from: http://www.cin.org/dsrtft11.html

Abba Nilus said, "Prayer is the seed of gentleness and the absence of anger."

Some thoughts

I read or heard many a definition, description, or teaching about the nature of prayer, how it works, how do do it etc. But nothing as succinct as this.

This reads to me like a cause and effect. If prays then gentleness will develop within a person and anger will depart. Isn't this good news? Isn't this full of hope?

Gentleness and lack of anger seem to me to be… Continue

Chapter 27: How Solicitous the Abbot Should Be for the Excommunicated

Let the Abbot be most solicitous
in his concern for delinquent brethren,
for "it is not the healthy but the sick who need a physician" (Matt 9:12)
And therefore he ought to use every means
that a wise physician would use.
Let him send senpectae,
that is, brethren of mature years and wisdom,
who may as it were secretly console the wavering brother
and induce him to make humble satisfaction;
comforting him
that he may not "be o… Continue

…and the legions of Episcopalians gather!

For those of you who have never been to General Convention, it's quite a trip. Many decisions are made amidst much anxiety and politicking, and somehow, somewhere in there, the Spirit moves and makes herself known (whether we listen or not…)

As many of you know, a few of us have gotten together to put together a chapel at Convention this time around, not to partake in the joy of legislative wrangling or the promotion of a delightful product, but rather… Continue

from: http://www.cin.org/dsrtft10.html

It was said of an old man that he dwelt in Syria on the way to the desert. This was his work: whenever a monk came from the desert, he gave him refreshment with all his heart. Now one day a hermit came and he offered him refreshment. The other did not want to accept it, saying he was fasting. Filled with sorrow, the old man said to him, "Do not despise your servant, I beg you, do not despise me, but let us pray together. Look at the tree which is here; we… Continue

March 2, July 2, November 1

Chapter 25: On Weightier Faults

Let the brother who is guilty of a weightier fault
be excluded both from the table and from the oratory.
Let none of the brethren join him
either for company or for conversation.
Let him be alone at the work assigned him,
abiding in penitential sorrow
and pondering that terrible sentence of the Apostle
where he says that a man of that kind is handed over
for the destruction of the flesh,
that the spirit may be saved in the day of the… Continue