Category: Culture
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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…
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Grace and “the Inverted Pyramid”
Fr. Sophrony [Sakharov], in his book on St. Silouan, presents this theory of the “inverted pyramid.” He says that the empirical cosmic being is like a pyramid: at the top sit the powerful of the earth, who exercise dominion over the nations (cf. Matt. 20:25), and at the bottom stand the masses. But the spirit…
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Silent Sentinels and the Saints among Us
I originally ran this post last December. I have watched the film mentioned in it many times. The thoughts in the post came back to me again today. Like many, I recall my highschool years somewhat vividly. Our school was of moderate size with a personal history for most students that increased its impact. It…
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You Can’t Pray Too Much
Some years ago I stood by the bed of an elderly Pentecostal woman in mountains of East Tennessee. She was dying from respiratory complications – I was visiting her as a Hospice chaplain. We chatted about many things – mostly the things of God. She showed me a well-worn Bible she had owned for most…
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A Dowry Much Finer Than Gold
I have wrtten before of my Father-in-law. Regular readers of this blog will know that he was a man of great faith whom I never knew to be less than thankful to God. The goodness of God was doubtless his greatest joy and favorite topic of conversation. He was also a man of great prayer.…
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Literally Wrong
I have written on a number of occasions about the interpretation of the Scriptures and particularly about the problems of Biblical literalism. I have also, on occasion, made a link between Biblical literalism and a sort of “literalism” about the world and the universe about us. I believe that both are deeply connected and share…
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The Kingdom of God Is Not A Choice We Make
The Kingdom of God is coming whether you like it or not.
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Christos Voskrese! (Christ is Risen)
This delightful youtube video was shared in comments yesterday. I thought it worth posting up front. Our reader Dejan has offered a translation in the comments. The words are from a poem by St. Nikolai Velimirovich who served for a time as the Rector of St. Tikhon’s Seminary – truly one of the great Serbian…
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Scripture, Icons, and the World We Know
I ask for grace in writing this, lest I go beyond my ability. It seems to me well worth saying as discussions of the relationship between Scripture, dogma and science have surfaced. I offer this as food for thought as well as a ground of discussion. First, I will note an American Protestant tradition (somewhat…
Justin, One of the benefits in reading the lives of the saints (lots and lots of them), is to get…