This morning’s reading, which after morning prayers, is, as always, varied and across a spectrum of religious and political writings. Preoccupying my mind of late has been the state of Orthodoxy Christianity, its fracture and future. We can easily delve into the minutiae and determine who has said or done what against whom. We may…
“It’s a strange paradox that friendships won through worldly success are more fragile than those won through shared suffering.” I don’t believe it is a paradox. Shared suffering, i.e., for those of us who have been in war, builds greater human and heavenly bonds than anything this base earthly life can provide. When life and…
The ecclesiologyi of the Church founded by our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ is our Orthodoxy way of life. The current crisis initiated by the Ecumenical Patriarch (EP) and the Constantinople Synod is three-fold. First, it is the intentional invasion of the territory of the existing canonical Church in the Ukraine without consultation. It is a…
Step 27 On holy solitude1 of body and soul 1. We are like bought serfs under contract to unholy passions; we, therefore, know to some extent the whims, ways, will and wiles of the spirits that rule over our poor souls. But there are others who through the action of the Holy Spirit, and by…
Step 26 On discernment of thoughts, passions and virtues 16. Those engaged in education know what studies are suitable for beginners, what for the intermediate and what for teachers. Let us take sensible precautions not to prolong our study and stop in the beginners’ lessons. For to see an old man going to a children’s…
Patristic Source Texts
Sunday of the Holy Cross Mark 8:34-9:1 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Christ is in our midst! [He is and ever shall be!] I would like to thank all parishioners, visitors, travelers, and friends for joining us. And he called to him the multitude…
An 11-year-old girl watched “Unplanned” and asked Abby through tears, “How can you get past what you’ve done?” Abby’s sin seemed too great for her mind to comprehend. “Satan lives in our secrets,” Abby said. “What we don’t confess, he owns.”
“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others…
“Let us please the Lord as soldiers please their king; because we are required to give an exact account of our service after the campaign.” St John of the Ladder Comment: And the campaign’s success will not be determined by “your victories” but by your sacrifice and allegiance to the truth.