Interrupting the Silence

Tag: Abba Poeman

  • Deliver Me From The Hand Of My Brother – A Sermon On Genesis 32:3-31

    Deliver Me From The Hand Of My Brother – A Sermon On Genesis 32:3-31

    We all have an Esau. Individuals, communities, parishes, religious orders, nations, you, and me – we all have an Esau. I am not talking about a literal Esau but a symbolic and metaphorical Esau. That does not mean, however, that Esau is not real. He is absolutely real. Esau is the face of our past… Read more

  • Lent with the Desert Fathers: How Should One Fast?

    Lent with the Desert Fathers: How Should One Fast?

    A Word from the Desert “Abba Joseph asked Abba Poeman: ‘How should one fast?’ And Abba Poeman said: ‘For my part I think it is better that one should eat every day, but only a little, so as not to be satisfied.’ Abba Joseph said to him, ‘When you were younger, did you not fast Read more

  • Abba Poeman on Silence

    Abba Poeman said… A man may seem to be silent, but if his heart is condemning others he is babbling ceaselessly. But there may be another who talks from morning till night and yet he is truly silent; that is, he says nothing that is not profitable. (p. 171) If you are silent, you will Read more

  • The Season of Advent – Holy Waiting and Watching

    A new liturgical year begins this coming Sunday, November 29, 2009, with the First Sunday of Advent. The Season of Advent consists of the four Sundays before Christmas. The liturgical color for Advent is purple or sometimes blue. We will begin a new liturgical cycle of seasons, feasts and fasts, and scripture lessons. This year Read more