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The Feast Day of Saint Romanos the Melodos. Three Chanters Gifted by the Theotokos, by St. Nikolai Velimirovich

10/01/2020

The Most-Holy Theotokos has often appeared to holy men in need: sometimes to encourage them in asceticism, or to heal them from sickness, or to reveal a certain mystery to them. Two similar, wonderful events took place in the Great Lavra on the Holy Mountain. In Great Lent, during the chanting of the Great Akathist, St. John Koukouzelis was tired and sat down, facing the icon of the Theotokos. As he sat, he fell asleep.

Christ and Nothing (Part XIII)

09/30/2020

By David Bentley Hart, October 2003 Nor will the ululations and lugubrious platitudes and pious fatalism of the tragic chorus ever again have the power to recall us to sobriety. The gospel of a God found in broken flesh, humility, and measureless charity has defeated all the old lies, rendered the ancient order visibly insufficient and even slightly absurd, and instilled in us a longing for transcendent love so deep that—if once yielded to—it will

Reality Is Communion

09/29/2020

In the beginning God says, “Let us make humanity in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves” (Genesis 1:26). The use of the plural pronoun here seems to be an amazing, deep time intuition of what Christians would later call the Trinity—the revelation of the nature of God as community, as relationship itself, a Mystery of perfect giving and perfect receiving, both within God and outside of God. The Body of Christ is another metaphor for

If It Makes You Happy

09/28/2020

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, August 31, 2015 In 1998, my family and I were received into the Orthodox Church. I had served as an Episcopal clergyman for 18 years prior to that. I left a large parish with a wonderful staff and tremendous programs. I took up the work of starting an Orthodox mission. Of course, such a life-change creates awkward moments for your friends, colleagues, and former parishioners. What do you say to someone

Perfecting Our Lives

09/25/2020

SSCORRE! Saint Sophia Cathedral Online Resources for our Religious Edification Topic of the Week – Perfecting Our Lives “….this being the liturgical new year, the month that we reset our goals, spiritually, for ourselves, for our family, and it’s very important that this concept of this being the new time, be a real part of our lives…. Now is the time to set our hearts and our minds towards new goals, regaining whatever we have to regain in order to reset our

Wrestling with God

09/25/2020

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, August 29, 2015 One of the most interesting stories in the Old Testament is found in Genesis 32. There we hear the story of Jacob wrestling with God. Or is it the story of Jacob wrestling with an angel? Jacob had to face his brother Esau the next day. His anxiety comes through even in that ancient account. The text says that Jacob wrestled “with a Man.” But this is not

A Quick Fix? Happiness.

09/24/2020

By Abbot Tryphon, October 27, 2019 Anything that is quickly obtained is also easily lost Since we have grown accustomed to having everything happen quickly, and without delay, we also expect our spiritual lives to be on the same quick time line. We don’t have the patience to build upon the knowledge of the holy fathers, so we don’t practice regular spiritual reading. Our church attendance is limited to the essential Sunday Liturgy, and even

Christ and Nothing (Part XII)

09/23/2020

By David Bentley Hart, October 2003 I wish, that is, to make a point not conspicuously different from Alasdair MacIntyre’s in the first chapter of his After Virtue: in the wake of a morality of the Good, ethics has become a kind of incoherent bricolage. As far as I can tell, homo nihilisticus may often be in several notable respects a far more amiable rogue than homo religiosus, exhibiting a far smaller propensity for breaking

Human Bodies: Trusting Our Bodies

09/22/2020

Capable Flesh The tender flesh itself will be found one day —quite surprisingly— to be capable of receiving, and yes, full capable of embracing the searing energies of God. Go figure. Fear not. For even at its beginning the humble clay received God’s art, whereby one part became the eye, another the ear, and yet another this impetuous hand. Therefore, the flesh is not to be excluded from the wisdom and the power that now

A Light Thing

09/21/2020

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, August 26, 2015 And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (Joh 3:19) I have a vivid memory within my childhood of a serious sin. I was probably around seven or eight and an object had captured both my eye and my young heart: a baseball glove. Its cost was probably less than ten

Blog

The Feast Day of Saint Romanos the Melodos. Three Chanters Gifted by the Theotokos, by St. Nikolai Velimirovich

Christ and Nothing (Part XIII)

Reality Is Communion

If It Makes You Happy

Perfecting Our Lives

Wrestling with God

A Quick Fix? Happiness.

Christ and Nothing (Part XII)

Human Bodies: Trusting Our Bodies

A Light Thing

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