PHILOKALIA MINISTRIES

Breathing the Reign of God “Greater than the roar of mighty waters, more glorious than the surgings of the sea, the Lord is glorious on high.” — Psalm 93:4 (Grail) Phronema is not first an idea we hold. It is an atmosphere we breathe. Long before it becomes a thought, it becomes a climate. Long before it is articulated, it is inhaled. One does not so much learn  the phronema of the Church as one gradually discovers that one has been living inside it, or outside it, all along.

The Long Yes of the Heart “Remain where you are, and the fire will teach you what obedience truly is.” — Abba Arsenius (after the Desert Fathers) Disciple: Abba, does God at times make us wait for years, even when it seems that He Himself calls with great clarity and directness? Arsenius: Yes, my child. Often He calls quickly, but He leads slowly. Disciple: This waiting confuses me. It feels unlike the story of the rich young man. There, the Lord stands before him, Love Incar

Learning to Stand Before God Without Claims Presumption is a quiet violence of the heart. It does not always speak loudly or boast openly. Often it kneels, prays, fasts, teaches, decides. It assumes it knows where it stands before God. It measures its purity, weighs its obedience, names its humility. The fathers warn that this is the most dangerous ground of all, because it feels religious while it places the self at the center. The psalmist prays not for exaltation but for r

Perhaps the Last Time Christ Passes By A disciple came to Abba Arsenius in the evening and remained standing, unable to speak. Seeing his trembling, the Elder said, Why do you stand as one pursued. The disciple said, Father there is a fear in me that I do not recognize. It is not the fear that has followed me all my life. It is not fear of failure or of being unseen or of losing what little I have. It is the fear that the Lord is passing near and that I may let Him go by with

The Desert Fathers and Modern Elders on Not Fleeing the Silence Silence is never neutral. The fathers knew this well. They understood that silence stretches out like a vast inner desert. When one first enters that desert, it feels like abandonment. It feels like being stripped of identity. The ego begins to panic because it has lost the mirrors it uses to reassure itself. The fathers called this first stage the temptation of isolation . Abba Moses said that when a monk enters

There is a strange law in the spiritual life: silence expands in direct proportion to our desire for it. At first it feels like a narrow path, a small clearing carved out of the bramble of responsibilities, conversations, screens, and concerns. But the more we turn toward it, the more it widens—like the desert itself opening before the monk who dares to leave the city gates. Abba Poemen said, “A man may seem to be silent, but if his heart is condemning others he is babbling c

(Meditation Based Upon Psalm 12 Grail Translation) “Help, O Lord, for good men have vanished; truth has gone from the sons of men. Falsehood they speak one to another, with lips that are lying and hearts that are false.” —Psalm 12 (Grail) The psalmist laments the poverty of language in a fallen world.  Words, those sacred vessels given to man to reveal truth, have become the instruments of deceit.  They multiply endlessly, yet reveal nothing.  They promise communion but breed

Meditation on Psalm 132 Grail Translation For as long as I have worn the priestly stole, the words of this psalm have burned quietly within me: “I will not enter the house where I live, nor go to the bed where I rest. I will give no sleep to my eyes, no slumber to my eyelids, till I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling for the Strong One of Jacob.”  They have always been my compass, an unyielding call to seek a dwelling for God that is not built by hands. Through the years,