On October 8, we commemorate two Sts. Pelagia of Antioch. The first is a virgin martyr, and the second is a repentant harlot, sometimes referred to as St. Pelagia the former courtesan of Antioch. I first heard the story of St. Pelagia the virgin martyr from my bishop, shortly after he had arrived in California from Damascus. I had just been ordained a deacon and was helping to run a large youth…
“You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin” (Hebrews 12:4). Those of you who have been reading my blogs for a long time know that I often liken the spiritual life to gardening.  We have to take care of our soul, the garden of our thoughts.  When we care for our soul, our actions are more likely to be grace-filled and less likely to be dominated by the passions.  Or…
In my last post, Finding Peace Despite Sinful Thoughts, I spoke of the struggle to accept the struggle, to be at peace despite ongoing sinful thought.  I compared this struggle to the battle I have in my garden with bindweed. One of the readers of that article wrote the following comment, and I thought that I would share my response with everyone.  Here’s the comment: Thank you Father, One of the problems…
  In St. Isaac the Syrian’s homily 62, St. Isaac offers us the metaphor of a manuscript in rough draft to help us understand why on-going repentance is important for Christians regardless of their real or imagined state of spiritual maturity. Here is the paragraph that uses the metaphor: Life in the world is like a manuscript of writings that is still in rough draft. When a man wishes or desires to…
I ran across a quote today from St. Cyril of Alexandria that really grabbed my attention. I read it in a pamphlet at a Roman Catholic bookstore. I did a quick google search to see if I could track down the exact source of the quotation—chapter and verse, so to speak. I don’t like quoting sources that I have not tracked down myself and verified. However, although this quote appears in many…
Every spring I muse on the weeds in my garden. A particularly demonic weed (from my perspective) is convolvulus arvensis: Bindweed. Once you’ve got it, you’ve got it. The only way to get rid of it completely is to kill everything using something like Roundup—and that’s only if it has not flowered. If it has flowered and produced seeds, well then you are looking at 20 years of volunteer bindweed. I am not…
I When many of the Fathers of the Church warn us to keep active and aware, they are not speaking of physical actions and good works—although good works are always good to do. By staying active, they are referring to the action of the nous or of the mind/heart: active in the inner man. We stay active in our nous through constant prayer, often by learning to constantly recite a short prayer, most commonly,…
Some one asked me recently, “What does ‘mourning for your sins’ look like?” Below is what I answered. It is only my best guess. Certainly those with more experience would know better. There is a sorrow, a godly sorrow, that leads to repentance. This sorrow is for sins (specific misdeeds or attitudes, or mistakes or failures) that I have committed. This sorrow (when it is rightly experienced) leads to repentance. However, there…
In response to a comment to the blog entry “The Loving Act of Saying No,” I say the following: We don’t realize how much God loves us–not as abstract human beings, but as distinct persons. We are all sick and need to be healed and cleaned up (so to speak), but we must never lose sight of the fact that it is us whom God saves. When we get to heaven, God…
