Father John: Spiritual Mosquitoes

are random thoughts that just seem to pop into your head without invitationby Fr. John Moses –
It is a rare saint who attends hesychasm, or internal stillness. This may be due in part to the fact that most of us don’t take prayer and meditation very seriously or we allow the busyness of life to move prayer the the edges of our daily life.

I’m sure you’ve had this experience. You’re just about to fall asleep when suddenly you hear the tiniest of sounds go by your ear. You know immediately that a mosquito has targeted you for lunch. So, you cut on the light, but no matter how much you look around, you just can’t see it. So you cut off the light, and in just a little while you hear the buzzing again. You cut the light on, but nothing. So you cut the light off and try to ignore it. You know that sometime during the night, you’ll be donating blood.

It’s the same in spiritual life. You’re trying your best to be positive, to have some sense of spiritual progress, and then the mosquitoes start buzzing in your brain. Sometimes it seems that they have sucked all of the blood from your spiritual life. These spiritual mosquitoes are called logismoi. [Read more…]

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Naples – When the cross is heavy, find people to help you bear it

It looks like I have my work cut out for me. My new parish has 214 families, averages 25-30 chrismations a year, has a notable number of Albanian immigrants, and projects rapid growth. During “season” (September to May) the parish is full so in a year or two we may have to move to two liturgies. Fortunately four retired priests live here also and help serve every Sunday.

It also has a beautiful Church recently built. (See pictures here: St. Katherine’s Greek Orthodox Church.) It’s quite a change from the storefront Church I pastored in Atlanta, but where two or three are gathered in the name of Christ, Christ is among them. The commission to preach the Gospel of Christ and the ministry derived from that commission is the same where ever one serves.
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