Extreme Pilgrim - A Pilgrimage to St. Anthony's Monastery

"And let those who are not found living as He taught, be understood to be no Christians, even though they profess with the lip the precepts of Christ." - St. Justin Martyr (First Apology, Chp. 16)

Obtaining Discretion

We cannot obtain discretion by ourselves--it is a gift from God (1 Cor. 12:8-11).  Nevertheless, we must always seek to obtain discretion in order to avoid errors and waywardness (The Conferences: 2.1.4).

In this conference Abba Moses shares a short discourse given by St. Anthony the Great on discretion.  St. Anthony points out that when discretion is lacking, our thoughts and deeds fall into darkness (Matt. 6:22-23).  How can we avoid such darkness?  By obtaining the virtues and being filled with the gladsome Light Who is Christ.  Only by discretion can we assure that the virtues will endure in us to the end (2.2.4; 2.4.4), because thoughts and deeds themselves proceed from discretion (2.2.6).  We always have the free will to discretely allow or disallow whatever thoughts come into our minds.  Thus, discretion is needed to preserve inner peace.

A Pilgrim's Way

"If Christ was punished on our behalf, then we are never forgiven, because punishment and forgiveness are mutually exclusive.... This is the concept of God, which is really the foundation of modern atheism." - Archbishop Lazar Puhalo