Daily Meditations Archives - Page 287 of 332

Seventh Day of Christmas Advent: The Entrance of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple

11/21/2013

During the first days of the Christmas fast the Church celebrates the feast of the entrance of the child Mary into the Jerusalem temple. Called in the Church The Entrance of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple, this festival, which is not among the biblically recorded events, is one of the twelve major feasts of the Orthodox Church year. Its purpose is not so much to commemorate an historical happening as to celebrate a

Sixth Day of Christmas Advent: Christ Is Born, Glorify Him! (Part II)

11/20/2013

By Saint Gregory Nazianzen, the Theologian Clap your hands together, all people. For unto us a Son is born, unto us a Child is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulders. . . . Let John the Baptist cry aloud: Prepare ye the way of the Lord! And I too will cry aloud about the power of this Day. He who is without flesh has become incarnate. The Son of God becomes the

Fifth Day of Christmas Advent: Christ Is Born, Glorify Him! (Part I)

11/19/2013

The feast of the Entrance of Mary into the temple marks the first specific liturgical announcement of the birth of Christ. On this festival, for the first time in the season the canon of the Nativity of Christ is sung at the festal vigil.1 Christ is born; glorify Him! Christ comes from heaven; go to meet Him! Christ is on earth; be exalted! Sing to the Lord, all the earth! And praise Him in

Fourth Day of Christmas Advent: Temples of the Living God

11/18/2013

In the Orthodox Church the Virgin Mary is the image of those who are being saved. If Jesus Christ is the Savior, Mary is, par excellence, the image of the saved. She is, in every aspect of her life, as Father Alexander Schmemann so often said, not the great exception, but rather the great example. From her conception to her dormition, that is, her true and real death, she shows how all people must be

First Day of Christmas Advent: The Winter Pascha

11/15/2013

The Christmas-Epiphany season in the Orthodox Church begins with a forty-day fasting period….When winter begins to make its way into the northern hemisphere, the Church of Christ begins to celebrate the feast of Christ’s Nativity…called [Winter] Pascha. This emphasizes its close connection with the mystery of our salvation and deliverance from sin and death; the mystery which the holy Church proclaims in her dogmatic teachings and with which she brings us into direct spiritual contact

Father Maximos on the Cultivation of Faith

11/14/2013

“How then can we cultivate faith?” Michael asked again. “By spiritually exploiting everything that comes our way, positive or negative. If a difficulty our way, or even a tragedy, we should use it for spiritual advance. We should do the same with whatever good fortune comes along. Furthermore, spiritual work takes place within us with prayer and study. At the beginning these two are extremely necessary. We cannot progress spiritually if we do not pray.”

On Christian Authenticity (Part II)

11/13/2013

Our age chiefly dreams up and manufactures simulacra. Shopping malls are adorned with plants and trees that look real but aren’t. Television and movie studios present us with times, places, and environments that don’t exist. Advertisements refer us to worlds that have no connection with reality. Men and women are painted and dyed, fakes and shams, copies of which no original has ever existed, not a few of them surgically altered, to show the world

On Christian Authenticity (Part I)

11/12/2013

Lack of authenticity and experience produces Christians who, rather than being saved in the Church, feel that the Church needs to be rescued and saved by them. Rather than consider those around us as Christ’s brethren, we view them as enemies to be destroyed or allies obligated to support our opinions. Rather than entrust our soul to the power of God’s grace, we (with an inexcusable naivete) subject it to the dubious scalpels of psychotherapy,

REMEMBERING OUR VETERANS

11/11/2013

By the Reverend Andrew J. Demotses President Harry Truman was the object of an assassination attempt in which two secret service agents were killed while protecting him. In recounting the experience of that terrible day, Mr. Truman said, “You can’t imagine how a man feels when someone else dies for him.” The Old Testament recounts the story in which a similar feeling caused David to worship God. When he had expressed a longing to

The Feast Day of the Archangels

11/08/2013

CREATION OF ANGELS (5) The Holy Scriptures do not mention exactly when the angels were created, but the Church in its holy tradition, through the writings of its holy fathers, chiefly St. John of Damascus, St. John Cassian, St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian, St. Ambrose of Milan, St. Dimitri Rostov, St. Dionysios the Areopagite – all of them believe that they were created from “nothing” prior to the sensible material world and