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Inner Stillness
Read more: Inner StillnessA very fine essay by Metropolitan Jonah of the OCA on essential practices of the spiritual life can be found among the abbatial essays on the website of the Monastery of St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco. It is worth the read – even worth printing out and saving… I find it especially helpful […]
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The Unreal Land
Read more: The Unreal LandA few axiomatic thoughts… God is the “only truly existing God.” All existence is a gift from God who is our Creator. None of us has “self-existing” life. We exist because God sustains us in existence (“in Him we live and move and have our being”). Sin is the rejection of this gift of God – […]
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The Edge
Read more: The EdgeOne of the peculiar marks of life in the modern world is the sense one has of standing on the edge. We are always (it seems) either standing on the edge of disaster or on the edge of some great discovery. Of course, a lot of this is simply the way we market the world […]
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The Scandal of Salvation
Read more: The Scandal of SalvationOn occasion I have written on topics that seem to scandalize readers, or certainly cause difficulty for many. Some of those topics have been my treatment of the wrath of God; the radical forgiveness of everyone for everything; the commonality of our life and our salvation; and most recently my posting on giving thanks always […]
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The Difficult Path of Giving Thanks
Read more: The Difficult Path of Giving ThanksThe mark of a soul that loves wisdom always gives thanks to God. If you have suffered evil, give thanks and it is changed to good. He has not sinned who suffered the evil but he who has done the evil. Give thanks even in disease, lack of possessions, or false accusations. It is not […]
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To Cultivate a Forgiving Heart
Read more: To Cultivate a Forgiving HeartNothing is more difficult to our heart than forgiveness of our enemies. Forgiveness of anything is hard for some, while forgiveness of everyone for everything is God-like. As we progress towards Great Lent, we progress towards the place where only forgiveness (both given and received) will move us closer to the goal of union with […]
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Love and True Faith
Read more: Love and True FaithIn the life and teaching of St. Silouan of Mt. Athos, it is interesting to note that what he considered to be “true faith” was the manifestation of the love of God in us towards all the world. It would have certainly been the case that as an Orthodox monk, St. Silouan would have believed […]
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The Grace of Just Showing Up
Read more: The Grace of Just Showing UpThere has been a tendency in much teaching about the notion of salvation by grace to ground the image in a legal or forensic metaphor. Thus, we are saved by grace in the sense that someone else’s goodwill and kindness (God’s) has now freed us from the consequences of our actions. Thus we speak of […]
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Whose Feast Is It?
Read more: Whose Feast Is It?Some years back I had opportunity to celebrate the feast of Our Lord’s Presentation in the Temple with His Eminence, Archbishop Dmitri of Dallas (retired). Afterwards, several of us were sitting around and Vladyka asked, “Whose feast are we celebrating? Is this a “feast of the Lord” or a “feast of the Theotokos?” This is […]
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Candlewax and Hedgehogs – Groundhog Day
Read more: Candlewax and Hedgehogs – Groundhog DayThis article, from an earlier parish newsletter is posted here by request. Candlewax and Hedgehogs—a peculiar way to entitle an article, I’ll admit. But both have their associations with the second day of February. The first is more important so we’ll begin there. The second day of February is one of the 12 great feasts, and […]
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Father I believe the language of love in marriage works very well. All: I’ve decided on adopting and adding St…
Stephen, Dee, et al, When we are in the mode of argument or of comparing, we are engaging the mind…
Paul, I think I would say that we are specifically made “in the image of Christ” – and, indeed, in…
Father: My priest asked me to teach the catechumen class today in his stead. The topic was The Trinity. I…
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Dee, I’m glad you’re bringing her to our conversations!