Category: Culture
-
To Live a Mortal Life
In Peter Jackson’s, “The Fellowship of the Ring,” Arwen (an elf) says to Aragorn (whom she loves): “I choose a mortal life.” In Tolkien’s fantasy world, she must give up her elven immortality in order to wed a human. She chooses a mortal life and now she, like the man she loves, will eventually grow…
-
The Character of Orthodoxy
What kind of person does that? This is a simple question – one that goes to the heart of Orthodox moral thought. For some, “morality” is a question of what is right and what is wrong. The Orthodox insight is much deeper: knowing right from wrong is of little use unless you’re the kind of…
-
A Modern Lent
Few things are as difficult in the modern world as fasting. It is not simply the action of changing our eating habits that we find problematic – it’s the whole concept of fasting and what it truly entails. It comes from another world. We understand dieting – changing how we eat in order to improve…
-
Adam’s Sin and the Sin of All
I saw this quote from St. Sophrony of Essex posted on Facebook yesterday. It speaks to the heart of our life and the mystery of sin and forgiveness. It is a theme that is common in the Fathers: “Many of us cannot, or do not want to, accept and suffer of our own free will…
-
The Good That Lies Within
There is this famous quote from Alexander Solzhenitsyn: The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart — and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by…
-
A Law for All Seasons
From the screenplay of A Man for all Seasons: William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law! Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil? William Roper: Yes, I’d cut down every law in England to do that! Sir…
-
Screwtape and the Wisdom of a Four-Year-Old Boy
When my son was four, he wrote a prayer to St. Michael. We had placed a small statue of St. Michael on his chest-of-drawers. It was classic: St. Michael in Roman soldier’s outfit with a drawn sword, and the devil beneath his foot. It seemed to have made a strong impression on my son. His…
-
Hiding in Plain Sight
In the time of their visitation they will shine forth, and will run like sparks through the stubble. (Wisdom 3:7) ____ The story is told of St. Macarius that he was falsely accused of fathering a child by a young woman in the village. After being beaten and humiliated by the people there, he returned…
-
I’ll Be Small for Christmas
Children today are raised with dreams of greatness. Cultural affirmations of our limitless potential, well-intentioned, have not produced a generation of over-achievers, but have indeed brought forth hordes of great dreams. This is nothing new in American culture. We are the world’s longest sustained pep-talk. Ronald Reagan loved to quote the 1945 Johnny Mercer hit:…
-
A Faith You Can Sink Your Teeth Into
In a now-famous experiment, volunteers were fitted with inverting lenses, such that everything they saw appeared upside-down. In a few days their brains adjusted and what they saw appeared correctly. When the lenses were removed, their naked eyes now saw things inverted, though again, after a few days their vision returned to normal. We are…
Padre Albino, My email: stephenfree@comcast.net