There are some in the Orthodox Tradition who have said that married couples should abstain from sexual relations during lenten periods. Some have gone so far as to say that this is the teaching of the Church. I am not an expert on such things, so I will not venture an opinion on whether or not it is the teaching of the Church or whether or not it is merely pious opinion. However,…
One of the temptations of being an Orthodox priest and pastor is to present a view of the spiritual life and the ascetic path by which one develops his or her relationship with God in the Church as if it were essentially one thing, as if there were only one way for everyone—and I knew what that way looks like. A lot of the reason for this, in my own experience, has…
In homily 47, St. Isaac introduces his famous three degrees of knowledge, which I have spoken about at length before. Today, I’d like to take a closer look at some aspects of the first degree of knowledge. St. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 8:1 that knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Because Paul sets up this contrast between knowledge and love, it’s easy to assume that they are somehow opposites, or tensions…
A couple of weeks ago, a disturbed young man got onto the metro train in Vancouver and began acting erratically and shouting and cursing. As people in the car began moving away from him, one woman did the opposite. A seventy-year old woman moved toward the man and reached out her hand and gently held his hand. She just gently put her hand in his. The man immediately calmed down, and then,…
St. Isaac the Syrian’s homily 44 is one of his several very difficult homilies. It is difficult not because it is hard to understand. Exactly the opposite is the case. It is quite straight forward and easy to understand. I understand it, and I am offended by it. Homily 44 is a letter written to another monk who loves stillness exhorting him to guard that stillness by avoiding contact with others. St.…
In Homily 43, St. Isaac speaks of three areas of ‘discipline,’ or areas in which we must guide or rule our life. Proper discipline in these areas leads to purity. These three areas are bodily discipline, leading to purification of the body; discipline of the mind, leading to purification of the soul; and spiritual discipline, leading to purification of the mind. Now right off the bat you might notice that St. Isaac…
I ran across this video of Hieromonk Seraphim Aldea speaking on monasticism. The talk wanders into the topics of confession and saints. It is excellent. He says much of what I would have liked to say in my blog post “St. Isaac’s Warning Applied to Advice From Holy Elders.” It’s about an hour and a half long. I found it very edifying.
One the contemporary Elders, and now recognized Saint, who has helped me the most over the past decade or so has been Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalivia. The book, Wounded by Love, is about his life and some of his sayings. It’s a book that I have read several times, and each time it has inspired and corrected me. The broad inspirational appeal of Saint Porphyrios can be partly seen in that my…
In my last blog post, I spoke of two categories of trials discussed by St. Isaac in homily 42: trials that are the fruit of pride and trials that are allowed by God to create longing and are evidence of one drawing near to God. Before I get into what St. Isaac says about patience and humility at the end of homily 42, I want correct a potential misunderstanding some of you…
Continuing in homily 42, St. Isaac gives us another warning. When you find unchanging peace, that is, when everything is going smoothly for you most of the time, then “beware: you are very far from the divine paths trodden by the weary feet of the saints. For as long as you are journeying in the way to the city of the Kingdom and are drawing nigh to the city of God, this…
