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The Cross is the symbol of the Christian faith: when we see a cross, we remember the Paschal Mystery, we remember how God became man and died and rose for us so that we could be raised to eternal life with Him, to be "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Pt 1:4).  While seeing or meditating on a cross, or especially a crucifix, is one way to bring to mind the Paschal Mystery, the most common way we do so is through the Sign of the Cross.  When we mark ourselves with the Sign of the Cross, we remember that "we were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life" (Rom 6:4). (As a sidebar before going further, each lung of the Church has a different method of making the Sign of the Cross, and each has its own symbolism.  In the West, the hand is open when crossing oneself: the five fingers spread out represent the five wounds of Christ.  In the East, the thumb...

Dom Lorenzo Scupoli, C.R.'s Il combattimento spirituale ( The Spiritual Combat ) is one of the classic works of Catholic spirituality regarding spiritual warfare.  The author was a member of the Congregation of Clerks Regular of the Divine Providence, better known as the Theatines, who lived between 1530 and 1610, publishing this work, his most famous, in 1589.  For centuries, this work has been an ascetic classic in the Western Church: one great devotee of the work was St. Francis de Sales, a Doctor of the Church, who carried it in his pocket for 20 years. The work's popularity did not stop in the Western Church, though: it migrated to the East, making this classic one revered by both lungs of the Church, West and East.  Nicodemus the Hagiorite (Hagiorite means "of the Holy Mountain," that is, Mount Athos in Greece), a Greek Orthodox saint of the 18th century, came across this text and was enamored by it.  Seeing its potential for spiritual growth among the Orth...

Lent is a time of the desert.  In the desert, we lack what we previously thought we needed but truly did not: in the desert, we are stripped of excess.  Yet the desert is not just a place of aridity and ascesis: it is also a place of God.  "Spiritual work is essential, it is for this that we have come to the desert." Countless holy men and women went to the desert to be united with the Triune God: St. Anthony the Great, St. Mary of Egypt, Sts. Barsanuphius and John, the great Desert Fathers and Desert Mothers, St. Pachomius, St. Hilarion, and innumerable others.  The desert is a place where we can find Tabor and encounter Christ: in the desert we can become "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Pt 1:4). During this holy season of Lent, let us not just strip ourselves of distractions and worldly goods, but let us enter deeper into our relationship with Jesus Christ, and let us fight harder in our spiritual battle. Below is a list of suggestions for making thi...

John Saba (690-780), also known as John of Dalyatha or John the Venerable, was a Syrian monk from the region of Dalyatha, where modern-day Turkey, Iran, and Iraq meet.  His writings were well-read throughout the Christian East, and they are still popular today, at least in the Oriental Orthodox churches (where he is a saint), despite his being condemned as a Nestorian, a Messalian, and a Sabellian at different times.  Among his writings is the following prayer which fits perfectly for this holy season of Lent: You who wept and shed tears of sorrow over Lazarus, accept my bitter tears.  May my passions be allayed by Your Passion; may my wounds be healed by Your wounds, my blood be blended with Your blood, and the lifegiving fragrance of Your holy body be mingled with my body.  May the bitter drink that was given to You by Your enemies soothe my soul, which has been made to drink wormwood by the evil one.  May Your body, which was stretched out o...