Here St. John Cassian and his associate Germanus have been asking Abba Daniel about why sometimes we feel so easily able to pray and at other times we arent. This is followed by a line of questions about the inner warfare. Abba Daniel's response here about trying to obtain 'the goal' or 'the trophy' without... Continue Reading →
The Spiritual Journey of The Psalter
“First the Psalter separates us .. . from the attached evil to which we have been attached (chained). And thus it scrapes and polishes our understanding by means of more delicate teachings of ideas. Then, by means of the forms of virtue, it forms Christ in us, in accordance with whose image we existed in... Continue Reading →
The Senses Become Attuned to Him
Commenting on Song of Songs, St. Gregory of Nyssa says about the human acquisition of virtue as mirroring God more fully. He speaks here about the spiritual senses. The bride then rightly recognizes the difference between herself and her Lord. As Light, He is an object of beauty for our eyes; He is a sweet... Continue Reading →
Bringing Us Back to His Likeness
Hitherto the Word, in whose image humanity had been made, was invisible, and for that reason humanity easily lost the likeness. When, however, the Word of God had been made flesh, he realised both. For on the one hand, he revealed the true image, himself becoming that which was his own image; on the other... Continue Reading →
He Plunges Even Into the Hell of my Heart
“Man has been plunged into the abyss of darkness and the depths of death. He is suffocating and has lost God’s life within himself, surrounded by ferocious beasts. Who is able to penetrate into those depths of hell and death except that very Workman himself, who fashioned the human body? He himself [Christ] penetrates into... Continue Reading →
Hope Not in Your Own Strength
“Give us help out of affliction” (Ps. 59:13). Let us seek help, not from [physical] strength, not from the well-being of the flesh. Let us not think it right to obtain aid from any of those considered notorious among men. Strength is a matter not of amassing of money, not of extent of power, not... Continue Reading →
Be Angry and Do Not Sin
"So let us too not be angry rashly. Anger, you see, has been instilled in us for a reason, not for sinning but for checking others in their sin, not for it to become a passion and an affliction but for it to prove a remedy for passions. Accordingly consider the anomaly of vice, when... Continue Reading →
The Wondrous Paradox of The Incarnation
“Your mother is a cause for wonder: the Lord entered herand became a servant; He who is the Word entered — and became silent within her; thunder entered her—-and made no sound; there entered the Shepherd of all, and in her He became the Lamb, bleating as He came forth. Your Mother’s womb has reversed... Continue Reading →
Fasting Because All Things Are Good
“To eat and drink with thanksgiving to God all that is served up or prepared for one is not in any way opposed to the rule of knowledge. For everything is very good (Genesis 1.31). But voluntarily to abstain from what is agreeable and abundant is a sign of great discernment and higher knowledge. We... Continue Reading →
Give Evil no Entry
Speaking about the Egyptian desert and why the monastics there were successful at taming their thoughts and the attack of demons,“But everyone does the work assigned to Him in such a way that, by repeating by heart some psalm or passage of Scripture, he gives no opportunity or time for dangerous schemes or evil designs,... Continue Reading →
Christianity is Not The Destruction But The Elevation of The World
The highest aim for Christianity is not ascetic detachment from the natural life but its hallowing and purification. But in order to purify it, one must, in the first instance, be pure from it.
Adopt A Life of Prayer
"Whoever is used to praying only at such time as the knee is bent, prays very little. But whoever, even on bent knee, is distracted by any sort of wandering heart, prays not at all. And for this reason, it behooves us even before the time of prayer to be such as we would wish... Continue Reading →
An Ancient Faith For a Modern World 