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Thursday after Pentecost. The Purpose of the Church

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Acts 2:42 Many times, even those who are very involved in the church (this includes priests, Parish Council members, Sunday School teachers and others in church leadership) forget about the true purpose of the church. As we continue to discuss the life of the early church, today’s verse mentions the main activities of the early church, activities

A Testament of Beauty and Praying through Art

A Testament of Beauty Today it is not only service that must witness to the Spirit, but art, the art that unifies us in the ‘heart-spirit’, in the ‘eye of the heart’ which sees the third beauty latent in everyone, and perceives everything to be holy. The art of being astonished that the Inaccessible God draws near to us in all the faces and all the beauty of the world. Then we find the courage,

Prayer for Universal Salvation (Part I)

It is out of respect for our freedom that God allows evil to exist; it has already been conquered, but secretly, because the Holy Spirit wishes to regenerate us from within, by a free and faithful response, without compulsion. What matters in the history of the Church is her holiness, her awareness, in a world that is utterly free, that Christ has conquered death once and for all, and that his victory is always present

The Monastic Fathers

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

Meditation and Worship (Part X)

One can pray everywhere and anywhere, yet there are places where prayer ends its natural climate; those places are churches, fulfilling the promise; ‘I will make them joyful in my house of prayer’ (Is 56: 7). A church, once consecrated, once set part, becomes the dwelling-place of God. He is present there in another way than in the rest of the world. In the world he is present as a stranger, as a pilgrim, as

Contemplation as a Path of Healing (Part I)

Contemplation as a Path of Healing A person can’t be healed within simply through discipline. Dealing with thoughts, along with concrete exercises, helps to calm the passions and make the soul healthy. But it takes contemplation to actually achieve that health. That was the monks’ experience, and that is how Evagrius Ponticus described it. Contemplation is pure prayer, prayer without respite, praying beyond thoughts and feelings, praying as oneness with God. Evagrius never tires of

Divine Eros Makes Prayer Imperative

Divine Eros Makes Prayer Imperative “A person was upset with his wife. At noontime, when he got tired at work, he asked himself where he should go. He went to Elli, his wife, to get some rest.” “Do you hear my child do you hear? He was very tired. He went to a certain place. They talked and he rested. Because the flame of love was present, he found rest. This is a great thing.”

SEEING BY TORCHLIGHT (Part III)

Evagrius insists as strongly as St. Hesychios on the importance of cultivating this first stage of watchful awareness. In our discovery of inner stillness, we first learn a good deal more about our obsessive mental habits than about inner stillness. But Evagrius is convinced that this ordeal with thoughts is crucial to our contemplative training and that we should take every opportunity to observe all we can about these thoughts; which thoughts “arc less frequent

The Son of Disobedience is the Product of Oppression

The Son of Disobedience is the Product of Oppression “A mother complained that her son no longer her, he doesn’t go to Church and the like. I told her, “You oppressed him for so many years. You ordered him around constantly. Now he wants freedom. Don’t order him around. Only pray with spiritual love for him. If you saw a Turk controlling your son and dictating to him to ‘Say this or that thing to

The First Monday (Pure) of Great Lent: Slavery to Technology

Being Separate in a Connected World Beloved in Christ, we have to see ourselves as being different than the world around us!  As Christians we are called to be “in the world, but not of the world.” (John 15:19).  The Scripture says “come out and be separate…..” (2 Cor. 6:17) Yet this can be very difficult in a world that pressures us to conform to its ways and to be connected to it at all