Collected here are articles and reviews that have appeared in print, as well as a presentation of my books. There are a few interviews and some sound material, notably my reading of the Gospels in Greek, a project that remains work in progress.
God’s concern is not to keep us comfortably undisturbed. His concern is that we should know the truth, which alone sets us free.
Continue reading At once dispassionately lucid and shrewd, the Fathers teach us to discern. That is why they could give counsels both sublime and practical.
Continue reading Lust confers not vision but blindness. It locks me in myself, making me live in the world as if I were its sole significant subject, subsisting on arousal.
Continue reading Great self-control is needed to accept with tact an offering that repels me, and to do it so whole-heartedly that the giver is thrilled.
Continue reading There are bad, angry words we should keep from speaking, fighting against them with all our might. There are other words, however, that call out to be spoken - if we keep them shut up in our heart they will poison us.
Continue reading ‘I have always liked the phrase “nursing a grudge”’, says the Reverend John Ames in Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead, ‘because many people are tender of their resentments, as of the thing nearest to their hearts.’ To let resentments go is costly.
Continue reading There is a stage at which speech is still potential - a thought has been articulated, the words lie ready on our tongue, but as yet they exist only in our mind. At that moment we exercise sovereign freedom to choose whether to speak or whether to keep silent.
Continue reading If the fear of God is not anxiety but 'an existential consciousness of reverence', how do you explain this to someone who has only ever understood fear in terms of punishment or dread?
Continue reading Things do not always get sorted out; illness is not always healed; sometimes fractured relationships cannot be mended. To trust God is not to assume that I will be alright - it is to know that, whatever happens, sense may emerge from senselessness, redemptive purity from destructive contamination.
Continue reading If I set out to correct, or worse, to condemn, another on the basis of bitterness, anger, or revulsion, my words, however tinged with glacial piety, will bring no blessing; no, they are likely to do harm, perhaps even to induce despair, causing little ones to sin while readying my own stiff neck, the support of my conceited head, for the millstone.
Continue reading We may have known times when an action or a word of ours has ruined something precious; when that which, a moment ago, was integral and dear lies at our feet in pieces, mud-splattered - at such times the voice of God resounds in our inner ear, ‘Adam, where are you?’ And we have no answer.
Continue reading Despair tends to issue from ambivalence, situations in which we feel overwhelmed by confused pain, unable to enact a response. What we can articulate, we can learn to deal with.
Continue reading We discover what is in our heart when, notwithstanding the manicured elegance we like to project, someone steps on that toenail, whether by accident or design. Such discovery is pretty unpleasant, but useful.
Continue reading Whether our lot today is struggle or rest is not all that important. What matters is to let God act as he sees fit and not to miss his visitation because, instead of being peacefully present in our cell, our tent of meeting, we are out and about, driving downtown distributing questionnaires on the spiritual life to passers-by.
Continue reading If I am very good at something, and recognised by others as being good, I am tempted to define myself in terms of this gift. The gift is a blessing; but once I display it as a possession in search of admiration or power it may exercise corrupting influence - it takes purity of heart to negotiate great talent.
Continue reading After a brief period of enjoying a sense of peace, the rumbling within begins. We realise what masses of noisy junk we carry, what unresolved tensions born of anger, jealousy, desire, anxiety, greed, all those movements of the heart the Fathers referred to as ‘passions’.
Continue reading Let us beware of coveting our neighbour’s call. Let us instead wholeheartedly consider, embrace, and be faithful to our own.
Continue reading The Fathers never forgot that the finality of human life is participation in God’s loving nature. That is why their words, even when they are stern, are light, and full of light.
Continue reading The test of Christian authenticity is always relational. Rid yourself of the habit of judging others, therefore, for who are you to know what moves them or the change of which they are capable?
Continue reading The Fathers would all have felt deeply offended, had it been suggested to them that they were saying something original. Their concern was to point towards Christ, to be roadsigns, which, when we travel, we acknowledge gratefully but then pass beyond, our eyes set on our destination.
Continue reading Grace builds on nature, and God knows who you are, and also knows what will serve your flourishing and will enable you to render the most effective service. So, pray, listen, watch, and follow.
Continue reading Temptations have their usefulness; in them the gold of authenticity is purified. Only, we must consent to the melting-off of dross.
Continue reading In St Antony the life of God was palpably present. This presence revealed man in his natural state, which we are all called to reach.
Continue reading Instead of rising up to follow Christ's call, we say, ‘Mañana - perhaps.’ Meanwhile time passes, grace is lost.
Continue reading The discovery of Antony made Augustine cringe at the half-heartedness of the prayer he had long recited: ‘Lord, give me chastity and continence, but not yet.’
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