If we do not come, we will never see. But it is not enough to come. We also must see. There were many on the earth when Jesus came, but they did not see Him as the Son of God and Savior of the world. And there are many who come to the Church and still do not see. The words apply to them as to those about whom Jesus spoke when He taught them
THE GOSPEL OF St Matthew confronts us almost from the beginning with the very essence of prayer. The Magi saw the long-expected star; they set out without delay to find the king; they arrived at the manger, they knelt, they worshipped and they presented their gifts: they expressed prayer in its perfection, which is contemplation and adoration. Often, in more or less popular literature about prayer, we are told that prayer is an enthralling adventure.
REV. DR. EUGEN J. PENTIUC Scripture, most especially the Old Testament, is an untamable textbook. Holy Tradition in all its avatars—conciliar statements, writings of Church Fathers, liturgy, iconography, ascetic teaching, etc.—functions as its guiding handouts. Following this analogy, one may note a certain complementarity. Handouts summarize and explain the salient points of a textbook. Similarly, Tradition, based on Scripture, complements the latter by condensing and illuminating its content. Nevertheless, the handouts, however complete they may
And all that is present today. It is in us. Granted, there is a certain amount of rubbish: the sins of the Church. But above all else there is a crowd of wings fluttering in our hearts: the holiness of the Holy One, of God, and the holiness of Christians sanctified by mortification in their faith and their love. We have the twenty centuries of the Church’s life in our blood. We are its heirs.
The Father: Empowered to Call God “Abba” Calling God “Abba, Father” is different from giving God a familiar name. Calling God “Abba” is entering into the same intimate, fearless, trusting, and empowering relationship with God that Jesus had. This relationship is called Spirit, and this Spirit is given to us by Jesus and enables us to cry out with him, “Abba, Father.” Calling God “Abba, Father” (see Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6) is a cry of
The divinely-blessed Peter was from Bethsaida of Galilee. He was the son of Jonas and the brother of Andrew the First-called. He was a fisherman by trade, unlearned and poor, and was called Simon; later he was renamed Peter by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, Who looked at him and said, “Thou art Simon the son of Jonas; thou shalt be called Cephas (which is by interpretation, Peter)” (John 1:42). On being raised by the
In Spirit and in Truth, by Father John Breck The account of Jesus and the Samaritan woman, which we read on the fifth Sunday after Pascha, brought to mind something I often forget, and maybe others do as well. It’s the fact that authentic prayer is not really a human endeavor. We can probably say it is not even a human possibility. In Romans 8, the apostle Paul declares, “We do not know how to
Empowered to Speak The Spirit that Jesus gives us empowers us to speak. Often when we are expected to speak in front of people who intimidate us, we are nervous and self-conscious. But if we live in the Spirit, we don’t have to worry about what to say. We will find ourselves ready to speak when the need is there. “When they take you before . . . authorities, do not worry about how to
“How can we start?” Maria asked. “I mean, how can we practice temperance and self-control?” Fr. Maximos ate a piece of stuffed tomato before replying. “The proper way is to start with simple things, like being critical of your thoughts and actions. Let us say that a thought tells you you should do a certain thing, say buy a new television set. Examine it. Ask yourself, ‘Do I really need it?’ If you think you
The desert Fathers and Mothers were honestly not referred to that much, because they just told little stories. These stories seemed like harmless anecdotes, and we wanted to go ahead with serious religion. But in the last 30 years, there’s been a rediscovery of the absolute simplicity of their message and the fact that it isn’t concerned about the issues that we’ve been concerned about in recent centuries. In fact, they’re usually concerned about the
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