Daily Meditations Archives - Page 248 of 332

The Sixth Monday after Pascha, Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Saint Silouan the Athonite and His Relevance Today, Part II, Russian village

05/18/2015

By Harry Boosalis The Saints challenge us to reach beyond the common conception of salvation that predominates in the West. For the Orthodox Church, salvation is more than the pardon of sins and transgressions. Salvation is more than being justified or acquitted for offenses committed against God. According to Orthodox teaching, salvation certainly includes forgiveness and reconciliation, but by no means is it limited to them. For the Saints of the Church, salvation is the

The Fifth Friday after Pascha, Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! How Do We Pray the Psalms?

05/15/2015

By Jim Wellington How do we pray the Psalms? We should surely take our lead from the Holy Fathers of the Early Church and learn from their wisdom. Whilst researching the origins of the Jesus Prayer, I came across some fascinating insights in psalm-commentaries accredited to Fathers of the third, fourth and fifth centuries. These insights and the understanding of the Psalms which they promote, would have been available to the earliest monks and nuns

The Fifth Thursday after Pascha, Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! On India and Buddhism—Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew (Part II)

05/14/2015

Conversations with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew by Olivier Clement Everything, the patriarch adds, centers on the concept of the “person.” According to Buddhism, the person does not exist. The Christian, however, affirms the existence of the person. But Orthodoxy does not identify the person with the individual, with the “individual substance of a rational nature,” as Boethius awkwardly stated in the Latin world. This would mean that the person is nothing more than a mask, which

The Fifth Wednesday after Pascha, Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! On India and Buddhism—Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew (Part I)

05/13/2015

Conversations with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew by Olivier Clement Behind the “New Age” movement one can also discern a rediscovery of India, and particularly of Buddhism. Many westerners today report that they find true serenity in Buddhism. They learn that there exists a dharma (to use the Sanskrit word), a path of salvation, a world order; one could even call it Wisdom, almost in the Biblical sense of the word. And this dharma, not unlike the

The Fifth Tuesday after Pascha, Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Orthodox Fundamentalism

05/12/2015

By George E. Demacopoulos One of the cornerstones of Orthodox Christianity is its reverence for the great Fathers of the Church who were not only exemplars of holiness but were also the greatest intellectuals of their age. The writings of men like St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian, and St. Maximos the Confessor have been and will always remain essential guides to Orthodox Christian living and Orthodox Christian faith. Thus it is alarming

The Fifth Monday after Pascha, Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Saint Silouan the Athonite and His Relevance Today, Part I

05/11/2015

By Harry Boosalis It is interesting to observe the increasing interest in spiritual life among many people around the world. Many people are seeking a personal experience of God. They desire a tangible and dynamic experience of His presence within their daily lives. Furthermore, many today are trying to satisfy this inner need through a variety of methods and means. The recent growth of the various pseudo-Christian cults and other such religious groups bears witness

The Fifth Friday after Pascha: The Relics of Saints Barbara, Kyrikos & Panteleimon

05/08/2015

The brief biographies, as well as the Apolytikia and Kontakia, of the three saints whose relics will be interred in the cavity of the Altar table of Saint Sophia Cathedral, on Sunday, May 10, 2015. Saint Barbara (December 4) Saint Barbara was from Heliopolis of Phoenicia and lived during the reign of Maximian. She was the daughter of a certain idolater named Dioscorus. When Barbara came of age, she was enlightened in her pure heart

The Fifth Thursday after Pascha: Consecration as Death and New Life

05/07/2015

By Rev. Deacon Drew Maxwell Consecration can be a reminder of our own baptisms and an encouragement to truly live our lives in the light of God’s Kingdom. The fact is, any consecration, whether it is a consecration of our church or the consecration of our persons, is an end and a beginning; a death and a birth. Our baptismal ceremony is a mystical recreation of Christ’s death and resurrection. In the font at baptism,

The Fourth Wednesday of Pascha, Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! The Feast of Mid-Pentecost, the Pentecostarion and Churches Named after Holy Wisdom, or Hagia Sophia

05/06/2015

The fifty days following Pascha until the Feast of Pentecost are known as the period of the Pentecostarion in the Orthodox Church. At the mid-point between these great feasts of Pascha and Pentecost, on the twenty-fifth day which is always a Wedneday, is one of the most beloved feasts for the most devout Orthodox Christians known quit simply as Mid-Pentecost. Mid-Pentecost is to the Pentecostarion what the Third Sunday of Great Lent which honors the

The Fourth Tuesday after Pascha, Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! The Feast Day of Great Martyr Irene of Thessalonica

05/05/2015

The holy Great Martyr Irene was born in the city of Magedon in Persia during the fourth century. She was the daughter of the pagan king Licinius, and her parents named her Penelope. Penelope was very beautiful, and her father kept her isolated in a high tower from the time she was six so that she would not be exposed to Christianity. He also placed thirteen young maidens in the tower with her. An old