

Dark Night of the Soul
Insanity spread through his mind. The once proud king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar suffered the worse form of a mental breakdown. Psychologists today call it Boanthropy. One’s psyche becomes so strained that a person snaps. He falls into a delusional state and thinks and behaves like an animal. "He was driven away from people and ate grass like the ox. His body was drenched as an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird" (Dn. 4:33). Darkness engulfed his soul. The whole wor

The Banquet after the Trial
“He was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Mt. 4:1). Why would God lead someone into temptation? Indeed, that is exactly what is happening to us now. We are Christ, his mystical body, and the Spirit has led us into the wilderness of Lent. Most of the time, we are too busy to hear God or the devil. Lent comes to force us to be quiet and real, to allow all the stuff in our hearts to bubble up, the angels, the demons, and everything else, and l


School of Self-Emptying
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily” (Luke 9:23). In the 18th century, Russia underwent a spiritual revival called Kenotism. A wave of fervor swept through the Orthodox world as men and women aspired after ‘kenosis,’ in Greek – a word used by St. Paul to describe Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant” (Phil. 27). He – “kenóō” – poured himself out for us. In the same way, anyone who wants