Spiritual Fatherhood
I am the father of five children, four who are living and one who has gone to his rest. The oldest of my children is now 27, soon to be 28, and, by God’s grace, soon to give birth to my first grandchild. God is truly gracious. Closely related to this is the notion of spiritual fatherhood – the unique … Continue reading
Orthodox Serbian Monasteries in Kosovo
This is a beautiful sharing from the heart of the earliest Serbian Orthodox homeland.
The Truth of Ourselves
Abba Poemen believed that the only time you could observe a person’s true character was when that person was tempted. From the Sayings of the Desert Fathers There is obvious wisdom in the saying about Abba Poemen: it is not our strengths that best define us, but our weaknesses. In our culture, where virtual reality – both of the entertainment … Continue reading
Nothing but the Whole Truth
Because Christ Himself is the Truth, we cannot have any such thing as “partial” Truth. Something or someone can be close to the Truth or moving towards the Truth – but in a proper Christian sense – only Christ is the Truth and Christ is one. And thus within Orthodoxy it becomes problematic to speak of anything in isolation from … Continue reading
Humility
When someone asked a hermit to define humility, he answered, “Humility is when you forgive someone who has wronged you before he expresses regret.” I cannot think of how many times in my experience the subject of apologies has come up along with the subject of forgiveness. Of course when someone asks forgiveness we should forgive – indeed, it would … Continue reading
Is a Relationship with God What We Want?
An excellent question was raised in the comments of my previous post – the question being about the nature of relationship. It is commonplace in our modern parlance to speak of a “personal relationship” which is either redundant, or a way of weakening the true meaning of “personal.” I suspect that the modern meaning of “relationship” is in fact not … Continue reading
The Depths of the Personal
I have written on modern distortions of “personal relationship” in which “private” relationship is one of its corrupted meanings. I have also noted that, properly understood, “personal” always carries a meaning of “corporate” as well. To be in personal relationship with Christ necessarily means that I am in relationship with His Body, the Church. There is a mutual sharing of … Continue reading
The Orthodox Church and Personal Salvation
A priest friend sent me an article from Franklin Graham’s website, describing a revival in the Ukraine. Like others who have gone to Eastern Europe to preach the gospel, there is frequently a mistaken assessment of the Orthodox Church. Graham’s article recognized a holiness present in the Church’s there, but described it as “Old Testament,” and generally likened the Church … Continue reading
For More on the Way of Humility
For those interested in reading more on the Way of Humility described by Archimandrite Zacharias, read the pages on the Ecclesiology of the Cross published on this blog.
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Read “Everywhere Present”
Have you ever referred to God as “the Man upstairs”? Most Christians living in a secular society have unwittingly relegated God and all things spiritual to the “second storey” of the universe: Read More...
Christianity in a One-Storey Universe
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