Daily Meditations Archives - Page 167 of 349

Epiphany! Sanctify the Waters!

01/06/2019

On January 6, Orthodox Christians celebrate the Theophany or revelation of the Holy Trinity at Christ’s baptism in the Jordan River. When we, as Orthodox Christians, attempt to explain the significance of this feast, we normally stress two closely related themes. On the one hand, God reveals himself as a tri-unity of divine Persons, a revelation that will be repeated in modified form at Jesus’ Transfiguration. Thereby Jesus is revealed to be “one of the

The Eleventh Day of Christmas. The Two Theophanies: Epiphany and Transfiguration

01/04/2019

The Two Theophanies: Epiphany and Transfiguration All three of the Synoptic Gospels provide full descriptions, fairly unanimous as to detail, of the two great theophanies: that which the Church observes as the Feast of Epiphany; and that which it commemorates in August, as the Feast of the Transfiguration. It may seem odd to consider them together as I propose to do. In reality they can hardly be considered separately. It is not accidental that in

The Tenth Day of Christmas. The Created Order.

01/03/2019

The created order, according to Christianity, is not an illusion, not a vague representation of another perfect world, nor a dream that will one day vanish into oblivion when a sleeping deity awakens. No, it is a matter of something far more specific. God is the ground and basis of all reality—one might say that He is the ultimately real reality, alive and dynamic in everything that is. God provides the world and everything and

The Ninth Day of Christmas. Unimaginable Love.

01/02/2019

[The] Gospels state that God has embraced humanity and entered into its suffering with unimaginable love. His Christ is the one who arrives not in royal purple but in silence and simplicity, far from the cheers that attend Augustus and Herod. A king he surely is—hence the swaddling bands and the treasures that are his due—but a new sort of king who makes no claim to worldly authority. In infancy as during his life on

The Eighth Day of Christmas. Feast of Saint Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia

01/01/2019

Saint Basil the Great (329-379) The Archbishop of Caesarea, Saint Basil is revered—together with Saints John Chrysostom and Gregory Nazianzos—as one of the “Three Holy Hierarchs” of the Church. Together with that same Nazianzos and Saint Gregory of Nyssa, Saint Basil is revered as one the “Cappadocian Fathers,” whose homiletical and mystical writings helped establish what is now considered the heart of Orthodox theology and spirituality. As Saint Benedict is honored for founding monasticism in

The Seventh Day of Christmas. The Peril of Christmas.

12/31/2018

The Peril of Christmas, by Father Leonidas Contos If we make the small effort to translate ourselves into the times which knew the historical Jesus, we are startled to discover how like our own times they were. Certainly it was not an age of peace. Like ours it was one of the oppressive tension and anxiety. In the heart of the Jew there was always expectation, even hope, but these lived side by side with

The Fourth Day of Christmas. Tomorrow’s Feast of the Holy Children (December 29).

12/28/2018

TOMMOROW’S FEAST (December 29) OPENS UP ANOTHER WAY TO LOOK AT THE INCARNATION. Until now we have been gazing at the child in the cradle, the scene of the Nativity, the angels rejoicing. But Herod’s story was one of rage, jealousy, and fear. Herod the Great, despite his high office as the Tetrarch of Galilee, was afraid of the long-promised Messiah. When he heard from the Magi that such a royal heir had been born

The Third Day of Christmas. Feast of Saint Stephen, the First Christian.

12/27/2018

THIS DAY is set aside as a memorial of Stephen, the first Christian. Once again, the church seems to take a counter-intuitive approach, reminding us of sin and suffering hard on the heels of the joyful celebration of the Nativity. But it is possible to see the reason behind this decision. In Advent we were reminded that our longing for the light of Christ is conditioned by the darkness that often surrounds us. In remembering

The Second Day of Christmas. Synaxis of the Holy Theotokos

12/26/2018

ON [this day] the Church celebrates the [Synaxis of the Holy Theotokos], the Mother of God, meditating on Mary’s intimate connection with the Incarnation. The feast of the Mother of God is the oldest of the Christian church’s feasts honoring Mary. The placement of this feast within the Christmas season emphasizes its connection to the mystery of Christmas. Because this feast is about the motherhood of Mary, it helps us to grasp more deeply the

CHRIST IS BORN! CELEBRATING CHRIST’S NATIVITY.

12/25/2018

As much as any other Christian feast, the significance of Christ’s Nativity comes to expression by means of paradoxical affirmations that speak of the ineffable mystery of the Incarnation by juxtaposing apparent contradictions. The most obvious of these is found in the prologue of St John’s Gospel, which declares that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” (John 1:14). As the context makes clear that Word or Logos is the Person of the eternal