PHILOKALIA MINISTRIES

A Dialogue with St. Barsanuphius on Waiting, Purity of Heart, and the Gift of the Holy Spirit Disciple: Abba Barsanuphius, the Lord says, Ask and you shall receive; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened.  I ask, yet often I feel empty. I seek, yet the way seems hidden. I knock, yet the door does not open. What is lacking in me? Barsanuphius: Child, you ask with your lips, but your heart is still learning how to wait. The promise of the Lord is not false. But t

Meditation of Psalms 71 and 73 (Grail Translation) At times life itself seems to betray us. Efforts unravel, long-labored hopes dissolve, and what once appeared certain gives way to confusion. Yet even in this unmaking there remains a mysterious constancy: nothing escapes the hand of God or His providence. What appears to us as failure or bitterness is, in truth, the touch of a hidden mercy. The psalmist himself knew this inward turbulence: “And so when my heart grew embitter