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Saving Knowledge and Blessed Ignorance
Read more: Saving Knowledge and Blessed IgnoranceA friend of mine recently noted that the middle of the road is the “narrowest way,” being but a single line. Increasingly, it has been clear to me that it is a path that requires true self-control and sobriety. When we speak of what we know, we must remember what we do not know. And […]
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A Particular Scandal
Read more: A Particular ScandalA character in a Peanuts cartoon once declared, “I love mankind! It’s people I can’t stand!” The statement accurately describes our problems with the particular. It is easy to love almost anything in general – it is the particular that brings problems. Nowhere could this be more true than with God. Speaking about God in the […]
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A Truly Rational Faith
Read more: A Truly Rational FaithSt. Paul notes that “faith works through love” (Gal. 5:6). This describes the very heart of the ascetic life. Only love extends itself in the self-emptying struggle against the passions without becoming lost in the solipsism of asceticism for its own sake. It is love that endures the contradictions of reality without turning away or […]
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Abraham, the Righteous, and the Prayers of Our Holy Fathers
Read more: Abraham, the Righteous, and the Prayers of Our Holy FathersMany services of the Church conclude with this prayer: “Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and save us!” Since we ourselves are praying directly to Christ, why do we invoke the prayers of others? Are our prayers so weak, or is His mercy so hard to […]
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Saving My Neighbor – Just How Connected Are We?
Read more: Saving My Neighbor – Just How Connected Are We?If you are in the “helping professions,” confronting problems in people’s lives, it doesn’t take long to realize that no one is purely and simply an individual. The problems we suffer may occasionally appear to be “of our own making,” but that is the exception rather than the rule. Whether we are thinking of […]
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The Goal of a Lesser Life
Read more: The Goal of a Lesser LifeFrom my earliest childhood, I always heard the future spoken of in superlatives: the best, the best possible, etc. There was an unspoken assumption that each human being was uniquely suited to something and that if they found that unique thing and worked at it, they could become the best at something. Some of my […]
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Finding God Amidst the Noise
Read more: Finding God Amidst the NoiseIf I say one hundred prayers a day in the silence of Katounakia and you say three prayers amidst the tumult of the city and your professional and family obligations, then we are equal. St. Ephraim of Katounakia I ran across this small quote recently and was struck by its insight and typical Orthodox generosity. […]
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Healing the Soul and Unbelief
Read more: Healing the Soul and UnbeliefI have long been convinced that “believing” is grounded in something other than intellectual activity. I am simply unimpressed by most of the intellectual arguments that I see regarding both belief and unbelief. In both, I hear so much that is unspoken, and even much that is likely hidden from the speakers themselves. That being […]
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What Exactly Is Changing?
Read more: What Exactly Is Changing?The Catholic theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar, in his magisterial work on St. Gregory of Nyssa, offers this observation: The journey towards salvation is marked by a successive elimination of all that we “have,” in order to reach what we “are.” The safest path and surest refuge is not to be deluded and fail […]
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The Truth of the Soul
Read more: The Truth of the Soul“Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving, forever?” In the classic film, The Third Man, Harry Lime, a racketeer in post-World War II Vienna, quizzes his old friend, Holly Martins, about the value of an individual life. They are standing in the carriage of a Ferris wheel, looking down […]
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Michael, Thank you for your comment. I can see what you mean, I think. Penitence is daily and maybe even,…
@Michael Moniz, “Carl Jung- “that which you resist persists” And the flip side of that: What you contemplate, you imitate.
Eliza, repentance is not a “one and done” reality. Repentance is a way of living in greater harmony with our…
I’ve been reading your blog for some time now and this post was a blow to the soul. I was…
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Eliza, do not forget that God Himself repented that He made us. It is a word full of mystery and…