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Daily Meditations

REAL PEACE (Part IV)

02/22/2016

I mentioned that contemporary people do not believe in the reality of demons, which according to Fr. Maximos is the greatest achievement of the devil today, that he has convinced most of the world that he does not exist. As a rule, academics would dismiss such stories as taking place in people’s imaginations, without any basis in objective reality. But the experiences of the saints throughout history are filled with demonic possession and exorcisms. In

The Results of Judging our Fellows (Part II)

02/19/2016

The greatest evil effected by judging others is that he who judges is deprived of [divine] love. James, the brother of God writes: Do not speak against one another, brethren. Whoever speaks against one of the brethren and judges speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge! Only one is the lawgiver and judge, he who is able

Shaping Life Spiritually (Part IV)

02/18/2016

The monks have always practiced what many psychologists today talk about (for example in autogenous training), namely, finding comfort through expressions of trust. For the early monks spiritual life also meant the art of healthy living. It was no accident that so many of the monks got to be very old. Their asceticism didn’t deny life, it promoted it. For their spiritual life the monks adopted dietetics, the art of healthy living, which was the

Saint Theodore of Tyro

02/17/2016

This holy, glorious Martyr of Christ came from Amasia in Pontus and was a Roman legionary at the time of Maximian’s great persecution (c. 303). He had been a Christian since childhood but kept his faith secret, not out of cowardice but because he had not yet received a sign from God to present himself for martyrdom. While his cohort was stationed near the town of Euchaita (Helenopontus), he learned that the people of the

Deification and Sonship According to St Athanasius of Alexandria: Part II

02/16/2016

By Father Matthew Baker If in De Incarnatione the goal and purpose of the incarnation is identified with deification (theopoiesis), in his later works Athanasius more frequently links it specifically with adoptive sonship (huiothesia). Athanasius’ earliest exposition of this doctrine of adoptive sonship appears to be in his De Decretis(chapters 3 and 7), written sometime between 346 and 356 in defense of the Nicene definition. Unlike the oft-quoted exchange formula of De Incarnatione 54.3, Athanasius’ later formulations have an explicitly Trinitarian character:

The Impossible Synthesis

02/15/2016

Alongside this ‘critical’ process, and in reaction to it, for more than a century there have been attempts to make a synthesis of beauty. For the 19th century we need only recall the operas of Wagner. As this century opened, symbolism was codified according to philosophical systems. In every country of Europe, but especially in Germany and Russia, many of the intelligentsia felt regret for an organic age, when the highest values were mediated to

To Live the Question (Part I)

02/12/2016

By slowly converting our loneliness into a deep solitude, we create that precious space where we can discover the voice telling us about our inner necessity-that is, our vocation. Unless our questions, problems and concerns are tested and matured in solitude, it is not realistic to expect answers that are really our own. How many people can claim their ideas, opinions and viewpoints as their own? Sometimes intellectual conversations boil down to the capacity to

Useful Counsels for All Monks

02/11/2016

Useful Counsels for All Monks “You can and must become a leader in the monastery without realizing it, without speaking. You can accomplish this only through fervent prayer for everyone. Open your heart simply, unforced, and spontaneously to our Lord. “Don’t force yourself, nor pressure yourself nor doubt that this will happen. In all this you should speak first to the Lord. And before you speak to your Elder, first pray fervently. A praying person,

Saint Haralambos: The Presbyter, Martyr and Miracle-Worker

02/10/2016

In the early Church, the term “martyr” was originally used when characterizing the Apostles as witnesses of Christ’s life and resurrection [Acts 1:8, 22]. Due to the persecutions that the early Christians endured, however, the term was applied to those who gave their lives for the Christian Orthodox Faith. In Greek, the word martyr means “witness” and, the verb form, martyred, means to “bear witness” or “give evidence.” Though martyrdom was not a constant experience

Deification and Sonship According to St Athanasius of Alexandria: Part I

02/09/2016

By Father Matthew Baker Popular presentations of the Orthodox Christian faith often highlight the doctrine of theosis, or deification, as a distinctive accent of Orthodox theology and spiritual teaching. In the 20th century, owing to the enthusiastic rediscovery of St Gregory Palamas and especially the wide influence of the theology of Vladimir Lossky, this message of deification was most often cast in terms of a “participation in the divine energies.” The phrase from 2 Peter 1:4, “partakers

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