Eastern Christian Meditation

Nov 29, 2019
1 min

You Are Not Forever Broken

You are not forever broken. You are not permanently stuck. If you simply look up, you will see that Christ is near. If you simply open your ears, you will hear His voice. Let Him penetrate your mind and heart. Believe in where He is leading you. Get up. Go with Him. That's what the Holy Apostle Matthew did. When He saw and heard Jesus, he got up from the chair where he collected taxes and went. He became someone new. You have the choice to be someone new. Ask for Holy Apostle

Fr. Thomas Colyandro

Nov 20, 2019
1 min

Be Watchful While the World is Blind

Where your eyes are focused, your mind is trained to see; and surely your heart is fixed to follow. What do you look at every day? Your desk at work? The work boots you wear? Is it an empty wallet? A full one? Do you stare at people passing by? How about the Internet? Or, television? Our Father in Heaven lit a lamp by giving us commandments. Christ shined His light on life's path by giving us sacraments. The Spirit stokes the fires of our hearts by wounding us with an eternal

Fr. Thomas Colyandro

Oct 30, 2019
1 min

Pray Deeply and God Will Dwell in You

We must work to pray and to remember Christ so deeply in our hearts and minds that we experience Him dwelling in us, literally. This takes great effort, of course, but it is a necessary facet of the journey toward spending eternity with God. The beautiful part of this work is that the Holy Spirit will give us signs along the way that will lift us up and keep us going. "Once remembrance of God has been established in the inner man, then Christ the Lord will dwell within you. T

Fr. Thomas Colyandro

Oct 22, 2019
1 min

Repent and Acquire a Haven of Peace

"Do not fritter away the time given you for repentance. Do not rivet your eyes to the earth on which you are a momentary actor, on which you are an exile, on which by the mercy of God you are given a chance to change your mind and offer repentance for the avoidance of hell's eternal prisons and the eternal torment in them. Use the short spell of your pilgrimage on earth to acquire a haven of peace, a blessed refuge in eternity. Plead for the eternal possession by renouncing e

Fr. Thomas Colyandro

Oct 21, 2019
1 min

Remember Death or Die Spiritually

"Our mind is so darkened by the fall that unless we force ourselves to remember death we can completely forget about it. When we forget about death, then we begin to live on earth as if we were immortal, and we sacrifice all our activity to the world without concerning ourselves in the least either about the fearful transition to eternity or about our fate in eternity. Then we boldly and peremptorily override the commandments of Christ; then we commit all the vilest sins; the

Fr. Thomas Colyandro

Oct 18, 2019
1 min

Help Others, Die to Your Old Self

To truly help others - to intercede for them - one must love. To truly love - to sacrifice for them - one must know God. To know God - to understand His will - one must reach for Christ. To reach for Christ - to go beyond the self - one must contemplate Him. To contemplate Christ - to reside in Him - one must let go. To let go - to enter the Divine cloud - one must trust. To trust - to be bathed in the luminous darkness - one must be sanctified. To be sanctified in the Holy S

Fr. Thomas Colyandro

Oct 16, 2019
1 min

Be Born from Above: Follow the Spirit

"The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8). To be born from above means we must let down our barriers and allow the Father to continue the creating that He began in us long before our parents knew each other. To be born from above means we must let go our of our sins and allow the Son to continue the redeeming and recapitulating in us tha

Meditate on Mary as Protector and Intercessor

Fr. Thomas Colyandro

Oct 14, 2019
1 min

Meditate on Mary as Protector and Intercessor

"Today the faithful celebrate the feast with joy illumined by your coming, O Mother of God. Beholding your pure image we fervently cry to you: 'Encompass us beneath the precious veil of your protection; deliver us from every form of evil by entreating Christ, your Son and our God that He may save our souls'." - Kontakion (a type of hymn) sung on the Feast of the Protection of the Mother of God. #MotherofGod #God #JesusChrist #soul #Faith #Joy #luminousdarkness #IntercessoryPr

Fr. Thomas Colyandro

Sep 30, 2019
1 min

Lay Aside All Earthly Cares

"Woe betide us if He finds us overcharged with the cares and sorrows of this life! For who will be able to bear His anger, who will bear the wrath of His countenance? That is why it has been said: "Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation" (Mark 14:38), that is lest you be deprived of the Spirit of God, for watching and prayer brings us His grace." - St. Seraphim of Sarov. "The Aim of the Christian Life." On Acquisition of the Holy Spirit, S.A. Nilus, ed., CreateSpace I

Fr. Thomas Colyandro

Sep 25, 2019
1 min

Prayer is Always Possible for Everyone

"Of course, every good deed done for Christ's sake gives us the grace of the Holy Spirit, but prayer gives us this grace most of all, for it is always at hand, as an instrument for acquiring the grace of the Spirit. For instance, you would like to go to church, but there is no church or the service is over; you would like to preserve your virginity, but you have not the strength to do so because of your temperament, or because of the violence of the wiles of the enemy which b

Fr. Thomas Colyandro

Aug 30, 2019
1 min

Contemplation in St. Gregory Palamas

Creation is a good, which God gave to us out of pure love. But that doesn't mean everything we create is as equally true and beautiful. That is why it is so important to work on ridding ourselves of those things that block our relationship with God. More specifically, this process of 'stripping away' is vital to healing and growing in union with Christ. "Contemplation, then, is not simply abstraction and negation; it is a union and a divinization which occurs mystically and i

Fr. Thomas Colyandro

Aug 28, 2019
2 min

Whom Do You Magnify?

When people meet you, do they see a profession; a social status; a nationality; an income bracket; an age; an education? Or, do they encounter God? While it may not seem fair to be evaluated by what we look like, how we sound, where we're going, or who we hang out with, the truth is that our countenance says so much more about who we really are than what we think we portray. That is why it is important to look deep inside to understand who or what is in us that gets reflected

Fr. Thomas Colyandro

Aug 26, 2019
1 min

Real Life Comes from Dying in Christ

"It is only through death - death in Christ - that we come to life. 'Unless a grain of what falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it produces much grain' (Jn. 12:24); 'He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it' (Mt. 10:39); 'I die every day... What you sow does not come to life unless it dies' (1 Cor. 15:30, 36). 'I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me...' (

Fr. Thomas Colyandro

Aug 21, 2019
1 min

Forgive Yourself

The Sacrament of Confession is a necessary and beautiful part of a contemplative life. It forces us to reflect on ourselves, and our relationship with God and others. More specifically, it gives us the opportunity to encounter God out loud, forcing us out of our desire to lie to ourselves, and helping us more clearly participate in the forgiveness we need in order to draw closer to Him who desires our sanctification. While many people throughout history have disagreed with th

Fr. Thomas Colyandro

Aug 19, 2019
1 min

The Divine Cloud Transfigures Us

The Transfiguration of Jesus can be found in Matthew 17:1–8, Mark 9:2–8, Luke 9:28–36, John 1:14, and 2 Peter 1:16–18. In these accounts, Jesus and three of his apostles, Peter, James, and John, go to Mt. Tabor. There Jesus radiates light, revealing His divinity, while Moses (the lawgiver) and Elijah (the prophet) appear on either side of Him. Then, "... a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice tha

Fr. Thomas Colyandro

Aug 17, 2019
1 min

Silence Before God Breaks Scheming

Planning. Contriving. Scheming. This is what we do. Going before God in silence will break us of these habits. He will help us to know ourselves as sinners. He will help us to know His saving grace. He will fill us with a love that radiates before others as hope. #God #Sin #Sinner #Repentance #JesusChrist #HolySpirit #continualprayer #luminousdarkness

Fr. Thomas Colyandro

Aug 16, 2019
1 min

Find a Place Alone to Pray

Jesus found places to pray alone. This is what He taught the Apostles and disciples to do too. This is an integral part of the process of prayer. It is the beginning of our own transfiguration. "Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray" (Luke 9:28). #StLuketheEvangelist #JesusChrist #Apostles #Disciples #transfiguration #prayer #continualprayer #StPeter #StJames #StJohntheEvangelist #silence

Fr. Thomas Colyandro

Aug 9, 2019
2 min

The Simplest, Most Profound Prayer

The Jesus Prayer is the simplest and most profound vocal prayer. It goes like this: "Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner." These words come to us through Sacred Scripture, specifically Luke 18:10-14: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. I fast

Fr. Thomas Colyandro

Aug 2, 2019
1 min

Find Quiet, Carry Him With You

Look for places to reflect. Make time to breathe. In the silence, you will re-discover the Holy Spirit who loves and protects. In the stillness, you will encounter the Christ who forgives and loves. Ask God in. Carry Him with you. Don't ever let go. #Reflection #silence #Stillness #Spiration #HolySpirit #JesusChrist #Love #Peace #HolyTrinity #God

HOLY SILENCE

Reflections from a Journey into God with the Prayer of the Eastern Christian Contemplative Tradition

You Are Not Forever Broken

Be Watchful While the World is Blind

Pray Deeply and God Will Dwell in You

Repent and Acquire a Haven of Peace

Remember Death or Die Spiritually

Help Others, Die to Your Old Self

Be Born from Above: Follow the Spirit

Meditate on Mary as Protector and Intercessor

Lay Aside All Earthly Cares

Prayer is Always Possible for Everyone

Contemplation in St. Gregory Palamas

Whom Do You Magnify?

Real Life Comes from Dying in Christ

Forgive Yourself

The Divine Cloud Transfigures Us

Silence Before God Breaks Scheming

Find a Place Alone to Pray

Tears and Love

The Simplest, Most Profound Prayer

Find Quiet, Carry Him With You