Only the Holy Spirit, only the grace of God, can inspire the Jesus Prayer. It's not difficult to repeat the words, but you cannot pray it properly because your old fallen self rebuffs it. Unless you enter into the atmosphere of grace, you will not be able to say the prayer. As soon as you hear an...

The first, the basic definition of man is that he is the priest. He stands in the center of the world and unifies it in his act of blessing God, of both receiving the world from God and offering it to God--and by filling the world with this eucharist, he tranforms his life, the one that he receives...

Someone asked Abba Anthony, 'What must one do in order to please God?' The old man replied, 'Pay attention to what I tell you: whoever you may be, always have God before your eyes; whatever you do, do it according to the testimony of the holy Scriptures; in whatever place you live, do not easily...

A mother came here with her little child, posessed with a devil, who said to his mother, 'Get up woman, let us go away from here.' She replied, 'I cannot walk any futher,' and the little child said to her, 'I will carry you myself.' I wondered at the devil's tricks and how eager he was to make them...

Speaking to adolescents, I have often used this imagery of the inner temple to help them understand the Church's teaching regarding sexual intimacy. There is a 'narthex' of the soul, our 'outer courtyard.' This most public part of our lives represents the face we show the world. It is a place of...