Living in this consumer-driven world, we are all deeply infected by what some call “affluenza,” a toxic and blinding disease with the basic assumption that more is always better and more of self is always good. It is fair to say that such invisible assumptions of any culture are as toxic and as blinding as the so-called “hot sins” of drunkards and prostitutes, though they are much harder to recognize as “sin” because we are
By Father Stephen Freeman, January 21, 2015 We are not saved by our talents and gifts nor by our excellence – we are saved by our weakness and our failure. I have made this point in several ways in several articles over the recent past – and the question comes up – but what does that look like? How do I live like that? The question can be somewhat urgent for some because the message
“My child,” God calls, “expand your vision to the dimensions of universal Love, to the dimensions of my Heart. Love without limits does not end with the human person. My Love upholds the entire universe. It is the essential connection, the vital bond, between all persons and things, and Him who loves them. “Let yourself be carried away by the immense current of boundless Love. Be transported by this movement, this dynamic and aspiration of
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY! Godly Meditations from America’s Founding Fathers: “No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.” –George Washington “I have so much faith in the general government of the world by
If we speak about the practical aspects of the Jesus prayer: usually one is seated and one says the prayer silently, in the place of the heart. This prayer may be linked with breathing. When one breathes in, one says: ‘Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God’. Then when one breathes out, one says: ‘Have mercy upon me’. One concentrates all one’s attention on the name of Christ and on the words ‘Have mercy upon me’.
Paul is a marvelous dialectical teacher. The word dialectic originally referred to the Greek art of debate. A dialectic (different than our political debates) does not move forward by either/or thinking. It’s when you play the two off of one another and then come to a tertium quid, a third something, what the inner wisdom traditions sometimes call “Third Force.” It is the process of overcoming seeming opposites by uncovering a reconciling third that is
Sermon of Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo Today the Holy Church piously remembers the sufferings of the Holy Glorious and All-Praised Apostles Peter and Paul. St. Peter, the fervent follower of Jesus Christ, for the profound confession of His Divinity: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” was deemed worthy by the Savior to hear in answer, “Blessed art thou, Simon … I tell thee, that thou art Peter [Petrus], and on
Just as there are Fathers of the Church, there are also what we might call Fathers of the modern world, revered and studied by the intelligentsia, who hope to combine them in a sort of grand synopsis of atheism. We may never have read Feuerbach, Marx, Nietzche or Freud, but our outlook, the spirit of the age, is formed by their ideas. The Marxist theory of social alienation and the reification of humanity the creator
Every day, every night, let us think that God is watching us, that He hears our prayers, that He sees the depths of our spirit. This does not mean, of course, that we see God as He is, but it creates an atmosphere which allows us to perceive our imperfections in the course of each day: the dissipation of our mind, our faults in our relations with others, and so on. Living with other people,
The Heavenly Kingdom is peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. We need to humble our hearts, which take insults so deeply and also our so-called dignity, for we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven in pride, as when we take to heart each slander our neighbor casts. We must accept our lessons from everyday life, for each day brings us cares, worries, and insults. We must learn not to take insults to heart, for
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