Words On Prayer To A Newly Baptized Adult
Tag: prayer
Tools For Theosis
Abbot Chapman Prays In The Rain
Spiritual Letters is a collection of letters written in the early part of the twentieth century by a Roman Catholic priest—and I highly recommend it to English speaking Orthodox Christians who want to be encouraged in prayer. The priest, Abbot John Chapman, was a very well educated Oxford graduate and devout Anglican who converted to Roman Catholicism in his mid twenties. As a Roman Catholic he became a Benedictine monk, then a…
Concern Over God’s Judgement: What Does It Look Like?
In homily 51, St. Isaac begins a paragraph by quoting St. Gregory (I don’t know which one): “He is a temple of grace who is united with God, and is constant in his concern over His judgement.” St. Isaac then asks, “what is concern over God’s judgement?” His answer is quite surprising, a non sequitur really. He doesn’t actually deal with God’s judgement at all, at least not in the way that…
Marriage, Sex and Lent
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,…
Meeting God in Unanswered Prayer
Someone, apparently a young adult, wrote me recently and asked about prayer.  This person was having a hard time discerning the difference between worry and prayer.  He or she was wondering if prayer, although salutary to ourselves, really does have an effect on those we pray for.  Particularly, this person was worried about and/or praying for his or her parents who seemed to be getting further and further apart.  Did God hear his/her…
Sinful Dreams and Spiritual Warfare
A catechumen once asked what he could do to get victory over bad dreams: especially lustful dreams that roused his passions and often led him into temptation. I told him that this is one of those aspects of life in a fallen body that must be resisted and endured. One of the ways satan seeks to weary and wear out the saints (or those who strive to be holy) is through the…
Glorying In Our Weaknesses
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…
When Apples Are Sometimes Oranges
Giving Birth To Prayer
Now that we are well into Great Lent and have, I hope, pushed ourselves a little in fasting and prayer, it’s probably time to take stock of what is really happening. I imagine most of us are failing miserably. Even if we have managed to keep a strict diet, obeying to the best of our ability the outer guidelines of the fast and even if we have attended most of the extra…