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Heaven and Hell in the Scriptures

Recently, Anglican bishop and theologian N.T. Wright was interviewed on the Evangelical Protestant show “100 Huntley Street”, speaking about heaven and hell. As might be expected from someone of Wright’s stature, he was articulate, fascinating, and Biblical. He prefaced his brief remarks by saying that one day he was sitting in the Sistine Chapel facing an immense image of the Last Judgment, in which souls were departing after the Judgment and either ascending to heaven

The Great and Holy Pascha: Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen!

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! The body of Our Lord has been transfigured into a body of glory, and has been clothed in power and light. And the Lord rises from the dead, as a Bridegroom comes forth from the chamber. This was accomplished by the power of God, as also the General Resurrection will in the last day be accomplished by the power of God. And in the Resurrection the Incarnation is completed and

The Great and Holy Saturday

Commemoration of Holy Saturday On Great and Holy Saturday the Church contemplates the mystery of the Lord’s descent into Hades, the place of the dead. Death, our ultimate enemy, is defeated from within. “He (Christ) gave Himself as a ransom to death in which we were held captive, sold under sin. Descending into Hades through the Cross … He loosed the bonds of death” (Liturgy of St. Basil). On Great Saturday our focus is on

The Mystery of Christ

By Fr. Antony Hughes But the Cross and Resurrection present an unprecedented challenge to us.  The coming of Jesus is the invasion of Reality into our fallen world. To embrace the message of Christ means the end of delusion, the opening of new doors, the renewal of the mind. The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost punctuates the invasion even more, making it strikingly personal.  Looking back I’ll bet the apostles said to themselves

New Seeds of Contemplation

By Fr. Antony Hughes (Mark 10:32-45) In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ! I would love to make NEW SEEDS OF CONTEMPLATION by Thomas Merton the great Trappist monk and mystic required reading.  It is a continual source of inspiration for me.  I will refer to it in today’s sermon.        When James and John heard Jesus tell of his

WHEN YOU FAST: A REFLECTION ON GREAT LENT (Part I)

By George Parsenios PhD What appears to happen in the Passion of Christ and what actually happens are not at all the same. What appears to happen is not that extraordinary. The Romans crucified a Jewish man in order to keep public order. During their long rule over Judea, the Romans had killed many Jews, making the death of Jesus one among these many. But, only in appearance. The reality was very different. The Paschal

Journey to Pascha

Desiring to commune with the Divine Pascha . . . let us pursue victory over the devil through fasting. (First hymn of the aposticha for Vespers, Thursday of the first week of Lent) Having thus been encouraged and inspired by the memory and veneration of the Cross on which Christ suffered for our sakes, we are persuaded to continue our own Lenten effort, to carry on bearing our cross for His sake, and to walk

THE SUNDAY OF THE CROSS

Having passed beyond the middle point in this holy season of the Fast, with joy Let us go forward to the part that still remains, anointing our souls with the oil of almsgiving. So may we be counted worthy to venerate the divine Passion of Christ our God, and to attain His dread and holy Resurrection. (Third troparion of Vespers, fourth Sunday of Lent) 12 THE THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT is dedicated to the Cross.

God and Caesar (Part VI): Towards a Creative Secularism

In the inescapably pluralist life of the city today, Christians must strive for a creative secularism. An open civilization, free from ideocracy, must not be a spiritual desert abandoned to the instincts by the blind forces of production. Kirkegaard thought it necessary ‘to go more deeply into man as he actually exists’ before daring to speak to him of God. More than a thousand years before, the hardiest of ascetics, St John Climacus, remarked that

The Twelfth Day of Christmas: The Fiery Furnace and Jonah and the Seabeast

The Fiery Furnace As WELL AS BEING THE SCENE of a theophany, the fiery furnace is persistently referred to as a type of the Virgin Birth: The furnace moist with dew was the image and figure of a wonder beyond nature. For it burnt not the Children whom it had received, even as the fire of the Godhead consumed not the Virgins womb into which it had descended. Therefore let us sing in praise: Let