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The Invisible Christian
Read more: The Invisible ChristianBut you, when you pray, go into your closet, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly (Matt. 6:6). You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven (Matt. 5:14-16). Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me. (Matt. 11:6) There is an invisible side of the Christian faith, known only to God and the believer. St. Matthew’s gospel refers to this as the secret place. It is not only intended to be secret, but exists only in […]
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The Disappointment of Religion
Read more: The Disappointment of ReligionReading the lives of the saints often raises our expectations. We read of someone transfigured with light, or of someone who is present in two places at once. We read beautiful descriptions of the inner life, of an awareness of our union with God or clarity with regard to the nature of all things. In […]
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To Believe and Not to Believe
Read more: To Believe and Not to BelieveI have written extensively about the “two-storey universe.” In short, this is a description of how many modern Christians see the world. There is the first floor – the natural world which operates according to naturalist, “secular” rules, and the second floor – the world of God, heaven, hell, angels, etc. The spiritual crisis of modern man […]
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To Bethink in Wonder
Read more: To Bethink in WonderThere are many cliches describing our cultural failure to be “present to the moment.” We do not “stop and smell the roses.” We do not “let go and let God.” There is a momentum to life that carries us along. Our jobs, our families, our habits – all conspire to make us oblivious to the […]
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All Dogs Go to Heaven
Read more: All Dogs Go to HeavenThe fathers do not agree utterly on the question of animals and eternal life – so the question of their eternal disposition is never answered in a manner that satisfies. But there are a few things worth pondering about the lives of animals (of which I have chosen dogs as representatives). Animals, like all creation, […]
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The Language of Silence
Read more: The Language of SilenceThe language of the heart is silence—not a bleak, empty silence, but a profound and meaningful silence that ceaselessly sings the glory of God. Archimandrite Meletios Webber +++ The language…is silence. I will violate this wonderful oxymoron by speaking about the silence. It is the inherent problem with all theology. We use words to speak […]
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The Mystery, Upborne, Fulfilled
Read more: The Mystery, Upborne, FulfilledOrthodoxy has a number of “favorite” words – all of which fall outside the bounds of normal speech. Though we commonly use the word “mystery” (for example), popular speech never uses it in the manner of the Church. I cannot remember using the word “fullness,” or even “fulfilled,” in normal speech. More contemporary words have […]
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The Presence in the Absence
Read more: The Presence in the AbsenceSince I’ve started the topic of mystical knowledge of God, I thought to repost this from 2010. I was reminded of it by a wonderful reflection by Jan Bear on OCN – an enjoyable read. There is a strange aspect to the presence of God in the world around us. That aspect is His apparent […]
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To Know What You Cannot Know
Read more: To Know What You Cannot KnowYou cannot know God – but you have to know Him to know that. – Fr. Thomas Hopko +++ This small quote from Fr. Thomas has stayed with me since I first heard it. It says so much by saying so little. I find two groups of people increasingly common in my conversations – those […]
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A Letter from Butyrskaya Prison – Pascha, 1928
Read more: A Letter from Butyrskaya Prison – Pascha, 1928Serge Schmemann, son of Fr. Alexander Schmemann, in his wonderful little book, Echoes of a Native Land, records a letter written from one of his family members of an earlier generation, who spent several years in the prisons of the Soviets and died there. The letter, written on the night of Pascha in 1928 is to […]
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In my prior days as an evangelical Protestant, I frequently heard that “Christ went to the Cross so we don’t…
Dee, Indeed. The whole juridically-driven speech pattern that has come to re-define words like “saved” make it difficult for those…
Father, I think an important aspect of the life in Christ as taught in the Orthodox Church is the life…
Thanks so much Esmèe. Thanks also Fr. Stephen.
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I think it critical to realize that the Orthodox faith is built on at least 3 levels: 1. Holy Scripture;…