Daily Meditations Archives - Page 8 of 347

Noetic Science and Natural Science. Noetic Faculty.

10/22/2024

Noetic Science and Natural Science: The theological vision of God and natural science By Abbot Tryphon, December 1, 2019 Orthodoxy does not exclude from the theological vision of God the findings of natural science. Science and faith can be in concert with one another and our desire to reinstate our communion with God can involve both natural science, and the science of the soul. An Orthodox Christian does not have to suspend scientific knowledge in

Why We Forgive

10/21/2024

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, March 14, 2016 There are many ways to think about forgiveness, not all of them true or helpful. It is easily the most emotionally and psychologically difficult aspect of the Christian life revealing both the power of trauma as well as the tenacity of lingering memories. The directness of Christ’s commandments (“forgive your enemies”) and the consequences of ignoring them (“if you do not forgive others neither will your heavenly Father

Feast of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke

10/18/2024

Saint Luke came from the city of Antioch, probably of a pagan family. From his youth he applied himself to seek after wisdom and to study the arts and sciences. He traveled all over the world to quench his thirst for knowledge, and had particular skill as a physician and in painting. The Gospel he wrote shows his excellent command of Greek; he also knew Hebrew and Aramaic. There is a tradition that Luke was

The Monastic Fathers

10/17/2024

Nowadays the monastic fathers could show us a way out of the superficial debates about the structure of the church or the exhaustion of spirituality. They invite us onto the path of longing. The longing for God sends us off through all obstacles on the chase for the hare, for oneness with God, for the coming of Jesus Christ, “who will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body” (Phil. 3:21). The striving

Martyr Longinus the Centurion, who Stood at the Cross of the Lord

10/16/2024

The Holy Martyr Longinus the Centurion, a Roman soldier, served in Judea under the command of the Governor, Pontius Pilate. When our Savior Jesus Christ was crucified, it was the detachment of soldiers under the command of Longinus which stood watch on Golgotha, at the very foot of the holy Cross. Longinus and his soldiers were eyewitnesses of the final moments of the earthly life of the Lord, and of the great and awesome portents

The Cell, Meeting God and Ourselves (Part X) The Cell and the World

10/15/2024

The Cell and the World Is anachoresis a rejection of the inhabited world? Is the solitude and inwardness of the cell a selfish endeavor? The desert abbas and ammas helped form a wider Christian monastic tradition that combines seeking God with conversion of life. In the cell the monk risks all in the battle between the ego (subjectivity) and openness to the Other. Through ascetic praxis the boundaries of the self are extended beyond itself

The Cell, Meeting God and Ourselves (Part IX). The Cell and Love of Neighbor

10/14/2024

The Cell and Love of Neighbor The external environment of a society, family or religious community reflects the internal environment of the human beings who form it. Jesus said, “By their fruit you shall know them” (Matt 7:16, NRSV). In the cell the monk’s interior life is formed in such a way that he or she becomes what the cell makes possible. The physical enclosure of the cell houses the activities of God’s transforming Spirit.

The Cell, Meeting God and Ourselves (Part VIII) The Cell as Sacred Space

10/11/2024

The Cell as Sacred Space As we have seen, the cell is the reason for anachoresis. The monk withdraws to find a place for solitude, silence, and transformation. The cell is different from the rest of the inhabited world because of what happens in the cell and in the interior life of the monk. For this reason, the monk must guard the cell both by being a good steward of what takes place within the

The Cell, Meeting God and Ourselves (Part VII)

10/10/2024

The monk’s experience of God in the cell occurred in a variety of ways, but the role of meditation on the Scriptures, the Word of God, was central. The Bible was central, but not as an end in itself. It provided a monk, through meditation, with opportunities to encounter the Spirit in prayer for personal guidance and discernment, not simply as “knowledge,” but as encounter. “For interpretation of the Bible, the imperative is to probe

Jerusalem: The Church of the Holy Sepulchre

10/09/2024

By Father Lawrence Farley One day several years ago, before my own trip to the Holy Land, I asked a parishioner who had been there how he had liked the Church of the Holy Sepulchre during his visit to Jerusalem. “Grand,” he replied. “Confusing, but grand.” Having been there myself, I now quite understand what he meant by “confusing.” The church there is confusing because it is the heir (some would say “the victim”) of