Fr. Peter Kavanaugh – In the Desert

July 9, 2023

Moral Law and Holiness

“Purify yourself and you will see heaven in yourself…The sun that shines there is the light of the Trinity. The air breathed by the entering thoughts is the Holy Spirit…That is the kingdom of God hidden within us” (St. Isaac of Nineveh).

“Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. And God spoke” (Exodus 20:21).

There are two ways to change a lump of iron. You can hit it with a hammer, chisel and polish. Or you can set it in a fire. Let the flames bake it, and the iron becomes refined and malleable. The soul is the same. The purpose of Christianity is not to make us moral or ethical. It is to plunge us into God, and in God’s presence, change something raw and ugly into something holy and beautiful.

July 2, 2023

Screens, Pictures, Fun: We Are What We Contemplate

“The woman saw the tree was good for food, was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree beautiful to contemplate, she took its fruit and ate” (Genesis 3:6).

We become what we contemplate. Eve fixed her eyes on the fruit of the forbidden tree and contemplated its beauty. The way a painting or sunset can mesmerize a person, or a beautiful woman dumbfound a man, Eve was caught up in a worshipful spell when she contemplated the apple. From the eyes, to the heart, to the soul. What do we spend our time looking at, listening to, touching, or tasting — God, nature, art, television, video games, pictures? We become what we contemplate. What we contemplate becomes our worship. What we worship, determines our eternity.

June 25, 2023

Contemplating God’s Joy

“When the Shepherd found the sheep, He did not punish him, nor did He drag him to the fold. He rather put him on His shoulders, and carried him gently and included him in the fold” (St. Gregory Nyssa).

What compassion and joy there is in our God. We spend a good deal of time talking about how we ought to live. We should give as much time, if not more, contemplating how He lives, how He exists, the kind of exuberant joy and love that is God.

June 18, 2023

Entrapment of Excuses

“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing” (2 Corinthians 6:16-17).

A pure heart — unstained, undisturbed, unbroken calm and rest in God. Purity is the goal of our Christian life. It is the banquet — where all the guilt stuffed inside is gone, all anxieties and noise in the head silenced, and a peace that runs so deep, nothing stands between you and God. What keeps us from this peace? One thing: our excuses.

June 4, 2023

The Wildfire of God

“The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. And God said, ‘Yehi ohr vayehi ohr’ —‘Let there be light; and there was light’.”

The universe appeared, empty, abysmal, a shadow lacking harmony and beauty. Then light permeated creation. Ohr Ein Sof – ‘Light of Infinitude’ — an emanation and movement, as the light of an incubator awakening seeds, or the light of an artist’s brushstrokes transforming a sketch into a masterpiece. The light stirred up the cosmos, like the colors of a sunrise, filling atoms with spirit, calling life towards one cosmic act of worship. This same light burned in the bush before Moses. It overshadowed the Blessed Virgin, making a womb a vessel for God. It burns now in the Church, in our hearts and homes, calling us out of a life of meaninglessness into a life of adoration.

May 28, 2023

In Famine of Delusion

“I will send a famine into the land: not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the word of the Lord” (Amos 8.11).

A plague of delusion swept across the Israelite nation during the reign of King Jeroboam in 793 B.C. Psychologists today call it mass psychosis, when a society loses touch with reality. The human heart so easily falls into delusion. We have to be vigilant in our life, guarding ourselves from delusion, and straining our hearts to the Spirit of Truth.

May 21, 2023

Crave Pure Spiritual Milk

“Crave pure spiritual milk.”

If we could let this message sink into our heart, our problems would vanish. “Crave pure spiritual milk.” If we built our life on nothing else, waking up each morning seeking only this, everything else would fall into place. In his first epistle, St. Peter sums up not only the Gospel, and our Lord’s words today, but the whole purpose of your life in four words: “Crave pure spiritual milk.”

May 14, 2023

To Walk in the Spirit

“The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:6).

It is not enough that Christ is risen. We too must rise with him. Our Lord’s Ascension paves a road for us: inviting us to lift up our hearts from the drudge and vanity of this world and to become heavenly minded — to learn to see, breathe, and walk in the Holy Spirit.

May 7, 2023

The Source of Your Sorrow

“I have run to the fragrance of your myrrh, O Christ God, for I have been wounded by your love; do not part from me” (St. Porphyrios).

“As in all sweetest music, a tinge of sadness was in every note” (George MacDonald).

A Christian will always carry in his heart a wound. When you are touched by Christ, you never recover. When you have glimpsed paradise, you forever after long to return to paradise. The wound from encountering God is life’s greatest treasure. It is the door to contemplation.

April 30, 2023

To Know and Be Known

“Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart” (Jeremiah 15:16).

Prayer should become intimate like the stillness in the conversation of lovers. The quality of relationship Christ asks from us is deep and personal. He wants a companionship: a sharing of who we are and a tuning in to who He is. We make life complicated, but it should not be. We are here to know Him and be known by Him.