Tag: sin
On thoughts of the mind
Be attentive to the thoughts of the mind. If some evil thought passes through you, do not get upset, for it is not the transient thoughts of your mind that the knowledge of the Lord of all observes, rather He looks at the depths of the mind to see if you take pleasure in that… Read More ›
The devil is no fool
The devil is no fool. He can get people feeling about heaven the way they ought to feel about hell. He can make them fear the means of grace the way they do not fear sin. And he does so, not by light but by obscurity, not by realities but by shadows; not by clarity… Read More ›
Love and Forgive
Let us love one another and be loved by God; let us be patient with one another and He will be patient with our sins. Let us not render evil for evil, and we shall not receive our due for our sins. For we find the forgiveness of our trespasses in the forgiving of our… Read More ›
Being Beloved Children of God (Part 1)
Sons of God. Obsculta, fili or Obsculta, o fili, Saint Benedict says [1]. Most translations mistranslate that. Usually the translations say, “Listen, my son.” That is not what Saint Benedict said. He said “Listen, O son.” He is speaking to us precisely in our dignity and reality as sons. We have been baptized into Christ,… Read More ›
Life itself is imperfect
We cannot avoid missing the point of almost everything we do. But what of it? Life is not a matter of getting something out of everything. Life itself is imperfect. All created beings begin to die as soon as they begin to live, and no one expects any one of them to become absolutely perfect,… Read More ›
Thoughts Count
At no time of day or night are we not thinking about something. The only real question is, What is it? What do I choose to ruminate about in the interstices of the day, in the dark quiet of the night? Where does my mind go when there is nowhere specific defined for it to… Read More ›
The Loss of the Sense of Sin (part 2)
Why has this [loss of the sense of sin] happened in our time. A glance at certain aspects of contemporary culture can help us to understand the progressive weakening of the sense of sin, precisely because of the crisis of conscience and crisis of the sense of God already mentioned. “Secularism” is by nature and… Read More ›
The Loss of the Sense of Sin
18 Over the course of generations, the Christian mind has gained from the Gospel as it is read in the ecclesial community a fine sensitivity and an acute perception of the seeds of death contained in sin, as well as a sensitivity and an acuteness of perception for identifying them in the thousand guises under… Read More ›
What is True Perfection?
This is true perfection: not to avoid a wicked life because, like slaves, we servilely fear punishment, nor to do good because we hope for rewards, as if cashing in on the virtuous life by some business-like arrangement. On the contrary, disregarding all those things for which we hope and which have been reserved by… Read More ›
Be Watchful of Your Thoughts
A brother asked one of the elders, “What shall I do? My thoughts are always turned to lust without allowing me an hour’s respite, and my soul is tormented by it.” He said to him, “Every time the demons suggest these thoughts to you, do not argue with them. For the activity of demons always… Read More ›