Bitter zeal and good zeal (as outlined by Saint Benedict) are often preceded by a third which, we might term “untested zeal.” James and John exemplify this zeal with their brash insistence that they were able to receive the baptism with which Jesus was to be baptized and drink the chalice he was to drink. […]

Dualism and the unfortunate splitting of the soul and the body can take two forms. Typically, dualism has pitted the soul against the body with the latter considered evil—along with all of physical reality. Contemporary culture, however, tends towards the opposite, with the body and all that is physical treated as ultimate goods and the […]

  There are occasions when, as monks, we look back nostalgically to earlier and seemingly holier and more ideal periods of monastic life in particular and the church in general. Saint Paul’s warning to the presbyters of Ephesus about savage wolves who will pervert the truth and who will come from among their own members […]

Unacknowledged and unresolved inner conflicts have a way of spilling over into our interpersonal relationships and damaging them. The unfortunate Sosthenes experienced this firsthand as he was cruelly used by the crowd to vent their anger and frustration at Gallio’s refusal to deal with their case against Paul. This clear example of what psychologists call […]