St. Isaac the Syrian said that only the tomb is the “land of certainty”. Writing to hermits living in the desert, St. Isaac wanted to free them from the delusion that they could be certain about anything in this world. I wonder if St. Isaac was reflecting on the words of St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 8: “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone thinks he knows anything, he knows…
What should we do about the Great Reset? About once a week I get a message from one or another of my parishioners with a link to a video that I “have to see.” Many of these videos are of a monk on Mt. Athos (or a monk from some other place reputed for holiness), or it is a video by a conservative religious or political commentator decrying the loss of religious…
 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…
St. Isaac the Syrian in his seventy-second homily tells us, “As soon as Grace sees that a little self-esteem has begun to steal into a man’s thoughts, and that he has begun to think great things of himself, She [Grace] immediately permits the temptations opposing him to gain in strength and prevail, until he learns his weakness…and seeks refuge with God in humility.” Our problem that we need to be saved from…
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…
Many do not realize that the ancient Church Fathers deal rather specifically with the problem of unwanted sexual thoughts, albeit from a man’s perspective. Unfortunately, there were very few women in the ancient world who were able or had the leisure to read and write, so there is a dearth of information about the inner life of women in the early centuries of the Church. Consequently, women have to translate the struggles…
  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…
According to Serafim Seppälä*, St. Isaac the Syrian understands the perception of the angelic orders to be limited by their own natures. That is, each rank of the heavenly orders—angels, archangels, thrones, dominions, powers, etc.— is able to perceive a higher rank, but only in so far as its own nature, it’s own ability to perceive God’s glory, allows it.  I admit that this is a rather esoteric observation, one that…
A reader wrote that he had begun to discover himself through Buddhist meditation despite 25 years of Orthodox Christian practice.  He asked for my perspective.  This is what I wrote him. Dear E, I don’t know enough about Buddhism or specifically about Buddhist meditation to make any sort of intelligent comment. Neither do I know you personally nor your experience as an Orthodox Christian nor your actual practice of meditation. Therefore, I…
There is something within me that just doesn’t want to believe Jesus, that doesn’t want to believe that the hard things Jesus said apply to me. “In this world you will have tribulation,” He said (John 16:33). Why is it that every time I face something hard, something painful, something unfair, why is it that I think something is wrong? I can’t just accept that this painful trial, this tribulation, is the…
