There is another who wears our face. He rises before us in the morning and Speaks before we have a thought. He keeps our appointments, Answers to our names, and Carries around our favorite sins like relics. The old Germanic tales said that To see your double was to see your death. Perhaps they were right. Perhaps he is the death we have been living. Saint Paul called him the old man, The self we must put off, Forged from ten thousand small consents. He is a distorted copy of

Love is the key to the life of the monastic in the desert, and just as much to the layperson in the world. St. Isaac the Syrian teaches that when silence and seclusion leave no room for active charity, it is enough before God to offer mental love, which is prayerful intercession. In other words, the Christian ideal has two sides: active mercy and contemplative stillness. Spiritual fathers and mothers may live either or both. St. John Maximovitch rescued refugees from Shanghai

Written on the 25th anniversary of September 11, 2001 I. The morning the words ran out I made my living with words. I was trained as a journalist. I spent years in public affairs and crisis communication for energy and chemical companies, writing the sentences that get said when something has gone badly wrong. I studied how disputes are negotiated and how public arguments are framed. By the autumn of 2001 I was in Houston, teaching and advising at a graduate school of theolog

Today, on Tabor, the Light that has no night, breaks forth. And just as the disciples fell on their faces in its presence (Matt. 17:6), our eyes are opened wide to the source and summit of our hope. You see, Tabor (Transfiguration) and the Upper Room (Pentecost) are ultimately two parts of one movement. On the mountain, the mystical Light shines on, and through, the Body. In the upper room, the Fire descends within it. Moses and Elijah reveal themselves as the confluence of f

Each week I send a short reflection to help you deepen your relationship with the Holy Spirit. If you have a question or a prayer request, please reach out here . Read: (This is a short reflection I created recently) You are the Lord, the Giver of Life—not a distant force, but the living breath of God who dwells within me. How strange and wondrous that the same Spirit who moved over the waters at creation, who spoke through prophets, who descended as fire at Pentecost, now re

Each week I send a short email to help you deepen your relationship with the Holy Spirit. If you have a question or a prayer request, please reach out here . Read : "In the Holy Spirit is an ocean of divine gifts, a wealth of glory, a great depth of judgments..." (from Antiphon 3, Matins, 23 Nov 25). Ponder: Truly, take some extra time today to read and re-read the passage above. It is not only beautiful and moving, but also theologically and spiritually deep. The Holy Spirit

Intercede for me and pray for my spiritual sons and daughters so that we may have a stable foundation of deep prayer and a ministry of healing the afflicted. Please keep me close so that I may have strength to walk with everyone who comes for confession and spiritual guidance. Thank you for teaching me about essence, energies, uncreated light, and the Jesus Prayer. I am especially grateful for your wise and holy counsel because it gave me a pathway to explain the divinely ins

Each week I send a short email to help you deepen your relationship with the Holy Spirit. If you have a question or a prayer request, please reach out here . Read : "Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth, present in all places and filling all things, treasury of goodness and giver of life: come; abide in us, cleanse us of every stain, and save our souls, O Good one." Ponder: These words of the best-known Holy Spirit prayer are recited so much that they are often forgotten

Each week I send a short email to help you deepen your relationship with the Holy Spirit. If you have a question or a prayer request,...

Each week I send a short email to help you deepen your relationship with the Holy Spirit. If you have a question or a prayer request,...