Daily Meditations Archives - Page 129 of 333

Prayer of the Heart in an Age of Technology and Distraction, Part 7

10/24/2019

By Fr. Maximos (Constas) St. Paul says you are the dwelling place of God. Is this how we normally understand ourselves? To be dwelling places inhabited by God? This is a very powerful assertion; do we take it seriously and understand what it means and what our lives mean in the context of such a statement? Do we live consistently with such a statement? It’s a wonderful thing to be able to begin the day

Thoughts on Hope and Optimism. Thoughts of being “of Good Cheer.”

10/23/2019

By Michael Haldas Thoughts on Hope and Optimism, June 15, 2016 “Hope has a distinctly Christian flavor to it. Unlike optimism, which is secular in nature, Christian hope isn’t centered on what human beings can do, but on what God has done. Hope is an extension of faith; if faith is a tree, then hope is the branches of the tree. The concept of hope has everything to do with the Kingdom, which is a

Praying the Psalms

10/22/2019

By Fr. Stavros Akrotirianakis, June 1, 2018 There is a reason why I end many of these reflections quoting the Psalms. This is because the Psalms read as prayers, many of which are appropriate to use as our personal prayers. One piece of advice I have given many times is for people to read through the book of Psalms (read one a day – it will take you five months) and then in a notebook,

Sin: Symptom of Separation. Love and Mercy

10/21/2019

The law was given to multiply our opportunities for falling. —Romans 5:20 The pattern of necessary falling or the “myth of transgression” made less and less sense to Western Christianity as it came to think that religion’s purpose was to teach and maintain social and imperial order. The Christian mind eventually had little respect for the ubiquitous disorder in the universe, unlike most native religions—for example, as here in New Mexico where the Puebloan clown deliberately

The Cruciform Human

10/18/2019

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, May 23, 2015 In my March lecture in San Francisco, I made an assertion that is worth isolating for an article. That assertion is that we are created in the image of the Crucified Christ, and that this is essential in understanding what it means to be human. I have been asked where I got such an idea. The most simple answer is: the Scriptures. Arguably, the first reference to the Crucified Christ

Prayer of the Heart in an Age of Technology and Distraction, Part 6

10/17/2019

By Fr. Maximos (Constas) The Orthodox Church is a bottomless spring of spiritual wisdom, granting the eternal life of Christ to all who ardently seek it. Through the millennia this wisdom has been captured for us in part in the writings of the Fathers, the lives of the saints, and the various collections of sayings of the monastic fathers. Among the most prized literary possessions of the Church is the spiritual classic The Philokalia, which

Thoughts on Peace amidst Pain and Suffering. Thoughts on Faith, Witnessing and Family

10/16/2019

By Michael Haldas, Thoughts on Peace amidst Pain and Suffering, June 13, 2016 “In Christianity we are taught sin is a condition of the world and the cause of human suffering. We are also taught Christ defeated sin and redeemed suffering through the cross and now our suffering can be transformative. Many of us reject this because it is not the answer we want to the condition of evil and suffering. Who would want this

“Showing Up” to Pray

10/15/2019

By Fr. Stavros Akrotirianakis, May 31, 2108 My Spiritual Father (the priest who I go to confession to, who also serves as a mentor and confidant) has taught me many things over the years. One phrase he has used that I always try to remember, in prayer, worship and other things is: “Eighty percent of life is just showing up.” In other words, eighty percent of the effort we make in doing something is just showing up.

Sin: Symptom of Separation. The Myth of Transgression

10/14/2019

First the fall, and then the recovery from the fall, and both are the mercy of God. —Julian of Norwich (c. 1343–c. 1416) [1] It is in falling down that we learn almost everything that matters spiritually. As many of the parables seem to say, you have to lose it (or know that you don’t have it) before you will really seek it, then find it, and fittingly celebrate (see all three parables of Luke 15).

History’s Detectives

10/11/2019

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, May 20, 2015 The search for the historical anything is an exercise in fantasy and imagination, a good movie, but not good for much else. C.S. Lewis noted that reviewers of his books, speculating on how they were written and other such intimate historical matters, were almost universally wrong. He wondered out loud why we should presume historical critics of the past, sometimes of a past stretching back for millennia, should be taken