New Skete Monasteries News

by Brother Stavros An Ethiopian style mural at Emmaus House of Harlem   On the feast of St. Nicholas, Brothers Christopher and Stavros participated in the 6th Annual Scholarly Conference of the Sophia Institute, hosted by Union Theological Seminary at Columbia University on Manhattan’s Morningside Heights. The conference title was “Monasticism, Asceticism, and Holiness in Eastern Orthodox Christianity.” They made a slide presentation on New Skete’s monastic witness at one of the many afternoon sessions. The night before the event, the two monks were the guests of Fr. Michael Plekon, a Fellow of the Institute, and his wife, Jean Plekon. Informal discussion following lunch in the Bonhoeffer Room  The four keynote addresses afforded some welcome stimulation and insight, as the Cambridge monastics are undertaking a review and possible revision of their own Typicon, first published in 1980. They were invited to the Fellow’s Lunch and enjoyed the opportunity ...

by Brother David 03: What Prayer Is So then, if prayer is not thinking about God or feeling a certain way about God, what is prayer? My first grade religion teacher taught us that “Prayer is the raising of the mind and heart to God” and “Prayer is God’s life in us.” At the time those definitions made no sense to me, and now they say too much.  What does “raising of the mind and heart to God” mean, and how do you do that?  If we are to pray always, as St Paul says, then how do we raise our minds and hearts all the time?  When I was a kid I really worked hard at this, with disastrous results: trying to raise one’s mind and heart to God while careening down a hill on a skateboard is hazardous to your health.  I know.  As for prayer being God’s life in us, well, so what do I do about that?  What does it mean in my day-to-day life?  If we can speak about the “art of prayer” then what is the “art” of God’s life in me?  The problem with definitio...