On the fifth Sunday of Great Lent, Fr. Matthew Howell explores the lessons to be learned from the life of St. Mary of Egypt, including the hope that God can forgive anyone who is repentant, the importance of lifelong and complete repentance, the meaning of keeping vows, and the importance of running away from evil. He frames this within the context of spiritual battle in the heart, quoting St. Macarius of Egypt to discuss how the heart holds contains evils such as dragons, poisonous beasts while also being the realm of heavenly cities and treasures of grace. He puts forward the idea that St. Mary of Egypt actually spent the last 47 years of life in repentance slaying the dragons in her heart, and thereby showing us how to make room in the heart for the grace of God. Along the way, Fr. Matthew quotes repeatedly from the Psalms, the Gospel of Matthew, St. Ephraim the Syrian, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
