What You Let In

English Homily- Fifth Sunday of Summer- Fr. Mark Owdeesh The Trojan horse was not a weapon — it was a gift, a proposal, something that looked harmless until it was already inside the walls. Our thoughts work the same way. The Greek church fathers called it the nous — the intellectual part of the soul that receives what enters from the outside world and passes it into the heart. Every sin and habit begins there, nesting and spreading long before we notice. The desert fathers called our task watchfulness : being a custodian over what we allow into the mind before it metastasizes. St. Dorotheus puts it plainly — stop anger at the first movement, blame yourself, and it dies; add wood to it, and it becomes an uncontrollable blaze. Do your part to guard the gate, then hand the rest to Christ.