Two Kinds of Confidence
Seeing Through A Glass Darkly In Homily 27, St. Isaac the Syrian speaks of two kinds of confidence. The first kind of confidence is what we generally mean when we say someone is confident. That is, the...
View ArticleThe Least I Can Do
One of the perennial struggles I have in the spiritual life comes from a form of pride that is lodged fast in me and manifests itself in an “all or nothing” attitude toward spiritual life and other...
View ArticleWhy Does God Humble Us?
Truly, O Lord, if we do not humble ourselves, You do not cease to humble us. Real humility is the fruit of knowledge; and true knowledge, the fruit of trials. St. Isaac the Syrian Homily 36 In homily...
View ArticleHumility And The Unseen Martyrdom
Homily thirty-seven is one of St. Isaac’s longer homilies and consists of a series of questions and answers. The questions are posed by an apparently fictional disciple and fellow struggler in the...
View ArticleIndividualism and Charismatic Delusion
In an on-going discussion with my inquiring friend today, I respond to two questions. First, why do traditional Christians call priests father; and second, why do we pray to saints (i.e. why don’t we...
View ArticleJoy And Fear Together: St. Isaac Helps Us Discern Our Trials
Continuing in homily 42, St. Isaac gives us another warning. When you find unchanging peace, that is, when everything is going smoothly for you most of the time, then “beware: you are very far from...
View ArticleHumility And Patience In Trials
In my last blog post, I spoke of two categories of trials discussed by St. Isaac in homily 42: trials that are the fruit of pride and trials that are allowed by God to create longing and are evidence...
View ArticleDeeds, Disposition and Humility
…[Christ] honours obedience by His actions, and experiences it by suffering. Just as in our case, the mere disposition is an unsatisfactory thing unless we give it practical effect—for deeds are the...
View ArticleBeing of One Mind: What It Is and Isn’t
One of the themes that resounds throughout St. Paul’s epistles is the exhortation that his spiritual children be of one mind, that they be likeminded. In Romans and 1 Corinthians, St. Paul explicitly...
View ArticleKnowing Your Measure
I’ve been reading the letters of Sts. Barsanuphius and John, written in the early sixth century in the region of Gaza. One thing that has struck me as I am reading these letters is the pastoral...
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