The first week of each month has a short, image-backed quote with links to associated resources in the text below it. In other weeks, the short quote is taken from a longer one by the month's author, found below the image. The last week of the month has a short quote and questions to encourage reflection on all the month's quotations and images.
John Chryssavgis, our author for February, is primarily known as a Greek Orthodox theologian who writes about the Early Church and eco-theology.
You can read more about John Chryssavgis's book,In the Heart of the Desert: The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers (World Wisdom, 2008), from which this month's quotes are taken, by clicking here.
You can read more about John Chryssavgis's book,In the Heart of the Desert: The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers (World Wisdom, 2008), from which this month's quotes are taken, by clicking here.
Audio resources
Guided Meditation: for any quote
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Lectio Divina: use with long quotes
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For a 5 minute audio guided meditation to use with each week's short quote, click play on the image. To pause and restart click the same place.
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An audio guided Lectio Divina for the longer quotes. Click play on the image above. Allow 10-15 minutes for this. For a text version, click the button.
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Monday 3rd February, 2025
John Chryssavgis, In the Heart of the Desert: The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers (WorldWisdom, 2008), 2.
Image: Joshua Davis, Dallas, Texas, unsplash.com/@currentcoast
John Chryssavgis is a Professor of Theology and a priest in the Greek Orthodox Church in the Archdiocese of America. He lives in Maine, USA. Born in Australia in 1958, Chryssavgis first studied Byzantine music, predominantly liturgical music written for the Orthodox Church prior to the fall of Constantinople in 1453 which, for over 1000 years, had been the heart of Orthodox Christianity - the Eastern equivalent of the Western Church in Rome: see here. After a degree in Theology from Athens and a PhD in Patristics (early Christian writers from 1st to 8th centuries, designated 'Church Fathers') at Oxford, he has become a renowned scholar of this period of church history and the Orthodox tradition. He has written copious books about the theology of the Early Church, as well as an acclaimed biography of Bartholomew, the current Archbishop of Constantinople, texts on love and marriage, and, perhaps topically at this time of strife in the Middle East, a book about the letters between two, 6th century ascetics, Barsanuphius and John, from the Gaza strip : see here for an array of his books, which includes a children's book on Anthony the Great, here.
For some years Chryssavgis was advisor on ecological issues to the Ecumenical Patriarch - dubbed the 'green' patriarch - the Archbishop of Constantinople, who is primus inter pares - first among equals - of the heads of the various Orthodox Churches. In this capacity, Chryssavgis has written a variety of books about theology and ecology. For a short, 12 minute video of him speaking on ecology, see here. Today, he is Archdeacon to the Ecumenical Patriarchate (the Greek Orthodox Church) and Director of the Huffington Ecumenical Institute which seeks to address contemporary social challenges through ecumenical dialogue and theological scholarship: see here. For an address by Chryssavgis on YouTube from Orthodox Sunday - the first Sunday of Lent - in 2024, see here.
If you would be interested to read more about the Orthodox Church, Chryssavgis has written an accessible, explanatory book, Light Through Darkness: The Orthodox Tradition (Darton, Longman and Todd, 2004) in the 'Traditions of Christian Spirituality' series. You can find a review of this book here.
Monday 10th February, 2025
John Chryssavgis, In the Heart of the Desert: The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers (WorldWisdom, 2008), 17.
Image: Mohamad Sameh, Cairo, Egypt, unsplash.com/@sameh_from_egypt
The short, image-backed quote, above, is taken from this week's longer quote, below, on pages 17-18 of John Chryssavgis' book. To read more about the book from which this month's quotes are taken, click here.
Listen to this week's longer quote:
To listen to the longer quote, below, being read, click the play button on the small version of the image next to or below this text. To see the image full screen as you listen, click the expand screen icon in the corner. |
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'The hermits who sought refuge in the desert of Egypt reminded the rest of the church that “Here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come” (Hebrews 13:14). In so doing, they founded an alternative Christian society. This probably occurred unintentionally on their part. Nevertheless, their influence lasted long after their time. They prompted a way of life that reflects a reversal of all ordinary social values and expectations.
Society expects its citizens to be active and productive. In society, you are useless if you are not valuable. This expectation translates today into our attitudes towards minorities, or towards the elderly, the disabled, and especially young children. The Desert Fathers and Mothers proclaimed a different set of values, where change occurs through silence and not war; where inaction may be the most powerful source of action; and where productivity may be measured by obscurity, even invisibility. The same values were seen in a new perspective with new dimensions. The desert elders looked for the roots of our attitudes and actions as human beings. They searched for the spiritual roots of our life.
… the spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers was indeed revolutionary. Theirs was a change that was out of sight, unrecorded in history books. Yet, it was a change that proved cataclysmic, recorded silently in human hearts. It was a protest against the complacency of the Christian world.'
Monday 17th February, 2025
John Chryssavgis, In the Heart of the Desert: The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers (WorldWisdom, 2008), 46.
Image: Markus Spiske, Bavaria, Germany, pexels.com/@markusspiske
The short, image-backed quote, above, is taken from this week's longer quote, below, on pages 45-46 of John Chryssavgis' book. To read more about the book from which this month's quotes are taken, click here.
The short, image-backed quote, above, is taken from this week's longer quote, below, on pages 45-46 of John Chryssavgis' book. To read more about the book from which this month's quotes are taken, click here.
Listen to this week's longer quote:
To listen to the longer quote, below, being read, click the play button on the small version of the image next to or below this text. To see the image full screen as you listen, click the expand screen icon in the corner. |
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'What one comes to practise in patience is the virtue of silence. We come to self-knowledge through stillness and silence, through attentiveness and watchfulness. When words are abandoned, a new awareness arrives. Silence awakens us from dullness of awareness, from dimness of vision.
Abba Bessarion, at the point of his death, said: “The monk ought to be as the cherubim and the seraphim: all eye!”
Abba Poemen said: “Be watchful inwardly; and be watchful outwardly.”
Silence is the first duty of life, the first requirement for survival in the desert.
Having withdrawn to the desert, Abba Arsenius … heard a voice saying to him: “Arsenius, flee; be silent; pray always. These are the sources of sinlessness.”
Silence is also the first duty of love, the first requirement for survival within community.
Abba Poemen said: “Someone may seem to be silent, but if in the heart one is condemning others, then one is babbling ceaselessly. And there may be another who talks from morning till evening, and yet in the heart that person is truly silent. That person says nothing that is not profitable.”
Silence is a way of waiting, a way of watching, and a way of listening to what is going on within and around us. It is a way of interiority, of stopping and then of exploring the cellars of the heart and the centre of life. It is a way of entering within, so that we do not ultimately go without. Silence is never merely a cessation of words; That would be too restrictive and too negative a definition of silence. Rather, it is the pause that holds together—indeed, it makes sense of—all the words, both spoken and unspoken. Silence is the glue that connects our attitudes and our actions. Silence is fullness, not emptiness; it is not absence, but the awareness of a presence.'
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