Remove from me the way of unrighteousness and with Thy law have mercy on me. Psalm 118: 29 St. Theophan the Recluse in a wonderful commentary on Psalm 118 (119), commenting on verse 29, makes the following comment about sin: St. Theophan’s comment: The person who endures assaults from sin cannot but realize that he himself gave sin such power over himself; he reared the serpent in himself, and consequently suffers justly;…
Archimandrite Aimilianos of Simonopetra Monastery, in the first half of a transcribed (and then translated) speech called “The Progression of the Soul” speaks of stages to the beginning of the spiritual journey. The beginning point for him is found in rightly negotiating the second stage. The first stage of the spiritual journey he calls the feeling of exile, the feeling that we are far from God, that there is a wall…
