The Fathers describe how demons sow evil thoughts. What's truly frightening is that someone near us Can do their bidding using a human voice. At the table, On the phone, In the pew beside us During times of sadness and dread Even moments of joy and laughter. But the absolute worst comes when we are at our weakest. Their words become our thoughts. Their sounds become our cries. Their actions lead us into temptation. They accomplish this by watching and waiting Until that very moment when we seriously begin to pray. Then they do everything in their power to destabilize what we hear in it. What follows is dissonance, disruption, and Ultimately, disintegration. We even blame ourselves for it! The nous is gagged and the heart goes deaf. Our discipline disappears and our stillness erodes. Even our silence feels like self-deception. But it is the enemy who has caused it A death in us, which started As a type of spiritual death in someone near us. This is a surprising sound of evil! Listen for it, and Fight back against it. Heed the warnings of the angels and saints Listen to Christ, and Follow the unspoken speech of the Holy Spirit! Dark Silence Photos If you have a question or prayer request, please reach out here. If you can donate, please click here.

God loves. And creates us. Christ came in the flesh. And Transfigured before our eyes. He trampled down death. And ascended too. Hence came the Spirit. Moses said yes. Elijah too. So did Joachim and Anna. And don't forget about Elizabeth and Zacharias. Then there was Mary. Her yes was one for the ages. Joseph agreed. And the shepherds were in awe. The Magi went on a journey and discovered the Savior. What about you and me? We have to choose too. Is it a, yes? A, no? Or a "Some other time?" In the end, there is only one question: "What do you ask of me?" Do you have the love and courage to ask that? Do you thirst for the sacraments? Do you seek Transfiguration? Will you sacrifice everything? On this Eve of the Nativity: Learn to love. And love with everything you've got. Look toward the Heavenly Kingdom.

Mary said "yes" with her entire being: Mind, body, soul, and spirit. Joseph gave it his all: Husband, dad, protector, teacher. Christ the Savior was born in a manger: Not as a powerful, political figure. That is when the earthly hunt began: A race to erase divinity. Herod's fear was Satan's plan: The kind of money, power, and sex that destroys and distracts. Lifestyle as an aphrodisiac Not as a path to salvation. The shepherds knew differently They saw the heavenly hosts and believed immediately. The Magi got it, too. Educated but unaware, they chose the journey to Christ! There they found a true king who was born to Sacrifice out of love and for love! We’re called to do the same! So, take that extra step into humility. Bathe in the light shining from this child Who is the promise of salvation. Today, water and oil are different So are bread and wine. This is the greatest gift of all To be with God ... in the Flesh and in the Spirit. May you experience joy and love during the feast of the Nativity! Icon of the Nativity

He was drawn from the water, and then Drawn into fire. We remember Moses, Who fled to Midian and Found on Horeb A bush that burned Without being consumed. Light without heat, Presence without possession. He led Israel through the sea As though it were dry ground, and Climbed Nebo To die within sight of a Promised Land he would not enter. Yet he entered. On Tabor he stood beside Elias In the uncreated light, His long waiting was fulfilled in Christ, Glorified and Transfigured. Moses teaches the hesychast this: God is met on mountains, In a darkness that is luminous, In a silence that speaks a Name. So ... start climbing. Take off your shoes. Let the ground beneath your stillness be holy. An icon of the Holy Prophet and God-Seer Moses who is commemorated on September 4 If you have a question or prayer request, please reach out here. If you can donate, please click here.

Insidious recusancy is The soul's refusal To kneel without surrendering. In an earlier time, the recusant At least confessed his division openly. Bearing the cost of his conscience before God. But this generation? Its quieter defiance keeps the refusal and Forsakes the honesty. It comes to worship, Lifts its voice in the psalm, Bows at the appointed hour. In other words, It withholds the heart, The one true offering that is asked. Outwardly faithful, Inwardly withdrawn, It practices a secret apostasy and Never confronts its own evil, Because emptiness makes no sound. So, the spirit hardens by degrees, Mistaking habit for devotion and Presence for love, It is prayer without surrender. A lamp left dusty on a shelf, Its oil long since burned away, and A flame only distantly remembered It is communion without Communion because The heart and the soul were Sold to the darkest bidder. Dark Interior of Church in Copenhagen If you have a question or prayer request, please reach out here. If you can donate, please click here.

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 faith, divine law, and prophecy; and speak of Christ's exodus (Luke 9:31). Then the bright cloud overshadows the apostles, and they hear the Father's voice: This is My beloved Son; hear Him. James and John stand bewildered. Peter, dazed, wants to build tents and stay. We always do. But the Spirit calls us forth, so that we can be "transfigured from glory to glory" (2 Cor. 3:18), until the morning star rises within (2 Pet. 1:19). My beloved: the mountain is not behind you. It is not a memory. It is a threshold, and you stand on it wherever you are pierced by unexpected beauty, healed, or made suddenly still. Those three ascended Tabor with Jesus; the Spirit lifts you daily. When they came down from that mountain - just as you and I must - they came down carrying the Light into the ordinary, the difficult, and even the dark places. So can you. Let the light of Christ and the Holy Spirit shine in you and through you for all to see. An Orthodox Christian icon of the Transfiguration If you have a question or prayer request, please reach out here. If you can donate, please click here.

I look up and I ask Why me? You have the whole of heaven And the entire universe And all the angels and the saints. Nothing and no one that grows weary. Yet, You still know me and Care about me You come to me in my sin You come to me in my silence You even have a will for me As if You have nowhere better to be and No one better to help. But this is Your way. You walked in the garden In the cool of the day, Calling and calling. As it turns out, I was the one who heard You, And I hid, because I was ashamed. For I am a sinner and I am still hiding, Lord. Shutting the doors of all the rooms inside myself. Most all of those doors I do not open to anyone, and yet You choose to live within the entirety of my house. Like Peter who said 'Depart from me, for I am a sinful man' I repeat over and over and over: 'I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof.' But like the days of old When You led Your people into the wilderness You speak tenderly to my heart. And when You passed by the prophets In ferocious winds and ranging fires I, too, hear you in the gentle stillness. That is why the saints named that stillness (hesychia). It's an empty room where only one Possible Guest will enter. So, my aloneness is not exile. It is a door, and You are knocking at a house You Yourself have built. Even if I am afraid, I beg you to come in I am here ... for You and You alone. Person At A Distance Reflecting On A Mountain Photos If you have a question or prayer request, please reach out here. If you can donate, please click here.

Love is the one thing God asks of us that He first gave to us. Before we could offer anything back, He loved us into existence. We often treat love as a feeling that Arrives and departs on its own schedule. Scripture treats it as a choice, A willingness to remain when remaining costs something. That is why divine love is beautiful. Anyone can feel affection. But it takes grace to keep loving on the days When affection has gone quiet. And love is what will outlast us. Our knowledge will be corrected, Our accomplishments forgotten. Love alone survives the grave, because Love is the one place where God Himself is found. Sunrise Over An Abyss If you have a question or prayer request, please reach out here. If you can donate, please click here.

There is a quiet violence in covert resistance. Here I do not mean the kind of opposition Born from the desire to be free. Absolutely not. Not at all. Here I am speaking of the Insidiousness of the withheld hand. The help that is named but never given. The agreement that never becomes action. Covert violence offers the face of cooperation While the heart stays closed. It claims to live with integrity, but A chasm remains between word and deed. Yet wisdom asks something of us on the receiving end, too. We are called to name what is real Without hardening into bitterness, To set honest boundaries without contempt. We cannot force another's heart open. We can only tend our own. Staying clear and staying kind Trusting that our peace does not depend on their change. Loneliness If you have a question or prayer request, please reach out here. If you can donate, please click here.

We often ask, "Why didn't they just leave?" It's a natural question, But it's the wrong one. Abuse rarely announces itself As a single, escapable event. It's a slow erosion involving a cycle of Tension, violence, apology, and false hope Repeated over and over Until the mind adapts to survive it. What looks like passivity from the outside is Exhausted vigilance on the inside. When abuse continues unchecked, and People think leaving is more dangerous than staying The real shift can only happen When we stop asking why they hurt others And start asking "how can I be free?!" Sun Above Egyptian Desert Photos If you have a question or prayer request, please reach out here. If you can donate, please click here.

Freedom is transfiguration The self ... Opened ... Illumined ... Indwelt by the ineffable God. On Tabor ... The veil between Heaven and earth thinned ... Christ was transfigured ... Apostles beheld uncreated light. The mystery's promise? Humanity's destiny ... Radiant with uncreated glory! Tabor's end and Upper room's beginning! Freedom is Pentecost(al) Winds blow while Hidden chains disappear Tongues of fire ... Set people ablaze. Contemplation stills the heart Confession unbinds the soul Communion dissolves isolation Freedom loses fear Love grows beyond. To be free is to be deified ... Light glimpsed Fire received God Fully within! Sun Over Holy Land Images If you have a question or prayer request, please reach out here. If you can donate, please click here.

Five weeks from today, on August 6, we celebrate the great Feast of the Transfiguration, when Christ ascended Mount Tabor and shone before Peter, James, and John with a light not of this world. I have stood on that mountain. Tabor rises alone from the Jezreel Valley. The road to its summit climbs in tight switchbacks that force you to slow, to turn, to ascend in earnest. At the top, looking out over the green hills of Galilee, I felt my own calling to the contemplative life quietly confirmed. This feast reveals the uncreated light: the very radiance of God's glory, by which we too are called to be illumined. Just as Pentecost opened the apostles' ears and hearts to the Spirit's fire, so Tabor opens our eyes and hearts to Christ's glory. And how do we seek this light? Through the Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." Let these five weeks be a joyful ascent toward Tabor. This is a personal photo of Mt. Tabor taken from the Mt. Precipice overlook at the southern edge of Nazareth, looking southeast across the Jezreel Valley to Tabor. If you have a question or prayer request, please reach out here. If you can donate, please click here.