Called to the Holy Mountain: The Monks of Mount Athos

The National Geographic article just published about the monks of Mount Athos. Check out the photo gallery link – the best!

Soul Vacation

Most of us would like to hit the pause button in life and take a deeper breath. Vacation is not really what we are after. Vacations are great but they are often as busy if not busier than our regular life. Our souls may be crying out for a vacation from the noise and the distraction and the pace. We need a soul vacation.

We are Captivated by Voyeurism

I post an answer to the question, “What are we doing wrong by watching movies everyday? “

Lectio Divina

From the earliest accounts of monastic practice – dating back to the fourth century – it is evident that a form of reading called lectio divina (“divine” or “spiritual reading”) was essential to any deliberate spiritual life. What is it? How can we do it?

Serbian Monk and His Wolf Friend

Serbian Monk and His Wolf Friend. Blessed state of man and animals. The way things should be!

Wake Up!

A short interaction Nikos Kazantzakis had with a desert ascetic named Fr. Makarios. It is powerful. Enjoy!

Without the Monasteries We Are Dead

As I prepared for my journey to Saint Paisius Monastery everything in my life seemed to scream, “You cannot go to the monastery even for 24 hours!” My wife’s car is having transmission trouble, one of my kids is sick, my church is under re-construction after our flood, my other kids have homework and voice lessons, etc., etc. And to be perfectly honest, I have been experiencing some unusually high anxiety of late. I had to talk myself back into going to the monastery 3 times just yesterday. I am a little like King David telling his own soul to praise the Lord. I had to point a finger at my soul and say, “get on with the Monastery Reconnaissance.” The Lord was gracious, just starting to drive was a blessing. I love road trips and I needed these 24 hours away very badly (see above).

Monastery Reconnaissance

In 1994 my wife and I took a group of teens on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The shared experience of travel and prayer in that place deepened our spiritual life and friendships that remain to this day. I can recall every place we visited. But the Church of the Resurrection (or, as it is called in the West, The Church of the Holy Sepulcher) stands out even after the passing years. This church has been a place of pilgrimage from the 4th century and it has remained largely unchanged….

The Surfer’s Prayer

Almighty God our Father, Whose Mighty Hand has formed the land and sea and eternal sky, we thank Thee for the sport of surfing; for the ocean that mirrors the weather of the sky – serene, calm, gay, angry; and for the wind that causes waves to rise and race like white-maned horses of the sea.

Our Minds are like Puppies and Prayer is like Surfing

“The mind is a greedy little kitchen dog, addicted to barking.” Standing in direct opposition to this insanity (literally – lack of sanctity) is the surfing we came to do and the surfers we came to watch. As I drank my morning coffee and said my prayers, the wet-suited dawn surfers operated at a slower, calmer, controlled, ordered pace. The waves have a rhythm that can soothe. The surfers line up and join the rhythm as they begin to pick up speed and glide on the waves. I felt irresistibly drawn to breathe with the surf like the waves were the lungs of the world and felt my mind calm down.