Daily Meditations Archives - Page 259 of 348

Human Beings and the Cosmos (Part VI): Church and Cosmos (Part I)

07/16/2015

Between the first and second comings of the Lord, between the God-man and the God-universe, between the fallen and transfigured states of being, stands the Church, as a boundary and a crossing-place. And every Christian, through communion with holy things, i.e. the Eucharist, and in the communion of saints, is himself a ‘living boundary’, a place where death passes over into life. The cosmic history of the Church is the history of a childbirth, that

Saints Kyrikos & Julitta, the Martyrs of Tarsus

07/15/2015

The Holy Martyrs Kyrikos and Julitta lived in the city of Iconium in the province of Lykaoneia in Asia Minor. Saint Julitta was descended from an illustrious family and was a Christian. Widowed early on, she raised her three-year old-son Kyrikos. During the emperor Diocletian’s persecution of Christians, Saint Julitta departed the city with her son and two trustworthy servants, leaving behind her home, property, and servants. Concealing her noble rank, she hid out first

The World—Is it Good or Bad?

07/14/2015

By Father Stanley Harakas One of the most confusing words in the Christian vocabulary is the “world.” Sometimes it seems to have good meanings, sometimes neutral and sometimes the word “world” has bad meanings. How can we make sense of this? The World as the Creation is Good: In the story of the creation of the world by God, repeatedly we see that world is described as good (Genesis 1). Because God is goodness itself, the

Saint Silouan the Athonite and His Relevance Today, Part X

07/13/2015

By Harry Boosalis Before concluding, there is one final, yet very important point which makes St. Silouan’s teaching so relevant for today. And this is the special emphasis he places on the theme of depression and despair within the spiritual struggle. Interestingly enough, this warning against the danger of depression and despair was written probably around the early 1930s. As Orthodox believers, we must be fully aware of the many dangers that await us as

When All Becomes Too Easy

07/10/2015

By Father Vasile Tudora There are many places in the world where the fear of not being able to make ends meet, leaving your family without food, shelter, and other means of subsistence, or the fear of a ravaging war, is intensely present. With the golden era of prosperity, in the Western world at least, these great survival fears have almost disappeared, morphing into new and shallow anxieties: not being able to land the most

Human Beings and the Cosmos (Part V): The Cosmos Secretly Transfigured in Christ

07/09/2015

When the Son of God, the fullness of personal existence, becomes the Son of the Earth, he allows himself to be contained by the universe at one point in space and time; but in reality the universe is contained in him. He will not use his body to possess and exploit the world, but by his constantly Eucharistic attitude, he makes it a body of unity, flesh which is both cosmic and sacrificial. In him

Five Words I Wish Everyone Knew

07/08/2015

By Grace Brooks I don’t know many languages, but in each one, there are words that I wish we had in English. The same is true in different dialects (for instance, I’m sorry that the word “y’all” isn’t commonly used by non-Southerners). But that desire to co-opt vocabulary is never more pronounced than when I consider some of the Orthodox words that I have read or heard. There are words from the Orthodox lexicon that

Dealing with Our Passions (Part III)

07/07/2015

To remedy the thirst for glory Evagrius advises the use of memory. We should remind ourselves where we come from, what passions we had to struggle with, and how it wasn’t thanks to our own merit that we conquered, but to Christ who protected us. Memory will show us that we have no guarantee for success in life, only God’s grace. Evagrius says that the demon of pride and vaingloriousness will continually arise in us

Saint Silouan the Athonite and His Relevance Today, Part IX

07/06/2015

By Harry Boosalis The passion of pride seduced even Lucifer, who was created as the greatest and most glorious angel. Pride is thus the primordial cause of the fall of creation. Infiltrating even unto the heights of the angelic hosts, pride remains the main cause of man’s sin and his separation from God. It is pride and pride alone that transformed Lucifer into Satan. St. John Climacus mentions that a proud man needs no demon;

A July Fourth, 2015, Meditation

07/04/2015

James Madison 4th U.S. President “A watchful eye must be kept on ourselves lest while we are building ideal monuments of Renown and Bliss here we neglect to have our names enrolled in the Annals of Heaven.” –Written to William Bradford on November 9, 1772, Faith of Our Founding Fathers by Tim LaHaye, pp. 130-131; Christianity and the Constitution — The Faith of Our Founding Fathers by John Eidsmoe, p. 98. “Cursed be all that