He stood, watching and waiting for the moment his son would come home. He ran to him, burst into tears, embraced him in his filth. Hugged his child that smelled like swine and that had wished his own death.
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Tag Archives: lust
Abouna Antonious El Souriani
500 metres away from the famous monastery of St. Pishoy (Deir el Anba Bishoy), is the less known, but still known, monastery of the Syrians, “Deir El Sourian”. The monastery itself has had its recent greats. Bishop Theophilus will go down in history as one of the most charismatic abbots of that monastery. He was the abbot who had all sorts of ways of testing new novices before coming, and it was he who admitted Nazir Gayid to the monastery, who would one day become the thrice-blessed Pope Shenouda III. This monastery also gave us two modern elder saints that have been making their way in the world: Elder Matthias (Mettaous) and Elder Philotheos (Faltaos). There are, of course others. Copts of course are not as keen, it seems, on preserving the written record of some of the teachings of these elders. I pray that we acquire that.
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A bunch of nobodies that took over the world…
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Many of us look around us today, and take in the culture, the liberality, the lack of morals, and we groan. In my lifetime, and I’m not that old, I’ve seen many changes. I remember when it rebellious to publicly get drunk, today one need only browse Facebook to see people boast of their revelries. I remember when it was a sad occasion when people got divorced, and there was a general belief that people should try to keep it together. Today they are discussing auto-expiring marriage licenses in Mexico, ones that you need to actively renew if you want to remain married. At one point, virginity and then monogamy were valued and extolled, today we usher in an era of “friends with benefits”, “open marriages” and we do not need to look far to see the sexual explosion and exploitation. The list could go on. What scares me is that underneath all of this is the spirit of ungodliness: a pluralistic, secular, atheist world.
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A message to guys about friendships with girls.
This one may cause some controversy, but I’m going to post it anyway. A subject that has been popping up a lot in the last while for me is relationships and the limits or lack of limits on friendships with the opposite sex. I’m not going to post a bunch of rules for anyone, but I do want to discuss some elements that I think should help one be more honest about things, and each can consult with their own spiritual guide on what is right for each to practice.
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