We Must Always be Quick to be Merciful Some people abandon themselves to sin in order to cover up their lack of self esteem. In their need for intimacy and acceptance, they seek out worldly pleasures, thinking these will fill the void that has kept them from happiness. In their
Category: The Morning Offering
The temple is a template.
We Inherit the Results of Adam’s Sin, and Not His Guilt The doctrine of original sin as espoused in the West, is foreign to Orthodoxy, yet in no way suggests we do not need to be born again (born anew). We believe, as did the Early Church Fathers, that we
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for
Through Little Victories Progress is Made The acquisition of holiness is not simply the result of having cultivated virtues, or controlling oneself through asceticism, but rather having a completely organic relationship with Christ. This organic relationship is the result of going through stages of repentance and purity, leading to a
The saintly elder who showed me the way: little by little.
I consider Father Moses as “my brother from a different mother”. Please pray for him as he was just released after spending a week in the hospital with congestive heart failure.
Humility Quickens Love for the Man with the Malice Heart “A man who is wrathful with us is a sick man; we must apply a plaster to his heart – love; we must treat him kindly, speak to him gently, lovingly. And if there is not deeply-rooted malice against us
“Virtues are formed by prayer. Prayer preserves temperance. Prayer suppresses anger. Prayer prevents emotions of pride and envy. Prayer draws into the soul the Holy Spirit, and raises man to Heaven.” St. Ephraim The Syrian
The Cure for Our Disordered State Man is living in a perpetual state of disorder, far from the ordered life God intended for him. The cure for this disordered state is to be found in prayer. It is in the foundation of prayer that we seek out the healing that