Seeking silence is difficult work for two of many reasons. First, it is completely foreign to the modern way of life. Second, it forces us to discern the truth of our current lives and causes us to re-think and re-shape our future. This process, as we have said elsewhere, demands catharsis, which at times, can feel like a crucifixion. Metaphorically, it is a stretching of the body, soul, and spirit to the point of a kind of emotional, intellectual, physical, relational, and spiritual death and resurrection. Vigilance is key in this process. You will notice that your emotions can get out of hand, ranging from bliss to depression, and anger to release. That's a natural reaction until such a time that you can regain your composure - or, rather, you give over your interior being (and eventually your external world) - for the sake of entering into theoria. During this period, it is not only good but recommended to find a healthy distraction. It goes without saying that fresh air and some basic exercise always helps. It keeps the blood circulating and increases cardiovascular function. But you can do others things, too, as long as they are salubrious - calming, health-making, and even enriching. For example, making a trip to a museum during off-peak hours. The exposure to history, art, science, music, philosophy, and other activities can give you a distraction during a time when you will most certainly feel overwhelmed. Making sure you are there when fewer people are in attendance will help you remain peaceful and focused, There are other activities that also suffice, but they can't be loud, pleasure-seeking, or stoke the passions. The main point to remember here is that a healthy distraction can aid in the process of catharsis. But the activity needs to feed the soul and the spirit so you can continue to handle the battles important to catharsis. #Catharsis #continualprayer #Theoria

Today, we hear from a lot of supposed spiritual experts who tell you that you need to take charge of your life. They use catch words like 'purpose,' 'destiny,' 'awakening,' 'enlightenment,' 'personal renewal,' and more. They peddle self-help books, seminars, and encourage you to seek your own voice. At one level, this makes perfect sense. God gave us a free will and He asks us to choose how we shall live. And He doesn't want to micro-manage every little detail of our lives. But I'd like you to consider for a moment something that we would say is from the opposite direction. Why not, starting from the earliest years of our lives (or at any given time if we're a bit older), literally give over our lives to God? Why not choose utter simplicity in the secular domain, constancy in the Church domain, and a desire to offer our entire set of knowledge, skills, abilities, actions, and love to God? But this isn't always easy. You say you want your everyday problems to go away and you need more help determining your path. But this can be unclear when there aren't pillars of cloud and fire lighting your way. So you ask yourself: do I dig down deep and keep 'doing more'? Or do I kneel down and pray more fervently? This is where silence comes in. If you're not taking the time to let God enter your heart and mind, then you're clearly not going to get any answer as to the direction of your life. At the same time, if you're not acting on what you've heard from God, others, and what's already in your heart, then you'll never get anywhere either. The truth is that in modern America, most individuals and families get into so much debt from an early age that they never really have a chance to stop, breathe, pray, and listen. The other truth is that Americans spend an inordinate amount of time focusing on leisure and pleasure. The combination of these two realities make it impossible to hear the word of God and build the courage to follow His will. That is why discernment seems confusing these days. So, turn off the television, close the computer, and mute the phone. Read from Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. Find silence. From this posture you will find your divine path and that will make all the difference when it comes to building an eternal and inner peace. #Discernment #secretmeditation #prayer #continualprayer

The late evening hours are an excellent time to practice silence. Turn off the television, shut off the computers and phones, and stop all of your preparations for tomorrow. Sit. Wait. Listen. Let God invade your prayer. Open up your heart to Him. Let him take you where He wants to lead. You will notice you can't handle it for very long. But if you start practicing this behavior, you will begin to crave the quiet. You will be surprised by what happens next. So next you're thinking of an evening activity consider: vocal prayer, slow meditation, and lots of silence. God is with you.

No matter what is going on in your life right now, chances are that you have gone through a period of time when you felt like the entire world was against you. You felt as though all of your friends and family had abandoned you. You felt as if your work was meaningless and that one day was no different than the next. The first thing to remember in these moments is that Jesus himself spent most of His life in anonymity. He worked, He was tired, He even experienced loss. Your life is no different and He understands what you are going through. The second thing to remember is that Jesus is your friend now and always. Look up to Heaven and talk to Him; hear His counsel. As He says, "I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father" (John 15:15). In other words, He does not intend for you to be in the dark. He has a plan for you and is trying to communicate it to you always. Learn to listen to Him and lean on Him and His plan - not yours. The third thing to remember is that you are ever surrounded by the Holy Spirit. "But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you" (John 14:26). The Holy Spirit walks among us no less than Jesus did with the Apostles. He is with us and lights our path even when we descend into the deepest, darkest forests in our lives. The fourth thing to remember is that the angels are always near you. "The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them" (Psalm 34:7). In other words, if we show the slightest bit of trust in the Lord - which is faith - then His angels will be with us, always. The fifth thing to remember is that our best friends, the saints, are praying for us and interceding for us all the time. "Another angel with a golden censer came and stood at the altar; he was given a great quantity of incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar that is before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel" (Rev 8:3-4). These are people who walked the earth like you and I. They understand your trials and tribulations. Despite the harshness of their own lives, they persevered in faith and in love. You can too! Finally, remember that all bad things come and go. Peace and joy and love and light always come. They always come because the world is ruled by God who is love. You are not alone! #secretmeditation #Loneliness #prayer

It is sad in the modern American context that so many parishes have to resort to putting on events to pay their bills. Either because there are too few parishioners or because the existing parishioners can't or won't contribute enough, parishes are forced to spend precious time and money planning, preparing, marketing, and working various festivals, bazaars, and dinners. While these types of activities, under the right conditions, can be an opportunity to interact with each other and evangelize in the local community, it seems that they become a replacement for the spiritual work that is vital necessary in the church community. Think about it this way: when people come to church do they continue to act as they would at home, work, or school? If so, what is the point of going to church? Bringing our time and talents to the church are a good thing, but we can never lose sight of the fact that church is the place where we come to worship our God through prayer and where we learn how to pray when we are not in church. If we worry a little less about all of these events, and bravely build a culture of joy and excitement around prayer, how would the parish change? How would each of us change? How would the community change? God Himself gave us the tools to speak with Him. Why aren't we actively using them to be closer to Him and each other? #ParishLife #prayer #Work

When we get hurt by someone we love, an anger wells up from deep within us. Sometimes it takes over us by surprise. Sometimes we want it to rise up. Either way, we experience a period when we want it to grow. We want to feel its power. Our muscles tighten. Our mind grows focused. A searing heat builds in our blood. For a time we enjoy this strength. We feel like we can defeat whatever it is that has risen from without with those powers from within. But over a period of minutes or hours, we detect a change. We can sense that something else has entered us too. The difference between "our anger" and the "it" is slight at first. But it distinguishes itself more and more until we realize that something else slipped in; and it isn't just a feeling. It's a presence. It's a being. It's evil personified. This is how elusive evil can be. It sneaks up on us. It take any path it can to invade us. But there is good news. If we are well-catechized, pray regularly, and are well-guided by a spiritual father or mother, we can take small steps to eradicate this unholy beast from our hearts. To start, we must supplicate ourselves. We must bow down before Christ and His Most Holy Mother, the Theotokos. We must pray for forgiveness for our own wrongs. Then we beg for everything to be taken from us that is not from God. In that instant, we begin to heal. We begin to see that the anger that arose in us has subsided and so has the temporary demon. Then, we understand that we have found a moment for growth away from sin and selfishness to virtue and gift-of-self back to God. We must always remember that our path in this world is fraught with distraction and deception. That is why we must always keep our eye on God, living for the Most Holy Trinity alone. If we do that, evil will not win out, even when we incite the anger inside. Only mercy and love conquer evil. #love #Evil #anger #prayer

We must find every opportunity to unburden our souls from the lies we tell and the falsehoods we live. When we don't, we give the evil one a place to hide. We give him cover by the very fact that we want to hide from our sins. But when we live from a place where God is our focus, where He comes first, where we desire to commune with Him in every moment of the day, then we are more protected from attacks. And we grow closer to the promise of union with God here and in the Kingdom to Come. Avail yourself of confession. God will erase from you these sins and burdens. That is why He explained to the Apostles: "Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven" (Matthew 18:18). He was saying to them 'help others heal and grow closer to me, these sins don't have to follow them and weigh them down for the rest of their lives on earth or in heaven'. #Confession #theosis #Healing

Prayer is our touch. Prayer is our site. Prayer is our hearing. Prayer is our smelling. Prayer is our tasting. Prayer is our breathing. Prayer is our heartbeat. Prayer is our essence. #prayer #continualprayer #secretmeditation

For your understanding and use in prayer: John 15.8-17 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another. #secretmeditation #IntercessoryPrayer #StJohntheEvangelist

For your understanding and use in prayer: John 10:11-18 "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. "I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father." #IntercessoryPrayer #TheGoodShepherd #continualprayer

For your understanding and use in prayer, the following is a partial selection of verses about the Holy Spirit. “But now I go away to him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you: but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you” (John 16:5-15). “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. It a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Luke 11:9-13). “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him: but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come” (Matthew 12:31-32). “And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken: and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31). “And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:19-21). #HolySpirit #continualprayer #transfiguration #IntercessoryPrayer

John 15:18-27 If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, "They hated Me without a cause." But when the Helper (Advocate) comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning. #StJohntheTheologian #secretmeditation #IntercessoryPrayer