Games give the sense of achievement and identity that traditional rites of passage would have done.  And this is why the insecurity in their reactions is so palpable – you’re attacking who they are, not just what they do.

There is a demon that the saints, especially the desert fathers, recognized in this vein – the one that comes in the daytime, during our work, to propel us further into nothingness. He was called “the noonday devil” precisely because he comes in the light of day while we are at our normal duties and work.

So many men today walk around as if they have it all figured out and they don’t have a problem in the world. The “strong” silent type if you will. I know this for a fact. I used to do the same thing. So much of my life was spent walking like a one man army, convincing myself that I didn’t need anybody or anything.

How many times have you vowed to exercise more, eat better, or get more sleep? Or on a spiritual level, promised yourself that you were going to pray more consistently, practice certain virtues, or embrace asceticism more willingly? Yet, when it comes time to move idea into action, from commitment to practice, something within us […]

Some friends and I were smoking cigars and chatting on the porch of a Brooklyn house during a summer evening in 2010. One of the friends recommended that I read Dostoevsky’s the Brothers Karamazov. Education had taught me that the book was a classic. Experience had taught me that not all “classics” are all that […]