Originally published at crisis magazine
Perhaps, as the election approaches and the news becomes saturated with grim predictions and shrill voices, we’re beginning to feel that our nation’s destiny is sliding more and more out of control, giving way to feelings of anxiety and tension, or even terror.
From a biblical perspective, this state of affairs—our being helpless before the material forces surrounding us—is actually normal. We always have more or less the same amount of influence in the world we live in. Sometimes, we feel our lack of influence more than other times, but it rarely changes.
If this is so, we must interrogate the anxiety and tension we’re feeling. Where is it coming from?
Orthodox. Faithful. Free.
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St. John Cassian, perhaps the most important spiritual writer you’ve probably never heard of, wrote the first of his famous ten Conferences on the discernment of thoughts. By doing this, he indicated how important this topic is—it is foundational, a sine qua non of a successful Christian life.
Cassian taught his monks to interrogate their thoughts: Where did they come from? Whose thoughts were they really? Were they from the world, the flesh, or the
