Tags

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! The Second Friday of Pascha: What Christ Accomplished on the Cross (The Means of Redemption, Part II)

By Hieromonk Damascene The Means of Redemption, Part II The word “redemption,” of course, comes from this juridical explanation. As Vladimir Lossky points out: “The very idea of redemption assumes a plainly legal aspect: it is the atonement of a slave, the debt paid for those who remained in prison because they could not discharge it. [15] By His death Christ ransomed man out of servitude to sin, and redeemed man from the eternal consequences of sin which had

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! The Second Thursday of Pascha: What Christ Accomplished on the Cross (The Means of Redemption, Part I)

By Hieromonk Damascene The Means of Redemption, Part I Now, having looked at the pre-Fall state and the consequences of the Fall, let us look more closely at how Christ restores man to the pre-Fall state and in fact beyond and above this state. The how of the redemption, like the nature of God the Holy Trinity, is ultimately a mystery. And yet the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Fathers help us to approach this mystery. They enable us

Christos Anesti! Christ is Risen! The Second Tuesday of Pascha: What Christ Accomplished on the Cross (The Consequences of the Fall, Part I)

By Hieromonk Damascene The Consequences of the Fall, Part I Such was the lofty original state of man and the creation, and such was man’s lofty original calling. But as we all know and experience every day, the first man, Adam, fell from this state and brought himself and all of creation into a state of corruption and death. The whole story of the Fall and why it occurred lies outside the scope of this

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

“This is the day which the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad therein.” Pascha is the day of universal joy and peace. The entire world, every breath and all creation, triumphs and rejoices. For the Lord has conquered and destroyed death, abolishing the “dominion of death” – the power of death. With the Resurrection of Christ, the dawn of the coming general Resurrection has already begun to break over all creation, for

The Sixth Monday of Great Lent: Just as Crabs & Idleness Contains All Sin

Just as Crabs Just as a bundle of green logs suffocates and puts out a bonfire causing clouds of smoke, so excessive grief often surrounds the soul with thick cloud and dries up the fount of tears. Just as a blind person is no use as an archer, so a disciple with the mania of contradiction will end in perdition. Just as tempered metal can sharpen soft or rusty metal, so can a zealous brother

The Fifth Tuesday of Great Lent: How Weak the Wicked Are! & Sin is a Contagious Disease

How Weak the Wicked Are! See for a moment how weak the wicked are. They cannot even reach the spot to which instinct is leading and almost pushing them. What would happen if they lacked even this help from nature, so strong as to seem irresistible? Look how impotent they are! They long for objects that are simple and of little account and yet they do not even succeed in attaining these. They indeed lack

NOUS: “VIGILANT GATE-KEEPER.” (Part I)

Two pilgrims asked an ascetic hagiorite:1 – To what extent are we responsible for the thoughts that attack our nous? The Elder replied with a beautiful allegory: – Aeroplanes pass above, here where I live. I cannot hinder the aeroplanes. I’m not responsible for that. I would be responsible if I began to build an airport. The acceptance of the attacks, which is consent, can be compared to the airport. In the first volume of

ON AN INTERPRETATION OF ZACCHAEUS (Part II)

But the less you possess, the simpler is your mode of life. All excess has been thrown away, and the heart gathers itself together at its core. Little by little it tries to get into the kernel, where the stairs to heaven are to be found. Then prayer, too, becomes simpler. Prayers gather around the centre and enter it. There in the depths is seen the only prayer that is needful: the prayer for mercy.

STEWARDSHIP AS CREATION CARE (Part I)

 By Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis  Scripture and the Fathers When we think of the term stewardship, we frequently consider only matters of financial support. The prevalent rendering of the term oikonomia as “stewardship” or “economy” is not very illuminating as it provides both a linguistic as well as conceptual reduction of this critical and originally Biblical word. In so doing, however, we have narrowed the scope of the Bible’s teaching and neglected the depth of