“Then the Lord God formed a person from the dust of the ground and breathed into their nostrils the breath of life, and the person became a living being.”Genesis 2:7 Our breath is a gift from God. It is what gives us life. It is how we commune with the created world. With each breath … Continue reading Breathing: The Way to Pray Without Ceasing →

We are starting to form a little tradition in The Virtual Chapel where we put together a community article at Easter time. The way this works is I pose an open ended question in the Chapel, let people know that their responses will be used for this purpose, and then copy and paste all the … Continue reading What is the Deeper Meaning of the Easter Story? →

One of the things which makes the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus so powerful is that the story is told and retold from a myriad of different perspectives. We have the canonical gospel stories of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as well as a number of others which didn't make it into the Bible … Continue reading The Gospel According to a Tree →

During Lent I have been writing about thoughts and feelings which the desert monastics referred to as demons. I wrote an article which you can find HERE about the method of soul healing described by Evagrius of Pontus. So far I have used the teachings of Evagrius and Cassian to name three demons and discuss … Continue reading Understanding Shame →

This year throughout Lent I am writing about the desert monastic tradition and the way they understood thoughts and feelings, our relationship to them, and how we can approach them in a contemplative way. In another article, which you can find by clicking HERE, I talked about the imagery used by these early Christian monks which … Continue reading Anger Blinds Our Inner Eyes →

This year throughout Lent I am writing about the desert monastic tradition and the way they understood thoughts and our relationship to them. In another article, which you can find by clicking HERE, I talked about the imagery used by these early Christian monks which describes unwanted thoughts and feelings as demons. This is a different … Continue reading Sadness Can Be an Angel or a Demon →

Today is the first Sunday of the month when we share guest posts from people living and teaching the Contemplative and/or Celtic Christian way around the world. One of the beautiful things about the internet is that people doing amazing things in isolated parts of the world can learn from one another and grow together. … Continue reading The Gift of the Ancient →

This year throughout Lent I will be writing about the desert monastic tradition and the way they understood thoughts and our relationship to them. In another article, which you can find by clicking HERE, I talked about the imagery used by these early Christian monks which describes unwanted thoughts and feelings as demons. This is … Continue reading Acedia: The Ancient Word for Covid Blues →

Evagrius of Pontus, one of the most influential of the desert fathers and a student of Origen, wrote a book called Antirrhêtikos which is usually translated today as "Talking Back." This book was meant to be a practical reference manual for contemplatives. The idea behind the book comes from the scriptures, specifically Jesus' being tested … Continue reading Antirrhêtikos: Talking Back to Demons →

It was a few years ago now that I (David Cole) became a vowed member of the dispersed New Monastic community ‘The Community of Aidan & Hilda’ (CA&H). Much more recently (at time of writing) I had the privilege of facilitating the service of one of the Explorer members of CA&H taking their vows to become … Continue reading Being a Pneuma Nastic New Monastic →