When You Fall, Get Up Again It is often the case that we fail to keep God’s commandments and find ourselves despondent, unable, as it seems, to make progress in the battle over our sins. When the same sins constantly plague us, despondency is our enemy. Despondency is the tool
Drive Out All Negative Thoughts Our thoughts really do have an impact on our world. Negative thoughts about family members or fellow employees, change our relationships. If we dislike someone at work and allow ourselves to think poorly of them, they are likely to fulfill our low expectations. If we
Laboring to Receive the Gift of Compunction If we are to receive the gift of compunction, we must be committed to working for it, even laboring day and night for it, that the spirit of compunction take possession of our whole being. This can only be accomplished if we commit
Abbot Tryphon and Bishop Theodosy of Seattle And the Way of Humility The recently glorified Saint Sophrony of Essex, England, himself the spiritual son and biographer of Saint Silouan of the Holy Mountain, wrote that the empirical cosmic being is like a pyramid: at the top sit the powerful of
Some time ago I wrote, “some secular music sounds like it had it’s birth in the depths of hell”. Certainly music itself can not come from Satan, for it is given birth from the creative mind of people. Some people, however, are influenced by evil powers, and their music, and
Are these the End Times? The cultural and spiritual warfare that is taking place between the “Christian” West, and the Islamic Middle East, together with the extreme climate changes taking place around the world, have become a source of concern for many. Coupled with the polarization of the populous within
Detachment and the Life of a Monk Detachment from the world is not necessarily cutting off all social contact with people, or avoiding any exposure to, or contact with, things of the world in some Pharisaical obsession with keeping oneself ritually ‘pure’. The work of purification is an inner work.
The Orthodox Faith is Nothing Without Transformation of Life If your spiritual life is concentrated only on external practices and traditions, but does nothing to bring about real change, you have gained nothing. Too many people think as long as they keep the fasting rules, do their prayers, and attend
Without Transformation of Life If your spiritual life is concentrated only on external practices and traditions, but does nothing to bring about real change, you have gained nothing. Too many people think as long as they keep the fasting rules, do their prayers, and attend the services, they are good
Impoverished Institutional Christianity and the Rise of Islam in the West The dramatic increase in Islamic immigration in Norway seems to have been the spark, some years ago, that kindled a crazed Norwegian national to murder countless young people, the majority of whom were of Norwegian blood. This evil man