PHILOKALIA MINISTRIES

Silence, Attention, and the Word That Is Equal to God Silence is not an aesthetic preference or a psychological technique. It is the condition in which God speaks Himself. Not information about God, not consolation, not even illumination in the ordinary sense, but a Word that is equal to Himself. Scripture is uncompromising here. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  When God speaks, He does not offer commentary. He gives being. To

The soul does not grow by variety but by depth. One modern elder has said there is no need to read many books: the Scriptures, The Ladder, The Evergetinos, and the Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac are sufficient.   These few, he said, contain the entire path: from the first trembling desire for repentance to the ineffable union of the heart with God.  It is not the abundance of reading that sanctifies a person, but the capacity to interiorize one word and let it descend into t