The 3 Foundational Virtues
Notes from Fr. Ambrose while listening to the above:
Ascesis means Spiritual Struggle for the sake of love for Christ.
“The passions” mean illnesses of the soul, those which need to be healed by Christ.
When Elder Ephraim says: “monk” this can also be applied to all Christians and not just to “monks” or “nuns”.
He’s writing to someone who wrote him a letter, so we must understand that he is speaking here to one person, but we can still gain understanding from what he writes about.