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Everything is in Motion
Read more: Everything is in MotionFor years I have been told that the meaning of the word hamartia (translated “sin”) means “to miss the mark.” This is certainly accurate. However, the image I have always had in mind has been an arrow aimed at a target and missing the bull’s eye. Thus I have thought of my life as a moral effort […]
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Is Heaven a Long Church Service?
Read more: Is Heaven a Long Church Service?My parents enjoyed farming. They both grew up on farms. Both did hard work in the cotton fields of the South. I never heard them complain about that. We had a small home in a 50’s subdivision. My Dad had a garage built in the backyard. Behind the garage, he put in a garden. It […]
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St. Olga of Alaska, Pray for Us!
Read more: St. Olga of Alaska, Pray for Us!It is difficult to describe culture of saints within the life of Orthodoxy. When speaking to Christians who are strangers to such devotions, it is like trying to describe a flavor that is unlike anything else (try describing salt without using the word, “salty”). My family’s direct experience of Orthodoxy began in the early 1990’s. […]
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Contradiction and Paradox
Read more: Contradiction and ParadoxThe following quote is taken from a letter by Mother Thekla (sometime Abbess of the Monastery of the Assumption in Normanby, England) to a young man who was entering the Orthodox faith. Some of her comments drew my attention. I add this note: this article was written and published on the blog in January of […]
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Worshipping a Weak and Foolish God
Read more: Worshipping a Weak and Foolish GodThis is a reprint of an article that is deeply apropos of the present conversation on the blog. I offer it within that context. I cannot begin to measure the amount of time I have spent over the years in conversations about the “problem of evil.” That problem, in short, is the impossibility of reconciling […]
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The Useless God
Read more: The Useless GodThe statement, “God is useless,” is, undoubtedly, sure to strike someone as an insult, not a statement of a faithful believing Christian (much less, a priest). That reaction tells me much about how we feel about the word, “useless,” rather than how we feel about God. In current American parlance, “useless,” is mostly a term […]
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Again and Again
Read more: Again and AgainI was visiting a hospice patient back around 2000. The home was quite modest as was the woman who was the subject of my visit. We had conversations that ranged over her life and her family – the things that mattered most for her in her last days. The climax of our time together came […]
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The Tide of Faith
Read more: The Tide of FaithDover Beach – (Matthew Arnold, 1867) The sea is calm tonight. The tide is full, the moon lies fair Upon the straits; on the French coast the light Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay. Come to the window, sweet is the night-air! Only, from […]
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St. Silouan on the Love of God
Read more: St. Silouan on the Love of GodI cannot remain silent concerning the people, whom I love so greatly that I must weep for them. I cannot remain silent because my soul ever grieves for the people of God, and I pray for them with tears. I cannot refrain from making known to you, brethren, the mercy of God and the wiles […]
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When America Got Sick
Read more: When America Got SickIt was in the years following the Civil War, America was hard on the path to “becoming great.” The industrial revolution had moved into full swing, railroads criss-crossed the country, immigration was gaining speed, and wealth was accumulating at a rate never seen before. We were slowly moving from our original agrarian economy towards life […]
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Dee, thank you for taking time to direct me to these points. I am writing a piece, hoping to tie…
Bonnie, I spent an hour or so looking for the succinct words I used to describe St Sophrony’s. I found…
Dear Michael, Indeed joy is essential to the fullness of life and we know the fullness of life in gratitude…
Joy is essential to life. We cannot know life without joy
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Thank you so much for this, Dee. I will have to buy these books. This, especially, consoles me: “I’ll end…