Interrupting the Silence

Category: Desert Spirituality

  • A Spiritual Pilgrimage

    A Spiritual Pilgrimage

    You need a spiritual pilgrimage. Begin by closing your mouth. – The Sayings of the Egyptian Fathers (Quoted by John McGuckin in The Mystical Book of Chapters, 47). Read more

  • Judging and Sentencing

    One day, Abba Isaac the Theban went to a monastic community and he saw a brother doing wrong, and he condemned him. As he returned to the desert, an angel of the Lord came and stood in front of the door of his cell and said: “I will not let you in.”  He asked: “What’s the Read more

  • To Love or to Not Love, A Sermon on John 12:1-8

    To love or to not love. That is the question in today’s gospel. It is always the question. Every minute of every day we answer that question. The answer to that question orients our way of being, guides how we live, determines what we do, and chooses the words we speak. Ultimately, our answer reveals Read more

  • Interruptions

    “A brother came and stayed with a certain solitary and when he was leaving he said: ‘Forgive me, Father, for I have broken in upon your Rule.’ But the hermit replied, saying: ‘My Rule is to receive you with hospitality and to let you go in peace.’” – Thomas Merton, The Wisdom of the Desert, Read more

  • Running From Ourselves

    “Amma Theodora also said: ‘There was a monk, who, because of the great number of temptations said, “I will go away from here.” As he was putting on his sandals, he saw another man who was also putting on his sandals and this other monk said to him, “Is it on my account that you Read more

  • Taking second place.

    “If we live in a constant spirit of repentance and self-condemnation we will automatically have good relations with our brethren. When Father Sophrony visited Serbia, he heard an Abbess give a word to her nuns and he transmitted it to us with great pleasure. She said to them, ‘Wherever you go and whatever you do, Read more

  • Searching for Jesus – A Sermon on Mark 1:29-39, Epiphany 5B

    The collect and readings for the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany, Year B, may be found here. The following sermon is based on Mark 1:29-39 Everyone loves it when Jesus shows up. His presence makes a difference. Things happen. Mother-in-laws are healed. The sick are cured. Demons are cast out. Lives are changed. This is true Read more

  • Inner Space: Journey to the Heart

    What comes to mind when you hear the word “space?” Physical surroundings? The beauty of creation? The wide open spaces of West Texas? The final frontier and the voyages of the starship Enterprise? The Apollo missions, space shuttle flights? Yes, it is all this and more. We tend to think of space as a physical Read more

  • Falling Up – St. John Climacus

    It seems to me that those who have fallen and are penitent are more blessed than those who have never fallen and who do not have to mourn over themselves, because through having fallen, they have pulled themselves up by a sure resurrection…. Nothing equals the mercy of God or surpasses it. To despair is Read more