Interrupting the Silence

Category: Asceticism

  • Evelyn Underhill – Call to the Inner Life

    Sometime around 1931 Evelyn Underhill wrote a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo Gordon Lang (1928-1942), about the inner life of the clergy. Her concern was that the multiplicity of the clergy’s duties had diminished some priests’ grounding in a life of prayer. Underhill’s concerns are as relevant today, perhaps more so, as they Read more

  • The Season After Pentecost – Ordinary Time

    The Feast of Pentecost, one of the Church’s principal feasts, was celebrated just a few days ago on Sunday, May 31, 2009. We have now entered the Season after Pentecost. The Sundays during this time all seem the same. The liturgical color stays green and not much changes. There are few major feasts or celebrations. Read more

  • The Interior Life – To Ascend We Must First Dive

    The ladder to the Kingdom is hidden within you, and within your soul. Dive down into yourself, away from sin, and there you will find the steps by which you can ascend. – St. Isaac of Syria For most of us the way up is by climbing the the ladder of success. This almost always Read more

  • The Sanctified Person

    The sanctified person is someone no longer separated. And he is only sanctified to the extent that he understands in practice that he is no longer separated from anyone or anything. He bears humanity in himself, all human beings in their passion and their resurrection. He is identified, in Christ, with the “whole Adam.” His Read more

  • Called to Perfection

    It is divine to love those who hate. It is diabolical to hate and insult those who love. It is human to love those who love, to hate those who hate. But – “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Mt. 5:48). – Alexander Elchaninov in The Diary Read more

  • The Triumph of Palm Sunday

    Yesterday we celebrated the Proper Liturgy for the Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday. One of the primary themes of this day is the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. This year the story of the triumphal entry came from Mark 11:1-11. The triumphal entry also marks our entry into Holy Week. During the blessing of the Read more

  • Elchaninov: God’s Will is in the Present Moment

    Our continual mistake is that we do not concentrate upon the present day, the actual hour, of our life; we live in the past or the future; we are continually expecting the coming of some special moment when our life will unfold itself in its full significance. And we do not notice that life is Read more

  • Strengthening our Life in the Church

    Our spiritual health and growth, like our physical health and growth, depend on daily exercise. The church often refers to this exercise as ascesis. Ascesis involves commitment, practice, and the remembrance of what is important. True ascesis becomes a way of daily life. Without exercise we become weak and our spirit atrophies. How can we Read more

  • Spiritual Reading – Formation or Information?

    The American Book of Common Prayer invites us to the observance of a holy Lent, in part, by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word. The invitation, however, is not just to read the words but to let the Word read our lives. The goal of reading is the application, in our lives, of what Read more