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Friday of Cheese-fare. Behold, I Am the Handmaiden of the Lord

And Mary said, ”Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” Luke 1:38 (Gospel of the Feast of the Annunciation-March 25) If you were to divide the history of the world into chapters, the first chapter would be about the Creation of the World. In this chapter, the human race lived in complete harmony with its Creator, in an almost “god-like” state. The second chapter would

Dying and Living in Christ

Paul uses the phrase en Christo, in Christ, around seventy times. He’s trying to describe this larger life in which we are participating. He speaks of belonging to Christ, of being possessed by Christ, captured by Christ, apprehended by Christ. He says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). Paul speaks of being clothed by Christ. He tells us to put on Christ. He says he suffers with Christ, he’s

The Feast of Theophany. The Manifestation of God

And when Jesus was baptized, He went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on Him; and lo, a voice from heaven, saying “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” -Matthew 3: 16-17 (Gospel of Epiphany) The Feast we celebrate on January 6 is known by several names. One is the Baptism of Christ.

The Thirty-Ninth Day of Christmas Advent. Why Do I Need a Savior?

“For to you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord” -Luke 2:11 Are you saved? We hear this question a lot in religious circles. What it mean for us? In order to be found, one has to have a sense that he or she is lost. And in order to be saved, one has to have a sense that he or she needs saving. The questions

The Seventeenth Day of Christmas Advent. His Purpose is Clear

And while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered. And she gave birth to her first born Son and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger because there was no place for them in the inn. -Luke 2:6-7 If you look closely at many icons of the Nativity, you will notice that the manger is not a straw-filled wooden trough as we see in most Nativity displays

Prayer for Universal Salvation (Part III)

As for the problem of the ‘second death’ and the final hell after the Last Day, a solution, existential rather than doctrinal, is to be found in the high Eastern spirituality associated with St Antony. A cobbler in Alexandria, to whom Christ had sent Antony to show him a degree of holiness greater than his own, confessed to the famous hermit that he used to think, as he watched the passers-by, ‘May they all be

A Victory over Death (Part III)

‘To be restored to life we needed a God incarnate and put to death’ (St Gregory Nazianzen). In the face of all the accusations brought against God – or caricatures of God – by modem atheism, the only possible answer that Christians can give is the Innocent one, crucified by all the evil devised by human beings, who thus offers us resurrection. In the Risen Christ, in his glorified body, in the very opening of

A Victory over Death (Part I)

‘Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death! And to those in the tombs he has given life’: this is the constant theme, in the Eastern Church, of the Easter celebration, the ‘feast of feasts’. ‘The day of Resurrection! The Passover, the Passover of the Lord! From death to life … Christ our God has brought us over… Now, all is filled with light, heaven and earth and the places under the

Before Thy Cross, we bow down in worship!

By Father Steven Kostoff “Then will appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven….“ [Matthew 24:30]. Contemporary scholars debate the meaning of the word “sign” in the words of Christ found in the above passage that describes, in highly symbolic terms, His parousia or return in glory.  This sign, whatever it may be, will be impossible to miss or misinterpret.  It will overwhelm those who are present to observe it and stand in its shadow,

Two Kinds of Loneliness

Two Kinds of Loneliness In the spiritual life we have to make a distinction between two kinds of loneliness. In the first loneliness, we are out of touch with God and experience ourselves as anxiously looking for someone or something that can give us a sense of belonging, intimacy, and home. The second loneliness comes from an intimacy with God that is deeper and greater than our feelings and thoughts can capture. We might think