“For even profitable words, spoken without measure, produce darkness, how much more so does vain talk.” (St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 48) I feel a little crazy sometimes, like an idiot—not a godly, holy idiot, just a plain, old-fashioned idiot: the kind that boasts of humility and speaks about the virtue of silence. It seems strange to feel compelled to talk about the virtues of silence. Perhaps I am my own negative…
St. Isaac says that lower spiritual beings and realities cannot see higher ones: “Every thing that is above another is concealed from that which is beneath it.” This principal applies pretty consistently across all nonphysical reality. Take mathematics for example. I know there is such a thing as calculus, but calculus is only squiggles on a page to me–I barely made it through second year algebra. The lower cannot see the…
Even if your are not a peacemaker, at least do not be a troublemaker. Even if you cannot eradicate evil from your heart, do not let it out of your mouth. St. Isaac the Syrian We are all weak and broken in various ways. Yet we do not have to let our brokenness become an excuse to sin more, to create more brokenness. We may not be able to heal a broken…
