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Human Beings and the Cosmos (Part XI): Exorcism, Technology & Resurrection

The most authentically Christian, baptismal attitude, must be one of exorcism. In exorcizing the determinisms of technological society we are by no means condemning the scientific research and invention which spring from it. Rather, we are trying to make them have more respect for reality. Christians must demand of science a more open-ended research, and of technology an efficiency that serves the irreducible person no less than the indispensable relationship between Man and the universe;

Dealing with Our Passions (Part VIII)

The antirrhetic method requires that we first observe our thoughts precisely, that we note whether they make us sick or healthy, whether they lift us up or drag us down, whether they correspond to the Spirit of God. Evagrius describes the process of testing thoughts with the image of the gatekeeper: “Be a gatekeeper of your heart and let no thought in without questioning it. Examine every single thought one by one and ask it:

Conversations with Abba Isaac: Kung Fu and the Way of the Ant

By Father Micah Hirschy As was the case with many young men who grew up during the 80’s and 90’s, I went through a period of deep fascination with Kung-Fu movies.  There was something intrinsically appealing about a story where a young man could spend a few days with a Kung-Fu master or read an ancient scroll and henceforth become invincible and able to battle evil!  I also loved that the Kung-Fu Masters gave their Art really

Saint Isaac the Syrian: Work by Day

Work by day After the morning Office, when he sat down to read the Bible he became like a man enraptured: with every verse he read he would fall many times on his face, and at many of the phrases he would raise his hands to heaven and glorify God many times over. He was about forty years old, his food was sparse, and in temperament he was dry and warm. Because he used to

Theosis

The Orthodox doctrine of theosis, according to John Paul II, is perhaps the greatest gift of the Eastern Church to the West, but one that has largely been ignored or even denied. [1] The Eastern fathers of the Church believed that we could experience real and transformative union with God. This is in fact the supreme goal of human life and the very meaning of salvation–not only later, but now and later. Theosis refers to

Human Beings and the Cosmos (Part X): The Great Divorce

By the Middle Ages, however, with the rise of humanism and rationalism, there were already the beginnings of a breach between Christianity and a self-sufficient humanity. In Byzantium, and spreading into Franciscan Italy, there was an attempt, supported by a theology of the transfiguration of the body and the earth, to transfigure the renaissance, to divinize humanism. But this last phase of Byzantine culture, which seemed so promising, was swamped by Asian influence, while Western

The Lord’s Prayer (Part IX)

The fact that Christ and we become one, means that what applies to Christ applies to us, and that we can, in a way unknown to the rest of the world, call God our father, no longer by analogy, no longer in terms of anticipation or prophecy, but in terms of Christ. This has a direct bearing upon the Lord’s Prayer: on the one hand, the prayer can be used by anyone, because it is

The Superiority of Being over Doing (Part II)

By the Very Reverend Stelyios S. Muksuris, Ph.D Recently, a woman shared with me a series of endearing stories of how she feels called by God to spend time with elderly men and women in nursing homes, whose only hope and joy is a smile or hug or good word. But more than such acts is the presence of another person in their lives who simply listens and stands by them in their suffering. Now

THE FALLING ASLEEP IN THE LORD OF FATHER JOHN TAVLARIDES

THE FALLING ASLEEP IN THE LORD OF FATHER JOHN TAVLARIDES Dearest Parishioner and Friend, With a heavy heart I inform you that Saint Sophia Cathedral’s spiritual father, Father John Tavlarides, whose priestly ministry to the people of God and the Great Church of Christ spanned six decades, passed from us Monday evening, September 21, at 11:07 PM. We commend his immortal soul to Christ God, Whom he so fervently loved, and so dedicatedly served, throughout

THE FALLING ASLEEP IN THE LORD OF FATHER JOHN TAVLARIDES

THE FALLING ASLEEP IN THE LORD OF FATHER JOHN TAVLARIDES Dearest Parishioner and Friend, With a heavy heart I inform you that Saint Sophia Cathedral’s spiritual father, Father John Tavlarides, whose priestly ministry to the people of God and the Great Church of Christ spanned six decades, passed from us Monday evening, September 21, at 11:07 PM. We commend his immortal soul to Christ God, Whom he so fervently loved, and so dedicatedly served, throughout