On Children
When you have a child you realize you’re “in it for the long haul.” And no matter how much the parent wants to “define the child,” it’s the child who brings out the definition of the parents.
The Holy Myrrhbearing Women
Models of Fidelity to Truth Today the Holy Orthodox Church, as you know, glorifies the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women, for which reason this Sunday is called the “Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearing Women.” Yesterday [at the vigil service] we already spoke of how the Myrrh-Bearing Women were, in essence, the first heralds of Christ’s Resurrection and, in…
Yes, It is real…
Yes, they are real. In the relics of the saints the Lord Christ has provided us with saving fountains which in many ways pour out benefactions and gush with fragrant ointment (the epithet myroblytus, or “gushing ointment,” is applied to certain saints whose relics exude a fragrant oil). And let no one disbelieve. For, if…
Thomas Sunday, Homily Notes
Just notes; not the actual verbatim homily but the gist of it. Christ is Risen! We have heard the Gospel reading today from John. It is a story of the Resurrection, proof of the bodily resurrection. You may recall that when Mary Magdaline encountered Jesus on Pascha, she was instructed not to touch Him. In…
He was Despised and Rejected of Men
Sigismund Christian Hubert Goetze, 1866-1939 1904 Oil on canvas Source: The Literary Digest 29/10 (1890): 292 According to an article on the painting in The Literary Digest, “‘At the exhibition of the Royal Academy in London, the great canvas by Sigismund Goetze … has created an artistic sensation.’ It is declared to be a ‘powerful and terribly realistic…
Saint Menas, the Athlete who Resisted
Saint Menas, the Athlete who Resisted by Metropolitan Seraphim of Kastoria (Edited) Saints When St, John Chrysostom spoke of the saints of our Church and their living presence among us night and day, he also said: “The death of the martyrs is a consolation of the faithful, a boast of the churches, an establishment of…
Facts
“Facts are stubborn things,” John Adams once said, “and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictums of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” Reality is stubborn and will not recede despite one’s delusions.
Quoting Dante
“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.”
Fear
Where there is no fear there is no need for defensiveness. Judgment relies on fear. So does hate. Hate is wedded to and attached to grudges. A person filled with anger, hate, or a grudge won’t let go of their anger. When that occurs, you will always be stuck in the past. Always. Only the…