Keep Your Eyes on Yourself
Speak well of those who speak evil of you. Pay good for evil. Pray for those who cause you various offenses, wrongs, temptations, persecutions. Whatever you do, on no account condemn anyone; do not even try to judge whether a person is good or bad, but keep your eyes on that one evil person for whom you must give an account before God–yourself. — St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, The Arena
Sheheet, the Weighing of Hearts
A beautiful letter to monks and contemplation on the name and place of the Desert of Sheheet, where the Coptic Orthodox Monastery of Saint Macarius resides, by the Spiritual Father of the monastery, Father Matta El Maskeen (also known in as Father Matthew the Poor.) God offered us the grace of calling and accepting us in the sacred wilderness, i.e., the wilderness of Sheheet, the wilderness of “the weighing scale of hearts.” With its name …