PHILOKALIA MINISTRIES

O Lord, when I stand before You I am stripped of every illusion. There is no incense to veil the truth no gentle choir to drown out the rebellions of my heart. I see the wilderness within me and the barren stones that once I imagined were altars. It has been forty years and I still complain about the manna as though the work of Your hands should conform to the cravings of my tongue. I read of Meribah and Massah and I wince not because they seem distant but because they feel l