“I find myself frequently advising people with these simple words: The best way to prepare for the future is to live in the present. We are so often stressed about some upcoming events, about what might, or might not, happen. We quickly find our thoughts pulled into future scenarios which seem ever more real and certain to us, …What spiritual advice did I have to offer? I was so often seized by the same magnetic pull into imaginary futures. At the risk of oversimplification, God provided two avenues of teaching that greatly help me personally, and I hope have been a help to others. The first came from the Scriptures. In the morning service we read a Gospel for the saint of the day, which is often a martyr. The Gospel reading typically includes words like these: “And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say” (Lk 12:11-12; cf Lk 21:14-15; Mt 10:19-20). No one was persecuting me, but as I reflected on these words so frequently repeated, I began to realize that someone being arrested for their faith would be tempted to start planning their future defense before the authorities—exactly what Jesus was warning them not to do. It’s as if the advanced planning would cut them off from attentiveness to the Holy Spirit at the moment of inquisition. How should they prepare, then, I asked myself? The answer that kept coming to me was simple: the best way to be attentive to the Holy Spirit in the future is to be attentive to the Holy Spirit now. Was that what Jesus was telling them to do? If so, it seemed applicable to the many times that my thoughts are drawn into imaginary futures of my own making—even if not in contexts of persecution. By letting my imagination run wild, I was severing my attentiveness to the Holy Spirit not only in the present, but in the future as well.”

– ‘Burning Bush’ monastic journal

***Now and then we include a particularly thought provoking or inspiring excerpt not from one of our regular ‘Elders’***