death Archives - Page 9 of 15

To Be or Not To Be – A Moral Question?

08/31/2018

By Father Stephen Freeman, February 3, 2015 As I continue this series on morality (or unmorality) the conversation continues to push me back to basics. There are deeply important reasons for unthinking the morality of the modern world and rethinking its place in our relationship with God. The most important reason is because it is incorrect to think of us as primarily moral beings. So what would constitute a moral being? A Moral Being A

The Cross. The Universal Pattern: Loss and Renewal

08/27/2018

I believe that the Mystery of the Cross is saying that the pattern of transformation is always death transformed. Death and life are two sides of one coin, and you cannot have one without the other. The theological term for this classic pattern of descent and ascent was coined by Saint Augustine as “the paschal mystery.” We now proclaim it publicly at every Eucharist as “the mystery of faith.” But why? The pattern of down and up, loss and renewal,

The Gift of Silence III

07/19/2018

The Gift of Silence (III) From the time of Elijah through the period of classical prophecy, God continued to reveal Himself through His Word of blessing and judgment. At the same time, silence was increasingly perceived as something negative: the absence of God’s voice and thus of His presence. “The land of silence” became synonymous with Sheol, the place of the dead where, by definition, the life-giving God is not to be found (Ps 88:11-13;

Messiness in the Modern World

07/13/2018

By Father Stephen Freeman, January 26, 2015 Salvation can be messy. I believe this with all my heart and so I state it at the outset of this article. As such, it marks me as a heretic in Modernity. I not only believe that salvation is messy – I believe that messiness is pretty much inherent to salvation. And along with that, I believe that our aversion to messiness (in all things) is a peculiar affliction of

Memorial Day Eulogy: On the Death of a Young Soldier in Battle

05/28/2018

By Father Leonidas Contos, New York, December 8, 1965 As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. Psalm 103:15-16 If we were to take this single verse from the familiar Psalm, and consider it in isolation from the rest of what is a glorious hymn of praise, no doubt it

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Thursday of the Fifth Week of Pascha. Atomization.

05/10/2018

One of the most astonishing features of our time is the tendency of spiritual truths, till recently known only to contemplatives, to become historical facts. So the splitting of the atom is only the outward expression in history of the spiritual state of disintegration in humanity known to Tradition and called just the same thing, ‘atomization’. When the self turns away from God, it can no longer contain its nature; it becomes an individual –

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Monday of the Fifth Week of Pascha. The Mystery of Suffering.

05/07/2018

It is much easier to appreciate the glory of Jesus’ resurrection than his painful crucifixion. Yet, Mark’s Gospel, written around 65 to 70 AD, focuses on Jesus’ “suffering servanthood.” Christians believe that we are “saved by the death and resurrection of Jesus.” The key is to put both together. We need to deeply trust and allow both our own dyings and our own certain resurrections, just as much as Jesus did! This is the full pattern

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Friday of the Fourth Week of Pascha. Sin is Not a Moral Problem

05/04/2018

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, December 8, 2014 Many readers have never before heard that there is no such thing as moral progress – so I am not surprised that I have been asked to write in more depth on the topic. I will start by focusing on the question of sin itself. If we rightly understand the nature of sin and its true character, the notion of moral progress will be seen more clearly. I

Renewal (Bright) Friday. Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen!

04/13/2018

An anthropology which embraces an [Orthodox Christian] notion of sin will deal with good and evil in terms not of moral value, but of being and non-being, life and death, communion and separation, disease and healing. And the Church addresses us in the same terms: we are to be grafted by baptism on to the living Body of the Risen Christ, and thus enabled to receive the power of the resurrection by which our life

Renewal (Bright) Wednesday. Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen!

04/11/2018

In our civilization, so rich in knowledge and in power, we can no longer offer any reply to the enigma of death. We want only to forget death. Yet it meets us again and again in the form of hatred, oppression, separation, illness, and the disappearance of persons we love. This is why the message of Easter, of Holy Pascha, resounds today with such renewed strength. God takes on human flesh, suffers, dies, and descends

Tags

To Be or Not To Be – A Moral Question?

The Cross. The Universal Pattern: Loss and Renewal

The Gift of Silence III

Messiness in the Modern World

Memorial Day Eulogy: On the Death of a Young Soldier in Battle

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Thursday of the Fifth Week of Pascha. Atomization.

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Monday of the Fifth Week of Pascha. The Mystery of Suffering.

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! Friday of the Fourth Week of Pascha. Sin is Not a Moral Problem

Renewal (Bright) Friday. Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen!

Renewal (Bright) Wednesday. Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen!

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