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Daily Meditations

Seeing the Forest for the Trees: The Meaning and Message of Forests and Trees in the Christian Tradition (Part III)

09/03/2014

The Symbolic Tree What we are calling “the natural tree” represents the Scriptural expression of Biblical culture’s awareness of the intrinsic value of trees and of the central role played by trees in ecological balance, as well as the human use of trees for food, shelter, trade and commerce to satisfy the needs of the body. The “metaphoric tree” represents the figurative use of trees for the purpose of education, moral instruction, and the inculcation

Seeing the Forest for the Trees: The Meaning and Message of Forests and Trees in the Christian Tradition (Part II)

09/02/2014

Characteristically, Scripture uses the image of trees and forests in three basic ways, plus a subsuming fourth, which represent respectively three kinds of the Scriptural tree, corresponding roughly to the Pauline trichotomy of body, soul and spirit, plus a transcending fourth, representing the presence of the Holy Spirit that is “everywhere present and fillest all things.” We may call these three types of tree usages the Natural Tree, the Metaphoric Tree and the Symbolic Tree.

Seeing the Forest for the Trees: The Meaning and Message of Forests and Trees in the Christian Tradition (Part I)

09/01/2014

By Vincent Rossi “Whoever does not love trees, does not love God.” This was the teaching of the renowned Greek Orthodox monk, Elder Amphilochios of Patmos (1888-1970). According to Orthodox scholar Bishop Kallistos Ware, Fr. Amphilochios was an ecologist long before environmental concern became fashionable. “Do you know,” the elder said, “that God gave us one more commandment, which is not recorded in Scripture? It is the commandment, “Love the trees.” When you plant a

On the Commemoration of the Beheading of John the Baptist

08/29/2014

By Fr Antony Hughes, August 29, 2010 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. St. John knew who he was.  Self-knowledge, say some of the Holy Fathers, is the greatest of all the spiritual gifts.  He was the Forerunner, the last prophet of the coming Messiah, that is, of the Old Testament.  Most of all he knew who he was not.  He was not

ON OBEDIENCE

08/28/2014

Obedience is another indispensable implement in the struggle against our selfish will. With obedience you cut off your physical members the better to be able to serve with the spiritual, says St. John Climacus. And again, obedience is the grave of your own will, but from it rises humility. You must remember that you have of your own free will given yourself over to slavery, and let the cross you wear around your neck be

Ethics and the Other

08/27/2014

By Father Ernesto Obregon When I was first in seminary, I had to take an ethics class. The professor of that class seemed to positively enjoy giving us difficult ethics problems to solve. He had been a young man during World War II, and he seemed to take a particular joy in giving us examples from World War II. Was Corrie ten Boom right to deliberately lie to German authorities when she was hiding Jews

THE SILENCE OF THE ELECTRIC SAW (Part II)

08/26/2014

Gareth’s in ability to cope with the sound of the electric saw disrupting a contemplative prayer retreat resulted from his spasms of preference for only sounds that pleased him, such as birdsong, the rustling of leaves, or rain. Apart from his inner contortions during this one hour of outrageous disruption, there was nothing else going on just then except a saw making the sound saws make when they’re switched on and sawing through timber. The

THE SILENCE OF THE ELECTRIC SAW (Part I)

08/25/2014

It is one thing to see the unity of silence and sound when our teachers are birdsong and the sea’s breaking waves. But what might Wallace Stevens or Robert Penn Warren say about unpleasant noise? Can noise also be a vehicle of that “peace after perfect speech”? Does the sound we would prefer not to hear have anything to reveal? Can noise, too, be a teacher pointing to the Silence that is the ground of

Treasures from our Subsequent Conversations (Part III)

08/22/2014

When I Told Him I Was Definitively Leaving for the Monastery When I told him that I was definitely leaving for the Monastery and that in a few days they would tonsure me, he leapt for joy. On that day he spoke to me and advised me extensively! In the end, when we were bidding each other farewell, he naturally took my hand and kissed it. I, living the mystery that surrounded me, asked myself

Inner Polarities

08/21/2014

In a society that gives much value to development, progress and achievement, the spiritual life becomes quite easily subject to concerns expressed in questions such as, “How far advanced am I?” “Have I matured since I started on the spiritual path?” On what level am I and how do I move to the next one?”—”When will I reach the moment of union with God and the experience of illumination or enlightenment?” Although none of these

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