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 →
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 →
There is no ‘start’ and ‘end’ to Prayer
"Whoever is used to praying only at such time as the knee is bent, prays very little. But whoever, even on bended knee, is distracted by any sort of wandering heart, prays not at all. And for this reason, it behoves us even before the time of prayer to be such as we would wish... Continue Reading →
Learning Compassion
"If we want to set our lives right and find peace, it is not the tolerant attitude of others that will do it for us. It will come about, rather, by our learning how to show compassion to them. If we try to avoid this hard struggle of compassion, by preferring a withdrawn and solitary... Continue Reading →
Let Prayer Be Your Guard
“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, or even for idle talk, as both mouth and heart are incessantly taken up with spiritual meditations.” St. John Cassian,... Continue Reading →
On The Use of The Psalms In Prayer
"Penetrated by the same feelings in which the psalm was composed, it is as if we became the authors of it and we run ahead of its thought rather than follow it. We grasp the meaning before reading the words. The sacred words reawaken our experience reminding us of the assaults we have undergone and... Continue Reading →
An Ancient Faith For a Modern World 