An Episcopal Priest's Sermons, Prayers, and Reflections on Life, Becoming Human, and Discovering Our Divinity
Photo by Fredrik Öhlander on Unsplash I want to begin by asking a couple of questions about the Easter story. Here’s my first question. It’s pretty simple. If I asked you tell the Easter story, what would you say? How would you tell…
Read More What’s The Story Of Your Easter? – A Sermon On John 21:1-19
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 guilts and regrets. Esau is the temptation to believe that we are not enough and we need to be someone or something else. Esau is our fear of the future. Esau is the one with whom we wrestle in the depths of our soul to discover our true name and identity, and to find the blessing that is uniquely ours.
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…
Read More Judging and Sentencing
"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…
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,…
Read More Abba Poeman on Silence
A brother came to see Abba Macarius the Egyptian, and said to him, "Abba, give me a word, that I may be saved." So the old man said, "Go to the cemetery and abuse the dead." The brother went there,…
Read More Detachment – Opening the Way to Salvation
Interrupting the Silence 