Tag: passions

The Muskox Response To COVID-19

· Fr. Michael Gillis 1 Leave a Comment on %s
Last night I watched an episode of Dr. Oakley, Yukon Vet on Disney Plus.   It was about Dr. Oakley treating an muskox.  The episode is called, “One Angry Muskox.”  In order to treat this animal, they had to tranquilize it, but before they could tranquilize it, they had to separate it from the herd.  And the reason they had to separate it is what I want to talk about.  They had…

Fleeing To The Desert, A Little Bit

· Fr. Michael Gillis 7 Leave a Comment on %s
 Is it possible to flee to the desert a little bit?  No and yes.  No, you can’t flee a little bit, for fleeing a little bit is not fleeing at all.  But yes, you can flee a little bit, if that little bit is complete.  Here’s what I mean.  We are all called to flee the world, in the sense of fleeing the sinful ways of the world.  But we are not…

Why Don’t Temptations Go Away?

· Fr. Michael Gillis 3 Leave a Comment on %s
In homily 69, St. Isaac reminds us that temptations to sin come upon all people, even the “perfect.”  Quoting freely from St. Macarius of Alexandria, St. Isaac reminds us that our inner state is rather like the weather.  “There is cold, and soon after, burning heat, and then perhaps even hail, and after a little, fair weather.”   I think some of us will find this shocking, that even the perfect experience…

St. Isaac And The Passions

· Fr. Michael Gillis 9 Leave a Comment on %s
In the comment section of a previous post, these questions were asked.  I thought I would address my response in a full blog post.  I hope it makes sense. Two questions Father: 1) Can you explain more how the passions can never fully be uprooted from the soul? I tend to think of the soul as only having good qualities, and now becoming Orthodox I see that this is not what the…

Glorying In Our Weaknesses

· Fr. Michael Gillis 5 Leave a Comment on %s
One of the recurring statements in St. Isaac the Syrian’s homilies is that we will not be completely free from the experience of passionate desires until our death.  Consequently, it is necessary for us to find a certain peace in the knowledge of our shadows, of our weaknesses.  It’s not that it’s “OK” to have passions–as though we were supposed to give up and just let certain persistent passions have their way…

Being Married to a Eunuch

· Fr. Michael Gillis 2 Leave a Comment on %s
I’m working on a project for a friend who is developing Sunday school curriculum. The project has required that I reread and paraphrase a lot of the Old Testament for reading out loud to children. It has been a good project for me, even if often I have had to make myself do it. It is not very intellectually stimulating. However, reading through the life of Joseph this morning I saw something…

Passions as disease

· Fr. Michael Gillis 1 Leave a Comment on %s
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the passions and how they afflict us like a disease. Even when you fight against the passions, I find that I am often tricked by them. Really the only hope I have found is to call out to God (using the Jesus Prayer) when I am strongly feeling a passion. However, if someone doesn’t strongly fight the passions, then they take over his life. Some…