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A Good Life Versus The Good Life
Read more: A Good Life Versus The Good LifeOne way to contrast modern sensibilities with Christian sensibilities is to describe the difference between “the good life” and “a good life.” “The good life” is an advertising theme, a photoshoot of the American Dream where all obstacles are overcome through the miracles of technology, market forces, and unfettered freedom. “A good life” is an […]
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Love Has No History
Read more: Love Has No HistorySt. Nikolai Velimirovich’s Prayers by the Lake are a theological feast. St. Gregory the Theologian wrote wonderful theological poems – it is a form deeply suited to theology but too little used. I first heard this poem on a broadcast from Ancient Faith Radio – it came at a very timely moment and allowed me […]
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Things You Can’t Invent
Read more: Things You Can’t InventMost of the things in our lives are not of our own making – they were given to us. Our language, our culture, the whole of our biology and the very gift of life itself is something that has been “handed down” to us. In that sense, we are all creatures of “tradition” (traditio=“to hand […]
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Providence, Freedom, and Love
Read more: Providence, Freedom, and LoveI was married at age 22 (my bride was 21). Both of us were believers and sought to ground our lives in the life of God. I remember that my wife was quite clear that “God had brought us together.” For a variety of reasons at the time, I chafed at the expression. I had […]
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Orthodoxy and Religious Experience
Read more: Orthodoxy and Religious ExperienceHow do we experience God? Do we hear voices? Do we sense a presence? Are there physical sensations involved? Should we see light or feel warmed? Some may be surprised to hear that our belief in God is not based in an interior human experience. Such things stretch across an incredible variety (such is the […]
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Boundaries, Borders, and the True God
Read more: Boundaries, Borders, and the True GodYears ago, as a young seminarian, I wanted to paint icons. I knew nothing about icons, only that I liked them and that they were holy. The vast wealth of books and materials on their meaning and even on the technique of painting them simply did not exist. My knowledge of painting was also non-existent. […]
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Messiness in the Modern World
Read more: Messiness in the Modern WorldSalvation can be messy. I believe this with all my heart and so I state it at the outset of this article. As such, it marks me as a heretic in Modernity. I not only believe that salvation is messy – I believe that messiness is pretty much inherent to salvation. And along with that, […]
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The Dangers of Apologetics
Read more: The Dangers of ApologeticsWriting in the mid-2nd century, St. Justin produced his famous “Apology,” a defense of Christianity that plead for its toleration within the Roman Empire. Any number of famous examples of “apologetics” can be found in patristic writings – most serving as refutations of heretical teachings (such as St. Irenaeus’ Against the Heresies or St. Athanasius […]
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On Earth As It Is In Heaven – And Deeper Still
Read more: On Earth As It Is In Heaven – And Deeper StillWe live and move in a sea of others. Our first breath (having emerged from a womb of maternal otherness) is drawn from air that has been breathed through timeless years by trees, animals, whales; whistled by birds, and passed through last words of dying lips; life-giving breathed by God in the First Man. The […]
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Your Prayers and Assistance Needed
Read more: Your Prayers and Assistance NeededI began my Orthodox ministry in Knoxville, TN, with the planting of St. Anne Orthodox Church. We grew from a handful of people meeting in a home, then a warehouse, then a storefront, to a small building. That beginning was 26 years ago. The landscape of Orthodox across America and the South has changed dramatically […]
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This was a wonderful conversation, Father. I think you could talk about cardboard, and I would learn something profound. I…
Mallory, “I can sometimes feel this Love physically in my heart, not in a metaphorical way, literally in my beating…
Matthew, your in Germany. How interesting. Yes, you would definitely understand the importance of tending a grave more than Americans…
Father, Matthew, Indeed, such practices sound wonderfully human, so necessary. Father, thank you for reminding me to be patient. 🙂
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Thank you Fr. Stephen and Matthew! Margaret Sarah, yes to all. What a great quote. I spent the last few…