A classic manual on the Christian spiritual life, by Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, this is the second in this series of posts. See post 1 here. The Arena: Guidelines for Spiritual and Monastic Life By Ignatius (Brianchaninov) Translated by Lazarus (Moore) Foreword by Kallistos (Ware); Holy Trinity Publications, Jordanville NY. From the publisher's description: This is one …
Category: Spirituality
Children and Monasticism: Ideas for Summer reading (and pilgrimages!)
Children love pilgrimages to Orthodox Christian monasteries, as any Orthodox parent who has taken their kids to one can tell you. These books help reveal why. Maybe it's the total simplicity, beauty and peacefulness of the surroundings, or perhaps it is because the nuns or monks themselves have a child-like quality about them which allows …
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Inspirations, Part 1
As I prepare for another round of monastery travel and photography, I thought it might be inspiring for you (as well as for me!) to revisit some of my early posts on this website, which try to sketch out the contours of "Why" I am undertaking this two-year pilgrimage, "What" it means to me, and …
The End of What It Looks Like
Photography, Vision and the Heart Here is a challenging reflection on photography, by David DuChemin, whose work I have been following for a while now and whom I greatly admire for his emphasis on "vision", not mere "pictorialism" (if I can coin a word). "The calling of the photographer is to see the invisible and …
‘Souls to Match the Mountains!’
Fr. Seraphim Rose and the call for a North American Thebaid Two brief passages from Fr. Seraphim's monastic life and writings make clear how he longed for an American Thebaid to flourish in his homeland, as it had in Orthodox lands in preceding centuries: As at the beginning of his monastic path he had drawn …
The North American Thebaid 