Category: Spiritual Seeds

“As he was dying, Abba Benjamin taught his sons this:Do this, and you will be saved: Rejoice always, prayconstantly and in all circumstances give thanks.” There is no Lent without prayer, constant prayer. True, but…be on the watch. When we begin to take up prayer seriously twothings happen. What is not from God in us […]

“Once some bandits came to the hermitage of an old man and said:We have come to take away everything in your cell. He said:Whatever you see, my sons. Then they took whatever they found inthe cell and went away. But they left behind a little bag thatwas out of sight. But the old man picked […]

“Once two brothers went to visit an old man. It was the old man’s habit, however, not to eat every day. When he saw the two brothers, he welcomed them with joy, and said: Fasting has its own reward, but if you eat for the sake of love, you satisfy two commandments, for you give […]

Our very first Lenten observance is not fasting, nor praying, not even alms-giving. No. Absolutely not! It is rather to sit down and work out some basic algebra. What does 40 and 50 have in common with 3? 40, 3, 50. These numbers are inseparable. When you add them up, they make one single number: […]

“In Scetis, a brother went to see Abba Moses and begged him for a word. The old man said: ‘Go and sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything’.” Next Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, the ‘old man’ will say: “Go into your room, and shut the door.” In the IV century, when Christianity […]

Where do you live? I mean, are you living ‘in the present’? Or, do you live rather elsewhere? Where do Christians live? Some would argue that Christians are men and women tied with the past. After all, at every Mass we hear the words “in memory of me”. The Church seems based on ‘Tradition’ and […]

Every Sunday, at Mass, after the homily, we all stand up and say “I BELIEVE… IN JESUS CHRIST…”. But what do we mean? In faith, Jesus Christ is not simply the one in whom we believe; he is also the one with whom we are united in order to believe. To believe is not merely […]