Jesus’ notion of the Kingdom is a different understanding of personal freedom than that of most religious and secular leaders today. We think of freedom as not having to do what we don’t want to do, but divine freedom is the capacity to be fully who we already are, to develop our inherent and true nature in God, as much as possible—really wanting to do what we know we have to do. Only God can
I CAME TO CAST FIRE UPON THE EARTH; AND WOULD THAT IT WERE ALREADY KINDLED! —LUKE 12:49 Now is the time to see that absolutely nothing outside of you can bring you lasting joy. But the moment you do that you will notice that a fear arises in your heart. That fear that if you allow the discontent to be, it will turn into a raging passion that will grip you and cause you to
I CAME TO CAST FIRE UPON THE EARTH; AND WOULD THAT IT WERE ALREADY KINDLED! —LUKE 12:49 If you want to know what it means to be happy, look at a flower, a bird, a child; they are perfect images of the kingdom. For they live from moment to moment in the eternal now with no past and no future. So they are spared the guilt and the anxiety that so torment human beings and
At the other end of the twelve days is Christ’s Theophany. In the early history of the Church the Nativity and the Baptism of Christ were celebrated together. The Armenian Apostolic Church still observes this union. In the rest of Christianity it soon became evident that the Birth of the Lord and His Baptism as an adult made for an incongruent single observance. Thus the two were separated. But there was a point
We all find great joy in the coming of Christmas and, strangely, many exhibit even greater joy with the coming of the secular new year. Increasingly more and more the meaning of Christmas is becoming similarly secularized which is one very good reason for us to abandon that name and speak of it as the Nativity of Jesus Christ. We are also forgetful of the fact that the period of the Nativity is one
Because John’s main role in his life was played out on the day of the Epiphany (Theophany), the Church from earliest times dedicated the day following Epiphany to his memory. To this feast is also linked the incident with the hand of the Forerunner. The Evangelist Luke desired to remove the body of John from Sebaste, where the great prophet was beheaded by Herod, to Antioch his place of birth. He succeeded though, in acquiring
The Deeper Meaning of the Baptism of Christ and the Sacrament of Baptism. a) Man’s Return to the True God. The Baptism of the Forerunner was a “baptism of repentance,” which signaled man’s return to God by obedience to the divine will. It was necessary in view of the coming of the Messiah and the kingdom of God which He would bring into the world. It was a kind of prelude and preparation which looked
Theophany is one of the great Feasts of the Lord of the ecclesiastical year. It is also called Epiphany and the Day of Lights and is celebrated on the 6th of January. The names of this Feast indicate the understanding of the ancient Church concerning this Feast. This understanding is connected with the revelation of God, that is, the manifestation of the One God in Trinity through the Incarnation of the Son of God, our
Time is our friend, and time is our enemy. This earthly life comprises a string of millions of minutes between birth and death. The uniqueness of the Church is that she pulls our souls out of this string spiritually and psychologically so that we may join in the immortal life of God, who is outside of time. The Divine Liturgy is a repetitive, interactive, spiritual rite through which the life of Christ is transmitted to
Another New Year has dawned, and it is normal that we give extra thought to the new time frame. We all make the customary New Year’s resolutions, only to have them short-lived. To this there could only be one answer, and this was spoken by the Lord: “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41) Our intentions may be honorable, but we so easily capitulate to the espoused routine of life, simply
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