PHILOKALIA MINISTRIES

A Prayer for an Undivided Heart “Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” — Matthew 6:34 O Lord my God, at times the weight of what I do not know becomes heavier than what You have actually placed before me. My mind wanders toward what may come, toward consequences I cannot foresee, toward those whom my response to Your call may affect, toward paths that have not yet opened and sorrows that have not yet been given. Gather me again. Do not allow fear of tomorrow to become a

A Dialogue with Abba Arsenius on Losing Everything but Christ “Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.” — Philippians 3:7 The disciple found Arsenius sitting outside his cell. There was nothing before him. No book. No work. No food. Only his hands resting upon his knees and the desert stretching beyond him. The disciple stood nearby. Arsenius did not look up. Disciple: Father, I have lost much. Arsenius: Not enough. The disciple was silent. The words wo

Phronema, Purity of Heart, and the Cost of an Undivided Life “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” — Matthew 5:8 There comes a time when the question is no longer what one believes about the spiritual life, but what one has become through living it. For many years I thought of the Eastern Fathers as teachers whom Providence had placed along my path. They gave words to things I had somehow already begun to recognize: compunction, watchfulness, stillness, pur

Stillness, Holy Simplicity, and the Birth of Desire Before the Face of Christ “Stand yourself directly before the face of God and always fix your eye unyieldingly upon Him.” — St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 19 Synopsis of Tonight’s Group on The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian Homily 18 paragraphs 4-5 and Homilu 19 paragraph 1: There is a temptation in every generation to believe that the spiritual life consists primarily in learning new methods, acquiring hidden know

Learning to Read the Book of Conscience in the Midst of the Hidden War St. Synkletica “We have need of nothing but a vigilant heart.” — Abba Poemen Synopsis of Tonight’s Group on The Evergetinos Volume III Hypothesis VIII C-D and Hypothesis IX A-B2 The Fathers never speak of the spiritual life as though it were merely the acquisition of virtues or the mastery of disciplines. At its heart, it is the slow awakening of a human being who learns once again to see. The battlefield

The Desert Fathers, Spiritual Formation, and the Healing of the Human Person in an Age of Fragmentation “The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light.” — Matthew 6:22 There is perhaps no greater challenge facing the Church today than recognizing that the crisis before us is far deeper than the decline of religious practice or the abandonment of Christian morality. We are witnessing the gradual unraveling of the very structures t

Conscience as the Guardian of Desire and the Door to Healing “For the judgment of God looks not to what is done, but to the motive of what is done.” Hypothesis VII A9-B and Hypothesis VIII A-C4 One of the striking features of the desert tradition is the extraordinary seriousness with which the Fathers speak about the conscience. Modern readers can easily mistake conscience for little more than an inner feeling, a private moral opinion, or an emotional sense of guilt. The Fath

How St. Isaac Heals the Scattered Heart Before He Teaches It to Pray “This is the rule of life that is chaste and pleasing to God…” — Isaac the Syrian, Homily 17 Synopsis of Tonight’s Group on The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian Homily 17 paragraphs 1-4 This passage can easily be misunderstood as a catalogue of monastic etiquette or a list of ancient customs that no longer matter. Yet St. Isaac is doing something far deeper. As we noted earlier, he is acting first

Taking Every Thought Captive and Bearing One Another Through the Passions “Take every thought captive before it becomes your life.” — Inspired by Abba Isaiah and St. Maximos the Confessor Synopsis of Tonight’s Group on The Evergetinos Volume III Hypothesis IV B-C and Hypothesis V A-B2: The Fathers insist that the spiritual life is decided long before words are spoken or actions are taken. It is decided in the hidden conversation of the heart. Every thought arrives carrying a

Seeing All Men as One “For twenty years I have been continuously struggling over a single thought, beseeching God that I might be able to see all men as one.” — The Gerontikon The Fathers place before us a vision of the human person that is almost unbearable in its simplicity and demands. We do not live with others because we have learned techniques of communication or conflict resolution. We can live with others only to the degree that we fear God and have begun to see all m

The Difference Between Faith and Religious Moralism There is a phenomenon that has become increasingly common in public discourse, particularly around political and social issues, even issues of genuine importance. Someone will say, “If we were true Christians…” and then proceed to advocate for a particular position. Sometimes the position itself may be correct. Sometimes it may not. That is not the point. What interests me is something deeper. The statement often has little