Everyday Asceticism
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The goal of this site is to translate ancient Christian reflections on spiritual life, usually from the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, into our modern, 21st-century context. This blog is as much my own effort to reflect and process this ancient wisdom as it is to help others relate to it as well.
Everyday Asceticism
2M ago
He [Christ] … taught us how one might acquire the ability to refrain from evil and be perfectly good. This takes place in four different ways: first, abandon and reject the things of the world; secondly, love God and put Him above the world; thirdly, love other people and put them above the world; and ..read more
Everyday Asceticism
10M ago
(July 24, 1981 – July 23, 2023) Today I gave this eulogy at the memorial service for my friend Aric, who died three weeks ago. Memento mori, meditation on death, is an ascetic discipline after all. Sometimes you choose it. Sometimes it chooses you. But it’s something we all need to do if we want ..read more
Everyday Asceticism
1y ago
Rightly, then, are those called children who know Him who is God alone as their Father, who are simple, and infants, and guileless, who are lovers of the horns of the unicorns. Clement of Alexandria “Are unicorns real?” my daughter Erin asks me. “No girl. Unicorns are make-believe.” “Yeah, I know, just like dinosaurs.” “No ..read more
Everyday Asceticism
2y ago
Renunciation is nothing else than a manifestation of the cross and of dying…. Consider, then, what the cross implies, within whose mystery it behooves you henceforth to proceed in this world, since you no longer live, but he lives in you who was crucified for you…. But you might say: How can a person constantly ..read more
Everyday Asceticism
2y ago
Lesson after the Presanctified Liturgy Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church Grand Rapids, Michigan March 30, 2022 Introduction A story from the desert Fathers provides a fitting image for our topic tonight: The monks praised a brother to Abba Antony. But Antony went to him and tested whether he could endure abuse. And when he perceived ..read more
Everyday Asceticism
3y ago
Great are you, O Lord, and strongly to be praised: Great is your power, and your wisdom cannot be quantified. And man wants to praise you, though a tiny portion of your creation, and man is surrounded by his mortality, the witness to his sin, the witness that you resist the proud — yet man ..read more
Everyday Asceticism
3y ago
It is plain, then, that the only object sought for in all these ways is happiness. For that which each seeks in preference to all else, that is in his judgment the supreme good. And we have defined the supreme good to be happiness. Therefore, that state which each wishes in preference to all others ..read more
Everyday Asceticism
4y ago
I’m going to break from my typical formula in this post. It has been three years today since my dad died. The only possession of his I knew he wanted me to have when he died was his many writings — mostly poetry, but also some diaries and other, often unfinished, prose, like what follows ..read more
Everyday Asceticism
4y ago
[The abbot] must be aware of his own frailty, and remember that it is forbidden to break the already bruised reed. We do not mean that he should countenance the growth of vice; but that he use discretion and tenderness as he sees it expedient for the different characters of his brothers. He is to ..read more
Everyday Asceticism
4y ago
“… I partook of the holy and life-giving Mysteries in the Church of the Forerunner and ate half of one of my loaves. Then, after drinking some water from Jordan, I lay down and passed the night on the ground. In the morning I found a small boat and crossed to the opposite bank. I ..read more