Interrupting the Silence

Category: Prayer

  • Feast of St. Gregory the Great

    Today, March 12, is the feast of St. Gregory the Great also known, especially in the East, as St. Gregory the Dialogist because he wrote a book entitled The Dialogues in which he extolled the Italian saints. Gregory served as pope from 590 until his death on March 12, 604. Though often seen as Augustinian Read more

  • A Lord’s Prayer for Justice

    In his book, The Holy Longing (pp.189-91), Fr. Ron Rohlheiser says, “In the world’s schema of things, survival of the fittest is the rule. In God’s schema, survival of the weakest is the rule. God always stands on the side of the weak and it is there, among the weak, that we find God.” Given Read more

  • How is your prayer?

    Theophan the Recluse was a Russian priest and bishop of the 19th century. In the latter half of his life he lived in solitude. Much of his life was spent writing and teaching about the life of prayer. In one of his homilies on prayer he offers the following: Let me recall a wise custom Read more

  • Entering the Temple of the Heart

    If the heart is the most authentic temple of God, the truest dwelling place of God, then it is also our true home. It is the deepest and most authentic part of our humanity, the place of wholeness and integration. “All things are there,” Macarius says of the heart. The heart is not only the Read more

  • A Prayer for the Journey

    MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing Read more

  • Prayer – the essence of living

    In speaking of prayer I often distinguish between a “life of prayer” and a “prayer life.” It seems much of our life today is compartmentalized depending on what we are doing, where we are, who we are with. So we can speak of our family life, our work life, our personal life. This fragmented attitude leads Read more

  • With Every Breath

    If you really wish to achieve spiritual stillness and to guard your heart successfully, then let the prayer “Lord Jesus, have mercy on me” become one with your breathing, and in a few days you will see how it can all be acheived.                                                                – Hesychios Read more

  • The Feast of the Holy Name of our Lord Jesus Christ

    For most of the world January 1st is New Year’s Day—the beginning of a new year, a day of football, resolutions, and black-eyed peas. For the church, however, January 1st is the Feast of the Holy Name. More often than not this feast goes unnoticed, uncelebrated, lost in the new year. And it is a Read more