Category: The Journey of Faith
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In the Father’s House
There is a tremendous kindness in the parable of Prodigal Son. There are many ways to speak of reconciliation with God, or of the forgiveness of our sins. In the parable of the Prodigal Son, however, we find perhaps the most gentle of all images. The son who asks for his inheritance in a greedy…
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Giving Thanks Beyond Measure
I have frequently had reason to ask: who’s keeping whom? When I was received into the Orthodox faith, I and the rest of my family, stood one by one before the Gospel and a hand-cross to make a solemn promise: This true faith of the Orthodox Church, which I now voluntarily confess and truly hold,…
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The Mystery of Salvation
Salvation is truly the great mystery of human life. Essentially we are saying that the path from where we are now, in our sins, to where we shall be, conformed to the image of Christ, is as unknown to us as possible. We know the commandments of Christ, and our weakness both in keeping those…
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Love Is Before All Things
Spiritual struggle is frequently counter-intuitive – and is almost always learned from those who have walked its paths successfully before us. The following is a small passage from the teachings of the Elder Porphyrios. Its wisdom speaks for itself. If you would gain the victory in spiritual struggle, then above all things, seek to love.…
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Father Sophrony’s Prayer
A dear friend shared this with me: Fr Sophrony’s Prayer O Eternal Lord and Creator of all things, in your inscrutable goodness you have called me into this life and have given me the grace of baptism and the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit. You have instilled in me the desire to…
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How Can We Give Thanks?
Everyone capable of thanksgiving is capable of salvation. Fr. Alexander Schmemann I do not believe it is possible to exhaust this topic and that there are many things worth saying in a second article. Most specifically I want to write on what seem to me necessary elements in giving thanks to God. If giving thanks…
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Saved with Thanksgiving
Everyone capable of giving thanks is capable of salvation. Fr. Alexander Schmemann Nothing is more essential to human living than the giving of thanks. According to the Apostle Paul, it is one of the very purposes for which we were created (Romans 1:21 St. Paul here upbraids us for our failure to give thanks). Much…
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And Thus the Heart
All of these things of late: waiting, patience, the presence of God, our personhood, the Church and the Cross, all come back to the human heart. It is the place of all things of our existence. It is as St. Macarius said: The heart itself is but a small vessel, yet dragons are there, and…
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In Christ is True Existence
I have written recently that the true central question of our relationship with God goes to the very fact of our existence, that “in Him we live and move and have our being.” I have also written some short comments on statements of the Elder Sophrony reminding us that all we do, we do in…
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In the Presence of God – Elder Sophrony
Do not let the things of this world disperse your energy. Concentrate all your attention on, devote all your energy to, a life which coresponds to the spirit of the Gospel commandments.Let us keep control over our mind in the face of the distractions of the exterior world. Without ascetic effort, our mind will never…
Thank you so much Matthew! I know you’re in Germany and may not celebrate American Thanksgiving, but I pray that…