PHILOKALIA MINISTRIES

From Consolation Received to Consolation Given “Who comforts us in all our sorrows, so that we can offer others, in their sorrows, the consolation that we have received from God ourselves.” — 2 Corinthians 1:4 One of the subtle dangers in the spiritual life is that we can become preoccupied with ourselves. Our prayer becomes focused on my struggles, my wounds, my temptations, my salvation, my peace. Even our repentance can become strangely self-centered. We stare so intently

A Dialogue with St. Arsenius on Loss of Form and the Absence of Peace “Do not seek a place free from struggle; seek the place where God has placed you.” — attributed to the Desert Fathers Disciple: Father, I feel as though the ground beneath me has given way. What once held my life together has loosened. I have not lost faith, but I have lost form. Even prayer feels exposed, unguarded. There is little peace, only consent and endurance. This troubles those who love me. It tro

I have come to see with frightening clarity how brief this life is. My life is no more than a breath. Yet when I speak these words Psalm 42 rises up in me. As the deer longs for running streams so my soul longs for you my God. My days pass like mist yet something in me thirsts with a hunger that will not die. My soul thirsts for God the God of my life. Even in this brevity something eternal stirs. God’s hand has been heavy upon me. It breaks open the hardness of my heart. It