Daily Meditations Archives - Page 272 of 348

FOUR ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LESSONS FROM MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. (Part III)

01/21/2015

By Andrew F. Estocin Law #4: Faith is a Thermostat, Not a Thermometer: In the same way that a thermostat sets the temperature in given room, Orthodox Christianity changes our society and is not a mere indicator (or thermometer) of popular culture. Letter from Birmingham Jail is not just a call for social action, it is also a critique of Christianity and that includes our own Orthodox Christian witness today. Rev. King has some harsh

FOUR ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LESSONS FROM MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. (Part II)

01/20/2015

By Andrew F. Estocin Law #2: Being Legal Does Not Mean Being Right: “Never forget that everything Hitler Did in Germany was legal.” This warning from Letter from Birmingham Jail points to the tradition of natural law. Natural Law is an integral part of Orthodox Christianity and the thought of Martin Luther King. What is natural law? It is the teaching that just laws participate in and reflect the law of God. Man has a

FOUR ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LESSONS FROM MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. (Part I)

01/19/2015

By Andrew F. Estocin “Our Church has never hesitated to fight, when it felt it must, for the rights of mankind….there are times when we must risk everything, including life itself, for those basic American ideals of freedom, justice, and equality, without which this land cannot survive. Our hope and prayer, then, is that we may be given strength to let God know by our acts and deeds, and not only by our words, that

The Peacemakers

01/16/2015

Blest are the single-hearted; for they shall see God. Blest are the peacemakers; they shall be called children of God. [Matt. 5:6-91 The opportunities for satisfying the hunger for holiness are immediately at hand if we are sensitive to the needs of others. Every now and then we are prompted to offer some kind of assistance at considerable cost to ourselves. This offer has to be appropriate to our state of life; at the same

WATCHFULNESS IN HOLY SCRIPTURE (Part I)

01/15/2015

Numerous are the passages which tell us about watchfulness, thus securing it scripturally. We shall refer to a few selectively. There is a passage in the Old Testament which is a true neptic treasure: “Take heed to thyself that there be not a secret thing in thine heart, an iniquity …”(1). Attention to yourself, fathoming inside the abyss of your heart to the extreme limits of your conscious or unconscious personality is the manifestation, practice

Saint Porphyrios on Blackmailing God

01/14/2015

By Melinda Johnson Bargaining with God in prayer is such a common human behavior that it’s part of our culture. How many times have you seen a character in a movie, hands clasped, drenched in tears, promising, “God, if you will just [fill in the blank], I promise you I’ll never [fill in the blank] again!” Scenes like this appear in novels too, and many of us have caught ourselves doing something like this in

God and Caesar (Part V): The Love of Enemies & The King and His Fool

01/13/2015

The Love of Enemies The theologians of violence forget the Beatitudes. The theologians of non-violence forget that history consists of tragedies. But amongst the violence of history, it is the duty of Christians to manifest the love of enemies, which is the strength of Christ himself. The love of enemies, exercised in the most extreme circumstances, is the only cure for our political neurosis, the desire to escape one’s own death while projecting it on

Together, Yet Not Too Near

01/12/2015

There is a false form of honesty that suggests that nothing should remain hidden and that everything should be said, expressed and communicated. This honesty can be very harmful, and if it does not harm, it at least makes the relationship flat, superficial, empty and often very boring. When we try to shake off our loneliness by creating a milieu without limiting boundaries, we may become entangled in a stagnating closeness. It is our vocation

Analyzing Our Thoughts and Feelings (VII)

01/09/2015

The three logismoi of the intellectual realm are the thirst for glory, envy, and pride (hybris). Thirst for glory is constant boasting in the presence of others. One does everything purely to be seen by people. Evagrius puts it this way: “The thought of the thirst for glory is a truly difficult companion. He likes to come forth in persons who desire to live virtuously. He awakens a desire in them to tell others how

Five Powerful Sayings of the Fathers

01/08/2015

By Seraphim Danckaert Meaningful spiritual guidance is not always easy to find, especially nowadays. St. Paul reminds us: “For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers,” (1 Corinthians 4:15). Yet, within the Church, God has called forth true spiritual fathers in all epochs and places. These fathers, like St. Paul before them, beget us anew through the Gospel, and call us to salvation in Christ Jesus.