PHILOKALIA MINISTRIES

Repentance as the Continual Turning of the Heart Toward Christ “If he is a true laborer, he can make a new beginning at every moment.” — Abba Silouan Synopsis of Tonight’s Group on The Evergetinos Volume III Hypothesis IX D3 - Hypothesis X A-C1 There is an intensity in the Fathers that can sometimes frighten us. They speak of vigilance, struggle, examination, tears, watchfulness, and the danger of negligence. St. Synkletike tells of a servant of God who watched the movements

Phronema: More Than Having the Right Ideas “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” — Philippians 2:5 There is a word in the Christian East that is difficult to translate. Phronema. We can call it mind. Mindset. Disposition. Consciousness. Way of thinking. Spiritual perception. None of these is wrong. None is enough. Perhaps the difficulty itself tells us something important. Phronema does not describe merely what we think. It describes the place within us fr

When Prayer Becomes a Way of Seeing “The remembrance of Jesus, combined with heartfelt fervor, will destroy all the enchantments of our thoughts.” — St. Hesychios the Priest We usually begin prayer by thinking that prayer is something we do. We set aside time. We say words. We keep a rule. We read the Psalms. We stand before an icon. We invoke the name of Jesus. We become distracted and begin again. All of this is necessary. But after many years another possibility begins to

What the Heart Knows by Suffering “The knowledge of the Cross is concealed in the sufferings of the Cross.” — St. Isaac the Syrian There are things we know only after they have happened to us. Before suffering, we may possess the words. After suffering, we begin to know what they mean. This distinction has become increasingly important to me. For much of our lives we assume that understanding precedes experience. We learn something, comprehend it, and then perhaps apply it. T

When Repentance Ceases to Be Fear “Repentance is the trembling of the soul before the gate of Paradise.” — St. Isaac the Syrian There is a kind of repentance that leaves us staring at ourselves. We examine our failures. We measure our guilt. We rehearse what we have done. We wonder whether God has forgiven us, whether we have repented sufficiently, whether some hidden severity remains behind the mercy we have been promised. God may be present in such repentance, but often at

Sitting at the Feet of the Ascetics The heart does not learn the language of God by mastering ideas, but by dwelling among those who have learned to speak it with their lives. There comes a point when reading the Fathers changes. At first we read them because we want to know what they thought. We underline sentences. We compare translations. We follow arguments. We collect sayings from the desert and passages from the Philokalia. We learn the vocabulary of nous, nepsis, apath

Before Theology Becomes Words How the Christian Life Teaches Us to See “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” — Psalm 33:9 LXX There is a knowledge of God that comes before explanation. Not before revelation. Not before truth. Not before the Church gives us the words by which we confess what has been revealed. But before those words become our own—before theology passes from the lips into the heart—there is often something quieter taking place. We are learning God by living b

On priesthood, the religious ego, and discovering the person who remains before God “Wherever you go, have God before your eyes.” — Abba Anthony When priestly or religious formation begins relatively young and then extends across decades, it does not merely teach a person what to do. It gradually supplies a grammar for understanding who one is. Clothing, title, community, obedience, liturgical place, relationships, expectations, even the way others look at us—all of these can

Phronema and the Mystery of Belonging Elder Aimilianos of Simonopetra (1934-2019) “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” — Matthew 6:21 There comes a time when a language is no longer learned. It is simply spoken. At first we approach the spiritual life as strangers. We learn its words. We read the Fathers. We try to understand repentance, watchfulness, stillness, compunction, purity of heart. We take up the Jesus Prayer awkwardly, consciously. We enter sile

Phronema and the Recovery of Wonder “What is a merciful heart? It is a heart on fire for the whole of creation.” — St. Isaac the Syrian There is a way of leaving the world that is really an attempt to escape it. And there is another way of leaving the world that finally allows us to see it. The Fathers went into the desert not because they despised creation. They went because they understood how difficult it is to see anything clearly while we are trying to possess it. The pa

How God Teaches the Soul the Language of Prayer “We have the mind of Christ.” — 1 Corinthians 2:16 There is a language that cannot be learned from books. Books may awaken us to it. The Scriptures give us its words. The Fathers teach us its grammar. The liturgy allows us to hear its cadences. The lives of the saints show us what it sounds like when spoken fluently. But eventually God Himself must teach it to the heart. This is perhaps one way of understanding phronema. We ofte

Vigil, perseverance, and the hidden formation of a heart capable of wonder “He cried out, being overcome with joy and not able to endure the heat of the flame, for he could not contain himself.” — St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 21 Synopsis of Tonight’s Group on The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian Homily 20 paragraphs 9-12 and Homily 21 paragraphs 1-6 There is something extraordinarily beautiful in St. Isaac’s teaching on vigil because he never allows the ascetical li

The Small Neglects by Which the Heart Grows Cold “Turn away from evil, and do good… remain thereafter in wakefulness, so that you might preserve them.” — St. Maximos the Confessor Synopsis of Tonight’s Group on The Evergetinos Volume III Hypothesis IX Section C-D2 There is something almost frightening about the stories preserved for us in the Evergetinos. They are frightening not because they portray extraordinary wickedness, but because they reveal how quietly the heart can

Vigil, Wonder, and the Refusal to Leave the Beloved “His mind will be quick to take flight as it were on wings, and rise up toward God with delight.” — St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 20 There are passages in St. Isaac that can sound almost impossible to modern ears. His words on vigil are among them. “Do not imagine,” he tells us, “that among all the works of monastics there is any practice greater than night vigil.” We hear such words and immediately think of sleep deprivation