PHILOKALIA MINISTRIES

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

Warming at Another Fire “When they had kindled a fire of coals there… Peter stood with them, and warmed himself.” John 18:18 You would think at sixty a man would know the difference between warmth and fire. The rooster has already crowed once in my life. It crowed when I realized how much of my priesthood was constructed out of activity. It crowed when the doors closed, when requests were denied, when the scaffolding of identity began to fall. It crowed when I saw how often I