Page 10 of 14

Contemplation as a Path of Healing (Part I)

09/05/2016

Contemplation as a Path of Healing A person can’t be healed within simply through discipline. Dealing with thoughts, along with concrete exercises, helps to calm the passions and make the soul healthy. But it takes contemplation to actually achieve that health. That was the monks’ experience, and that is how Evagrius Ponticus described it. Contemplation is pure prayer, prayer without respite, praying beyond thoughts and feelings, praying as oneness with God. Evagrius never tires of

Divine Eros Makes Prayer Imperative

07/08/2016

Divine Eros Makes Prayer Imperative “A person was upset with his wife. At noontime, when he got tired at work, he asked himself where he should go. He went to Elli, his wife, to get some rest.” “Do you hear my child do you hear? He was very tired. He went to a certain place. They talked and he rested. Because the flame of love was present, he found rest. This is a great thing.”

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

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

The First Monday (Pure) of Great Lent: Slavery to Technology

03/14/2016

Being Separate in a Connected World Beloved in Christ, we have to see ourselves as being different than the world around us! As Christians we are called to be “in the world, but not of the world.” (John 15:19). The Scripture says “come out and be separate…..” (2 Cor. 6:17) Yet this can be very difficult in a world that pressures us to conform to its ways and to be connected to it at all

ON THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE

03/02/2016

Stripped of all knowledge, lacking in every good thought or deed, without memory from the past or wish for the future, as useless as a worn-out rag, unfeeling as a stone in the path, corroded as a worm-eaten mushroom in the woods, mortal as a fish on the shore and grieved to tears over this wretched plight of yours, thus you will stand in prayer before the Almighty, your Judge and Creator and Father, your

Meditation and Worship (Part IV)

02/29/2016

Meditation is an activity of thought, while prayer is the rejection of every thought. According to the teaching of the eastern Fathers, even pious thoughts and the deepest and loftiest theological considerations, if they occur during prayer, must be considered as a temptation and suppressed; because, as the Fathers say, it is foolish to think about God and forget that you are in his presence. All the spiritual guides of Orthodoxy warn us against replacing

ON THE JESUS PRAYER

02/08/2016

The saint Abbot Isaiah, the Egyptian hermit, says of the Jesus Prayer (1) that it is a mirror for the mind and a lantern for the conscience. Someone has also likened it to a constantly sounding, quiet voice in a house: all thieves that sneak in take hasty flight when they hear that someone is awake there. The house is the heart, the thieves, the evil impulses. Prayer is the voice of the one who

REAL PEACE (Part III)

01/25/2016

“It is important to keep in mind,” Fr. Maximos continued, “that the perfect way of approaching the other person in such situations is with prayer. It may require many years of systematic prayer for God to inform the other person’s heart that we truly love him and have nothing against him. We must take upon ourselves this responsibility and say, ‘I am to be blamed for this situation also.’ The very fact that I exist

Venerable Macarius the Great of Egypt

01/19/2016

Saint Macarius the Great of Egypt was born around 331 in the village of Ptinapor in Egypt. At the wish of his parents he entered into marriage, but was soon widowed. After he buried his wife, Macarius told himself, “Take heed, Macarius, and have care for your soul. It is fitting that you forsake worldly life.” The Lord rewarded the saint with a long life, but from that time the memory of death was constantly

Tags

Contemplation as a Path of Healing (Part I)

Divine Eros Makes Prayer Imperative

SEEING BY TORCHLIGHT (Part III)

The Son of Disobedience is the Product of Oppression

The First Monday (Pure) of Great Lent: Slavery to Technology

ON THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE

Meditation and Worship (Part IV)

ON THE JESUS PRAYER

REAL PEACE (Part III)

Venerable Macarius the Great of Egypt

Categories

Archives

View Our Live Stream Services

Keep In Touch

Stewardship Application

Daily Meditations

Worship Schedule

Light a Virtual Candle

Text-to-Give in 2 easy steps!

1) Text 202-899-7801 to include your donation amount

2) Follow the link to complete the one-time registration