Category: Orthodox Christianity
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Hypocrisy of the Stomach
I have no intention in this posting to preach to those who struggle with gluttony, or, more likely, just feel guilty most of the time when they think of their weight, etc. Orthodoxy is not a weight-loss program. However, this passage offers wonderful insight into the struggle with the passions. It is quoted from Fr.…
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Apocalypse Now
I am a “child” of the 60’s, which means I was born in the early 50’s and spent my youth and late adolescence in the thrall of all that was swirling around in our culture in the late 60’s and early 70’s. My experience is probably similar to that of many of my generation –…
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In The Last Days
Abba Ischyrion was asked, “What have we done in our life?” He replied, “We have done the half of what our Fathers did.” When asked, “What will the ones who come after us do?” He replied, “They will do the half of what we are doing now.” And to the question, “What will the…
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The Voice of the Lord
Psalm XXIX (XXVIII) Give unto the LORD, O you mighty ones, Give unto the LORD glory and strength. Give unto the LORD the glory due to His name; Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness. The voice of the LORD is over the waters; The God of glory thunders; The LORD is over many…
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Is Suffering Necessary?
While reading spiritual writings it is possible, on occasion, to draw the conclusion that suffering is necessary. Taken to an extreme it is easy to believe that Christians teach that God demands that we suffer and that we see it as a good thing. These are wrong conclusions based on a wrong presumption. It is more…
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The Communion of a Book
I did not list the Scriptures on my list of “books of influence,” since it would seem somehow wrong to place it as a book among other books. Of course, it is a book, but it is unlike anything else we read. Over the body of the dead we chant the psalms so long as…
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With What Little We Know
I have written and posted at least three times that “I am an ignorant man,” which is to say that I do not consider myself a great source of wisdom and insight and that what knowledge I do have is indeed limited. It is also true that wisdom and insight are in short supply these…
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Will He Know Me in Heaven?
Some time ago I spent two-and-a-half years serving as a hospice chaplain. I have mentioned this before and some of the stories I encountered among the faithful people in East Tennessee. Most Hospice situations in America (home hospice) have a sort of commonality. One is that the vast majority of patients are older. Indeed in…
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The Endless Knowledge of God
How often are we brought up short, incapable of understand His will. His first and last thought for us. We do not easily abandon ‘our ways’ and with enormous difficulty search out ‘His ways’. The instant it seems to us that now I begin to see…He demonstrates how immeasurably distant He is. My soul is…
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The Soul In Prayer
Vast numbers of people with no experience of the beneficial action of prayer do not know that a world of indescribably magnitude is disclosed to the spirit of man through prayer. Prayer unfolds both the dark depths of hell and the luminous heavenly spheres. Without faith in the resurrection almost all suffering is without meaning,…
Couldn’t You save us without being crucified ? I could, but I would show my power. I want to show…