Do I think there might be some value in praying for the soul of your mother even though she was an agnostic and died without having followed a religious path? Yes, of course, and her appearance to you in a dream may well be an indication she needs your help. According...

"As we Orthodox see it, prayerful fidelity to the witness of Scripture, the decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, and the language of liturgical worship requires that the word "God" be reserved … for God the Father alone, the first Person of the Holy Trinity, who...

You say you aren't as grateful as you should be for the blessings in your life, and you would like to take steps to acquire this virtue. Gratitude is at least partly a function of need: The greater our felt need for X the greater our gratitude—or the greater in...

Is there some specifically, or especially, esoteric reason, you ask, for Christ's seemingly harsh words to His Mother in John 2:4? The setting, of course, is the marriage feast at Cana, and in the preceding verse Mary has informed Her Son that the wine has run out....

Regarding the "fantasies" and "distractions" you report, it seems to me you are dealing with these logismoi already in the best possible way: that is, by objectifying the various sensations, images, and thoughts as they arise in order to look upon them as distinct...

A follow-up to my last post, "Sifting the Wheat". Someone has written in response with the following criticism: I thoroughly agree with your stated preference in pedagogy. But if I'm right that human beings can enjoy a knowledge of the Truth only through faith as...

On the subject of Gurdjieff, I'm minded to quote a Zen saying I rather like and have used on quite disparate occasions: "Even false words are true if they lead to enlightenment; even true words are false if they breed attachment." Needless to say I'm well aware of the...

Once again you write with questions of a technical order: How should one sit when meditating? How should one breathe? Is there a "most appropriate" mode of invocatory elocution? What is the best way to "coordinate" the attention given the Name and the attention...

Amidists, you say, are necessarily proponents of a "situation ethics" since the absolutist's presumption of knowing exactly how to act or what to do in every circumstance betokens a lopsided reliance on himself and "his own purported knowledge" to the exclusion of...

I generally don't comment on the comments that appear on this weblog, but the opinion recently expressed in connection with "A Balancing Act" by someone calling himself "Faust"—I'll resist speculating as to the implications, intended or not, of that...