PHILOKALIA MINISTRIES

Great Lent as the Death of the False Self and the Birth of the Heart “The way of God is a daily cross. No one has ascended to heaven by ease or comfort.” — St Isaac the Syrian ⸻ Great Lent is not a season. It is an assault on everything false in us. The Church does not invite us into Lent as the world invites us into self-improvement. She drags us into the desert. She removes the coverings. She strips away the lies we tell ourselves about who we are and how holy we think we a

St Isaac the Syrian on the prayer that rises from neglect instead of love “He is a fool who does not draw near to God in his heart and yet when tribulation surrounds him lifts his hands to Him with confidence.” St Isaac the Syrian ⸻ There is a kind of hope that is not hope at all. It has the vocabulary of faith but none of its weight. It speaks the Name of God but has never learned to carry it in the heart. It turns to God not because it loves Him but because it hurts. It rem