On Reading the Desert Fathers with Patience, Desire, and Trust in Grace “Remain in My love.” — John 15:9 The desert fathers are often described as difficult to read. I have come to believe that this is only partly true. What is difficult is not their language, but the place within us to which they speak. Occasionally someone will say after reading St. Isaac the Syrian, “These words feel so heavy. My inclination is to turn away from them, as though they were written for someon

A Charter for City a Desert Press “Acquire the Spirit of peace, and thousands around you will be saved.” — St. Seraphim of Sarov There are deserts that lie beyond the edges of cities, and there are deserts that are discovered only after entering the depths of the human heart. The fathers sought both. They fled into solitude not because they despised the world, but because they loved it enough to seek its healing at the source. They understood that the deepest poverty is not m

Isaiah the Solitary Volume One of the Philokalia 27. If some shameful thought is sown in your heart as you are sitting in your cell, watch out. Resist the evil, so that it does not gain control over you. Make every effort to call God to mind, for He is looking at you, and whatever you are thinking in your heart is plainly visible to Him. Say to your soul: 'If you are afraid of sinners like yourself seeing your sins, how much more should you be afraid of God who notes everythi