“The will of my Father is that a person be made a participant in the Holy Spirit and that the citizen of earth be reborn into a strange and unaccustomed life and be called a citizen of Heaven. And when he says that the rebirth by the Holy Spirit is ‘from above,’ he shows clearly... Continue Reading →
The Life of The Slain Lamb Repels Death
"This is the mighty one whose proclamation (of the Gospel) became a bridle in the jaws of the nations, turning them away from idols to the one who sent Him. Dead idols with closed mouths fed upon the life of their worshipers. For this reason, you mixed Your blood, which repelled Death and terrified it,... Continue Reading →
Despondency; The Modern Plague?
The demon of acedia [despondency], also called the noonday demon, is the most oppressive of all the demons. He attacks the monk from about the fourth hour [10am] and besieges his soul until the eighth hour [2 pm]. First of all, he makes it appear that the sun moves slowly or not at all, and... Continue Reading →
The Human Being: Halfway Between Greatness and Nothingness
"The great Architect of the universe conceived and produced a being endowed with both nature, the visible and invisible: God created the human being, bringing its body forth from matter which He animated with His own Spirit... Thus in some way a new universe was born, small and great at one and the same time.... Continue Reading →
Sandals, Death and Communion
Coming to a true knowledge of Reality, we are to die to the dead mode we have inhabited and thus remove the sandals from our feet so we might participate in Life, Christ offered to us in the Eucharist. The ascetic pursuit then is a life of removing the coverings we have accumulated so that we can see things as they really are.
The Vision of God is Life
“And for this reason did the Word become the dispenser of the paternal grace for the benefit of men, for whom He made such great dispensations, revealing God indeed to men, but presenting man to God, and preserving at the same time the invisibility of the Father, lest man should at any time become a... Continue Reading →
Christ, The Aim of Scripture
"The aim (skopos) of the inspired Scriptures is the mystery of Christ signified to us through a myriad of different kinds of things. Someone might liken it to a glittering and magnificent city, having not one image of the king, but many, and publicly displayed in every corner of the city . . . .... Continue Reading →
He in All and All in Him
"For who is so simple-minded as not to believe, when he considers the universe, that the Divine Being is in every thing, clothing Himself with it, embracing it, and residing in it. If then all things are in Him and He in all things, why are they ashamed of the plan of our religion which... Continue Reading →
He is Outside and Yet Within All Creation
"'Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool... All these things my hand has made' (Isaiah 66.1-2). The whole heavens are held in God's hand, the whole earth in the hollow of his hand... The heaven is also his throne and the earth his footstool. His throne and footstool are his infinite omnipotence,... Continue Reading →
Renunciation is a love of Life
"Let him who has chosen to practice the ascesis of renunciation make for himself a wall of faith, a fortification of hope, and a secure grounding in love. For faith is not the abandonment but the substance of superior goods in the hope of perseverance and the love of life (cf. Heb. 11.1)." Evagrius of... Continue Reading →
The Remembrance of God’s Goodness
"Behold what ought to be the point of departure for a profitable journey according to God. You must always go over in your memory and guard in unceasing meditation, the remembrance of the goodness of God Who has ordered your life's course according to His design, of His benefits that aim at your souls salvation.... Continue Reading →
We Become That Which We Love
In St. Gregory of Nyssa's works there is a beautiful, little known work. This is his commentary on The Inscriptions of the psalms (we probably miss these as we read but these are the texts, some small some large, written in tiny font above the Psalm in most of our Bibles). He sees these inscriptions... Continue Reading →
