• God & Religion - Philokalia Project

    On Guarding the Intellect

    St. Isaiah the Solitary remarks on Guarding the Intellect in these, his twenty-seven texts. They are not impossible to read but gleaning the nuggets is where I’m staying. Without splitting hairs on context and words I’ll speak to the places these thoughts took me. There is much repetition here for…

  • God & Religion - Philokalia Project

    The Why? (Part 3)

    It’s advent as I write this. It is a season filled with hope and faith that gets sadly overshadowed by the commercialization of this holiday. The giving inflates and the reasons get moved aside like that last end-piece of the fruitcake at the party. What’s so important about this season…

  • God & Religion - Philokalia Project

    The Why? (Part 2)

    Recently I read the account of St Ignatius’ St. Paul-like conversion to a Christian way of life. The image conscious and fame seeking man suffered a devastating injury to his legs in battle leaving him rather unable to pull off the trendy tight leggings of the royal courts in that…

  • God & Religion - Philokalia Project

    The Why? (Part 1)

    I can’t help but think that even though I’ve been raised a good (Roman) Catholic girl, spent a life attending mass regularly, and attempt on a near daily basis to live the life of a Christian I’ve somewhere gone astray. Have we all just answered the question by convention that…

  • God & Religion - Philokalia Project

    The Jesus Prayer

    Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. This prayer is the roots upon which the Philokalia and Christianity grow. In perhaps the shortest combination of words to do so, it speaks the whole Truth and is all we need to remember (perpetually) as members of the Church.…