Category: Reflections

  • St. Silouan on the Love of God

    I 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…

  • When America Got Sick

    It 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…

  • The Peaches of Paradise

    The parish to which I have retired, St. John of the Ladder in Greenville, SC, has the extreme blessing of an iconographer-in-residence. The Church was built but a few years ago, and has slowly seen its walls frescoed. It is a place of beauty. Serving in the altar, I find that my eyes are frequently…

  • Knocking Down the Gates of Hell

    The Swedish Lutheran theologian, Gustav Aulén, published a seminal work on the types of atonement theory in 1930 (Christus Victor). Though time and critical studies have suggested many subtler treatments of the question, no one has really improved on his insight. Especially valuable was his description of the “Classic View” of the atonement. This imagery,…

  • Prayers for a Dear Friend of Us All

    I spoke by phone this morning with Michael Bauman, for years a faithful part of our conversations on the blog. He shared with me that he is now in home hospice care (in Wichita) and has been given a terminal diagnosis. His faith is truly evident in his conversations, even as those present their own…

  • The Tradition of Being Human

    Being human is a cultural event. No one is human by themselves and no one becomes human without the help of those around them. This is so obvious it should not need to be stated, but contemporary human beings often imagine themselves to be their own creation. The exercise of individual freedom is exalted as…

  • The Soul of a Child and a Stone That Sings

    As Christ enters Jerusalem on the Sunday before His passion, St. Matthew tells us that the children began to shout, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” St. Luke tells us that the Pharisees asked Christ to silence His disciples. He responded: “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry…

  • Abraham at the End of the World

    This is an exercise in the Orthodox reading of the Scriptures. My thoughts frequently return to this story and this line of thought. This article is greatly expanded from an earlier version. The habits of modern Christians run towards history: it is a lens through which we see the world. We see a world of cause…

  • And They Disappeared – Extreme Humility

    Sometime in the year 421 or 530, an utterly obscure woman from Egypt fell asleep in the desert of the Holy Land. Her burial place was intentionally unmarked and remains unknown. However, every year in the Orthodox Church, she is remembered by the name of Mary of Egypt and her life (written by St. Sophronios…

  • The Violence of Modernity – And A Way Out

    The calm voice at the helm says, “Make it so…” and with it, the mantra of modernity is invoked. The philosophy that governs our culture is rooted in violence, the ability to make things happen and to control the outcome. It is a deeply factual belief. We can indeed make things happen, and, in a…


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