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Daily Meditations

Why the Orthodox Honor Mary (Part II)

08/02/2017

By Father Stephen Freeman This is information that points to the unique place of Mary in the first century Christian community. How can the Church not venerate one whom John the Baptist greeted with a leap of joy when he was in the womb? How can the Christian community be rightly centered on the Crucified Christ and ignore the soul-pierced Mother? The material in Luke is prima facie evidence of the primitive veneration of the Mother of God.

Why the Orthodox Honor Mary (Part I)

08/01/2017

By Father Stephen Freeman Today (August 1) marks the beginning of the Fast of the Dormition, the annual preparation for the feast of the Falling Asleep of the Virgin Mary. I offer this article as reflection. The most difficult part of my Orthodox experience to discuss with the non-Orthodox is the place and role of the Mother of God in the Church and in my life. It is, on the one hand, deeply theological and

Love in Action

07/31/2017

The way to arrive and remain within “the force field of the Holy Spirit”, which is one way of describing consciousness–is both very simple and very hard: you’ve got to remain in love, with a foundational yes to every moment. You can’t risk walking around with a negative, resentful, gossipy, critical mind, because then you won’t be in the force field. You will not be a usable instrument. That’s why Jesus commanded us to love.

Mere Morality

07/28/2017

By Father Stephen Freeman What makes an action moral? I use the word to describe something done in an effort to conform to a rule, a law, or a principle. It is a matter of the will and a matter of effort. All societies require some form of moral behavior. If there were no such behavior, life would be unpredictable, unstable, and quite dangerous. Governments encourage some form of morality (it is the sole purpose

St. Panteleimon the Great Martyr and Unmercenary, and Those with Him

07/27/2017

The Great Martyr and Healer Panteleimon was born in the city of Nicomedia into the family of the illustrious pagan Eustorgius, and he was named Pantoleon. His mother St Euboula (March 30) was a Christian. She wanted to raise her son in the Christian Faith, but she died when the future martyr was just a young child. His father sent Pantoleon to a pagan school, after which the young man studied medicine at Nicomedia under

SHARP TRIALS IN THE INTELLECT (Part II)

07/26/2017

Study and learning are spiritual disciplines much esteemed in the Christian contemplative tradition (as they are in many religious traditions). When this discipline is being strengthened and purified to make the discursive mind a better servant of God, we become aware of a not-so-subtle tendency to show off how much we have come to know in all our reading and study. This need not be a public display; we can look down on people less

SHARP TRIALS IN THE INTELLECT (Part I)

07/25/2017

Saint Gregory of Nyssa says in his Life of Moses that any concept that attempts to define God “becomes an idol of God and does not make God known.” We have an insatiable and natural need to conceptualize. But in order to know God, the Christian contemplative tradition insists on The “unknowing ” that is higher (or deeper) than conceptual knowledge that the practice of contemplation cultivates. Saint Thomas Aquinas claims that “the end of

Consciousness and Contemplation

07/24/2017

Today’s meditation is longer than usual, but I want you to have all of this together in one place. Many people think of their consciousness as the same as their brain. It’s really not. Scientists still struggle to define consciousness and where it arises. The early Alexandrian and Desert mothers and fathers of the church knew consciousness was not the same as the thinking mind. They used the Greek word nous to describe consciousness as

The Struggle to be Real

07/21/2017

Very few modern Christians who read English are unfamiliar with the writings of CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien. Lewis’ expositions of Christian thought as well as his popular fiction (The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, Out of the Silent Planet, etc.) have become modern classics. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings has become something of an industry unto itself and has spawned an entire genre of literature. Many people know that the two writers were friends and colleagues,

The Purpose and Method of Christian Life (Part V). Virtues (Part I): Detachment

07/20/2017

According to the Conferences, to cultivate purity of heart means to live a life of Christian virtue. For the fathers, speaking about virtues is like placing the white light of purity of heart through a mental prism. Virtues are like the colors that make up the light, combining indivisibly into a single whole, but capable of being discussed on their own. Many of the fathers in the Conferences talk at length about virtues, their nature,

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