PHILOKALIA MINISTRIES

The Freedom of a Heart That Has Forgotten the Room “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” — Luke 7:50 Everyone in the room is looking at the woman. The woman is looking only at Jesus. Perhaps this is the most beautiful thing about her. She enters the house already known. Her reputation has arrived before her. Simon does not need to ask who she is. He knows—or thinks he knows. A sinner. The others surely know as well. But she seems almost unaware of them. She does not explai

When God Destroys the Image You Defend “If something should befall you in this great war and you should even be wounded upon your face… persevere.” — St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 9 St. Isaac is not speaking first about visible failure. He is speaking about the kind of wounding that exposes a man. A wound upon the face cannot be hidden. It is public. It is humiliating. It destroys the image one presents to others. It removes dignity as the world understands it. In the spiritua