But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now, as he journeyed, he approached Damascus,…
There is a certain archetype that is as old as literature and history themselves. One of the first times we see it in the West is with Cassandra in the Greek tragedies. She has the power to see into the future (she prophesied the fall of Troy and the murder of Agamemnon) but no one listens…
“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Matthew 18:20 “Christ gives to those who are allotted the duty of teaching the power to loose and to bind. So when those who have once fallen do not convert to the pursuit of virtue, they…
Lord, You who among people come in secret, have mercy on us and put fire to the prison, shine Your love in our hearts, burn the thorns of our passions and put light in our souls. Lord, You who come in secret among people, have mercy on us, come dwell within us, together with the…
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. Matthew 10:34 What sort of peace is it that Jesus asks them to pronounce upon entering each house? And what kind of peace is it of which the angels sing, “Glory to God in the…
H. Richard Niebuhr (of the Evangelical Synod of North America, d. 1962) described liberal Christianity: “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross.” Comment: It’s not an “over there” problem. It is here, too, with Orthodoxy. The church is not about…
Bishop Tikhon (Shevkunov) of Egorievsk In his popular book, Everyday Saints and Other Stories, Bishop Tikhon (Shevkunov) tells the amazing story of how the relics of Patriarch Tikhon were discovered in Donskoy Monastery, Moscow, where he was living as yet a hieromonk at the time. On this day we commemorate that epic event, and present an excerpt from…
Last week, the Sunday of the Blind Man, we heard the blind man’s response to the Pharisees: “If this man were not from God, he could do nothing” (John 9:33). That’s the point, Jesus was from God. This past Thursday the Feast of the Ascension was celebrated; it was a day of glory. On the…
Nel messo del cammin di nostra vita / mi ritrovai pe una selva oscura, / che’ la diritta via era smarrita. Inf. i 1-3
Lutheran pastor Richard Wurmbrand wrote that there are two kinds of Christians: “those who sincerely believe in God and those who, just as sincerely, believe that they believe. You can tell them apart by their actions in decisive moments.” (p. 139) From “The Benedict Option” by Rod Dreher