The Healing Power of Asceticism
Recovering an authentic understanding of the meaning and purpose of asceticism in the Orthodox Christian life
I have given this talk at several parish retreats during the past year, with the final retreat having been given in Chicago at the beginning of this month. Since there remain no future retreats to spoil, I thought I would post a recording of the talk now.
In the talk, I first discuss some of the more common challenges, pitfalls, and misunderstandings which we modern Americans might face when encountering the ascetic practices of the Holy Orthodox Church. Second, I try to present a healthy, balanced, and authentic approach to asceticism — in the spirit intended by our holy fathers and mothers who have begotten us in the faith. Finally, I attempt to briefly apply such an approach to some of the more common forms of ascetic practice which we Orthodox Christians seek to incorporate into our daily lives.
I sincerely thank St. Ignatius Orthodox Church in Franklin, TN for hosting the first retreat and providing us with this video recording.
Wonderful talk. I am a complete failure at any kind of consistency in my spiritual struggle. Thank you for the reminder that it is better to do something small on a daily basis, than something big occasionally - only to be followed by nothing for weeks at a time afterwards. In fact, as this has been a long standing problem for me, I recently bought a 50 knot prayer rope (instead of 100) for this very reason since it only takes 15 minutes to go around it one time, which I should be able to make time for on a daily basis. May our merciful Lord help me!
The audio for this is so corrupted that I cannot understand it. Is there a transcript?? Thank you!!