New Skete Monasteries News

How to Be a Sinner by Peter Bouteneff                 “Sin” is a word that carries with it an inordinate amount of baggage. There is good thinking about sin, and there is bad thinking about sin. There are ways of considering sin that are psychologically and spiritually healthy, and there are equally examples of the reverse. While most of us will admit that sin refers to moral behavior that consciously transgresses natural and divine law, when it comes to speaking about it clearly and coherently, often we feel embarrassed and tongue-tied. We have been taught that confessing our sins in the sacrament of confession is expected at least once a year, but even there it can be difficult to find the right words to express our sorrow and repentance. Sometimes we may even wonder if we really have anything significant to confess.             All of this points to a pressing pastoral need for a book that speaks about sin in a theologically sound and compassionate way, that can be

By Brother John “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”                                                                                                                     (Matthew 11:29) Humility means facing the real in oneself, good and bad, not debasing or mocking. And this search for reality doesn’t mean that I forget the rest of life around me. It is all one, and it must be together. To fulfill the above plea will take some only a short time, some a lifetime; and yet, some will never obtain its fulfillment. It won’t be found in books as such. These may spur me on, but I must sit and look into my own soul and not just gaze but begin to DO what is asked. So, to learn I must examine, and when I really examine I will see that the more I learn the less I know, and then there will come a certain stillness, an emptiness, and even a frustration of all being lost. This is where I will find out what is asked of me.